Brian's Update for Friday, March 16th, Day 31

Good morning all,
Please forgive me for only posting once yesterday. The pace has picked up significantly now that Brian is so alert and he is undergoing so much therapy. Let me see if I can get you caught up.

Brian has a new trach in place. It is a metal trach and allows Brian to talk using his normal voice. It will also allow the doctors to downsize the trach as needed. (We learned this morning that the doctor's goal is to completely remove the trach by the end of next week!!!) Brian is talking quite a bit but you can tell that it does take energy that he does not have in huge amounts just yet. He still has his sense of humor though. Yesterday Jana asked Brian if he would like to call somebody. He told Jana, "Yes." Jana said, "Who do you want to call Brian?" Brian said, "Ghostbusters!" He caught us all by surprise! We laughed till we cried. Tears never seem very far away from any of us these days. And thats ok.

They got Brian out of his bed and into a wheel chair yesterday. I know. We all think that's great except Brian. You have to keep in mind that, while we have been so close to Brian over the past 4 and a half weeks, watching his remarkable progress, cheering him on, Brian doesn't know any of that. As far as he is concerned he was driving his truck 2 days ago and is still trying to grasp his need for a wheel chair. He is embarassed by it to be quite honest. It took the physical therapists about 30 minutes to get him into the chair. You see, Brian can't put any weight on either arm or his left leg. The only leg they will let him put any weight on is his right leg and it is still a long way from being very useful. So they have to physically pick him up, gently, and set him in the chair. Brian trys hard to help and does more than they want him to.

Once they got him in the chair we asked Brian if he wanted to go for a stroll around the floor. He said, "No." You can tell he is embarassed. But we reminded Brian that this chair is just one of the babysteps that he HAS to take if he wants to recover completely. That changed his mind so off we went. We remind Brian of the word he told the therapist when they asked him how he is feeling. Brian answered, "I am determined!" So that is Brian's word we will keep reminding him of as we need to. He is in such a better place emotionally than he was yesterday! Yesterday the weight of all of this was just a shock to his system. Now he is learning through all the encouargement, that his recovery is pretty much up to him now.

Brian will have two physical therapy sessions each day, two occupational therapy sessions, and two speech therapy sessions. That's on top of the visits by the nurses and doctors and the routine maintenance they have to do. They might as well put him on the clock because they certainly are working him hard.

Brian had a good night last night. A "sitter" comes in to stay with Brian from 11pm till 7am. The sitter pays close attention to Brian so Jana or whomever is in the room with him, can get some sleep. So that is wonderfully helpful. Jana did come home last night to sleep because Kathleen agreed to stay with Brian in the room.

Hopefully by the end of next week Brian will be up to having some visitors. I will keep you up to date on that as we go. Frazier's Rehab does not have a waiting area so you are either in the room with him or out in the hall. They don't want anybody in the room other than Jana when Brian is having any therapy. Distractions are bad for lots of reasons and just prolong his recovery.

We've had lots of very tender moments with Brian. Thursday night, when he was having such a hard time he told me, "I want to go home." We both just sat there and had a good cry. Jana asked him last night, "What is the first thing you want to drink when they say it's ok?" Brian said, "CapriSun." Jana said, "What flavor?" Brian said, "orange." Jana asked him, "What's the first meal you want to eat?" Brian said, "biscuits and gravy." I asked him, "Who's biscuits and gravy?" He said, "mommas." We figured as much. Sounds like a great meal to me too.

I'll post more later.
Bob

Today is off to a very good start. Please continue to pray for the various therapists working with Brian and Jana.