{Karlton Bontrager}

Thursday was a busy day for Karlton. He went for a walk in the building with a different PT in the morning because his PTs had a workshop to attend. Then Karlton had a dental appointment at the hospital. The dentist thinks Karlton grinds his teeth at night and that’s why he has pain in his molars. They took a mold of his upper teeth and will make a guard for him. The dentist asked him what color he wanted and because he had to preference, he wrote down “bright”. It will be a pleasant surprise to see what color it will be.

After we finished with the appointment, we went up to 5A – the Intensive Care Unit. All the nurses there were surprised to see him walk and talk!! They could not believe he was doing so well in such a short time. Then we went over to 5B and the nurses there, too, were surprised that he could walk so well. A bit of show and tell.

Karlton had been asking for pizza since the time he and a friend had ordered one from ISIS so we decided to go to Pizza Hut. He ordered his vegetarian pizza and his nurse and I shared a carnivorous one. It was a warm afternoon so we ate outside on the picnic table. Karlton was talking so much and not eating so we had to remind him that it was almost time to get back to ISIS. When we got back the charge nurse said she thought we had gotten lost and had called the dental department!!

After Karlton ate his second lunch and had a short break, it was time for us to turn around and go back to the hospital downtown for his eye appointment. This department is notorious for making patients wait … and true to it’s reputation, the nurse assistant pointed out to me where it said the wait for the day was 60-90 minutes. Fortunately for us, the charge nurse had already called and told the receptionist that we had to be out by 4:20 because 4:30 was the latest the mobility van would wait for us. Karlton’s appointment was at 4:00 and we were whisked into the examination room. We did have to wait for the doctor a wee bit and the driver did send word asking when we were coming out, but all in all, everything went smoothly.

The doctor thinks the muscles, nerves, and the bones all around the optic nerve and the eye socket are still in the process of healing but felt things were moving in the right direction. He explained to Karlton that the body does its own healing and did not want to interfere yet with any surgical procedures. Karlton has another appointment in a month.