Greg has been moved to a skilled nursing facility on Fletcher Avenue.

Fletcher Health and Rehab – http://www.fletcherhealthandrehab.com/

518 West Fletcher Ave

Tampa, FL 33612
Phone (813) 265-1600

You can also call Greg on his cell – (813) 368-8224

Greg’s rehabilitation continues and his improvement has astonished everyone, including his therapy techs!!!  This past week included milestones of increased “chair time” and actually standing on his leg supporting his own weight.  He is progressing into the parallel bars and other apparatus’s to help him gain confidence and strength.  And, with his desire and tenacity, he will certainly be remembered as one of TGH’s most dedicated rehab patients.

We continue having the Thursday night meeting at the rehab center and all of them have been excellent meetings.  These give Greg an opportunity to give an update on his rehab as well as a venue to share his feelings and concerns about his situation and progress.  His spirituality and determination are an inspiration to all in attendance.

I hope you all had an excellent Christmas and New Year!!!

Dave

Had a really great meeting with Greg at the rehab unit last evening. 9 guys attended (including Greg) and everything was very positive. Greg continues to get stronger daily, is progressing through his rehab extremely well. He has worked out a system with his physical therapy techs to minimize the pain from his lower back which has enhanced his ability to participate in his rehab exponentially. Greg appreciates any and all communication from people in the “outside world” and is especially appreciative of those who can come visit with him.

Sir Gregory has been moved into rehab/physical therapy and now he must work to prepare   his body for the task.

Greg is now in room 821.  Was moved into this room for better access to proper structure to move him in and out of bed.

He seems to be getting better.  As of this writing, he has not had dialysis since earlier this week and may not need it again.

Also, antibiotic regimen is no longer 24/7.

Greg has been moved out of ICU and is in room F834.  Currently he has no IV…which is a good thing…let’s hope this continues.

It looks as if gregory will be moved out of ICU in the next few days.  I had the opportunity to speak to the attending physician, and he said that everything is moving in a positive direction.  Greg’s kidney function is beginning to come back, and the onslaught of anti biotics has had the desired impact on the infection(s).

I have been slow in providing any meaningful update because things are moving slow and sometimes changes are not that significant.

Having said that, I have some good news to share.

Greg’s body has been subject to a lot of different stimuli, including anti biotics, insulin, pain medication, anesthesia, and infection.  As a result, his kidneys were unable to filter all of these items, and the result is that toxins began to build in his system.

This caused problems.  The kidneys have been unable to function normally and this further exacerbated problems, impacting Greg’s ability to communicate.  He went from confused to disconnected to unable to speak.

As a result, the doctors decided to put him on a dialysis regimen, and I am happy to report that Greg has responded well.  He is able to communicate once again, and I am told that he may very well return to normal communication.

Although we do not have a resolution at this time, the probability is good that his kidneys will resume normal functioning.  We won’t know until we get there, but this is all good news.

Greg is now somewhat confused and loopy.  He didn’t recognize a nurse that took care of him previously.

A CT scan was done on his brain and no problems were found.

Doctors think this ‘condition’ may be due to the large amount of toxins in his system.  His Kidney’s are not functioning at 100%, but tests show that they are near normal.

That said, the kidney specialist believes that all the toxins in his system (pain medication, anesthesia, anti biotics, etc) present a rather large amount of work for the kidney’s and this can overload the system.  The specialist believes the toxins have created problems for his brain, and dialysis can help clean his blood and reverse the problem.

We have begun a dialysis regimen.  This may take some time to correct this issue.

Greg is now colonized with VRE, an infection that is often the result of what Greg is going through.  By ‘colonized’ I mean that he is not infected, but there is a colony of potentially infectious microbes on his body and he is being monitored and cared for properly.