Monday, November 26,2007

This morning David went to the gym with OT and PT, and he had his trache plugged so he was able to talk. We reminded him of that, because it's got to be a little confusing having his trache plugged one hour and not the next. When we told him to let us know if he was in pain or needed anything, he said "I want my mom" a couple times before we heard him enough to understand. Mom was in the room, but watching him from behind. Of course she quickly went to him, I'm sure just elated!! He stood for 15 min. with support behind his knees so they wouldn't buckle. Mom held a ball in different places for David to grab and throw back to her, trying to get his elbows off the table in front of him and aslo to get him looking more to his left. He had a harder time when the ball was on his left side, and would sort of feel his way up mom's hand in order to find it. We're not sure how well he's seeing out of that eye, or if it was just out of his scope of vision right now. Either way, he found the ball each time and continued to stand. An Occupational Therapist came in to assist. While stretching David's left arm, wrist, David said, "My arm is broken." They explained that it wasn't and they were going to help him be able to use it. After a bit of rest, they took him to the parallel bars and helped him walk the 6 feet down and back. He still needed help moving his left leg, the PT said David did about 25% of the work on that side. David was really tired after the session and went to bed. It was a great morning!!

This afternoon we had "the meeting," where we discussed where David is in his recovery and addressed our concerns with the whole team of specialists working with him. The doctors and therapists are so good at updating us daily, that there were no surprises. They told us about their plan to get David to eat three or four bigger "meals" through his feeding tube rather that the constant feeding that he's been getting. They need to make sure that he can handle the meals and digest them before they take out his trache. There's a balloon ring in the trache that actually protects his lungs in case he were to vomit and then aspirate (food going into the lungs, leading to pneumonia). The bummer is that they will not be able to cap the trache much for the next couple weeks and therefore he won't be able to talk much. It is another step in the process for David to get to eat real food though, so we'll be patient.

After the meeting we checked on David again and he was agitated a bit while PT was working with him again. I asked David if he had to use the bathroom, and he gave me the bathroom signal (crossing 2 fingers), so I left the room and he used the urinal (in bed). Sorry for the details, I'm sure he'd be embarrassed with me posting his bathroom info, but it's so exciting that he's gaining control of that stuff, able to communicate it, and also that he's aware the alternatives and chooses the urinal. He kicked mom out yesterday- actually he said "I want my mom to leave"- when he had to go, and again, that shows that David is becoming more aware and wanting to be more discrete. He fell asleep after he used the bathroom, so we left.

David was asleep each time we tried to visit this afternoon and evening, and so we let him, even though we're sooo anxious to be with him! He did tell Christa that he had to use the RR tonight, but again fell asleep right after that. Mom stayed in the room while David slept and stretched out his left arm, wrist and fingers. He extended his arm about 135 degrees and let her leave it that way for the hour she was with him.

We're excited for tomorrow, and have so much hope in David's recovery! Thanks for all your prayers and support! God is so good!!

Laura