Day 42 - July 12, 2008

Can you say stage 10?!!!

Yep. Kevin is now in a stage 10 - possibly a stage 11!! This was such a wonderful day!!

First, let me say that I was misinformed of the amount of fluid that was drained from Kevin's head. It wasn't 6 CCs - it was 140 CCs. That's a whole lotta fluid! But then today, after Kevin had wound care this morning, he was actually draining fluid from somewhere - possibly from his ears. It turned out to be ok, so I will move on from there.

So I went in by myself at noon while Breezy and Moe grabbed some lunch and the nurse was so excited. She said "hurry up - get dressed and get in there! I didn't give him any meds for pain or agitation because I want you to see what he's doing!"

I hurried up and couldn't believe it. Kevin was making purposeful movements. His hands were unwrapped and he was taking his left hand and trying to scratch different areas that were grafted. And I don't mean that he was just rubbing an area and that it could have been reflex - he lifted a towel that was on top, moved a second towel to the side and was digging his fingers down under the dressings that were covering his wounds. DEFINITE PURPOSEFUL MOVEMENT!!!

And one time he tried to touch his face and he couldn't reach it (I was holding his hand back so he didn't bump his head) and do you know what he did? He picked his head up and moved it down toward his hand. I called the nurse in because it scared me that he wanted to touch his face and she said it's ok - let him touch. I couldn't believe it but all he wanted to do was scratch his nose. He just scratched it and put his hand back down! Amazing!!

Another time he lifted his hand to his face and all he did was touch everything. He touched his nose, his lips, his feeding tube and his chin. I just couldn't believe it!

So then the neuro doc came in at about 6:30 or so and he assessed Kev and was amazed at the change. Kevin's eyes were wide open and he was following the doc's movements. Now Kev didn't do everything that we asked him to do, but he did do some of it.

And Kev did purposefully touch my face about 3 times tonight. He would look right in my eyes and bring his hand up and just feel my face. And his lips and tongue were just going crazy so I believe he was trying to talk. I am going to talk to them tomorrow about capping his trach.

This is just so exciting! He did this stuff all day today! For all of us! Breezy, myself and Moe! Yay, Kevin!!

So I am going to quickly ask that we all keep positive thoughts for tomorrow. The neurosurgeon is planning to put a shunt in Kev's head to keep the fluid draining. It's just not doing it on it's own. I will know more tomorrow as I didn't get to meet with the surgeon today, but I won't be back here to fill y'all in until after the procedure is done. Positive thoughts...positive thoughts...

That's it for tonight. I want to just sit here and talk to Moe and Breezy about how exciting today was.

Cool, huh? I am just dancing in the clouds tonight!