Crash- Station 19/Marina

Sitting up and moving

The next morning when Amelia came in Maya was sitting up a bit in bed and Carina was eating breakfast and feeding Maya
"Good morning!" Amelia said as she walked in
"Hello" Carina said, Maya couldn't say anything because she had food in her mouth
"Sorry, good morning" she said a few seconds later
"No, its good that you're eating. No issues with that?" Amelia asked
"No... well no physical issues, realizing I can't feed myself was hard but Carina's amazing and I saw the department's therapist yesterday" she admitted
"I'm glad you're talking to someone. Have you tried drinking?"
"Ya, I can drink fine with a straw"
"You know what that means?" Amelia asked
"No more feeding tube?" Maya said hopefully
"Yes, you get to have a tube-free face. And what I was planning for this morning is seeing how you do sitting up more in bed and then maybe trying to get you in a wheelchair. What do you want to do first?"
"Get rid of the tube"
"Ok, that's really quick but a bit uncomfortable, I can just do it if you want"
"Sure"

Amelia grabbed gloves and put a cloth over Maya so the tube wouldn't get her gown dirty then pulled the tube out. Maya gagged a bit but Carina gave her some water and she was fine.
"All done and you have one less tube" Carina told her
Maya smiled
"Can I sit up more now?" She asked, looking at Amelia
"Yes, same as yesterday, tell me if anything hurts or if you need me to stop"
"Ok"
Amelia raised the head of the bed until Maya was almost upright
"How's that?" Amelia asked her
"I feel like I'm going to fall over."
"We won't let you fall over" Carina told her
"Any pain or lightheadedness" Amelia asked
"No. I can actually see the room now."
"Do you want to try getting up in a wheelchair?"
"Yes"
"Ok, I'll get someone from PT to come with a chair you can try, I'll be back" Amelia left

"Are you ready for this?" Carina asked
"I think so. I'm nervous but I have to try at some point and I've been in this bed for weeks" Maya says
"Ok" Carina says then leans over to hug her. "I like this position, I can hug you again"
"Me too but I'm getting dizzy"
"Ok, let me check your BP" Carina says as she started checking her BP, she already had the BP cuff on her arm.

"I'm going to lay you back down, your BP is low" Carina told her and lowered the bed again
"But I want to get up"
"I know, maybe you still can, we just need to ask Amelia so lay down until she comes back"
"Ok" Maya said closing her eyes
"Still dizzy?" Carina asked
"Ya... It's getting a bit better"
"Ok, I'm going to lift your legs up a bit, it will help with the dizziness"
"I think I'm ok now" Maya said a few minutes later
"Good, but I still want you to lay down until Amelia comes back" Carina says as she lays Maya's legs back down on the bed
"I know, I don't think I'm ready to go up again anyways. Why did I get so dizzy?"
"It's part of some spinal cord injuries. Usually blood vessels contract when you sit or stand to keep your blood pressure even throughout the body. But that's not happening with your body right now because the signals can't get through the injured part of your spine"
"Oh yay, another fun thing I get to deal with forever now" Maya grumbled sarcastically
"It's usually just with higher injuries so it might stop being a problem" Carina says "and I'm sure Amelia or someone from PT will have a solution so you can get up"

A few minutes later Amelia came back in followed by a nurse with a lift and the PT with a wheelchair.
"Did your BP drop?" Amelia questioned when she saw Maya laying down again
"Got so dizzy" Maya mumbles "this sucks"
"It's ok, its pretty normal" Amelia says
"Ya, Carina told me, still sucks, I wanted to finally get out of bed"
"You still can, you just need some extra stuff. We'll put on compression socks and an abdominal binder to help regulate your BP, then you can get up"
"Really?"
"Yes, I just hadn't mentioned it because I wasn't sure if you'd need it. Can we get started?"
"Yes, I want to get up!"

