Thursday, March 29, 2012
Moving again...
Onwards and upwards! Today Andrew moved to GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre. The steady stream of rehab physicians and therapists upon our arrival means that Andrew is going to be a very busy guy fine tuning his recovery. The next week and a half will allow all of the team involved in Andrew to decide the best treatment plan and his expected length of stay. The best news received was his "Weekend Pass" to home for the Easter weekend. He isn't the only one excited with the thoughts of sleeping in his/her own bed!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Andrew Land
Bye bye walker & wheelchair, hello hard floors and running shoes. Andrew continues to amaze us on a daily basis. He is now motoring around the hospital and is itching to get on with his rehab in a more aggressive manner. He has had visitors this past week which was a great distraction. Life is pretty much centered around friends, food and exercise. He is sporting the new Nike Fuel band and so every exercise/action counts in his daily goal total. He could be the next "Just Do It" Nike model at this rate.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Not Counting the Days
March 19, 2012
Greetings from the Queen. Steve did a fabulous job of blogging through the tough times and so now I can just give you the essentials as we move down the path to recovery. It had been a busy week with the removal of more medical attachments and final assessments. Andrew has begun to Skype friends and check email. If you want to get in touch with him, you can send him a message and he will get back to you. As you can imagine after a head injury, it doesn't take much to tire him out. It is kind of like our bellies in that if we eat a big meal the next thing that we do is rest and sleep so that we can digest; the brain works like that, too. In other words, after a big 'information meal' the brain needs time to digest the information and so it is time for a nap...lots of those daily. This is typical for this kind of injury even though Andrew continues to amaze us daily So if you Skype Andrew, turn off the video of your face in order to keep the brain meal small and then Andrew won't need such a big nap later. So far we are keeping conversations short but anything beats the heck out of having to talk to your mother all day. As for Facebook, that is the fast food of brain information and that will happen once the brain is 'Olympic-rower- fit' and able to afford the occasional cheeseburger and fries.
Andrew realizes there is still much work ahead but he is up to the challenge every day. You know he is getting tired of all things medical when he laments the inability to do a 6k erg (rowing speak for hard horrible hard).
Andrew's big brother, Spencer, came by for a visit this weekend and that was a real treat. He will have to wait on Fraser to finish exams for his visit and until then it will be Skype. What a world of difference the technologies have made to bring family together right from Skype to blogging.
On a final note, Steve is being well-fed by friends and neighbours who know that feeding himself his own cooking might be dangerous. Thank you ever so much for that kindness. Steve says that life is taking on its order again and the freezer is getting full...so he will survive from now on. Thanks again!!!!
Greetings from the Queen. Steve did a fabulous job of blogging through the tough times and so now I can just give you the essentials as we move down the path to recovery. It had been a busy week with the removal of more medical attachments and final assessments. Andrew has begun to Skype friends and check email. If you want to get in touch with him, you can send him a message and he will get back to you. As you can imagine after a head injury, it doesn't take much to tire him out. It is kind of like our bellies in that if we eat a big meal the next thing that we do is rest and sleep so that we can digest; the brain works like that, too. In other words, after a big 'information meal' the brain needs time to digest the information and so it is time for a nap...lots of those daily. This is typical for this kind of injury even though Andrew continues to amaze us daily So if you Skype Andrew, turn off the video of your face in order to keep the brain meal small and then Andrew won't need such a big nap later. So far we are keeping conversations short but anything beats the heck out of having to talk to your mother all day. As for Facebook, that is the fast food of brain information and that will happen once the brain is 'Olympic-rower- fit' and able to afford the occasional cheeseburger and fries.
Andrew realizes there is still much work ahead but he is up to the challenge every day. You know he is getting tired of all things medical when he laments the inability to do a 6k erg (rowing speak for hard horrible hard).
Andrew's big brother, Spencer, came by for a visit this weekend and that was a real treat. He will have to wait on Fraser to finish exams for his visit and until then it will be Skype. What a world of difference the technologies have made to bring family together right from Skype to blogging.
On a final note, Steve is being well-fed by friends and neighbours who know that feeding himself his own cooking might be dangerous. Thank you ever so much for that kindness. Steve says that life is taking on its order again and the freezer is getting full...so he will survive from now on. Thanks again!!!!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Day 19
March 15, 2012
Marcie is now blogspot Queen after this post. Her posts will be short and less frequent (weekly), she tells me.
