Outpatient

Fred is moving to outpatient status today. He will continue to do his various therapies during the day, but they will have more of a focus on doing things in real life and finding what works and what doesn't. Tom flew up to Denver this morning, and Fred was packed and ready to move out of the hospital first thing this morning when Tom arrived. For the first time in about 7 weeks, Fred will not spend the night in the hospital tonight!

This is a big step towards coming home, and we're all excited. In two weeks, Fred should be home sleeping in his own bed! The doctors and therapists feel like Fred could probably use so more time up there, but his attitude towards wanting to come home would take away from any benefit he could get in more therapy. Honestly, it would be too much of a strain on me too, so I'm looking forward to the June 25th discharge date.

I waver back and forth between just wanting him to be home and being anxious about the battles we will have after he comes home and wants to do everything. I realize that this time is probably when I will need the most help and breaks. Fred doesn't need to have someone taking care of him every day, but I will need help keeping him busy while keeping him out of trouble. Someone was telling me about how brain injuries are hard because it is such an internal injury. Fred is lucky because what he really needs for his brain to heal is time. It's not that he can't ever get back to everything he was doing before, just maybe not this summer.

So I'm putting out my call for help and assistance this summer. I don't know what it will look like or what I need, but I know that I will need help, especially in July and August keeping Fred occupied, happy and safe. If you decide you want to help, you have to promise you won't let Fred talk you into letting him do something he's not ready to do, like drive a car. I am really not looking forward to having rules or arguments like this with him. I want to be a wife and not a mother to my spouse, but I also need to do certain things to keep him safe so he doesn't get hurt again or have someone sue us in this sue-happy world we live in today. Somehow I still have to be a mom and work too. I know it will all work out. I'm learning to slow down and just go with whatever comes up, but I still have moments of panic. I'm letting go of the panic right now because my present is peaceful.