Day 28 April 10: One Just Never Knows

It is kind of interesting....and will likely become even more interesting as Scott's cognitive abilities come back even more.

Scott is becoming more and more aware. He is now able to have a conversation (Albeit, not yet to the same level as previously.) He is able to recall some long-term memory....and is now beginning to recall some bits and pieces of short-term memory. He is manipulating numbers, words, and concepts better. He is beginning to re-learn cognitive strategies to enhance his word retrieval, thought organization, and thought manipulation, etc....

He will have moments of sharp, cristp, and confident thought alteranting with "wildly inappropriate" thought. "Inappropriate" verbalizations are defined differently than you and I normally use the term. "Inappropriate" does not mean that he is saying things/thoughts that are inappropriate to the relationship he has with the person to whom he is speaking. It, instead, means that he is saying things that are very "random" and disconnected to the conversation at hand. (kind of like this 4:30 am post might end up sounding! But if I waited until I wasn't tired and was thinking sharply and deeply, the posts would never get done. So..... Thanks for bearing with my ramblings!) For instance, yesterday ...while he was in one of his speech therapy sessions..... He was asked to count backwards from 98 by threes. He was performing this quite smoothly, although not perfectly....when he got to 20, then he inserted some random phrase, like..... "29, 26, 23, 20, then we need to attach it to the honey bees for re-integration, 17, 14,....".

He most often uses big, fancy words, that make those around him question whether he is talking nonsense or if he is being brilliant. He often uses various medical terms and phrases that really don't go together, but sound impressive and knowledgeable. It leaves people questioning....Is is like the "mandrake scenario" or is it like the "honey bee comment" above? It is not always obvious, which then creates an interesting dynamic. There are a lot of puzzled and questioning looks, some periodic computer checks, and a fair amount of communication between those around him questioning the "appropriateness" of his comments....

Scott usually answers with apparent confidence. He looks intently at the person with whom he is speaking. And... He will sometimes debate with you if you question him. This, again, adds to the uncertainty whether he is right or random. It's just an entertaining situation to obseve and participate in.

Little side note.... It takes Scott quite a while to complete washing his hands. He is very thorough and precise. It is as if he is scrubbing for the Operating Room each time he washes his hands. I just find it cute...and intereting how we integrate our habits.

Oh,... And thanks Travis (fellow med student, who was at Cottonwood Hospital with Scott at the time of his accident) for stopping by, for bringing his favorite Naked juice, and for helping to assess how far back the post-traumatic amnesia goes. We had been curious how much of his Cottonwood experience he remembered, but we didn't know what to ask and what was nonsense vs what was real.

Oh,... And I forgot to mention .... One of the PT techs here at Barrow is LDS and served a mission to Germany. He was kind enough to stop by and talk to Scott in German. It was fn for Scott. Scott sounded good, but I have absolutely no clue if he was talking appropriately or not.

Well.... I will let you go until later. I will post a daily update later, but I wanted to share these random (but hopefully appropriate) thoughts while I could.

Love to all!
Patti