Week 2: Living on the Neurology Unit
After spending a week in the ICU, we finally get to move down to the neurology unit at St. Charles. Roger needs to stay here to stabilize enough before he gets to go to inpatient rehab. A huge thank you to Packy for spending so many evenings with Roger so I could go home and parent.
So much progress this week:
He no longer has an NG feeding tube and is eating a normal diet. No more ground up "cat food" soft diet. He even ate steak today without any problems (hospital tough steak!!!). Tonight we are going to order dinner from an actual restaurant so we can remind his taste buds what real food tastes like.
He can now shower in a shower chair with my help. The look of bliss on his face when he sits under the hot water is priceless. We both end up soaked by the end. Plus he is now wearing his Costco leisure sweat pants that I hate. So he is rocking that trend.
He has learned to self propel using a wheel chair. He took to it like a champion and immediately wheeled himself down the hallway on his own. Plus I got to take him outside in the sun for the first time. The look of bliss on his face was priceless.
His speech is definitely coming back. He is still slurring his words but I can understand him so much better. He continues to have word finding challenges when you ask him a question, but even that is getting easier with repetition. He keeps me laughing with all the crazy things he says by accident and intentionally. Definitely has his sense of humor back.
Classic example of Roger's communication. He looked me earnestly in the eye and said in his slurry way that we needed to have a conversation. I felt lead in the pit of my stomach. Was he asking for a divorce, was he asking about his prognosis, was he asking about working again? He kept shaking his head, "No." I was wracking my brain for what deep topic he wanted to wade into. Then he finally blurts out, "COLD." I said, " You're cold and want a blanket?" Yep, that is the conversation he wanted to have. Classic!!
Roger is rocking it during all of his therapies. He is way more alert and aware. He has been asking questions and taking an active part in his recovery now. He has been working a lot on getting some movement back in his right side. He is able to move his right leg at the hip a bit now which is awesome. They have him dangle his right leg when he is standing on a block with his left leg so he can try to swing his right leg. There has been definite movement as the days go by. He is able to swing it back a bit like he would skating. That deep muscle memory is paying off.
He started working more on the right shoulder and arm today. He had a tiny bit of voluntary contraction on the shoulder which is a great start. He still has a long way to go especially in terms of his arm and hand movement. So now the work of repetition kicks in so we can reconnect and strengthen the neural pathways.
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