Jody recovery report #1
For those who are just joining us, my wife Dr. Jody Kaufman was severely injured when she was thrown from her horse at a riding event in Rochester, NH on Wednesday. I was traveling in Japan at the time and arrived home early Friday morning.
Jody is in the intensive care unit at Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NH (map). She has significant degradation of sensation and voluntary movement in all extremities. MRI and CT scans show degeneration and narrowing of the spinal canal, instability of the anterior longitudinal ligament which is displaced around vertebrae C5 and C6, disruption of other ligaments, and fractures of some of the spinous processes in that area. She also has minor facial injuries and possibly some exacerbation of an old shoulder injury. (Thanks to my sister Debbie for her excellent notes.)Jody will have surgery on Monday to repair the fractures and ligament damage, stabilize her spine by fusing vertebrae C4-C6, and relieve the pressure on her spinal cord. Her orthopedic surgeon and his team have an excellent reputation and apparently the surgery is considered relatively straightforward as these things go.
Prognosis
Despite the dire-sounding diagnosis, Jody began recovering almost immediately and has been making excellent progress. For example, I saw significant improvement in gross motor control in her left arm just in the 18 hours I was with her yesterday. She has been mentally alert the whole time and is already consulting on her veterinary cases by phone.
I am cautiously optimistic that Jody will make a complete recovery, but it will take months at least and will require a tremendous amount of work.
Asks
Many, many people have called or emailed asking what they can do to help us and we are very grateful for all of your support.
The most important thing we need right now is overnight coverage at the hospital to allow me to get some sleep while ensuring that Jody is never left alone. (The nursing staff has been wonderful, but Jody isn’t always able to let them know when she needs something.)
If you can do an occasional 4-8 hour overnight shift please call me on my cell phone (603-770-0342) or send an email and let me know. There is a semi-comfortable recliner next to Jody’s bed, but you shouldn’t count on getting much sleep when you’re there.
We need people to do shifts tonight (Saturday) and Sunday night if possible.
Other requests:
We need someone to pick up Jody’s sister Carla from Manchester Wednesday morning and bring her to the hospital. Please contact me if you’re available to do this.
We can use some audio books on CD or computer file to help keep Jody entertained and engaged. Do keep in mind that it’s impossible to guarantee the safety of anything in a hospital room so don’t lend us anything irreplaceable.
Calls, visits, gifts
Jody loves getting calls and visits from friends. We need to keep these brief to avoid tiring her out too much or interfering with her medical care. The phone number in ICU is 603-335-8175.
Flowers are officially banned from ICU. The staff has been letting them in (and they’re lovely!) but there isn’t really a lot of room in Jody’s ICU bay for them. If you really want to send Jody something, yummy treats that encourage her to take on the calories she needs might be a good choice.
Out of town visits
Friends and relatives from other places are making plans to come to New Hampshire to be with Jody. We’ll be very glad to see you but we need to coordinate out-of-town visits so we don’t have more people here than we can accommodate at one time.
Politics
You may be aware that I have been considering a run for the New Hampshire State Senate seat in District 17. For obvious reasons I am suspending my campaign indefinitely; my only priority for the foreseeable future is helping Jody recover from her injury as quickly and completely as possible.
Thanks
I can’t begin to thank all the people who helped get this situation under control while I was 6,000 miles away, and are doing it still: my sister Debbie Bauch and nephew Andy Bauch, Jessica Chasney, Diane Eagle, Sen. Maggie Hassan, Dr. Kathleen Kelly, Dr. Kate Lawton, Dr. Sally Oxnard, Drs. Mark & Leslie Prescott, Nolan Ring, Amy Robinson, Molly Supple, Cindi Tuite, and Ellen Wight. Special thanks to the members of the Wentworth Hunt who recognized a True Emergency when they saw one, and the first responders who got Jody to the ER quickly and safely.
Forwarding and mailing list
Please feel free to forward this message in appropriate ways. If you received this from a friend and would like to be added to the mailing list for future updates, or to be removed from the list, please email me at roger [-@at@-] rogergoun.org.