(Remember these? 🙂 )

Dan has now been home for a little over a week, and we are slowly settling into some kind of routine. I’m working from home half-days this week, assisting Dan where necessary. For the most part he doesn’t need that much assistance, though. He is getting around by wheelchair within the house, and we have arranged the bedroom and bathroom upstairs and living room and dining room downstairs to keep everything accessible and manageable from the wheelchair. He can stand in one place for short periods of time so getting stuff off of shelves is possible as well. My help is only needed going up and down the stairs, providing a backup to prevent falls and carrying the wheelchair from one floor to the other.

Dan is technically housebound, which has a very specific definition per Medicare (the baseline from which most health insurance plans use). This means that with the exception of going to and from doctor’s visits and a few other minor exceptions he is not to leave the house. If something were to happen while he was out of the house the insurance company would, with good reason, refuse to pay for the in-home therapy from day one. This makes sense since if he could leave the house there would be no justification for in-home physical and occupational therapy.

Speaking of which, the occupational and physical therapists have been visiting the house this week, 2 visits each for an hour apiece. They have shown Dan how to use his walker more and how to practice static standing (building endurance while bracing on something like the kitchen counter). They also brought a second walker that he can use upstairs when comfortable doing so. He sees his surgeon and rehab doctor next week. Our hope is that they will move him to outpatient therapy and he will no longer be housebound.

As for working, he also has to wait for the go-ahead from the surgeon to go back to work. Dan’s job is completely computer-based so returning to work shouldn’t be too bad. He is definitely out until the end of the month, but with luck he will be able to return part-time starting in April. We are very fortunate that his short-term disability has covered 100% of his salary!

So that’s where we are right now.

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