Thursday September 1, 2005

Thursday September 1, 2005 Zack was waiting for me in bed when I arrived and told me to hurry up and get him out of here. He said he had to eat because he had somewhere to go. After breakfast, which he consumes in 10 minutes, we get dressed and go out for a walk. He keeps trying to talk me into taking him to the mall. When I finally talk him into going back to his room he sits down, looks at the clock and says, “In 10 minutes we leave for the future”. He was antsy to go anywhere so I take him to the nurse’s station to get weighed. He has picked up a few pounds and is now at 134.5# (maybe we can get him up to 145 before we go home). When we walk back into the room he tells me, “I want to get enlightened and I use pretty cool language”. Somewhere in there is a profound statement. 9:00 Speech in the room with Kathy and she works on word association and sentence completion. He did much better than yesterday. He got a little frustrated and mixed up his words when he had to match words to pictures. He is still talking about going to the mall. P.T. in the gym and Amy is more like an athletic coach now. She runs him through drills of push-ups and squats. She has him throw a football and wants it released at the right angle. She had him balance on one leg with his eyes closed. She said a guy his age should be able to hold that position for 60 seconds, Zack did it for 15. O.T. with Mary Beth and she reviewed the date and coins with him. He could not get today’s date correct even though she reviewed it with him earlier. He could not remember the names of various coins or their worth but did know which one was worth more. He wrote his full name perfectly but then when she handed him scissors he didn’t know how to hold them and couldn’t cut a piece of paper. It is amazing the tasks that are affected when your brain has been injured. After Mary Beth showed him how to use the scissors he cut the paper in half and cut out a circle and triangle. He completed a puzzle (one that he couldn’t hardly start a few days ago) without any help and no frustration. He put story cards in the correct sequence and did it perfectly the first time. He has come a long way just in the last week. Before lunch he took a nap for about a half hour. When he got up he had a “spell” but fortunately did not fall. At lunch he didn’t finish his entrée and said if we made him eat it he would throw up. Then he said his food was throw up and we shouldn’t make him eat throw up. Even though he usually eats everything and anything I think he might be getting sick of ground up hospital food. A nurse from Infectious Decease Control came to show Zack how to cover his mouth with a Kleenex when he coughed. Then use the foam soap to wash his hands. She put the foam soap in his hands and he ate it. He seemed to like it. Afternoon P.T. in the gym and they talk about his birthday. He sang Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells all the way through but couldn’t remember the name of this place (Frazier). Said it was Sin City. He raced Amy while walking on his hands and feet like a crab and then lying on his stomach on a skateboard. He seemed to enjoy it but then suddenly he started to cry. He told Amy that God had showed him the world. He gave no other explanation but I will talk to him in the morning when he is the most clear-headed. In O.T. Mary Beth had him on the computer playing a ski game. He couldn’t do it last week but today he did it really well. They golfed and he got 7 out of 13 hole-in-ones. He had one of his best days in therapy.
Back in his room he lays down for a nap. When he wakes up we want to see if he can remember any songs and asked him to sing a song from chapel. He sings “Better is one Day” and had the tune perfectly. He said the Lords Prayer and Psalm 23. I am grateful that he has learned scripture as a young child because now it is spontaneous, even if he can’t remember people’s names. He gets out of bed and I ask him if he can remember any other songs, he tells me with a serious look on his face, “I am a confused person”. He might be confused but he is precious still. He keeps going to the bathroom, taking his helmet off, wetting his hands and fixing his hair. It is a sign that he is recovering because he cares about how he looks. After dinner Zack walks me to death. He must say, “we gotta go” a hundred times a day. We walk the 4th floor and go to the lobby several times. Once his friends arrive he is content to sit and visit with them in his room. Avery brings him a mini basketball and hoop. Within no time he is making basket after basket, sitting down, from 8’ with his right hand. He loves showing off. I ask him to sing the chapel song and everyone records it on their cell phones. He has no inhibitions so he will sing and not be embarrassed. We feel so blessed that he has come this far in such a short period of time (it has been 56 days since his accident). It also appears that he may skip the aggressive stage that his therapists worry about and the foul mouth stage that we were concerned with. There was only a few times when he pushed people in anger or said anything really bad. Those instances happened weeks ago so I think we may be through with it. Zack has not fit the typical pattern they see from Traumatic Brain Injury. He gets frustrated, upset, mildly depressed and has his words mixed up but he is also loving, with a great sense of humor and a determination to succeed. He is always ready to go to therapy. I ask you to pray that we not get too anxious but wait on God’s timing for his recovery. Pray that the Lord will use him to reveal His power and that Zack will embrace that opportunity. Complete recovery to glorify God!