Erika's Progress

Well, today Erika went to school without any crutch at all. She has been on one crutch for about a week now. She is nervous, as she doesn't know if her leg will give out on her. She really only needed it for going up/down stairs. So she has been instructed to always hold the rail. Most of you know, Erika had surgery on her knee before we left Seattle. This was successful and she was doing her physical therapy and progressing. After the first week of school she went away on a high school retreat to a place about 3 hours in the mountains. She was walking only with one crutch at the time. Well, she was asked if the group doing a skit could use her crutch. She was told the walkways were even and safe to walk on, so she gave them her crutch. Needless to say, the walkways were nice and safe but didn't continue all the way to where Erika needed to go. She slipped on some rocks (it had been raining) and fell. The friend she was with tried to grab her but couldn't and they both heard a loud pop from her knee. She was in great pain and crying so they called the paramedics. They called us and we said to just let her rest, elevate it and ice it. That was when she began to go into seizures, similar to after her surgery in Seattle. This must be how her body handles great pain. Well, they immediately drove her to a hospital an hour away! Now she was 4 hours from us, across the mountains and we couldn't get to her! It was an absolutely horrible night! For her and me. They finally got her stabilized and she stopped the seizing about 1am. They brought her home the next day, but she now had to be put back in the knee stabilizer and use both crutches again. With her workload at school and homework, she doesn't have much time to do physical therapy. She is doing it during P.E. class that she has every other day. So her progress is slow and very limited. I really don't know the extent of the damage the fall has done to her knee. She has sharp pains inside it, similar to what she felt before surgery, but her kneecap is in place and stable. We will continue and see a doctor if we must. A friend has given me the name of a great kneed doctor that her husband has used. Japan is not the place to be with any sort of disability. There are so many stairs everywhere! There of course are elevators too, but very much out of the way to use. That's it for now. Hopefully this will be the last of Erika's major injuries, not likely, but hopefully.