Week 6 ~ Routine, Routine, ROUTINE!

We flew into Denver to meet with dad's care team earlier this week. Below is a break down of the report from each area of dad's care team including nursing, PT, OT, ST, psychology as well as a report from his dr and the social worker.

Dr Weintraub
Dr Weintraub is dad's neurologist and primary dr. He spoke to us about dad's injury and what that means for dad. The dr commented that dad's injury damaged the frontal and temporal lobes. An injury in this area affects several things for dad such as his problem solving, judgement, self-monitoring, emotions, attention/memory, speaking as well as hearing and organization of his thoughts. The dr kept stressing that this is a very serious brain injury but with time dad can make a great recovery.
The dr and his team have been great about dad's care from the moment he rolled thru the door. When dad got to Craig he was a mess. McKay Dee was keeping him sedated and heavily medicated, they had placed the wrong sized g tube and he had major infection. In the last 10 days since he arrived at Craig the dr has changed his meds which have lead to a less agitated and much clearer dad :) They have also been able to clear up the nasty infection around his g tube and have gotten him moving towards independence.
The dr stressed how important a 24/7 routine is for dad. It will become a re-occurring theme throughout dad's recovery.

Nursing
The goal is to keep dad on a 24/7 routine. When he is done with his care he should be able to care for his own needs. The nurse also reported that his G tube will be coming out in 30 days.

Physical Therapy
The therapist will work with dad to regain his independence and mobility. She will work on building strength thru daily PT, walking/standing and other activities. At this time the PT feels like he won't have his wheelchair for much longer however he will still need it for long distances.

Speech Therapy
Dad has 5 goals for speech therapy.

1. Swallowing - Dad has been cleared to eat solid foods however he is not allowed to have liquids just yet for fear of aspiration. Unfortunately this means no coke :( The therapist believes he will meet this goal soon.
2. Speech - Dad's voice was affected by the ventilator when he was in the ICU so the therapist has written a goal for dad to Speak Loudly and Slow Down in speech.
3. Verbal Initiation - Anybody who knows dad knows he is not a big talker. With that being said the therapist has written a goal for him to initiate conversation. At this point he has only been answering questions and not starting conversation. Her hope is that he will be better about initiating conversation. 
4. Cognition/Memory - This is a big one and will be a slow and steady process thru continued therapy.
5. Intention - This is a goal for being able to focus for longer times. Again this one will take time.

Occupational Therapy
The overall goal here will be to work on dad's daily living skills. The therapist has 2 working goals:

1. To take of his own needs - Dad is making good progress but he still needs a lot of verbal cues. The goal is to eliminate these so he can take care of himself.
2. Create a day to day routine - This is vital to dad's recovery. It is important to create a routine to be able to gain the skills to complete daily tasks. The therapist will incorporate his interests and will focus on making a plan before he starts a task.

Dr Barry- Psychologist
Dr Barry is dad's psychologist. He will be working with dad to deal with the frustrations of recovery. He will do this by helping dad build strategies to recognize how he is feeling and how to handle it. The dr will also be working on emotions and how to organize dad's thinking for himself.
The dr is also available to family members. This is not an easy process and there will be changes in dad along with differences in how things will go after therapy. Dr Barry will help us thru this process.

Social Worker
The social worker has been working with the family throughout this whole process. She will be helping teach the family on what needs to happen for dad to go home. Some of the goals will be:

1. Dad will need extreme structure. He is learning this thru therapy at the hospital but it is vital that this is continued at home.
2. Dad will need to master his own independent living. 

Right now dad has a discharge date set for October 4th. However the care team is talking about a post acute program that would help with all of his goals. It was explained to us that a post acute hospital would allow dad to gain his independence better that a home program. The post acute setting is more structured and will help him with rehabilitation and get him back to work. If this does happen dad will not be home until Christmas :( This took us by surprise. The dr commented that our family situation is being taken into consideration. We have a unique situation in the fact that mom has her own disability with her brain aneurism. Dad was mom's caregiver now that he has been severely injured at work it changes things dramatically. The dr also mentioned that a post acute program is important to get dad back to where he was physically/cognitively and back to work.
There will be another care meeting next month to discuss dad's progress and confirm what the next step in recovery will be.

Isaac left for Denver yesterday and will be there until Sunday.  I have not gotten an update but I plan on updating the blog when I do. My grandma Rolfe (dad's mom) along with my mom and lil sis will be staying the week in Denver with dad. My brother Mike will then go to Denver on Friday and spend the next weekend visiting with dad. Mike is hoping to have an off campus pass for dad by this time so he can take dad to a football game. Dad loves his football. He is a HUGE Minnesota Vikings fan and commented that he would like to go see the Denver Broncos lose :p

Thank You for your continued support and love. This is not an easy process. It will take time for dad to recover but with the strong support from our family and friends dad can and will make a great recovery <3