Weekends

The weekends at Kindred are very quite. We have the most wonderful Occupational Therapist team that comes in and cheers us up every day during the weekdays, and we look forward to their visits every day. But on the weekend they do not come. And we miss them terribly. We try and do what they do on Saturday and Sunday but it's not quite the same. They see if his eyes are tracking by putting a finger up to his eyes and moving it slowly back and forth to see if he will follow it. He has done some solid tracking left and right for brief moments. But does not follow the finger up and down, that's the next step. They are so kind to him and talk to him as if he were fully aware. We appreciate that. When they come in they tell him to open his eyes, if they are closed. And then if he doesn't, they open them for him and tell him good job! :) Sometimes they supply enough stimuli that he will open his eyes.
They also stretch out his fingers. He usually grips them tight and they become really stiff. Apparently they can freeze that way so we try and stretch them out as well. It is probably a bit painful for him but we remind him that is would be alot more painful if we left them there to freeze. Sometimes he relaxes sometimes he doesn't, but either way we get those fingers straight!
They also move his free arm back and forth to relax it as well. Sometimes his stiffens up his arm and it's difficult to straighten it. Other times it is very relaxed.
We also have a very wonderful Speech Therapist that comes in during the weekdays. She is looking for signs that he will be able to swallow on his own. For now his swallow ability is pretty good. She sticks a cotton swab type thing in the back of his mouth between his top and bottom teeth to see if he will chew on it. This will help us know if he has the ability to chew food at some point. For now there has been no response, but we will patiently wait for it. She says that she would really like a piece of gum on a string in order to test this, so if any one is looking for a million dollar idea there you have it. She also tests other areas of his mouth by putting pressure on his upper mouth, tongue, and lower mouth. Sometimes he doesn't like it and will chomp his mouth closed. The other day he chomped his mouth closed on the tip of his tongue and lip. Ouch! Fortunately it is healing up well.
We also have a physical therapist come in on the weekdays, who also brightens our day. She always confirms that his range of motion is excellent. We like hearing that something is excellent with his body right now!
His right arm is still in a cast and we are so ready for it to come off. He has been in it over a week longer than we were told so we anxiously wait for it to come off. It is very heavy and if you can imagine having a very heavy object pulling down on your shoulder with no ability to move, it would become very strenuous on the shoulder. So we hope hope hope that it comes off Mon. or Tues. Then it will go in a sling. We will take it.
We also have a respiratory nurse who comes in a cleans his trachea and clears his lungs. I look away when she does this, as my stomach can't handle it. But they take very good care of it and it looks very healthy and clean.
There are two neurologists who oversee my dad's care. I've been here for 1 full week now, and spent 6+ hours at the hospital every day and have yet to meet either of them. (Except the one day I didn't go to the hospital is the day one of them, and Jon and my Mom spoke) So I like to call them the ghost Dr's. The nurses assure me they are real :) They do change his medication dosages. We've been assured time and time again that they know exactly what they are doing, they have a tried and true method, and they've had success with it. We believe it.
They have put him on a High stimulation/Low stimulation schedule. This is helpful in the healing of the brain. So during high stim. time we let Drew squeal as loud as he wants, talk loud, pull up the blinds, play music, sing songs, talk on the phone, etc. . .One day we came in and someone turned the t.v. on during high stim. time. My Dad was "watching" The View. We haven't turned the t.v. on since because we don't think he would appreciate day time television very much.
A few days ago, like you've read several times, my Dad followed my command to stick his tongue out. Shortly after he did this he began to have significant shaking spells in the right side of his body. They believe it is most likely muscle spasms. So they had to give him another drug to prevent the spasms. Unfortunately one of the side effects is drowsiness. So the last few days he has been really sleepy again. Although we've had some visitors report that he looked directly at them while they talked to him yesterday, when we weren't there. We will take it!
The post was long but I thought I'd share with you a glimpse of the day in and day out at Kindred. Loe all, Angela or to some of you Angie