Three weeks
In about one hour, it will be the 3 week mark from Jake's accident. It is wild to comprehend all that has changed in 21 days. Let me try to wrap my head around it. What has changed? Jake: everything. Three weeks ago he was strong, fit, able. Nothing more than an occasional sore neck if he slept wrong, but in great shape for a 40 year old guy. He spent two full weeks in the Neuro Trauma ICU at North Memorial, being fully intubated for two days, and with a tracheostomy placed. He last spoke going into surgery at 12:30 am on Wednesday, Sept. 10 - until just this week on Wednesday, Sept. 24. Two full weeks without having the chance to speak, being alone in his own thoughts, listening to the rest of us all process this, listening to his providers care for him, listening to me cry standing next to his bed, listening, listening, listening. Jake's incomplete spinal injury at the C5 means he now is a quadriplegic ASIA B: sensory incomplete. He has sensory but not motor function past hi...