Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

I had been away from Patty and David for 10 days, as I worked back in Riverside, so I was really excited about seeing David this morning. Yesterday afternoon he was sort of quiet, so I wanted to see him rested. Well, he almost slept through speech therapy, where he has been practicing 'eating'. After three bites of apple sauce he just fell asleep. Bruce said he would try again around lunch time.

PT rolled in and got David into a wheel chair and rolling toward the gym, but not before he called the physical therapist, Se, some really bad things. She is so nice, friendly, and professional, and we were horrified, but she took it in stride, and asked David if he could let her know if something was bothering him and she would try her best to help him. So after this 'incident' she had David 'walk' in a walker about 30 feet down a hall. She helped him move his left foot, and he sort of did the rest. It took a long time!

OT had David matching picture cards, and lining them up in sequence. He aced the first one quickly, but had some trouble with the next few. They then moved on to cards, where the cards are face down and you have to pick two of a kind from your memory. Well, even David will admit that his memory is not so good, and he did not do well at all. We spent some time trying to get him to remember some of his passwords, e-mail, Vonage, MySpace, but can't quite get them right. I think he gets that from me.

Bruce, the speech therapist, came back about lunch time and had me feed David pudding, while I ate applesauce. Kind of like a family sitting around eating lunch together. It went well and David had a good appetite, finishing his pudding and then my apple sauce. Bruce takes notes the whole time on how long it took him to swallow, whether he swallowed a second or third time, whether he was aware of and wiped food from his lips, etc. We asked Bruce if David could have an 'In N Out' shake for his birthday lunch on Friday and he said maybe. Bruce commented that David's language is so good. I was impressed several times today by the questions and comment that David made. He is expressing a very high level of thought sometimes.

I introduced David to a guy (Chris) that I had met earlier, who had similar symptoms as David. He was on leave from the army, and riding a quad when he had an accident. He had traumatic brain injury, and left side neglect like David. He seems normal, though he is currently walking with a cane. David wanted to talk to him, and it was a very cool conversation. Chris told him to be patient, that David would be walking again also. David asked if Chris had problems with his memory, and he said yes, that he is still working on that, but it is getting better. They talked a bit longer, then David said that he would like to talk to Chris again. I think that it might help a lot if David can talk to more guys who are a little farther along in their recovery.

Then a different therapist asked David if he wanted to help them test a new 'walker', and he said yes. So we walked down the hall again, this time to the end (maybe 60 yards) with a new fancy walker that supports the patients weight with a harness type of thingy. He did well, and it is as much of a workout for the therapists as David, as they are down low moving his left leg the whole way.

Patty talked to the doctor about how drugged and sleepy he seems, and they will be decreasing the Trazadone that he gets at night by a third.

As always, we rely on your prayers, and truly appreciate your comments and support.

Thanks, Steve