Christopher's Rehab/Recovery 8

Monday, May 10, 2010, 10:30 pm Last night was my turn to sleep at the hospital with Christopher.  He was exhausted because he hadn't slept more than an hour in the past 24 hours.  He put the movie "The Karate Kid" in the DVD player, settled into his 'net bed' (which he hated more than anything at that point but was willing to put up with, knowing that a new bed was coming in the morning), and did his best to stay awake until 7:30 pm when hismeds were scheduled.  He made it until then, waited patiently while his vitals were taken, his meds were consumed and then he was able to drift off to sleep.  It was the most peaceful I have seen him in days.  He was sweet, affectionate and loving.  My Christopher is back... Morning came early but gradually and without any fuss.  Chris woke at 5:00 am, drifted in and out of sleep until 7:00 and then our day started.  The headache that woke him at 5 o'clock was not gone, despite Tylenol, by 8 am, so when Dr. Tran stopped by to see him, she agreed to increase his dosage of Tylenol to 1000mg, 4x/day.  He has not had headaches until now.  During a conversation with Dr. Chu, who is a Resident, she shared with me several possible explanations: 1) The headaches are due his lack of appetite leading to lack of food and water.  He has not had much of an appetite since waking up from his coma, and it is possible that during his fall from the tree, the 'jolt' that his brain took affected the 'appetite center', which is more towards the middle.  While that area was not bruised or bleeding, the entire brain did sustain a major 'jolt' during the impact of the fall, which could have stretched or even interrupted neurons.  If this is the case, it will gradually heal. 2) Many patients simply lose their appetite during hospitalization due to 'the blues'. Hospitals are not fun places to be... 3) The headache has been there since the beginning due to the multiple fractures to the right back of his skull and the impact of the fall, but have not manifested themselves as pain due to the narcotics and withdrawal meds he was on but has now been weaned off of completely.   By 11:15, his headache had spread to his neck, so Dr. Chu added an order for Motrin to be alternated with Tylenol in 6-hour increments.  He had to miss his morning OT session because of it.  The headaches will be watched, and are a nuisance, but are not of much concern unless they become debilitating. Christopher has a busy schedule of therapy every day.  He goes to Speech, Physical and Occupational an average of twice a day.  Many of you are curious about the various therapies, so here you go.  Think of it this way: Speech Therapy (ST) is cognitive (the brain).  They work with him on words, thoughts, and at this point, what they call "higher-level reasoning."  When he came back from his afternoon session, he was a bit amused by what had been 'worked on'.  They were telling us that they had had him count out change and such.  He kind of rolled his eyes as if to say, "Like I don't know how to do that!"  We asked him what the square root of 9 was and he quickly said, "3."  Then we said, "How about 64?"  He said, "8."  "121?"...."11~"  "169?"  "13!"  We have decided that taking him to see a private Cognitive Psychologist who will challenge him on his level will likely be our next step.  Physical therapy (PT) works from the waist down (walking, balance, leg strength, etc.).  This doesn't seem to be an issue for him, as he is very steady and even walked into the room pushing his therapist in his wheelchair!   Occupational Therapy (OT) focuses from the waist up (brushing teeth, eating, arm strength, etc.)  Again, there will likely not be much need for this.   He started brushing his teeth for me the day we entered Rehab and I handed him a toothbrush and toothpaste, he has been feeding himself from the 2nd day out of his coma and he practically broke our fingers during his struggle with withdrawal from the narcotics.  All of these skills seem to have come back to him fully. I am certainly not saying that the value of these various therapies is not there...Christopher's recovery is just on an upward trajectory that is simply blowing everyone's minds and so he is not following the typical path of a patient who is only on their 19th day of recovery from a serious traumatic brain injury!  I have a feeling that the bet that Paul made with Dr. Newman on day five of his stay in the ICU is going Paul's way.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my e-mail (it is in my blog), but here's how it went: During our meeting on Sunday, April 25th when Dr. Newman explained the extent of Christopher's brain injury and expected path of recovery, Paul challenged her to a bet when she told us about the months of 'inpatient' Rehabilitation we should expect.  He bet her one dollar that Chris would be here for a month or less rather than several months that she predicted.  She told us that she hopes she is wrong, and here's the kicker... the loser has to write 'I was wrong' on that dollar.  They shook on it... we all believe that we are closer and closer to the resolution of that bet.  He has now completed day 8 of his Rehabilitation... This afternoon after lunch, Christopher and I went up the the PICU to say hi to some of his nurses.  It was so much fun for them to see him like he is today...smiling, chatting, laughing and being, well, Christopher.  They were all amazed at his progress and I know it did him a lot of good to hear their stories of his days in a coma in the PICU!  The one thing that he is really looking forward to is thanking Dr. Sun personally for saving his life.  While he has no memory of the past 19 days, he is beginning to understand the severity of his accident and the miracle of his recovery! Because Christopher has stabilized so much and is no longer as sensitive to stimuli, his doctors have told us that he can begin to see limited visitors.  They want us to monitor them so that the amount of stimulation is kept to a minimum, so if you are interested in coming to see him, please contact us first and we'll work out a day and time for that to happen.  He is quite busy during the day with his various therapy's, so late afternoon and evening will likely be the best time for visits.  Looking forward to a great night's sleep in his 'regular bed' and another wonderful day tomorrow!  Things are definitely looking up! Love, Laura