Evening

I saw Dr. Long yesterday and he said he took a quick glance at Mark’s CAT scan and that everything looked fine. I’m sure if there was a problem, he would have told me by now.

It seems Mark's disorientation is mostly with time and place. Seems 1987 must have been either a very good or very bad year for him. He also seems to think that he's been in rehab for either seven or two years - or so it seems to him. As to the place, today it was Florida until I told him to look out the window at the snow and later in the day he said he was in a hotel in Delaware. This is a very very common disorientation among brain trauma individuals. The therapists and nurses orient the patients to time and place throughout the day.

When I arrived this morning Mark’s room mate was out at therapy. I told the nurse that Ken had been talking to me yesterday, (Ken hasn’t talked since his brain surgery) but when his wife Marsha got there he wouldn’t say anything to her. After the nurse left Mark’s room, Mark asked if his name was Ken? And was he married to someone named Marsha? I told him that Ken was his room mate and Marsha was Ken’s wife. He said he didn’t like the name Ken and didn’t want to be married to someone named Marsha. As a matter of fact, he didn’t want to be married to anyone. I asked him “you don’t even want to be married to me” and he said he would marry me only if I was pregnant. Oh man, I’m glad I’m writing this down.

What is the chance that there would be two Amish men with the same last name (Stoltzfus) in one brain unit of one rehab hospital at the same time? One is at least in his 50’s or older and the other seems to be a teenager. The younger one has tons of visitors and they were all sitting in the TV lounge tonight. I think they were enjoying the electricity and TV as much as the visit.

Since Mark has only one one-hour therapy session on Saturdays and Sundays, he seemed to have more energy today. We ordered out Chinese food and he wasn’t very happy with it. He thinks his taste buds are a little off. He even thinks Coke tastes bad so he’s back to iced tea.