Wednesday September 7, 2005

Wednesday September 7, 2005 Zack got up early today, ate breakfast and was back in bed when I arrived. I had to drag him out of bed to get ready for speech therapy. I got him his notebook and told him to write something. He wrote I’m missing thou sometimes (he had to read it to me because I couldn’t understand hi spelling). 9:00 Crissy from speech fills in for Kathy. She had him name pictures of objects and he needed lots of help this morning but he could easily tell her how many items were in each picture (the math is still there). Zack is not frustrated or upset at all, even though he gets stuck on the letter “w” and repeats it many times. He was very proud of himself because he separated a deck of cards very quickly. P.T. with Amy at 9:30 Zack was on the treadmill for 11 minutes and finally asked Amy “Can you get me off here”. He did 20 sit-ups (half on a tilt) and 20 push-ups. He did well although it was hard for him. O.T. with Laurie and she put him on the light board. She made it more challenging by setting the light to go off on it’s own if he didn’t push it quickly enough. He did excellent (only missed 2). He got on the computer on a program that had him driving a car and skiing. He couldn’t do this last week (attention to detail, hand/eye coordination) but today he scored 58%. Back in the room for lunch, Jennifer (today’s nurse) brought him his meds (still a cupful of pills). Dr. Mook started him on a new medication to help with his blood pressure issues, called Midodrine. He will wean him off the Florinef. I need to find out more about how this drug is different and why they want to switch. His cousin Rick dropped after lunch and told Zack he was looking much better (Rick hadn’t seen him for awhile). Zack told him, “I probably look better but I don’t feel better”. He is tired and he wants to get out of this place. Afternoon speech he was shown 2 objects (fork, ball, pen…) and had to identify the one she asked for. He got less than half right. He completed sentences using appropriate words from the same family but maybe not exactly the right word. He counted to 10 in Spanish and then English. Said the days of the weeks and months of the year with a starting hint. Afternoon P.T. in the gym with Amy and they hit a balloon back and forth. She had him stand on the high end of a wedge and bend over to pick up small objects off the floor. This stretches the leg muscles and is very painful. She works on stretching his calves and hamstrings. He doesn’t like it but does what she needs him to do. 4:00 O.T. with Mary Beth but she is not around. They announce over the loud speaker that Mr. Hornback is here and Zack hears it. He says, “My name is on the screen so let’s go”. All the right concepts are there he just has trouble finding the right words to express himself. She works with him on strengthening his hand muscles. Mary Beth wants us doing this in his room several times a day. She has him open and close different size clothes pins with each finger on his right hand. Some fingers are a little shaky. They had been talking about his birthday being tomorrow and asked him what he wanted. He said “a tub full of engines”. I guess those are to go in the fleet of cars he hopes to own one day. He goes back to his room and takes a nap before dinner. At 4:30 Rita and I head to the conference room for the Brain Injury Survivor Family Meeting with Dr. Laura Hays from Neurophysiology. We meet Darrell; a previous patient who was cutting down trees when one struck him in the head and crushed his scull. He was 48 years old and this happened two years ago. He had his left scull removed, had been in a coma for 31 days and was a Rancho Level 3 when he arrived at Frazier. He remembers his therapist and a lot of the day-to-day monotony of therapy. He doesn’t remember the week leading up to the accident. His scull was replaced with a custom acrylic one (just as we expect Zack’s will have to be). If you walked in the room you would not have known who had the brain injury. Darrell had it more together than many men I know with no brain injury. He and his wife explained the challenges they faced. He has started back to work as a Pharmacist and has retained the knowledge he had prior to the accident, but it is harder for him to learn new things. His wife said his personality has changed. Before he was very black and white and not a lot of personality. Now he talks to everyone and is very personable. We noticed that he doesn’t recognize his deficits. He has started to go out and cut trees down again which is dangerous. They explained that you find out who your real friends are when after 2 years you see who is still around. He seems well adjusted to the changes in his life. It was interesting talking with another person recovering from a brain injury. There will be similarities with Zack’s recovery but they reminded us that all brain injuries are different. Zack has done so well. I went back and read the posting from 1 month ago and Zack wasn’t walking or talking. Speech therapy consisted of him eating ice and getting him to answer questions by nodding. He couldn’t hold his head up and had to wear a neck brace. It does me good to go back and read about his progress. It makes where he is at now all the more miraculous. He may not be going to school or out with his friends but he is walking, talking (even if some of the words don’t fit) and smiling! God has blessed us beyond all that we could hope or imagine. We have our precious son and he is getting better every day. God has a plan for us and it will be perfect. Please pray that Zack’s recovery will reach beyond these walls to teenagers everywhere, teaching them that seemingly innocent choices can change their lives forever. Pray that his recovery will amaze strangers and friends alike so that they will know the power of our awesome God!