Just a quick — and probably my last — second-hand update. Larry has been home for a couple days now. In general, he’s happy to have visitors, but please call first to make sure; his headaches and fatigue can get really bad.

The in-home physical therapy doesn’t begin for another week, so in the meantime he’s been putting what energy he can muster towards climbing (and vacuuming) the stairs. Once the headaches subside enough that he can sit in his favorite red leather recliner, he’s got a whole lot of Wimbledon to catch up on…

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. Larry has made significant progress since the last entry. Geri had been giving us the reports each day, and I spent a few hours there on Thursday myself. It was a completely different experience than the last time I was there. We chatted about all kinds of things, and even laughed as I described to him the conversations we had previously.

Physically things are going better as well, thanks to the fact that he finally received a Cortisone injection which has relieved the intense pain in his legs. He’s frustrated at how quickly he tires during physical therapy, but we’re all grateful that he can do as much as he does.

Finally, extending a patient’s stay because they’re doing well might seem counter-intuitive, but he’s been responding to the inpatient therapies so well that they decided to keep him in the hospital an extra 5 days. Unless they change it again, he’ll come home on Wednesday July 23 and begin his home health care routine.

My family and I (Jed, Chelsey, and Zoe) will be heading back to Minneapolis tomorrow, but we’re relieved to see how many people in the church ward here have offered to help. Also, my brothers Travis and Ryan and their families live here in Utah Valley and I know they’ll continue to help however they can.

No major events to report since the last update. Larry continues to make gradual progress. He’s walking almost unassisted now, but continues to have pain in his legs. His speech is improving, and his massive bruises have (incredibly) all but disappeared.

He is still scheduled for release on the 18th; this coming Friday. We’re anxious to have him home, though it’s going to be a lot of work for both he and Geri. The hospital has had a full-time aide assigned to him during his entire stay, and we obviously won’t have that luxury here at home. We’ve opted for in-home rehab (rather than taking him to the hospital every day) via a small company that’s owned by some folks that Larry and Geri know, so we know he’ll be in good hands.

We’re hoping that his red recliner, hours of recorded Wimbledon, Twizzlers, cold Fresca, and the ability to check his email will help him jump back into his old self in no time!

They’ve put Larry on a drug called Neurontin which seems to help quite a bit with the worst of his pain (which is in the back of his legs, and seems to be originating from some nerves his back). This has allowed him to get back into more physical therapy. A combination of the increased activity and side effects from the Neurontin made him one sleepy guy yesterday. It’s about time!

Geri had several coherent conversations with him yesterday, with only an occasional confusing comment from Larry. We’re encouraged by that, but more cautiously optimistic now that we’ve seen how quickly things can go up and down.

Finally, they’ve set a tentative date of July 18 for Larry’s release. He’ll be staying here at home, but doing outpatient rehab at the nearby hospital.

As the Wood Family Reunion wound down this week, Larry received a lot of visits from his sons, daughters-in-law, and grandkids, in addition to the constant attention from Geri. His mental state overall has never quite returned to the clarity he had on Day 5; some days are better, some are worse.

Today, the pain in his legs seems to be bothering him a little less and he took a short walk with help (which he hasn’t done for a couple days). However, he had almost no sleep whatsoever last night, which has set him another step back with his memory and disorientation. Everyone is trying find the magic balance of pain medication, sleep, and physical therapy that will give both his mind and body the best chance to recover. The pain makes it hard for him to sleep, but pain medication makes it difficult to assess his mental progress. He needs the physical therapy to keep is body from withering away, but it doesn’t take much for him to be exhausted. Here’s hoping it’ll come together this week.

Chelsey, Zoe, and I attended Larry’s church ward today. We’re so grateful for the prayers and fasting offered by the ward members, and all of Larry’s friends and family. Thank you all.

Larry has continued to make great progress. He started rehab yesterday, which consists of various physical therapy routines. They also are finally giving him a little more pain medication, which he really needs.

But tonight he showed some signs of overdoing it just a bit. It wasn’t the same kind of disorientation he had last week, but he was a little frustrated and confused as to why he wasn’t allowed to go home right now. Eventually he fell asleep. Hopefully he’ll get a good night of rest and be back on track tomorrow.

After a little setback yesterday, Geri arrived at the hospital this morning to what feels like a miracle: Larry has his memory back. He’s asking the kind of questions you would expect from somebody who wakes up in a hospital, and he’s remembering the answers. He knows the date. The doctors have forewarned us that his cognitive abilities might wax and wane a bit as he continues to recover, but for right now we’re celebrating.

There’s one downside: he’s now very aware of the pain, and he still can’t have any medication other than Tylenol. He reminded us this morning that Tylenol has never worked much for him. Though he doesn’t appear to have spinal chord damage, his legs are hurting  similar to how they did last December, so he’s probably really tweaked his back.

Not surprisingly, Larry seems more concerned about Geri than himself. She told him what a good job his boys have done at taking care of him, to which he replied “they need to be taking care of you.” But even Larry knows Geri well enough to know that taking care of other people is what Mom does best. We’ve all been joking about the fact that she’s filled up her University Hospital frequent diner card (a true fact).

All of us kids and grandkids are headed to a family reunion in Heber for a few days. Larry obviously wishes he could be there, but we’re glad that the reunion brought us all out here (from as far as Switzerland!) to be together for all of this.

For the past two days, Larry has been taking short walks with some help. There has been little change with his memory and disorientation, but it’s nice that he’s able to get up and move around a bit. He also had some real food for breakfast this morning, which he really seemed to enjoy!

They’ve moved him out of intensive care, but he still has somebody assigned to him full time (in addition to Geri or one of his sons being with him). Due to possible negative side effects with the head trauma, they’re reluctant to give him much in the way of pain medication. So, the ol’ farm boy is battling the headache, bruises, and broken ribs with nothing more than some Tylenol.

Jed here, Larry’s youngest son. I’m going to be taking over for a little while.

On June 25, while riding his red beauty to Mirror Lake, Larry was in an accident. We don’t know much, except that he passed an SUV on the left, just as it was turning left. He clipped it, and he and the bike went down. We all know what a safe rider Larry is, so we have to assume that he was not anticipating the SUV’s turn.

He was flown to University Hospital where he has been ever since. Fortunately, his trusty chartreuse helmet held up pretty well:

Aside from about 6 broken ribs, it appears he has no other fractures. The biggest concern is the head trauma; he has both a subarachnoid hemorrhage and a subdural hematoma. He can recognize people he knows, but struggles with short term memory and consequently remains disoriented. At this point there is no reason to believe that he won’t fully recover, but it will be a long road.

It seems like people in these situations always express how overwhelmed they are by the love and kindness shown by friends, neighbors and relatives. But we really have been surprised. Geri says “it’s like we’re famous.” Thank you all so much for your continued prayers, thoughts, and offers to help. Once Larry is home and able to accept visitors (and hot meals! ), we’ll let you know.