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Today is Saturday, November 13. Harold remains full of energy. He's quite animated and very
talkative. This is a common phase recovery patients go through. Thank you for your thoughts
and prayers.
Today is Wednesday, November 10. I might add a guest book to this site because it's now registered with a few Internet search engines, and I'm beginning to hear from folks from all over with similar family situations. Welcome to everyone. Blessings to you all. Harold's therapists have given us an example of Harold's current state. They've told us it's as though you had a big filing cabinet and all its contents have been dumped onto the floor and now the files just need to be picked up and put back in their proper places. This makes sense because in the past when I've visited Harold I've been sure he knew who I was, but this time his thoughts seemed so scattered that I wasn't sure. We're told this phase is common during recovery and that he will hopefully get past it. Now that he's talking so much, it's more evident that when he tries to retrieve a word, it often comes out as the wrong word. Thanks for your continued prayers for a full recovery. I've added some more content to the Testimonials area on the site. Today is Tuesday, November 9. I apologize on AOL's behalf as the server that my web site is on was undergoing maintenance today, hence it was down a good part of the afternoon. I had a nice visit with Harold on both Sunday and Monday. On Monday I was able to observe his speech therapy, and sit in (and actually participate) during his occupational therapy. His speech therapist said he's making definite progress because last week he couldn't even stay awake for the entire session and now he's actually answering 15-30% of the questions correctly. He seems to search for the right words, but they frequently don't come out. She would ask him several key questions, such as, "Harold, what is your birthday? or, "Harold, how many children do you have?" Then she had him identify and separate coins and during the end she put two quarters on the table and asked Harold how much money that was and he said, "Fifty cents." Contrary to what we thought we knew a few weeks ago, it does appear that the area of the brain that affects vision may have been injured. In other words, his eyes may be fine as we were told at Geisinger, but if the actual area of his brain that controls the vision is a bit off (and we suspect it is, they'll run tests this week), then his vision could be affected. His team of therapists, and the family, believe he only seems to focus or see when he turns his eyes to the right. During his occupational therapy, Harold walked around for about ten minutes with assistance. He was a bit wobbly at times, and seemed to tire easily, but all of that is par-for-the-course with his type of injuries, and is exactly why he's in rehab. I read Harold all of his e-mail, but my visit with him was mid-afternoon, and he seems to get a bit fidgety by afternoon due to fatigue, so I will save them and read them to him again next week. My sister was by to see him Saturday morning, and it seems that he is much fresher and calmer in the morning, but come afternoon, he gets tired, and he's easily frustrated because his thoughts are more scattered. He's begun to swallow soft food, and is relearning to feed himself. My overall assessment is that, physically he has improved by leaps and bounds, and mentally he's made steady progress. I will update more as I receive it. |