When Will Bob Leave Spaulding?

Today Bob had physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational and group occupational therapies and a new therapy: music therapy.

My mom met with Bob's case manager and was told he was ready to leave Spaulding as early as tomorrow. My mom was surprised by this because she did not know that Bob has met the goals set by the team. After speaking with Bob's occupational and physical therapists (not just in passing but in a meeting setting), my mom became more aware of how much Bob has progressed. For example, he can put on his shirt and pants independently now. It is the team's consensus that Bob should leave before the April 5th date set early on in order for him to qualify to be a patient at a skilled nursing facility. Bob needs to be able to be skill-able, to still have things to improve upon, living skills to be taught so that he can be admitted at a skilled nursing facility.

Tomorrow my mom will be at Spaulding early to attend some of Bob's therapies. Visiting hours are at one in the afternoon during the week and my mom usually arrives at Spaulding for lunch around noon. As a result she has not been able to witness Bob's progress up close since a lot of the therapy sessions happen before lunch. She is looking forward to watching Bob demonstrate his new skills and I look forward to reporting on them.

It is likely that Bob will leave Spaulding by the end of this week even though Bob has not met one of the speech goals. Bob's speech goal is not being taken into account and my mom was told that this is normal in deciding the patient's discharge date. One of the goals set by the team in late February, was for Bob to be able to speak 8 to 10 words that express need like "hungry", "toilet" and he unfortunately is not there yet. But this isn't to say that Bob's speech hasn't come a long way in the thirty-seven days Bob has been at Spaulding. Today, for example, Bob said "my foot" when referring to his foot, in the middle of a conversation about his foot. Sometimes he blurts out words that relate well to a conversation, yet he has a difficult time reproducing them out of context. If you were to ask him: "Bob, say foot", he probably wouldn't be able to out of the blue. But these blurted-out-in-context-words come more and more frequent, and his usage of "yes" and "no" is getting more consistent. Bob's ability to make sounds has definitely improved from the grunts in February. His vocal pattern resembles the cadence of regular speech with ups and downs in inflection and tone. This in another one of those times when we have to look at the big picture and realize then that he has come a long way.

He will continue to go a long way, whether at Spaulding or the new facility and then later at home. And we'll be cheering him on. Thanks for reading and keep the thoughts and prayers coming.