Wednesday, September 6th

Goodbye Billings, Hello Seattle!!!

This morning at 7:30 am Montana time, a flight crew arrived at Maria's door to escort her via ambulance to the Billings airport, where she flew on a medical plane (Med Flight) to Boeing Field, and was transported (again by ambulance) to the University of Washington Medical Center. The Med Flight plane and ambulance transportation were LIFESAVERS - one of the things that causes Maria the most pain is having to hold her head/neck up for too long, and usually 20 minutes is too long. She was able to lay on the stretcher from hospital room to hospital room, so the journey was much more bearable for her (had she flown commercial, it would have been 8 hours of sitting up) - thank you flight crew, ambulance crew, and those who made the Med Flight possible!

Yesterday was a good last day at the Billings Clinic - Maria was visited by a lot of her favorite doctors and nurses, many of whom told her she was their favorite patient ever. . . not that that surprises any of us who know her:) She went on three long walks, and worked with her therapists on sitting down, turning, etc. . . all remarked that she wouldn't be an inpatient in Seattle for very long. The doctors have estimated a week or two, but they also thought she would be in Montana for at least a month, and she made it out in 16 days, so we'll see. . .

I'm back home now (it will be a very sad separation for me and my little patient:)) so I won't have much firsthand knowledge until I move back up to Seattle in a few weeks, but I will try to keep the blog updated as much as possible.

Her new address is:

Maria Dalbotten, Floor 8 North (Room 839, bed 2)
University of Washington Medical Center
1959 NE Pacific
Seattle, WA 98195

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. . . Maria is doing INCREDIBLY well, but still has a long way to go on her road to recovery, so she will continue to need all of our encouragement and support!