Six Months

Just shy of the six-month mark, Quintin moved to an adult foster care home in Vancouver. He is one of six residents in the house (a real house, not a hospital!), and it is a very refreshing change from the nondescript hospital rooms he’s been in to this point. He has his own room, it’s painted a nice calm shade of green and the window looks out on a quiet cul-de-sac. He has cozy jersey sheets on his bed and gets to wear real clothes instead of hospital gowns. He still has a small ventilator and some other equipment in the room but even so, it’s infinitely more comforting and home-like. The woman who runs the home and the nurses we’ve met so far are all very nice and caring both to Quintin and those of us who visit him.

There are no doctors making regular rounds at this facility, like there were at the hospitals, so a doctor who has known the Rices for many years has agreed to take his case on. When he needs tests or any services beyond the day-to-day care the nurses provide he’ll be transported to hospitals. It’s very likely that one event or another (a high temperature, for example) will occur and he’ll need to spend a few days at Emanuel again, but that’s just the way the process goes.

On Saturday much of the family went to a benefit event for Dr. Chen’s research foundation. Dr. Chen is the neurosurgeon who performed both of Q’s surgeries, and the micro-dialysis shunts that monitored Quintin’s cerebrospinal fluid levels in the ICU are one of the techniques this fund has helped to develop. It was nice to see familiar faces from ICU and TRACU all dressed up! After his presentation Dr. Chen played the piano too, which was a real treat. One of the speakers at the event was a young woman who has been a patient of Dr. Chen’s since she experienced an AVM brain bleed a couple years ago. That’s a very different issue from what Quintin is recovering from but it was still heartening to see and hear from a real success story. Here’s hoping Quintin will be the speaker at next year’s event!