Thursday, May 9
Today Mike says he walked five steps with the parallel bars. He was quite pleased with himself. He was also pleased to have received a phone call from his friends, the Schergers in Germany. He was quite impressed that they had stayed up until midnight (their time) to call.
On a less cheerful note, I also talked to my daughter Shana who has been there for about ten days. She said he has lost a lot of weight and looks quite frail. He repeats himself frequently and gets stressed out over seemingly minor things. His progress is very slow. Shana is concerned that after she leaves tomorrow that there may not be many visitors. He enjoys visitors but finds phone calls difficult.
All of the mail that had gone to him at Harborview and arrived after he had left was returned to Juneau. I sent it off to him yesterday so he has something to look forward to there.
If you can't visit him in Seattle, I'm sure he would enjoy a card. His address is
Mike Kirk
Park West, Room 110-2
1703 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116
Friday, May 3
I've talked to Mike several times in the last couple of days and today I was on a teleconference with him, the Social Worker, Physical Therapist, and Nurse Manager from Park West. The purpose of the conference was for Mike to clarify his rehabilitation goals. At first he said his goals were to become as independent as possible. When I asked him if it was more important to stay there until he could live independently or to come back to Juneau as soon as he could travel commercially and go to someplace like the Pioneers' Home, he said his preference would be to come home as soon as possible. The Park West Social Worker will contact the Pioneers' Home Social Worker to determine how and when a transfer could be made.
They are now working on getting him to transfer from bed to walker to wheelchair as independently as possible. Within 6-8 weeks he may be able to get around fairly independently with a walker. They estimated he may be able to travel with an escort in about a month. They will continue to assess his progress meeting that goal.
Yesterday he told me that balance is difficult. He has gotten a lot of mail and says he is "trying to be good"!
Thanks so much for keeping us all up to date, Judy!
ReplyDeleteI was planning to go up to Juneau to visit Mike this spring or summer, and wouldn't mind stopping in Seattle to bring him up there. Let me know if you'd like me to help out in that way. Alternatively I'll just go visit him in Seattle. Thx.
ReplyDeleteI am leaving Seattle today (Friday, May 10), and Mike is making me buy him a suitcase before I leave, otherwise he won’t let me have mine back. He won’t let me unpack any of his clothes into his wardrobe. Ah well. I’m guessing he wants his stuff as close to his bed as possible, and by having everything in his suitcase he doesn’t have to worry about losing things. His shower slippers were already lost once because someone mistakenly put them in his roommate’s wardrobe.
ReplyDeleteFor the next few days – I will visit him today (Friday) Michaela Jensen plans to visit him Saturday, and Bruce Botelho said he would visit Mike on Tuesday. Hopefully he will have someone stopping in to see him at least every other day. My family will be back in Seattle at the end of May, and we will visit him a few times at that point.