Wednesday September 14, 2005

Wednesday September 14, 2005 I got Zack up at 8:00 and he had a “spell”. He got very dizzy and I held him up for a minute or two until it passed. This was disturbing to me (he just smiled afterwards) because it had been nearly a week since this has happened and I thought the new drug combination that he was on had done the trick. He had breakfast, a shower and got dressed. We took a walk and played the alphabet game, where I give him a letter and he thinks of a word that begins with that letter. 9:00 Speech with Kristi in our room and when she walks in Zack smiles and says, “you’re going to be my therapist”. She reviews the alphabet with him. He writes each letter and then unscrambles letters to make words (3 or 4 letter words). Looks at a picture of an object and has to write the word. Aphasia is still very present at this point. I had slipped out of the room and he looked around and asked, “Where’s my Mom?” She’s at work. “Well let’s go to work then”. All Zack’s therapists love him and discuss how they can best help him. P.T. with Amy and he’s on the treadmill for 15 minutes. Then she stretches his hamstrings and it really hurts. She talked to him to distract him and had him take deep breaths. Amy had tied his shoes before getting on the treadmill so as soon as he was finished he said, “I need to sit down and fix my feet”. He worked for a long time loosening his shoelaces just the way he likes them. Donna takes him to the cafeteria for a snack and he gets a Sprite and pretzels. He told her “Thanks for paying for this”. She asked him what sport he was going to play when he gets strong again. “Jugs”, he says. He rolled his eyes when Donna didn’t know what it meant. There was 10 minutes before O.T. so Donna asked him what he wanted to do. He answered, “Just chill”. O.T. with Mary Beth and he wrote the date, printed his name and wrote it in cursive. Mary Beth was very pleased. She asked him where he lived and he had trouble with the city he got Ky. right away. She asked him where he went to school and he said “Kentucky Kingdom” (he wishes). She gave him a file with a name on it and told him to file it alphabetically. He got it right away. Mary Beth couldn’t believe it. She said it didn’t make sense. Very neat and precise. She gave him one file at a time. He stood back with his arms crossed to assess the situation. Then he started bopping his head while he was putting the files away. She finally handed him the whole stack. He snapped his finger and bopped his head. As he got tired you could see him struggle a little more and slow down. He worked on the computer. Typed his name. She asked him to type what he did today and he said therapy and typed it. I wrote my name. I worked a puzzle. He typed it without looking at his hands. Sometimes he couldn’t find the correct letters, would get a little frustrated and finally said, “I can’t do this. Can I go now”? Ate lunch and took a 20-minute nap. Afternoon speech with Kathy and they worked on telling time. He had the concept but couldn’t always get it right. Kathy still sees a lot of aphasia and believes that sometimes he hears in aphasia (the words don’t come out the right way and he doesn’t always hear them correctly). She has him try to identify objects in pictures. He has a difficult time. Sometimes it appears that to him the object is just a foreign something. Afternoon P.T. with Amy and she hates Zack’s new shoes that are never tied. She doesn’t want him to wear them to therapy or on long walks any more. Zack balances on the rocker board. She stretched him on the mat. He complains, “Ouch, Ouch. We go home when this is finished”. Carey, the recreational therapist, comes by to tell us that Zack will go on some kind of outing next week (I hope it’s bowling). Zack works a puzzle and does very well. Back in the room he takes a nap. Afternoon O.T. with Mary Beth and he gets a new wheel chair that sits him up higher. Rita (Scott’s Mom) told him his Uncle Jay was flying in from Florida to see him and he thought that was really cool. 4:00 Family Meeting and a neurophysiologist discusses how the brain recovers. Zack is tired because all his energy is expelled trying to heal the brain and he could remain tired for the next 10 years. They use to believe that people with brain injuries couldn’t learn things beyond two years after their injury. Now experts know that healing and learning continues for life. The neurons continue to find new ways to connect. Mary Beth brings Zack to the conference room after his therapy and he sits patiently. The meeting continues but after a while he keeps motioning to the door. Finally he is able to get back in bed. He gets up for dinner at 6:00 and then argues with me on whether it is 6:30 in the morning or 6:30 at night. He wants it to be morning so he can go to therapy. He won’t believe me so he goes to ask the nurses. They tell him it is 6:30 at night. He says they are all lying. He wants to walk outside to see if it is dark out. We take a walk outside with Taylor, her Mom and sister. We run into Andrew’s Dad and after he visits for a while he walks us to the elevator. He says goodbye to Zack and asked him if he needed anything. Zack says, “No, be good man”. The elevator door closes and Zack leans back against the wall and says, “I was going to tell him not to have sex with any other girls” and he laughs. We tell him that Andrew’s Mom would appreciate that and I asked him if he stopped himself from saying it. He answered, “Yeah, I stopped myself”. That is really a good sign. There has to be some form of filter there helping him know what is appropriate to say. Usually that filter has to be relearned and is one of the last deficits to conquer. Just another sign of how God is healing him He truly hasn’t fit the mold of traumatic brain injury. Several of his friends come to the room and they all play the alphabet game. He lies in bed and they gather around and they entertain each other. I am so thankful that his friends don’t see this as a waste of time and seem to really enjoy their visits. I left to go home with the kids and Scott stays tonight. On my way home I receive a phone call from another person that had been in Frazier Rehab for a Traumatic Brain Injury 5 years ago. His name is Scott and he had a snow mobile accident on Christmas Eve when he was a senior at Kentucky Country Day. He went to University Hospital, Frazier Rehab and Frazier East. All the same therapies as Zack is having. He went on to get his masters at Duke University and is now at Vanderbilt getting his PHD in Economics. It is so encouraging to talk to people with brain injuries that have such wonderful success stories to tell. It helps me to imagine what Zack might accomplish in his future. God has blessed us so richly already I’m beginning to see unlimited possibilities. Right now I ask for prayers for increased memory and to see this aphasia disappear. Recovery will come in Gods perfect timing.