EvanDays 10 - 13 After Impact
May 3, 2012
Time is flying by and Evan is continuing to recover at lightening speed. Here's a recap of the last 3 days:
Day 10: He is standing up without any support! The video below was taken on May 1st. Evan had to use a table to support himself on the first day, but since then, he has stood for 30 minutes completely on his own. The therapists strap him into a safety harness to keep him from falling though. It would be really really bad if he fell.
Day 11: Evan finally met Pete! Pete is the therapy dog who lives at Kessler and keeps all the patients company. He is a sweet dog but Evan thought he was a little too boring. Not surprising that Kessler would want a tame dog around people who are standing up for the first time since injuring their spinal cord.
When Evan gets more motion in his hands, Jill and his other therapists say that one of Evan's exercise will be playing fetch with Pete :)
Day 12: Evan had some visitors! Thomas, Poage, Gabriel, and Daniel came to see Evan after his long day of physical therapy. All four of them loomed large over the patients here and made quite an impression on the nurses and doctors. On the rugby field, its easy for forget how big each CUFRC player is because they all look proportional to one another. But in an environment where 90% of the population is in a wheelchair, his teammates looked like giants. 
Evan's teammates also presented Evan with the "Most Valuable Teammate" award that he missed out on receiving at their end-of-season party. As you can tell, he was thrilled.
Evan continues to put forth his best effort every single day and the doctors are very encouraged by his progress. Even though he makes therapy look like a breeze because he always has a big smile on his face, Evan is working really hard to get back full muscle control and mobility. So keep up the amazing messages of support and love! He keeps saying how grateful he is for his incredible support network :)
Day 9
Even though Evan checked into Kessler last Thursday, today was his first day of the schedule he will have for the remainder of his stay. He wakes up 7:30 when his occupational therapist, Maggie, comes in to teach him how to dress himself and get ready for the day. He eats a quick breakfast before he rolls off to physical therapy from 9:00-11:30. After that, Evan gets a break until 2 to eat lunch, rest, catch up on email, whatever. From 2-4, he goes right back to the gym to stretch and do strengthening exercises.
I hear that Evan reached another amazing milestone in physical therapy today that apparently blew away the nurses and doctors. HE WALKED 18 FEET WITH A WALKER! Doctors have told us that the progress made within the first two weeks of recovery indicates how quickly the rest of his recovery will be. Since he has made such incredible strides within these past 9 days, we couldn't ask for more promising outcomes.
After his amazing accomplishment, Evan's "second girlfriend", Z, gave him a celebratory shower. Z is one of his favorite nurses and, although she is not allowed to admit it, it's pretty clear that Evan is her favorite patient.
Hats off Evan for pushing himself so hard these past few days! And hats off to Z for taking such good care of him and keeping his spirits high.