Day 47 - July 17, 2008

Some good news...and some bad news.

First the bad. It doesn't look like we will be going to Tampa by the end of the month. Of course, this could change. But so far it's a no go. This is because Kev has the ventric in (the drain in his head). Tampa is a rehab hospital and the patients need to be in stable condition before going there. An open drain is not a stable thing. The neurosurgeon has no idea when he will go, and a shunt could send him sooner, but he doesn't want to do a shunt because first, Kev's skin is not healthy enough yet due to the burns and second, shunts are not very reliable. What they are doing is leaving the ventric in and hoping that it tricks the brain into believing it is absorbing that fluid on it's own and maybe it will start doing just that.

Now for the good news. Kevin really is making amazing progress every single day. This afternoon he was able to take this 3 inch long plastic tube (about an inch in diameter) and put it on each of his fingers on his left hand and then he was able to put it on his thumb and forefinger of his right hand. These are considered fine motor skills and it's amazing that he is able to do this already. Granted it's only his left side doing anything, but it's a start.

At one point he also waved to me. He brought his arm up in front of his face and I brought mine up as well (more to protect him from hitting his head) and I started waving to him and he waved back. 3 times no less!

Tonight he also had quite an attitude. I am wondering if he was upset about his right side not working so I did explain to him again (already done, Holee - but thanks!) that everything is there, but that we are going to have to work on getting his hand and leg to function correctly. Anyway, he just held and touched his right hand for about an hour. And every time I touched his left shoulder or rubbed his arm - the little bugger would swat my hand away. Hmmph! (LOL) But seriously, I think he was just in a mood and I am fine with that. Heck, I get in those moods all the time!

And now for the best news of all - Kev had 2 CT Scans today. One regular one and then they inserted dye (I think) into his head to see how things are looking. The neurosurgeon said that Kev's brain is looking better than it did the last time they did a scan.

Understand that I am no doctor - but I honestly do believe that them draining all this fluid from his head has released a lot of pressure and that's why he is doing better every day.

I could so be wrong, though.

On the home front, poor Breezy made it home ok only to find that someone had hit her car at some point during the past 2 months. Of course they left no info with the apt manager, so it looks like we will have to deal with it financially.

Ya know...a break would really be nice...

And then of course there's Moe. Her flight from San Antonio was so delayed that she is stuck in Cincinnati OH for the night. She missed her connect and they couldn't get her to Pittsburgh until tomorrow morning.

You know that song "Some Guys Have All the Luck"? If he's single, send him my way - maybe it'll rub off...