Andrew is a busy guy. He is getting lots of support in his new surroundings. He is making progress every day. When you are 18 and you have experienced life on basic hospital food, it is a big day when you are told that you can eat a 'general diet'...well, it wasn't fondue and not even bacon, but the first thing was a McDonald's milkshake and french fries. He is eating everything in sight after losing some of that rowing muscle. Mobility is improving and we have gone from laying in a hospital bed to becoming ever more mobile, being back on Facebook (if only as an observer...no replies just yet but that will come), a phone call or two to some of his friends, visits from grandparents, aunts and cousins, and of course lots of hospital work to get him going. He has come a long way in two and a half weeks and we are amazed and blessed. If you are 18 years old, one could argue that your life is pretty good when it involves a few of your friends, McDonald's, and Facebook. Andrew will start to take a few phone calls with approval from Marcie (and she would like to be called the "Great Wall of China"), because there has to be tremendous order in Andrew's life as he recovers and she will control visits from family and friends, phone calls and other outside interactions; all key to keeping Andrew on the path to a great recovery.
Steve has returned to work and can't wait for the phone calls to Andrew in the morning and evening as Andrew recovers his energy and tells him about the day's events. Friends have kept Steve well-fed and so thanks for that. His next project will be to help create a way for desperate families to navigate the Vancouver International Airport in times of severe emotional distress when trying to reach loved-ones in far away places when a missed plane connection may mean enduring the possibility of loss of the chance to see a critically ill or dying family member...it was by a stroke of luck that we made it to see Andrew quickly on the horrible day two and a half weeks ago; thanks again go out to two people who broke rules to help after pleading our cases. There is no such fast track process in our international airport to move a desperate family through the ticketting, screening and customs process...that is something that Steve is going to work hard to change so that no family ever has to go through the dreaded uncertainty of not spending precious moments with a loved family member in times like this. Stay tuned.
Marcie is now blogspot Queen after this post. Her posts will be short and less frequent (weekly), she tells me.
Andrew is a busy guy. He is getting lots of support in his new surroundings. He is making progress every day. When you are 18 and you have experienced life on basic hospital food, it is a big day when you are told that you can eat a 'general diet'...well, it wasn't fondue and not even bacon, but the first thing was a McDonald's milkshake and french fries. He is eating everything in sight after losing some of that rowing muscle. Mobility is improving and we have gone from laying in a hospital bed to becoming ever more mobile, being back on Facebook (if only as an observer...no replies just yet but that will come), a phone call or two to some of his friends, visits from grandparents, aunts and cousins, and of course lots of hospital work to get him going. He has come a long way in two and a half weeks and we are amazed and blessed. If you are 18 years old, one could argue that your life is pretty good when it involves a few of your friends, McDonald's, and Facebook. Andrew will start to take a few phone calls with approval from Marcie (and she would like to be called the "Great Wall of China"), because there has to be tremendous order in Andrew's life as he recovers and she will control visits from family and friends, phone calls and other outside interactions; all key to keeping Andrew on the path to a great recovery.
Steve has returned to work and can't wait for the phone calls to Andrew in the morning and evening as Andrew recovers his energy and tells him about the day's events. Friends have kept Steve well-fed and so thanks for that. His next project will be to help create a way for desperate families to navigate the Vancouver International Airport in times of severe emotional distress when trying to reach loved-ones in far away places when a missed plane connection may mean enduring the possibility of loss of the chance to see a critically ill or dying family member...it was by a stroke of luck that we made it to see Andrew quickly on the horrible day two and a half weeks ago; thanks again go out to two people who broke rules to help after pleading our cases. There is no such fast track process in our international airport to move a desperate family through the ticketting, screening and customs process...that is something that Steve is going to work hard to change so that no family ever has to go through the dreaded uncertainty of not spending precious moments with a loved family member in times like this. Stay tuned.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Day 14
Today was Andrew's trip home. He saw pretty much all of his teammates from Cal crew. Organizing repatriation was extremely complex and now it will be easier. Thanks for everyone who stepped in with everything from well-wishes to transportation and then to the favour of the admitting physician and of course to Mike K for that connection.
