It’s been a while since I updated everybody on Sartin family, Rob specific, status. In fact, looking at the last entry, it was Father’s Day. Sorry it’s been so long folks.

Rob has been at CNS Dallas working hard every single day since we last spoke. He’s definitely making progress. And that’s not just an opinion. CNS actually has a very detailed data driven program. I can’t remember how many different points of activity they measure, and have specific goals for, but it’s a lot. Of course, insurance is very demanding on getting data on progress because, heaven forbid if there was a slow week, they would want to kick him out. But he continues to progress. I think it’s probably easiest for those of us on the sidelines to see the physical therapy progress. His body is getting stronger. His right arm is doing well. As is his right leg. His left leg is starting to make a bit more progress. Now that he’s strong enough to bear some weight during transfers, that really helps the muscles build. His left arm is still very weak with only small amounts of movement. But during OT they continue to work to try to get additional progress there. CR, or cognitive rehab, is really a combination of several things. Not just cognitive work, but also speech, and swallowing. When Rob was at TNR, they focused so much on his swallowing because he was trying to get good enough to eat. Which he did and eventually was able to get rid of that feeding tube. Now that he’s cleared for all food, the focus is a bit different. Cognitive wise he’s working on memory and focus. And he’s doing great at that. He’s also starting to work more on speaking – getting more volume and longer speaking in between breaths. Sometimes his voice is soft and we have to remind him to take deeper breaths. But I remind myself what a difference it is from when he couldn’t speak at all. And we had to use the alphabet board to communicate. Wow! That has been remarkable progress!

Rob continues to have visitors which I have to tell you is huge! Being far away from your family and struggling every day to work hard in therapy, can be daunting. Having friends and family come and visit you and spend fun and relaxing time is also therapy in and of itself. Thank you so much to recent visitors including Carrie and Fred, Oliver, Dewi, Jacob, and Rachel and Kathi. And some of you who can’t visit, I know are reaching out to him via text, email, and zoom. Thank you everybody! Just like I told Rob, keep going!

Looking to the future, we are a bit unsure on what’s going to happen over the next couple weeks. As always, insurance is in the middle of these decisions. There’s a disagreement on insurance coverage and limits. I’ve spent a significant amount of time on this over the last week and am a bit hopeful at this point. Although one of our goals was getting Rob transferred to CNS in Austin, they have changed their status and have halted incoming clients because of staffing constraints. Given that, our best outcome would be that Rob is okayed for additional days and they would be in Dallas. Cross your fingers, everybody and send us good juju!

Stay tuned everybody, the next update should be very interesting. I know you’ll definitely want to read it! Until then, hugs and best wishes to everyone!