It took a while to get the socks on but eventually they got it
"Ok, now I'm going to pull your gown up to put this on you. We'll get you one that has a cut out for the ostomy but this will be ok for now, you won't wear it for long" Amelia explained as she put the binder on. "Ok, you're ready. We're going to use a hoyer lift to get you out of bed and into the chair. At rehab once the brace comes off and you regain some arm function you'll work on learning how to transfer yourself but until the brace comes off, the lift is best. So we're going to roll you to either side to get the sling under you"
"Ok"

They got the sling positioned under her and brought the lift over, connecting all the straps.
"Ok, I'm going to start bringing you up" the nurse who was controlling the lift told her.
It lifted her up just off the bed then they brought her away from the bed and got it positioned so she was over the wheelchair before slowly lowering it as the PT guided her to make sure she got in the wheelchair properly. Once she was sitting they disconnected the straps and moved the lift away, leaving the sling under her for when they got her back in bed later. Finally they did up some straps to hold her in her chair and repositioned her arms.

"What do you think bambina?" Carina asked her
"It's weird but I like being out of bed" she says "can I leave the room?"
"You could go for a short walk on this floor but then you need to get back in bed. We'll slowly increase the amount of time you spend in the wheelchair"

Carina pushed her around for a bit before heading back to her room where they got her back in bed, got the sling for the lift out from under her and took off the abdominal binder. Then it was time for PT

"We're going to try something different today" Steve, the PT said when he came in. "You can activate some of the muscles in your arms, just not enough to move against gravity so we're going to see if you can move if we with these" he explained as he started taking things out of his bag.
He attached a metal frame to the bed with slings on it then put Maya's arms in the slings so they were supported at the elbow, just before the wrist and the hand.

"The slings support the weight so it takes a lot less effort to move." he explains "so I want you to try moving your arms"
"Ok" Maya said
"What's wrong bella?" Carina asked, noticing that she looked nervous
"What if I can't do it?"
"Then we'll figure it out but you have to try this ok?" Carina reassured
"Ok, I'll try"

"It's not working!" She says a minute later "I can't do it"
"It's ok, it's still early, it's only been 2 weeks" Carina tells her
"It's not ok, I can't move!" She yells
"Let me try one more thing then you can be done for today, ok?" Steve interrupts
"Fine" Maya says, still clearly frustrated but not yelling.
He adjusts the slings so her arms are in a different position and tells her to try again.

After a few seconds her arm moves, barely but it definitely moved
"Maya, you did it!" Carina exclaims
She doesn't say anything, continuing to focus then she does the same thing with her other arm.
"Awesome" Steve says "can you do that again?"
She does, moving her arms a bit more that time. She's just using her shoulders to move her arms, not any arm muscles but until now she couldn't move anything.
"Great, keep going if you can. You'll keep using the slings for a while every day to strengthen your muscles and eventually you should be able to start moving your arms on your own"

He left her arms in the slings while he stretched her legs then took them out to stretch her arms before taking the frame off her bed and leaving. Maya was exhausted and sore by the time he left.

"Andy just texted me that she's going to drop of lunch for both of us" Carina says
"Is she going to stay?" Maya asks
"I don't know, if you don't want her to that's fine"
"No, she can stay"

20 minutes later Andy came in with food.
"Hi, thanks for getting lunch, hospital food sucks" Maya says when she hears Andy walk in.

Carina starts raising the bed so Maya can sit up a bit to eat. 
"No problem, it's also an excuse to come visit. I heard you switched to a brace, I didn't know that meant you could sit up"
"Ya, I got to raise the bed a bit as soon as I had the brace on. Today I tried going up further, there are issues with my blood pressure and I got really dizzy but we figured that out and I got to get in a wheelchair and leave the room for a bit" Maya told her
"Wow"
"Si, she's doing amazing" Carina said
"Ok, enough focusing on me, can we eat now?" Maya said
"Yes, I'm starving!" Andy says as she starts taking food out of the bag

Carina started to prop Maya's arm up with pillows to do the same thing as the day before but Maya stopped her.
"I don't think I can right now, my shoulders are really sore from PT" she said
"That's ok, you don't have to" Carina says
"I love you" Maya says
"I love you too" Carina replied while leaning over to kiss her
"Why do I ever come here!" Andy exclaims "I thought we were eating!"
"You should be used to this, you live with us!" Maya tells her