Andrew is moving through the expected stages of brain recovery and things have gone from terrible in the first few hours to very promising 14 fast days later.
Finally, over the next weeks family and friends will want to visit. Andrew's life will require structure. Marcie will create part of that structure and will let family and friends know when it will be appropriate to visit. Andrew's energy will be all about strengthening his brain and we will be all about the energy to create that environment. Marcie may become a little protective regarding visitors but understand there will be time for visitors as time goes on.
Thanks everyone. Now Marcie gets to be the blogger starting monday
Andrew is moving through the expected stages of brain recovery and things have gone from terrible in the first few hours to very promising 14 fast days later.
Finally, over the next weeks family and friends will want to visit. Andrew's life will require structure. Marcie will create part of that structure and will let family and friends know when it will be appropriate to visit. Andrew's energy will be all about strengthening his brain and we will be all about the energy to create that environment. Marcie may become a little protective regarding visitors but understand there will be time for visitors as time goes on.
Thanks everyone. Now Marcie gets to be the blogger starting monday
Friday, March 9, 2012
Day 13
Andrew had a pretty good day. He loves all the meals judging by his ability to Hoover up every last bit. He will never forget Romaine,his CNA who concocted some fancy mishmash out of whatever she could find. Debra put him through more PT and a few more successes. We are getting closer to repatriation home. That is turning into a pretty good challenge between the sending doc and "where in the world is 'Dr. Waldo' in British Columbia". The best advice if you ever have to do this is have three phones at your disposal, a computer and lots of friends who are health care providers and unlimited patience! But Marcie said no rants.
All said, progress is in a forward direction. Thanks for all of the people who stepped up on our behalf taking time from their professional lives to call in favours for Andrew today. We are truly grateful.
All said, progress is in a forward direction. Thanks for all of the people who stepped up on our behalf taking time from their professional lives to call in favours for Andrew today. We are truly grateful.
Day 12
11:00pm
Another busy day. Debra and Jason from PT came and put Andrew through the motions and for the first time Andrew was in a real wheelchair...then Debra gave some really helpful brain rehab information to mum and dad so that we can be better caregivers and work with the kind of expected stages of recovery that we will see. It is going to be hard on young Andrew and maybe even harder on mum and dad at times. Andrew devoured his food like a vacuum cleaner. More medical tests to get him one step closer to the door. More great people involved in Andrew's care...Juma the nursing aide gets special mention for her hard work and care, Dr. Moure's two physician assistants for going the extra mile, and a friendly security 'guard' who we met on the first day and many of the following days. She always had great empathy and treats everyone well.
Finally, a couple of the Cal crew came by (Fred and George) and offered a little familiarity to Andrew. Fred and George are holding team blankets that Andrew has...a Cal blanket and a Wisco blanket . The competition is on now to see which team has the best blanket. They brought Andrew's shaver so he looks a little more respectable but a haircut to even out the long and short bits of hair after a bad haircut in the emergency room is in order tomorrow, we think. Friends from Courtenay, B.C. were coming for a conference and brought some extra clothes for Marcie. They also dropped off a great book to get mum and dad started on the process of becoming knowledgeable regarding brain rehabilitation...thanks Paul and Christine. I bet we will have a few of these books before the next year or more is over. Insurance wars are beginning to rear their ugly heads but I had a very positive experience today with Blue Cross folks who really went the extra distance to help us through this complicated process. It is likely that we will send Andrew home by medical jet when the time comes. So, if your Lear Jet is gathering rust and needs a good spin up to Vancouver, let us know; the skiing is good this time of year. Hopefully a little more progress tomorrow and a little closer to getting Andrew back home.
Another busy day. Debra and Jason from PT came and put Andrew through the motions and for the first time Andrew was in a real wheelchair...then Debra gave some really helpful brain rehab information to mum and dad so that we can be better caregivers and work with the kind of expected stages of recovery that we will see. It is going to be hard on young Andrew and maybe even harder on mum and dad at times. Andrew devoured his food like a vacuum cleaner. More medical tests to get him one step closer to the door. More great people involved in Andrew's care...Juma the nursing aide gets special mention for her hard work and care, Dr. Moure's two physician assistants for going the extra mile, and a friendly security 'guard' who we met on the first day and many of the following days. She always had great empathy and treats everyone well.
