Thursday, January 24, 2008

Well, today was down a bit on the scale to about a six, but there was bound to be a day when he was not as up which is normal. He was in quite a bit of pain because his legs were very stiff and that makes him very uncomfortable and grouchy. He did well with speech therapy and occupational therapy. He ate his whole breakfast himself and it actually tasted fine.

He had some limitations with physical therapy because of the stiffness. They hoisted him up out of bed with a special sling lift and put him in the wheelchair. When the gals asked him if it made him nervous he said "Hell no, I've done this from a helicopter hundreds of feet in the air." Naturally, he thought it was the most fun of the entire day. However, it started to rain and he couldn't go outside, so they exercised his legs and called it a day. He will be re-Xrayed late next week for his back and pelvis, and I think they are going to do a bone scan. He may be released from wearing the back brace which would be nice. It is rather uncomfortable and will make therapy easier.

He has a big issue during the night. He worries when the shift is going to change. He knows his head nurse will not be there and he likes and trusts her. He also does not sleep the whole night and gets agitated. They are making an effort to just use the couple of nurses and aides he really likes and relates well to in the evening and overnight shifts. Hopefully, this will help. He doesn't get agitated during the day, and if he starts, we can usually use techniques that help without drugs. The interesting thing is that the doctor and nurses say they have never had a patient with this type of brain injury actually know the time of the shift changes and bring up the subject. No one has told him when this is, he has just figured it out himself, looks at the clock and asks who's coming on duty. Nothing, and I mean nothing, passes his nose without him sniffing it in!

It has been eleven weeks today since the accident. It is extremely hard to imagine. I said from here on our lives have been divided from BTA (before the accident) and ATA (after the accident). Do you suppose I have been around the military too long? I am making up my own acronyms!