Tuesday August 25

My apologies for allowing so much time to pass between blog entries. My job has taken me far and wide lately and it looks like September will be a crazy month too but I will try to do better.

We have been told so many things about those who have, "Brain injuries". We have been given parameters and time frames and medication ideas and treatment ideas. Every professional in this field has a hypothesis about what will work, might work or what has worked in the past. There are also ideas about treatments and ways that a family should interact or not interact with a person who is receiving treatment for this "condition". There is the likelihood that some putting into a category, or placing a name on a particular injury, puts a person on the path to a treatment plan which may or may not fit them individually but may describe their chart-labeled affliction. It is the same as a robot trying to perform gall bladder surgery the same way on every patient. We need humans to do this because everyone's body is different and everyone's personality is different and everyone's gall bladder is different.

I digress a bit for effect but it is obvious to me that much in the way that John defied any category when he wasn't at TIRR, he has done the same while he has been there. He is amazing to be around and there have been some interesting and promising changes over the past few days. One of these changes seems bad on the surface in that John has started experiencing a wide range of emotions. He does cry, get angry and frustrated at this point sometimes without warning. But when you ask him or find out where his feelings stem from, they are valid. At one point recently he seemed angry to Holly and she asked him why and he said, "I've been through a lot". To me, he hit the nail on the head with that one!

I will tell you that this path has had obstacles and they do not cease. We recently started to notice that John was extremely fatigued during the day. After some tests were done to rule out any problems with his heart as the root cause, we started to notice that the level of activity and noise in his room was high. I was there one evening and there were 3 televisions and 4 or 5 family members in the room and I could hardly hear him speak! At the beginning of this week, we asked for him to be moved from this four person room to a two person room and they obliged. There was some comfort in John being in the more crowded room in that we knew there was more traffic and therefore the chance for people to check on John was higher but it just seemed like the opportunity to get him into a more peaceful environment might allow him to rest better.