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| George on the left and Fred on the right...Fred drew the short straw. |
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Day 11
8:00pm
Andrew had a very busy day...very. The action was endless and now he is exhausted...we are exhausted by all of the action. Debra and Jason came from physio and gave him a good workout. He got to go outside and enjoy a little of the beautiful California sunshine. A little chest physio, some more physical therapy, meals, more doctor visits, massages from dad to loosen up the sore back and neck from being in a bed for 11 days...phew. Hopefully, a good night of sleep for the young man.
The other big highlights included a visit from one of Andrew's friends, Meghan. Her artwork is below. Andrew apparently stood her up last week and went to the hospital instead...but he was forgiven. Some beautiful food was brought by and we will eat well over the next few days. Andrew's coxie from the CanAMex crew sent a Wisconsin fuzzy blanket and Andrew was probably the most comfortable in a bed that we have seen him even in traitor colours...thanks. Wyatt brought over a signed Cal tank top with all of the Crew on the shirt and it is decorating his room.
Thanks to all of Andrew's supporters.
Andrew had a very busy day...very. The action was endless and now he is exhausted...we are exhausted by all of the action. Debra and Jason came from physio and gave him a good workout. He got to go outside and enjoy a little of the beautiful California sunshine. A little chest physio, some more physical therapy, meals, more doctor visits, massages from dad to loosen up the sore back and neck from being in a bed for 11 days...phew. Hopefully, a good night of sleep for the young man.
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| Meghan's artwork |
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| Some goodies...thanks! |
The other big highlights included a visit from one of Andrew's friends, Meghan. Her artwork is below. Andrew apparently stood her up last week and went to the hospital instead...but he was forgiven. Some beautiful food was brought by and we will eat well over the next few days. Andrew's coxie from the CanAMex crew sent a Wisconsin fuzzy blanket and Andrew was probably the most comfortable in a bed that we have seen him even in traitor colours...thanks. Wyatt brought over a signed Cal tank top with all of the Crew on the shirt and it is decorating his room.
Thanks to all of Andrew's supporters.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Day 10
5:45pm
Yesterdays blog was somehow lost. This is how we keep our families posted and so sorry about that.
Yesterday was our last day in the ICU once a bed became available on the Step Down unit...the transfer happened last night. We will miss all of the people who have become so involved in Andrew's care. The ICU nursing staff and allied staff were terrific and we feel that Andrew received great care there. Marcie and I became pretty good 'nurses' and we got the feeling that our level of participation was a little unusual, but what else can parents do? It is a busy bit of work.
We had the day start yesterday with a rumble and loud bang as a 4.0 earthquake rolled through the Bay area. Your visit to San Fran is not complete unless you have had one of their earthquakes...forget the cable cars. Next we got to see Tony, our favourite ICU fixture and respiratory technician who always made us happy, do a take down on an ICU patient who became a little disoriented and tried to do an 'OJ Simpson for the door'...nice work, Tony! (You need to be older to remember those old OJ commercials.)
Andrew is getting a pretty good workout. Physiotherapy is getting him up a little more and at this point that is exhausting work. Debra is strong and as his PT she will not take, "no". His appetite is returning and he is starting to devour his food. He is not ready for pizza, but that is what he wants along with anything involving bacon...I think that bacon-flavoured Ensure would be a big hit for the teenage demographic. Vaunna came by today from speech therapy and she is the one who will approve the advancement of Andrew's diet, and therefore Andrew is clearly in love with her.
Now we are working on moving to another hospital. The way that insurance works here is that you have to go through approval processes, insurance providers talking and negotiating with each other, and determinations of where you will end up for your care. The Canadian system is so different and so easy. We are wading through the insurance system now that we have improvement in Andrew and we can begin to think of other things. After that will be the process of getting Andrew back to B.C. and determining where he will best be served. This means many phone calls.
