Day Eleven

James had another restful night with daddy. He slept pretty much through the night with no major issues. Al was able to stay for breakfast with James until I could make it back for the day. It was nice because Al was able to participate in rounds (which sounded intense with how many people were here haha). So the plan as of this morning is that James is scheduled to have his staples removed next Wednesday. He will continue with his speech, occupational and physical therapies. The neurology team stance is that James will stay in the hospital throughout all of his rehabilitation which they are estimating to be approximately one month. At that time they anticipate that his brain will have healed and all swelling and possible infection will be gone allowing them to do the reconstruction. By waiting this amount of time it will also reduce the chance of his body rejecting the reconstruction. At that time once he's healed to the satisfaction of the neurological team he would be able to come home. As anxious as we are to have him home we completely agree with that timeline. The thought of taking him home and keeping his head safe is nerve wracking. The logistics are frightening when you really think it out. 

James worked with his occupational therapist this morning and did well overall. He began getting a little carried away in his bed and I tried to get him to wear his helmet. He wasn't having it. His feelings seemed to be very hurt by the feeling of it being a punishment (I'm assuming). James let Erin know when he was all done for the day, but overall I think it went well. It seems like the plan from here with OT is to have him doing some mat work to strengthen himself more. 

During our visit with grandma lunch came and we began to eat. His speech therapist, Jodi, came in to observe and see how he's doing. I'm assuming that he is doing well on the eating part so I'm wondering when we'll move on to working on his speech. Currently James is extra quiet, even with us.  This is out of character for him. We can tell that the words and knowledge is there but when he talks his voice is very small and it's difficult to understand what he's saying. Hoping that tomorrow we begin working on that. 

Physical therapy went very well today. When we were getting James out of bed and into his helmet so we could put him in his chair to go down to PT, he told us he wanted to walk. Kim was thrilled. She walked behind him to see how he would do. He had just had some of his medication so he was a little loopy, but did remarkably well. James decided they he wanted to do his PT in the playroom instead of the physical therapy gym. He started out by playing with Kim on the mat to wanting to walk the shopping cart. We took a long walk through the halls and he did very well. We went back to the playroom and James wanted to ride in the truck. We got him settled in and off he went. We traveled through the halls again and he did very well. Kim decided to clear James to walk with me by hand to the playroom where he was allowed to cruise the halls in the truck. She felt great about his accomplishments today and felt that with what she's seeing he may not need a months worth of PT.

 

The afternoon continued to do well. We played in the playroom together, cruised the halls and did some puzzles. It was a great day. I'm looking forward to what tomorrow brings.