passing the baton

Another day gone. I am so grateful I got to spend the last 3 days by Spencer's bedside. Not knowing what it would be like, I brought along 2 books and a huge binder all about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to read while I was there. Unfortunately, it wasn't ANYTHING like a relaxing little mini vacation with my sisters! Taking care of Spencer in his current state is exhausting. I pray for Jen and Mom and the rest of the family as they take turns with this task in the near future. Spencer is a STRONG man and requires a lot of attention when he's not sleeping. By the end of each night, all three of us (Shelyce, Alisha, and I) were pretty tuckered.

To help everyone understand Spencer's current status, he's a level 4 on the Rancho los amigos coma/brain injury scale. Of course since every brain injury is different, and each patient reacts differently, not all of these things apply to Spencer. He is agitated, but not so much angry or violent. He's not swearing at us or hitting, but when he's more alert (and consequently in more pain), he is constantly moving, fiddling with stuff, and thrashing about. We see bouts of "appropriateness," and plenty of confusion. This is evidenced by how much better he reacts when we explain things to him. For instance, this afternoon, they changed his cast from a less secure one that he was pulling apart (but once he helped me rewrap it!) to a rigid one. I got to see the pin sticking out of his wrist and considering this, the PA left the cast pretty loose. Well, once Spencer woke up a little, he managed to hook his fingers in there and nearly pulled the new cast a good 2 inches up his hand. Needless to say, the same PA had to come back and redo the whole thing... much tighter the second time. I kept explaining to him that he had to leave this one alone, because changing the cast is a big pain and makes a big mess! He was much more gentle with it and didn't fight me as much when I'd pull his good hand away from exploring it.

Occasionally, he tries to speak in long sentences, but it's all completely mumbled. And then the next minute, he's looking at a picture of him and his girls and he's able to identify each one when we ask, "which one is Katie, where's Greta, who is Mikayla?" I was SO happy this morning when I had Spencer open his eyes to look at me and when I asked him, "do you know who I am?" he said, "sister." Yesterday, he just looked at me and said, "no," so I just kept reminding him! When Shelyce asked him the same thing today, he mumbled a little and then said, "love all of you." The verbal output increased a TON once Jen got back there. He knew her immediately and had much more to say to her, including, "I love you" and "glad you're back." Don't worry, I wasn't offended!

He spent about an hour upright in a therapy chair this morning, which is twice as long as nurse thought he would be able to tolerate it. It pooped him out, though, and made pain management much more difficult once we got him back on the bed. After the rehab doctor saw Spencer this morning, he became determined to get Spencer started on rehab by Thursday.

Turns out, Kaiser (the omnipotent insurance entity) finally made a decision to transfer Spencer on Thursday (April 9th) and given the choice between Spaulding and Mapleton hospitals, Jen chose Spaulding in Aurora. He'll be taking an ambulance ride over the mountains tomorrow and starting rehab in the Denver area! It will take lots of time; much longer than we want it to take (especially since we'd all love to see him all better next week!). But everything is looking very good. He will need to pass through each stage of recovery, some taking longer than others. It will be taxing on everyone and will require insane amounts of patience, but the prognosis is excellent. If you're looking for something more specific to pray for on his behalf, he could use some blessings as they begin to wean him off of the narcotic pain meds. It's hard to watch him be so agitated, but since that is part of the injury, they need to allow it to happen :( .

I hope the ambulance ride goes smoothly for Spencer tomorrow. My information from now on will be second hand, unless I get some guest bloggers from the family on occasion! Welcome to all the newcomers (and just a warning... this isn't so much an "Anderson family" blog, but still my personal blog, so just be aware that on occasion, my narcissism will interject stuff about me. Feel free to skip those posts, or not!) And by the way... I love receiving comments letting me know who's reading this stuff! No need to be shy.