Marcie got out for a few minutes today with her friend Janet. It was a beautiful day here and a little fresh air will do her good. Lastly, Marcie and I had a chuckle last night when I spoke to my good friend Steve, the inspiration to write a blog to keep family and friends informed. He told me that he tries to figure out who writes the blog on a particular day. To be clear, even though English 100 was my (Steve's) hardest university course, 100 times more difficult than second year calculus for me, Marcie gets to edit, but I get to write the blog. It is a great way to vent, communicate and lastly provide a document that we can show Andrew one day so that we can insist on payback, big time payback!
Yesterdays blog was somehow lost. This is how we keep our families posted and so sorry about that.
Yesterday was our last day in the ICU once a bed became available on the Step Down unit...the transfer happened last night. We will miss all of the people who have become so involved in Andrew's care. The ICU nursing staff and allied staff were terrific and we feel that Andrew received great care there. Marcie and I became pretty good 'nurses' and we got the feeling that our level of participation was a little unusual, but what else can parents do? It is a busy bit of work.
We had the day start yesterday with a rumble and loud bang as a 4.0 earthquake rolled through the Bay area. Your visit to San Fran is not complete unless you have had one of their earthquakes...forget the cable cars. Next we got to see Tony, our favourite ICU fixture and respiratory technician who always made us happy, do a take down on an ICU patient who became a little disoriented and tried to do an 'OJ Simpson for the door'...nice work, Tony! (You need to be older to remember those old OJ commercials.)
Andrew is getting a pretty good workout. Physiotherapy is getting him up a little more and at this point that is exhausting work. Debra is strong and as his PT she will not take, "no". His appetite is returning and he is starting to devour his food. He is not ready for pizza, but that is what he wants along with anything involving bacon...I think that bacon-flavoured Ensure would be a big hit for the teenage demographic. Vaunna came by today from speech therapy and she is the one who will approve the advancement of Andrew's diet, and therefore Andrew is clearly in love with her.
Now we are working on moving to another hospital. The way that insurance works here is that you have to go through approval processes, insurance providers talking and negotiating with each other, and determinations of where you will end up for your care. The Canadian system is so different and so easy. We are wading through the insurance system now that we have improvement in Andrew and we can begin to think of other things. After that will be the process of getting Andrew back to B.C. and determining where he will best be served. This means many phone calls.
Marcie got out for a few minutes today with her friend Janet. It was a beautiful day here and a little fresh air will do her good. Lastly, Marcie and I had a chuckle last night when I spoke to my good friend Steve, the inspiration to write a blog to keep family and friends informed. He told me that he tries to figure out who writes the blog on a particular day. To be clear, even though English 100 was my (Steve's) hardest university course, 100 times more difficult than second year calculus for me, Marcie gets to edit, but I get to write the blog. It is a great way to vent, communicate and lastly provide a document that we can show Andrew one day so that we can insist on payback, big time payback!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Day 9
Oh no. The whole post got lost in cyberspace somewhere. Must have been that 4.0 earthquake in San Francisco.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Day 8
1:30pm
We are a full week past the big event. Things have settled into some kind of routine here. It is kind of like planting a garden and then everyday there are some small changes, a little new shoot here, a little flower here, and other things that you know still have to poke their head out of the ground and you have read the package and seen that the crop won't be ready for 85 days...it is all about the patience and the care, I suppose.
So, Andrew is eating a little better today, had a little more time out of bed, and we continue to stay at his side and help with all of the chores that make up his daily care. It is an amazing experience to be able to participate in your son's rehabilitation. Andrew does some surprising things...says things that we wouldn't expect, remembers events that we had forgotten, and makes us laugh. Yesterday, he beat me everytime at 'thumb game'. Also yesterday, he remembered a chorus from a song that we had sung two days earlier, and this morning he reminded us that his brother was at a regatta yesterday at Elk Lake and qualified for the pair final. He showed us a bit of his sense of humour today and was at times much more alert than he has been and for longer periods of time. We are reminded that there are many stages to recovery from a head injury and it will be a long journey. So, for the next couple of days we are looking forward to a little more mobilization, improved nutrition, and continued cognitive improvement. He is doing us proud.
Enjoy your Sunday!
We are a full week past the big event. Things have settled into some kind of routine here. It is kind of like planting a garden and then everyday there are some small changes, a little new shoot here, a little flower here, and other things that you know still have to poke their head out of the ground and you have read the package and seen that the crop won't be ready for 85 days...it is all about the patience and the care, I suppose.
