Healthcare Has Gone To The Dogs

Saturday morning Kelly went to WAGS, Willing Animals Giving Support. This is an amazing program at MDA that partners patients with pooches for therapy. Watching people of all ages and in all stages of cancer recovery “playing” with these great animals was really inspiring. Kelly walked about 10 feet with a walker as Cowboy barked encouragement along side her. Then she threw a ball to Minion for at least 20 minutes , who was more than happy to work Kel’s arms. Finally, KJ did leg lifts with the help of Porter, a fine yellow lab mix. All in all it was a very good day!

Kelly is in three hours of daily rehab, including OT, PT & Speech Therapy. The speech therapy really deals with her brain power and trying to remember and locate what is stored in there. The OT is helping her find ways to be more independent and the PT is pushing her to the limits with rebuilding her strength. She is really happy I am here to inform them when she is lying. Like when the therapist asks if she is able to walk at all and she answers, “No, I can’t walk at all.” This is when tough love kicks in. “Excuse me Mr. PT man, my little sister CAN walk!” I was very happy I could not read her mind at that moment.

My little sister is one tough chick. She has a scar from ear to ear and a drainage tube hanging out of her head attached to a bulb that catches all the ooze. I helped her get dressed the other day for the first time. I have seen her in a hospital gown for a week so when she was in her own clothes, with that drain hanging out of her head and the ball of blood attached to the end of it, I stepped back, took a long look and burst out laughing. When Kel asked what was so dang funny I had to tell her the truth. “Kelly, you look like you are wearing the most AWESOME Halloween costume. Dude, you would win FIRST PLACE as Head Wound Harriet!!” Luckily, my sister is also warped and enjoyed the thought immensely.

As if the Head Wound Harriet look wasn’t enough, she ended up with an added bonus this weekend. Both of Kel’s legs & feet swelled to the size of tree trunks. This meant PT had to come in and wrap her legs and feet in ace bandages from toe to thigh. After a few hours, it became evident the wraps were too tight and she was also having some kind of allergic reaction to something, so they unwrapped and rewrapped and also cut the bandages here & there giving them a rather rag tag appearance. By the time it was over her resemblance to THE MUMMY from the 1950’s movie was simply uncanny. I don’t know how much more we can take before they kick us out for howling with laughter.

Kelly may not look the same, think the same or even function the same as she did 2 years ago, but know this. She is one tough chick and I am so glad she is my sister! She is bound and determined to get back home & start cooking and bossing everyone around again. Failure is not an option for a Casas/Walter woman!