Week 5 ~ Emily's visit

Update from my sister who is with my dad this week. Tomorrow Mike and I fly into Denver for dad's meeting with his care team.

Day 34 ~ August 1st

Dad had a great day today. He likes his new bed and slept peacefully through the night. He was able to eat his first real food since the accident. The speech therapist brought in fried chicken and mashed potatoes. He was so excited he kept trying to tear into that poor chicken like a starved animal. The ST kept having to remind him to go slow and only take small bites. They would ask him to talk in between bites which he found annoying. He just wanted to eat that chicken. He said it was very good and tomorrow he wants Olive Garden. The ST passed him for soft foods and thicken liquids for meals and expects by the end of the week he will be able to eat even more. Mom and I helped him fill out his menu request for the rest of the weeks. He will be eating lots of oatmeal and eggs for breakfast and ground meat with gravy for lunch and dinner. This is food he can eat unsupervised by the ST. Non-thickened liquids like regular water and juice are the hardest to swallow and will be some of the last foods he will be cleared for.

Dad had an eye exam today and did really well. Great vision far away but he needs stronger reading glasses. Dad out walked mom in PT today :) He walked out of the hall, over the bridge, around the halls of the other wing of the hospital and back. He was so exhausted by the time he made it back that they had to finish PT 20minutes early.

We signed dad up for activities while he is here at Craig. He will be able to go to movie night in the entertainment room, Root beer floats in the rec room and a fishing activity later in the month.

Day 35 ~ August 2nd

Dad's first therapy of the day was speech where he did amazing! He scored a 29 vs 20 on his orientation quiz. ST told me that anything over 25 is considered amazing. The only question he missed was what city he was in. He knew he was in Colorado but couldn't remember the city. He then was asked to play solitaire on the computer to test his ability to attend to task. The first session he was given quiet and left alone to play. The second game, mom and I were talking to him and asking him questions to try and get him to do minimal multitasking. He struggled with that. He started complaining about his eyes after awhile. He has also been complaining about his ears. He will be seeing audiologist some time early next week. When the ST asked him about his eyes and ears he showed good insight when he told us "I feel like my brain is only half connected... its hard for me to concentrate on one thing." Which shows how he can easily become overstimulated and has a hard time multitasking. Over all the ST says he is progressing much faster then they expected. Concentration is improving fast. Speech and memory are also improving. The ST gave him three rules to speaking she calls them SOS. 1. SLOW DOWN 2. OPEN MOUTH 3. SPEAK UP (talk louder). We still have a ways to go but we are moving at a nice steady pace. That being said tomorrow he may not do as well as today. It is not uncommon for them to go up and down slightly day to day.

Dad started PT with a long walk. He walked across the bridge to the other side and went down the elevator to take his first walk outside. He crossed the street where they let him rest for a few minutes. Then he took his first crack at the stairs first down then up. Then he walked back to his room. He did so well we didn't even bring his wheelchair with him. After a ten minute rest he was able to keep going. The PT repeated some balance testing with him. Tuesday they did the same tests and he did really bad during the balance tests. Today was the complete opposite. He did AMAZING! He started to sway a little during the last little bit but was able to pull himself together and finish really strong.

This was probably the most fun therapy for dad. The OT filling in asked dad what he did for a living and decided that they could do some work more up his ally. First they had him re-creating pictures with pipes. Then following simple directions to build completed circuits that turned things on like lights, fans and speakers. He loved that. Finally they gave him some tools and a metal structure and his only task was to take it apart. They got him to do it with minimal distraction. The OT and mom were telling him jokes to offer some outside distraction ;) and he had a good time with it.

By the time this was all done he was pooped but he was scheduled for his end of week appointment with the Nero psychologist. He was asked at the start what he thought of the hospital so far and he said he liked it but if he could change one thing it would be "that you would bring more of his family in" He is remembering so much more about his past. Still a little confused about his work he knows he works for Loft House but he still thinks he works for Salt Creek at the same time. The things he remembers the clearest has to do with Mom or his kids and grand kids. He is remembering more and more what is happening. Recalling most of what happened today yesterday and earlier today in his own words (aka no one is giving him prompts to help) Also able to express more of the way he is feeling. Today he told the psychologist that he feels like "its silly the more he does the more people want to see him do" He joked he would be better off acting like he couldn't do much.

He does get headaches towards the end of the day that make it hurt when he tries to think to hard. (for this reason we left early today and let his brain have a rest) He also starts to get less coherent and "with it" as he tires out both mentally and physically.