So, Andrew is eating a little better today, had a little more time out of bed, and we continue to stay at his side and help with all of the chores that make up his daily care. It is an amazing experience to be able to participate in your son's rehabilitation. Andrew does some surprising things...says things that we wouldn't expect, remembers events that we had forgotten, and makes us laugh. Yesterday, he beat me everytime at 'thumb game'. Also yesterday, he remembered a chorus from a song that we had sung two days earlier, and this morning he reminded us that his brother was at a regatta yesterday at Elk Lake and qualified for the pair final. He showed us a bit of his sense of humour today and was at times much more alert than he has been and for longer periods of time. We are reminded that there are many stages to recovery from a head injury and it will be a long journey. So, for the next couple of days we are looking forward to a little more mobilization, improved nutrition, and continued cognitive improvement. He is doing us proud.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Day 7
4 pm
Andrew was out of bed for the first time. It was just sitting in a chair; one more small step. His eating is slowly improving. He needs a lot of calories in order to heal and so he will need some extra supplementation until he is able to progress to a more regular diet. Andrew gets exhausted pretty easily when we put him through the routine of moving, eating, lung exercises, oral care and more...so there are lots of naps. Andrew is slowly but steadily making a few steps forward today. It looks like he will stay in the ICU today as they move beds around.
Our nurse for the second day is a Vancouver Islander from the little town of You Bou...Lesley. She was here the day that we came in and it was nice to have a familiar voice to make one feel at home. Tonight we have Carlito and the parade of helpers in Andrew's recovery continues. It has been a whole week...the longest and shortest of our lives...and for many of our family and friends. The blog comments are so great and we look forward to them everyday.
Andrew was out of bed for the first time. It was just sitting in a chair; one more small step. His eating is slowly improving. He needs a lot of calories in order to heal and so he will need some extra supplementation until he is able to progress to a more regular diet. Andrew gets exhausted pretty easily when we put him through the routine of moving, eating, lung exercises, oral care and more...so there are lots of naps. Andrew is slowly but steadily making a few steps forward today. It looks like he will stay in the ICU today as they move beds around.
Our nurse for the second day is a Vancouver Islander from the little town of You Bou...Lesley. She was here the day that we came in and it was nice to have a familiar voice to make one feel at home. Tonight we have Carlito and the parade of helpers in Andrew's recovery continues. It has been a whole week...the longest and shortest of our lives...and for many of our family and friends. The blog comments are so great and we look forward to them everyday.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Day 6
9:55pm (started at least 5 times today...where does the time go?...this is hard work and time consuming business taking care of a son in the ICU)
Andrew was busy last pm until late and what a great thing to be able to have the time on our hands to spend with Andrew until he was settled. Today was a good day for our young man. He is a little brighter and more comfortable.He passed the swallow test with Vauna, our speech therapist, in order to begin oral feeding. He probably had an aspiration pneumonia at the outset but now his lungs are steadily improving and we certainly don't want to risk that again. So we started slowly and Andrew progressed well. Tony, our awesome respiratory tech, gave Andrew some exercizes to get the lungs stronger and healthier and I guess that the competitiveness in Andrew makes that a fun distraction, if you can call it that. Brian from physical therapy came by as well and started the process of mobilizing him. Orthopedics has cleared him for weight-bearing and so tomorrow he'll be out of bed hopefully for a short time, if only sitting in a chair. We met our new attending neurosurgeon and he was reassuring us that things are going as well as we could hope. Our new nurse, Robin, came on this evening and she had been on the night when Andrew came in...that was reassuring. She was amazed at his progress. Andrew was in such rough shape that when she made the long drive back to her home after shift last week, she wanted to check on Andrew, so she used her cell phone driving and got a ticket...fortunately just a warning. Thanks to Robin for being concerned even after shift had ended!
