Back from Philly: The End of this Blog

And so, my friends, the saga of my RND has come to a close. I am well on the road to complete recovery. I hurt less at the end of a day than I did before I left, and every day I can tolerate more and more activity before I wind up in significant pain. Over the next few weeks to months, my pain will continue to decrease and eventually disappear completely.

Before I go, I want to thank all my therapists at CHOP, especially specific people. These pictures are not censored, and real names are used, for two reasons. First of all, I was required to ask permission before taking these shots, so I have the people's consent to distribute them. Secondly, I may never see these people again, and I miss them!

First is Tia (far left), the amazing pool therapist. She is SO MUCH FUN!!! She called me "munchkin" and "vertically impaired".

Christy was one of the way cool Occupational Therapists. I ended up having "contests" with inanimate obejcts (in a nutshell, keeping score of how many times they interfered with my life vs. how often I managed to save myself) and she would join in on occasion. Christy was the one who tried, very hard, to teach me to jumprope. She is under the impresison that it is possible to teach me coordination. I give her an A++ for effort!

Next is Deb, the amazing nurse practitioner. She was one of two people who asked about my pain level every day (necessary documentation). I called her Raven because she reminded me of one, and she liked it when I patted her head. (She was Tiny!)

This is Kira...Oh. My. God. I. LOVE. HER. There are just not enough words in the English language to sufficiently praise Kira. She is sweet and caring and young and enthusiastic and passionate and interesting and interested and WONDERFUL...just a person-shaped package of Wonderful. Kira was the one who didn't understand how serious I was when I said I was going to throw up all over the floor...but once I did, she supervised the cleanup and let me go wash up in the bathroom. Then she set me back to exercising, but once I told her I hadn't eaten breakfast (too nauseaus), she took me upstairs to grab dry cereal and ginger ale, and sat with me while I ate it to make sure I was OK. Kira usually called me "Goofball", with the occasional "Lovebug" thrown in for good measure. Kira...if you're reading this...I LOVE YOU sooooo MUCH!

Last but most certainly never least: The amazing, the incredible, (the cute, because I know he owuld want me to add that in here), the one and only...Dr. David Sherry. This is a man who has found his calling and is using it to work miracles. There are not enough of those people in this world. He also really, really cares about his patients as individuals: at least 80 percent of the time I spent with him while has making rounds (when he could have just finished the doctor part and left to go do something professional) was spent discussing Judaism, cracking jokes, and trying to outsmart each other with grammar and history. He made me dance with him every day and told me stories from his childhood. He taught me what a synecdoche is, and then I discovered the correct spelling. Oh, and by the way, his beard is naturally striped. Way cool.

Miscellaneous Pictures:

So now what? I have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Sherry in April, and another sometime in the summer. I may blog about both of those here. In the meantime, follow me over to my new blog: mushroomchickens.blogspot.com See you there!