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.

Evening

Mark was a little more chipper today, although he was awfully tired tonight and after dinner and his shower, was in bed by 6. When I left at 6:30 he was snoring.

Mark had his x-ray today. They do that to check the settings of his shunts. I didn't talk to Dr. Long but I'm assuming everything was okay. Unlike the hospital, they actually will look for you to give you updates. His CAT scan is tomorrow afternoon.

We had an exercise the other day in PT where I had to toss Mark the ball and ask him a math question and then he had to give me the answer when he tossed it back. They all laughed when I asked him what Pi was but they stopped when he gave me the right answer (and I could tell they didn't know it and they asked me if he was right - beats me but I did look it up and I know he got the 3.14 right). But then tonight when I asked him where he was he said a stadium. Well, we were sitting in a brightly lit room in uncomfortable chairs watching a big flat screen TV!

Evening

Mark's physical progress has been moving right along. He is actually able to walk on his own but the therapists spot him as he walks. Yesterday, the therapist walked behind him and had her hands on his shoulders and made them sway back and forth which made him walk faster and better, and more natural looking.

The Norwalk virus (upper and lower GI virus) struck the rehab hospital over the weekend. Mark's room mate was transferred to the hospital (he's very old). Luckily Mark has escaped so far but there were a lot of new faces on the nursing staff and were they busy! Imagine 50 people with limited mobility and impaired verbal skills with vomiting and diahrrea. They've been cleaning the rooms down with bleach. It's beginning to smell like a YMCA. I guess it could be worse.

They had Mark's team meeting yesterday and decided not to move his discharge date up from March 6 because of his lack of stamina. He has been extremely tired and he says he feels dopey. He decided his anti-depressant which he had been taking for only a couple of days might have caused this. Also, his therapy sessions have gone from half to full hours and I think it took its toll. He has also been sleeping on his back which exacerbates his sleep apnea (he can't sleep on his stomach because he still has the feeding tube, which they aren't using but can't be removed until mid March). While the trach was still in, his apnea was fine. I think this; along with them waking him every 3-4 hours during the night for the toilet isn't helping him get a restful nights sleep. At my urging, they are sending him for a CAT scan tomorrow morning to check those shunts to make sure they're draining okay.

There are a few individuals on Mark's ward whose head trauma have caused unusual and disturbing symptoms. He says it's sometimes difficult to tell the hospital from an insane asylum. There is an older lady, who probably had Alzheimer’s before her head injury. She walks up and down the halls with her handbag, yelling, "Where's my handbag?" Some of her other favorites are "Get out of my house", and "I hate this god damn place", etc. For an old lady her voice has a lot of volume and carries clear down and across the hall. There's another woman, who's about 35 who had meningitis. She constantly strolls the halls giving out orders. You can tell she was probably some sort of executive. She also carries her hand bag and at night wears her coat over her pj's. And then there's a man, who looks to be in his late 30's. I call him Houdini because he pulls the fire alarm and is always hanging around the doors trying to escape (Mark is on a locked wing). All three of these people have one-on-one, a round the clock aide that never leaves their side, even while they're sleeping.

Mark was in the green house and transplanted some little Burro's tails into individual pots. He really enjoyed playing in the dirt. He said it was the most "real" thing he's done since he got there. It's on his tray table and he's very proud of it.

I will definatley post tomorrow to let you know how his CAT scan went. Other than that, he is really doing great. He has his long awaited appointment with the Neuro Ophtomologist on Monday.

Evening

I know I've said this before, but tonight was the best yet. Maybe it was because he had a nice telephone chat with his good buddy Alan? I don't know if it's the medium and not having to deal with the visual part of a visitor or being concerned about how he looks to the other person, but just concentrating on talking with one person at a time and not having to follow multiple voices in a conversation, I think he did extremely well. Of course, I could only hear one side of the conversation. Even though he said he felt dopy the for the last few days ( and has been sleepy), he was very bright and alert tonight. He's wondering if it's some new medication they're giving him. We'll look into that tomorrow.

And he gave up on the tomato conversation too. We're back to how good Haagen Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream is. He also said that the fresh strawberries I cut up for his dessert to have with the ice cream would have been better if they were raspberries!

Evening

Mark's not afraid of his new found sense of humor getting him into trouble. While I was shaving him yesterday (and I did a damn good job, no signs of blood!) while he sat at the sink in his wheel chair, I kept bumping into the toilet railings, then the arm of the wheel chair, etc. I made a comment that I was clumsy, he said, "No, you just have no idea of the size of your butt." Ah, music to my ears.

He's doing great and looking even better! I made him some tuna salad today and a side of avocado with blue cheese dressing. He decided to mix them together and commented that it would have been even better with a tomato. Then he said yes, a tomato would have been good. Then he said again, wow, I wish I had a tomato. I let all this go, and after a while I asked if he would like to have some lunch time conversation, and he said yes. I asked what he'd like to talk about and he asked if I'd be mad if we talked about tomatoes. I'm still not sure he was kidding. He's been getting obsessive about little things, like damn TOMATOES!