We started the day off with a plan. Elle and Lily would stay by Anthony’s bed side while Kim, Ryan and I would visit some rehabilitation facilities. Our original plan was to visit Kentfield Rehabilitation & Specialty Hospital and another one in San Jose. I stayed back in our nearby refuge the Apartment H.O.M.E. which is walking distance to Stanford Hospital to set up appointments and get directions to the different facilities. When I got to Anthony’s bedside we were telling the nurse what we intended to do and she suggested visiting Kentfield first because traffic would increase as the day went on so the earlier the better. We got started around 12 although we intended to start earlier.

I had called Kentfield earlier and talked to admissions. Caitlin, pictured here, was in charge of admissions and was not only really nice but actually knew about Anthony’s case. I asked her if we could tour Kentfield Rehabilitation and meet one of the doctors. She asked the approximate time we would be there and I said we would call her when we left Palo Alto.

I called Caitlin about noon and told her we were leaving. It as was a beautiful day and the drive was a great diversion. Kentfield is about 20 miles north of San Francisco, not far past the Golden Gate Bridge. On the way to Kentfield, Ryan, Kim and I commented about the mountains and how beautiful the bay was as we drove through San Francisco. When Anthony was 17, he and I took a week long father and son trip to California. We traveled along the California from Los Angeles to San Francisco and above. Anthony and I had a terrific time. The first night we were in California was a Saturday and we woke up in Mountain View. That morning we used Google to find the different locations for Yahoo, EBay, Google and Cisco. We then traveled to each one of the offices and took pictures of each of us in front of the signs. Kind of goofy I know but we had fun and when you look at some of the photos you can see how much fun we were having. On our trip we visited the Hearst Castle, looked at the Graffiti at Venice Beach, stayed in San Francisco, visited Haight-Ashbury and crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge several times. Actually, we visited Haight-Ashbury twice. When I asked Anthony what he thought of Haight-Ashbury, I remember him saying, “it’s a bunch of old hippies, dad”.

As Kim, Ryan and I finally crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, we started looking for Kentfield Rehabilitation & Specialty Hospital which is located in Marin County. We need to find the best program for Anthony, one that helps as much as possible; it wasn’t long before we found out that Kentfield Rehabilitation is a wonderful facility. There is a great case manager at Kentfield, Deborah, who will work with Stanford Hospital regarding his records, and contact our insurance company and Anthony’s doctors and nurses. She is our point person. We also had a chance to meet Doctor Doherty, who is the director of the brain injury program. Ryan, Kim and I thought she was great. She was compassionate and she has almost 30 years of experience with brain injuries and she was born in Beaufort South Carolina. It truly is a small world. We spent about an hour and half talking to staff and even had a chance to speak to one of the patient’s father. We left there feeling very good about the next step necessary for a Healthy Recovery for Anthony. While we were there, we also located a possible place for Kim and I and other family members to stay while Anthony improves enough for him to go to another rehabilitation center that is south of Palo Alto.

We left Kentfield about 3:30 and so we caught some of the traffic coming back to Stanford Hospital. All the time we were up at Kentfield, Elle was keeping us informed about Anthony’s condition. He was running a fever most of the day and his heart rate was higher than it should have been. By the time we got back it was after 5. We briefed Elle and Lily about Kentfield and gave them some of the brochures. We also gave Elle Caitlin’s number so she could call her.

Later that night we got a call from one of the doctors regarding Anthony’s consistent fever. They needed our consent to do a Spinal Tab. They want to take fluid out of the bottom of his spine to make sure he does not have an infection. We are still waiting for the results although they are giving Anthony some antibiotics.