Saturday

Friday night was up a few times and needed more morphine for pain in the middle of the night, and he was asleep when we came in. The physical therapist came in and had him walk up and down the hall. He is wobbly, but he did it on his own. The next visit was from the speech therapist and mostly worked with where he was at chewing and swallowing. He was really worn out after walking, so it didn't go that well and they wanted to keep him on a pureed diet at least until he was more alert to make sure all the food gets chewed and swallowed correctly. It has been hard to get him to eat anything, so sticking with driking things might be better to get some caolires and protein in him.

After taking a nap, he wanted another shower, but he also asks for that most times he wakes up. They told us that brain injury patients seem to find one thing to focus on, and taking a shower has been Fred's. I asked him if he wanted to talk to Kalyn, and we called her and had a little conversation with her. His speech is quiet and a little slurred at times, but he can carry on a conversation.

The occupational therapist came in right as Tom was getting ready to help him shave, and she wanted to see how much of it Fred could do himself. He did a pretty good job considering he had a 4 day old beard and he's a hairy guy to begin with! We're making a bigger effort to stay on top of his pain management, and it seemed to help. The doctors don't want to give him any more morphine because they want him to be more alert so they can start getting a better assessment of how his brain is doing.

I was sitting in his room typing while he was having his shower and the trauma doctor and the charge nurse come into the room and sit down with me with very concerned looks on their faces and say Fred had an accident in the shower. I must have had an awful look on my face because they immediately said he's alright (which would have been nice to hear first). The tech that was with him in the shower had turned around to get the nurse and told him to stay put, but he moved to the chair and slipped and fell down on his butt and his head hit the chair, so they sent him in for another CT scan to make sure there was no new injury to the brain.

The scan came back fine, and there was no new injury, and his original injury is healing. After that experience, he has been tagged as a fall risk and the nurses are taking extra precaution with him.

Fred had two visitors in the afternoon and talked a little with them and even asked good follow up questions when he was talking with them.

I ordered him some cream of potato soup and an ensure for dinner and he said the soup tasted nasty and the ensure is like old lady formula. So his taste buds are still intact!