future care

Yesterday the social worker sat down with Jan, Thelma, and myself to go over potential steps for Cosima's care after being in the Intensive Care Unit. All time frames are very rough estimates and this is just the initial outline for her next steps in her care after the ICU.

UNMH is for trauma patients and once they are stable they are downgraded to another floor of the hospital or moved to another facility. It is currently anticipated she will be at UNMH for another couple of weeks.

Step 2 is Long Term Acute Care, or LTAC, as I will refer to it going forward. This is for patients who still need a very high level of care but are stable and have their scheduled surgeries completed. They handle patients who require extended hospitalization to meet their medical needs. Anticipated time is about 2-3 weeks here.

Step 3 is a Skilled Nursing Facility, called SNF, and this is for non weight bearing patients. At this stage she would need to be breathing on her own and no longer on the ventilator. They would provide range of motion therapy. Estimated time here is about 4-6 weeks.

Step 4 is a Rehabilitative Center. Cosima would go here when she is no longer non-weight bearing. They would provide up to 3 hours a day of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy. I do not have an estimate for the time she would spend here. The goal here is for her to be able to be as independent as possible and provide basic care for herself.

After this there would be ongoing physical therapy but we don't have many more details on this yet.

Yesterday we looked at LTAC facilities and chose one we feel would best suit her needs. It is located in Albuquerque a short distance from where she is now. We all felt it was an easy decision to choose the one we did.

Please keep in mind this is a very rough outline and there are many variables but right now this is the initial plan. There will be more to come but wanted to give a brief summary of anticipated next steps.