Sam FINALLY went home (just for the day). The adventure started with Sam playing the MSU fight song in the van over...and over...and over. (He has a can opener taped to his wheelchair that plays it when pushed). It was cute the first TWENTY times--finally we lucked out when the battery just died from shear exhaustion.
He was a little blown away by just being in the house--seeing Chloe and Sadie (the dogs), all of us hanging out together again, different, but the same. There were quite a few visitors--Jayne, Tone, Katie, me (Bec), Eve, Heath, mom (duh), dad, Andrew, Colleen and Alaina, Grandma and Grandpa. Since he had so much company, I kept sneaking away to nap--unfortunately he caught onto my plan and would send one of his minions to bring me back. No sleeping today! He was quite upset because he couldn't go into the basement to see his room. Big heaving sobs over that one. We all started to feel so bad that there was serious discussion about putting him on someones lap and scooching him down the stairs...luckily cooler minds prevailed.
Overall it was a wonderful day. After we left the house Sam asked to see the accident sight (he spelled that it would make him feel better). We showed him where the crash happened and mom got out and ran along the path his car traveled those long, six months ago.
We got back to the hospital around 9:20 at night and were all totally exhausted...though Sam still had enough energy to talk Liz into kissing him and climbing into his hospital bed. (When at first she refused, he karate chopped her on the arm--I think she was afraid to say no after that).
Well--tomorrow this adventure might continue. He may be able to go see War of the Worlds at the movies (depending on how he recovers from today). Keep your fingers crossed.
Rehabilitation Update:
Sam continues to improve with swallowing since his trach was removed (he really wanted to eat my chicken sandwich tonight). He also stood for three minutes last Friday and will continue working on walking this next week.