The biggest thing today was the fact that Andrew smiled for us...that was amazing :)
How life can change in an instant! Be safe tonight with the weekend looming. Thanks so much for all of the continued support for Andrew. Go Andrew! Go! ... Whoops. Editted after the fact. Marcie made me go back and add Go Bears! (Go On Beat Expectations Andrew Recover Soon!) ( I definitely never publish without the Queen's approval.)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
More Day 5
8:00pm
Andrew had a pretty busy day today starting with removal of the little tube measuring his intracranial pressure and the breathing tube. He had a few visitors and so thanks for that. Some really terrific goodies from several folks; and special thanks to the Kenyans for plying the ICU with unexpected treats...they really know that the way to nurses' hearts is through their bellies. More great offers at every turn, and again thank you for this amazing support.
The community of people involved in the care of the trauma patient is amazing. We had Daisy turn over care to Rodney, our Day 1 incredibly organized and efficient nurse, visits by the physician's assistant (to Dr. Moure), something that we don't have in Canada, someone to find a neck collar that fits Andrew's moose of a neck (he will have a collar for 6 weeks), speech therapist to check the ability to start swallowing (but Andrew was too sedated when she came so he will have to wait until the a.m.), the physical therapist who wants to launch things as soon as tomorrow, Tony the very capable respiratory therapist with the most amazing outlook on things, Karen, the wound care specialist for the county, and, of course, the ICU team of various residents...on and on it goes. Andrew has always needed to try a little harder to get noticed considering that he is the third child...complete success this time around.
Andrew is pretty sleepy. He can't sit up and have a conversation. His speech is pretty difficult after having a tube through the vocal chords for four days. He is still sedated with narcotics for pain, but that should decrease tomorrow. He is pretty restless as expected at times and at others is a little more focused. In fact, he grabbed a pen to write that he wanted his right "shoulder in a cast please" (he has a cracked scapula) and that "a cast would help". As soon as we got him into a sling to support the shoulder he went straight to sleep and was happy. He wrote a couple other notes requesting food and of all things fondue...did not specify what kind. He got a hold of my iPhone and was able to get out of my music and scroll through things; unfortunately I didn't have much music to his liking.
As we continue down this road, and barring speed bumps, the next few days will involve mum and dad doing a lot of comforting, soft speaking to help reorient him and at times more brain activity focusing on the speech therapy, physical therapy and things like eating. There won't be a lot of time for visitors we suspect, but in our free moments we go to the blog to read all of those terrific comments by you, the blog readers...you give us tremendous support to keep this process going. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and generosity.
Andrew had a pretty busy day today starting with removal of the little tube measuring his intracranial pressure and the breathing tube. He had a few visitors and so thanks for that. Some really terrific goodies from several folks; and special thanks to the Kenyans for plying the ICU with unexpected treats...they really know that the way to nurses' hearts is through their bellies. More great offers at every turn, and again thank you for this amazing support.
Andrew is pretty sleepy. He can't sit up and have a conversation. His speech is pretty difficult after having a tube through the vocal chords for four days. He is still sedated with narcotics for pain, but that should decrease tomorrow. He is pretty restless as expected at times and at others is a little more focused. In fact, he grabbed a pen to write that he wanted his right "shoulder in a cast please" (he has a cracked scapula) and that "a cast would help". As soon as we got him into a sling to support the shoulder he went straight to sleep and was happy. He wrote a couple other notes requesting food and of all things fondue...did not specify what kind. He got a hold of my iPhone and was able to get out of my music and scroll through things; unfortunately I didn't have much music to his liking.
As we continue down this road, and barring speed bumps, the next few days will involve mum and dad doing a lot of comforting, soft speaking to help reorient him and at times more brain activity focusing on the speech therapy, physical therapy and things like eating. There won't be a lot of time for visitors we suspect, but in our free moments we go to the blog to read all of those terrific comments by you, the blog readers...you give us tremendous support to keep this process going. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and generosity.
Day 5
At 7:30am the breathing tube was removed as Andrew was strong overnight and was breathing well. So, a step up on that big ladder that he has to climb. The ICU room is a lot quieter and roomier without all of that respiratory equipment and IV drips. He will probably get out of the ICU tomorrow on continued good behaviour. As expected he is pretty sleepy and pretty hoarse from the tube over the last number of days.
He wrote us a note today!
Thanks again for all of the outpouring of support in this difficult situation. We remain hopeful.
He wrote us a note today!
Thanks again for all of the outpouring of support in this difficult situation. We remain hopeful.
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