A week after the 12-day trip, Jacki, her mother and Jacki's niece headed to Detroit for 2 1/2 weeks at the rehab hospital. Hinderer's program offers intensive, three-hour rehab sessions for spinal-cord patients. Half have undergone experimental surgery overseas and half simply are hoping for greater mobility.
Jacki strained to crawl on her hands and knees and walked - with the help of leg braces and other supports - 75 feet.
"It felt funny," she said. "I had no balance. It was like floating."
This aggressive approach - not offered in most parts of the United States and often not paid for by health insurance - is needed to get the most out of Lima's surgery, Hinderer said.
"The nervous system needs to be stimulated frequently to reorganize and adapt to the changes that are going on inside," he said.
Critics say the surgery/rehab combination is a waste of money. They say it raises false hopes and sidetracks patients who should be getting on with their lives. Jacki has put her college plans on hold to focus on rehab.
Becki Rabon said she's frustrated that this type of rehab isn't offered in Springfield. She recently was relieved to learn that her family's insurance paid for 80 percent of the rehab expenses from Detroit.
Hinderer, however, wants Jacki to return to Detroit for at least three more months of therapy, which would cost at least $10,000. Becki said she hasn't ruled it out. But she said she needs to get back to work at St. John's, and Jacki needs to get into a rehab routine at home.
In recent weeks, Jacki received specially fitted leg braces, costing $7,000 to $10,000, and her family is waiting to see whether its health insurance plan will cover part of the cost.
As part of Jacki's rehab routine, she is "walking every day with the braces," Becki Rabon said.
Jacki's family bought the $5,000 EasyGlide equipment with the remainder of a settlement with the insurance company for the driver of the car Jacki was riding in during the accident.
Neither Jacki nor her mother regrets the pain and effort connected with the surgery. Now they must wait.
"Without the surgery, Jacki probably wouldn't regain any sensation," Becki said.
Becki said she believes that the surgery has helped restore some feeling in Jacki's hips and resulted in what Becki called "funny sensations" in Jacki's legs.
"There's lots of stuff going on," Becki said. "I'm sure she has more than she had before she went to Portugal."
The Detroit Free Press, which has chronicled the journeys of several of Lima's American patients, reported Dec. 4 that most patients "don't see substantial gains until at least six months after surgery."
Jacki, who spends most days working on the EasyGlide, using the braces, watching television and driving around Waverly with her boyfriend, said she hasn't set a deadline.
"I probably will get frustrated, but that's OK. That's to be expected," she said. "When it happens, it will happen and that will be great, but I'm not estimating a certain amount of time."
Jacki Rabon has written about her experience in Portugal, Detroit and Waverly in an online journal that can be reached at caringbridge.org/visit/jaclynrabon.
For more information on the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan's work with spinal-cord injury patients, go to www.centerforscirecovery.org.
