Yesterday was Rob’s first full day at Kessler. He had a lot of trouble sleeping on Friday night, no big surprise due to the new surroundings. Reality has started to set in for him and he does have a few moments when things get pretty overwhelming. He has an incredibly strong spirit as you all know but he needs everyone to help him through the tough times. Not much to report on the medical side. He did have his first physical therapy session on Saturday. They got him out of bed and into a reclining wheelchair to go to the session. They are still assessing him but are very positive about how quickly he was transferred here and the fact that he does have sensation almost everywhere. Again, here one of his nurses is a recovered spinal cord injury victim and he has talked very frankly to Rob about what to expect and very positively about how far he could go. One thing we know for sure is that he will have a lot of pain. His recovery period was three years so now Robert has a goal to shoot for. We are slowly getting a routine in place. Mandy hopes to get back to work sometime this week. Liz and Pete will probably head back to Richmond today. Arlen and Clint are here for the weekend. Diane was here when we got back from Delaware but is back in Brooklyn for now. I am here indefinitely (this is Mom Wall speaking). Keep your note ands messages coming. We read them to him every day and it really helps him. Sunday there are no therapy sessions. We expect that Walter, Wayne and perhaps some of his other co-workers will stop in to visit. I willl try to keep up Liz’s good work and update the message evryday. Think good strong thoughts for Rob, Mandy and all of us.

Yesterday the nurse who settled Rob in for the night managed to hit the “repeat” button on his CD player so he had to listen to the first track of one of his many books on “tape” over and over and over and over… and his arms were tucked in under the blanket… so he couldn’t get to the call button… thank goodness for strong pain medicine.

Today was a long day. All of the tests done by Rob’s new team at Kessler had positive outcomes. In fact the doctor recomfirmed that the injury to Rob’s spinal cord is “incomplete” - meaning that not only are there no severed fibers, but wherever along the length of the cord the injury is, it does NOT involve all of the fibers along a cross section of the cord. We all have to get used to the idea of waiting though because it may take months for the swelling in Rob’s spinal cord to resolve so that an actual injury can be diagnosed.

Tomorrow will be rough because it’ll include Rob’s first session of PT at the rehab facility. We hear they’re drill sergeants here - no snooze buttons, no skipping meals, no days off (except Sundays). So send good, strong, positive energy his way, especially between 10:30 and noon… (east coast time, for all you left-coasters)

Everyone is so happy that Rob is finally here, so close to home, and so much sooner than we first thought. It’ll take some time to settle into a schedule, to get used to the intensive twice-daily PT/OT sessions. Visitors will be great, but probably not until Sunday or during the week. Rob loves hearing your messages though, knowing that you’re all pulling for him, sending your love and hope and prayers. I know he’d love to see your faces, if only in pictures for now (we’ve started a collage on one of the walls in his room), so keep it all coming.

More tomorrow…