WOW - Scott was relentless through the night, rolling side to side, throwing his legs and hips out of bed, trying to sit up and self doctoring himself by removing tubes. Eventually the nurses had to use a roll strap to keep him in the bed.
Morning temp and BP are normal. Pulmonary Physician says everything sounds great. He didn’t say specifically when the trach would be exchanged for a smaller one, just “sometime this week”.
Wound Care has been amazed at the rate of Scott’s skin regeneration. The road rash on his right arm is fully healed and the only wound requiring wrapping today was the friction burn on his left arm. This is good as the wraps don’t last very long when he is so active. The surgery incision on his right arm is open to the air and about half of the staples are “floating” which means they are close to needing to be removed. Today’s big removal was the remaining staples in his head.
Physical Therapy was in and put Scott sitting on the side of his bed while they helped him attempt to hold his head and back straight up and down. He did amazing responding to commands but could not straighten on his own. Afterward he sat in the Med-Chair for three hours.
Scott’s Attending Physician is now organizing the other specialists that Scott will need including Ortho, Barrow and Ophthalmology. Ortho dropped by in the afternoon and the initial evaluation is an AC separation with possible dislocation. X-Rays have been ordered and we are waiting for that to happen. We are also waiting for the Barrow Consult as our ultimate goal is to get Scott to that facility when appropriate.
A very encouraging moment came during the Ortho Consult. I had called Patti to have her listen into the exam and put the phone to Scott’s ear so she could say hello. Upon hearing her voice he immediately opened his mouth and appeared to try to say “Hi”. Of course with the current trach he cannot make any noise but we sure feel he will be ready for the speaking trach later this week.
Fortunately or unfortunately Scott has been much calmer during the day today than last night. His pulse has been a bit more elevated than yesterday and they are keeping him on pain medication which helps calm him. We fear though that we are helping to mix up his days and nights. I’m sure he will cycle back and forth more than once.
Each of the last three days I am seeing more brightness and spark in his eyes. Awareness is certainly improving and often I speak to him as if he just woke up for the first time, telling him he was in an accident and getting better in the hospital. This morning it struck me that this recovery process is similar to his infant years and early development childhood. He was not an easy infant so why should we expect this stage of his recovery to be any different. No matter, Scott’s return is worth much more.
Blessings to all
Mickey Moore
I like to think that with all the progress he's made, that Scott would be talking if he could. And what a wonderful thing for Patti too, as it's so hard for her to be away from Scott right now.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mickey for keeping up the blog! I love the progress reports.
And, well, Scott's never been very good at sitting still.:D
A.
Ash! I just had a good laugh as I remembered something from our conversations during Thanksgiving. Remember what classifies a person with ADHD? :) And remember how many of those traits Scott has... and we all laughed about. I cant help but think of that as I read how he just wont sit still, keeps pulling and tugging and doing things he just isn't supposed to do. He's still himself... even when his level of consciousness is questionable. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd thats so exciting that he tried to say 'hi'.
Thanks for the update Mickey!