Day 18 - January 8th

Today has been an eventful day. Today dad has an amazing nurse (Jeff). Jeff was in the military and worked primarily with soldiers who suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). His experience in this particular field has helped my dad tremendously. Any time dad asks to get out of the bed, Jeff is right there to help dad up. Dad is able to walk around the room (with help...he doesn't have good balance). One time he was up and walking with Nathan and Jeff and dad took off as fast as he could. He headed straight for the door...he was making a break for it! Thankfully the door was closed, so all dad could do was pound on the window. Dad is strong and he is quickly gaining his mobility back.

Dad met with his Speech Pathologist today and was able to eat some applesauce. Dad was so excited about being able to eat something. Every few bites he would say, "I love it! I love this!" This morning dad had to be fed by someone else, by 3:00 p.m. dad was feeding himself. Praise the Lord for this progress. Not only could he feed himself, he was starting to make requests. ("I want something warm" "I'm hungry").

Dad worked with a Physical Therapist and an Occupational Therapist this morning for about 20 minutes. As soon as dad's legs flew off the side of the bed, they hit the floor and he stood up. They told dad to sit down, he said, "no, I have to go to the bathroom" and he proceeded to shuffle his feet (with assistance from PT and OT), walked over to the bathroom in the room and took care of business. Dad was so thankful that someone finally let him walk and take care of himself that he gave the PT a big hug. They then moved dad to a big recliner like chair where they strapped him in with a seat belt and let him sit up. He sat in this chair for most of the morning. Because of Jeff's experience in working with people who have a TBI, he was able to teach Nathan some things to do to work with dad to improve dad's fine/gross motor skills. Dad worked very well with Nathan for about 30 minutes. He wore himself out so much that he asked to go to sleep. Dad took about a two hour nap (without medications). :)

Dad is starting to communicate better. This morning dad looked over at Jeff (his nurse) and said, "I have some concerns I want to talk about. I am concerned that I'm never gonna get out of here." Jeff explained that dad will get out of here if he keeps working hard. Dad was very pleased to hear this. Jeff took time to read to dad from his bible. Dad really liked hearing the scripture read to him. He is still confused about a lot of things though (when dad was handed his bible, he tried to eat it; when asked what a pen was he said it was a nurse). You can tell that dad is trying so hard to remember and give the right answer. If he can't he will cover his face with hands and curl up in a ball.

After dad woke up from his nap we had a lot of family stop in for a visit. They were all so excited to see how well dad was doing. Codi, Whitney, Deb, Denise, Grandma, Tom, Amber, Chantel, Nathan...we all got to hang out with dad. Grandma was very excited because dad recognized her and called her, "mom." Dad also gave her a hug and kiss. :) Such a wonderful moment for grandma.

As the evening went on, dad started to fight to get out of bed. He was able to stay out of restraints all day and into the evening. This meant that someone needed to be with him at all times. Around 6:30 p.m. dad was trying to jump out of the bed so Jeff gave dad a shot of Adavan. Within 15 minutes dad was sleeping peacefully on his stomach. He has waken up a few times, but he has been easily redirected back to sleep.

The question still remains....what is next for dad? He is obviously no longer a Critical Care Patient. We met with our case manager several times today. She made a lot of phone calls trying to find the best Acute Rehabilitation Program for dad. Unfortunately, we discovered that due to dad's cardiac needs no one will take him until he has a defibrillator in. When we try to talk to the cardiologist on staff they tell us that dad will not qualify for a defibrillator until after they see more progress with his cognitive functioning. So...How does he get the help he needs if the two sources of help refuse to budge. For the time being, it means that dad will get moved to either the 6th or 7th floor of the hospital and he will get a lot of PT/OT and Speech time, until he meets the benchmarks the cardiologists want to see. Then he will get his defibrillator... and then he will get to go to an Acute Rehabilitation Program... and then finally dad will get to go home. :)