Day 6 of Jim's Recovery

First off, I just want to send out another HUGE thank you to all our neighbors, friends, and family who have supported us and kept us afloat these last 6 days. I am crying while I am writing this because I just read through all of your comments and am so grateful that so many of you care for Dad so much. I know that with so much love, prayers, and positive energy flowing towards Dad he will get better in time. I just hate time!! Forgive us (Mom, Erin, and Jamie) if we seem out of it or irritable we are moving out of that numb faze to the "how can I handle this" faze.

Well, day 6 brings news that Dad will soon be moved out of the NCCU to a different department. There they will continue to monitor and treat him. They are moving him out of the NCCU because he is no longer in critical condition but he is not anywhere near better yet. The other sad, sad news is if he does not respond then after a couple weeks he will need to be moved to a nursing home. Oh, I can't imagine Dad in a nursing home... The reason he will be moved to a nursing home is because he is not responding and cannot participate in physical therapy. I'm just praying that the next couple weeks will show some response from Dad.

On his progress today the Physical Therapist tried to get Dad to stand again today. Unfortunately, he would not and barely sat up. He would slump down and not hold up his weight. The nurse did feel that this could be due to his medication. The nurses are trying to get Dad's days and nights correct. So they are giving him less pain meds during the day to keep him awake (but he is severely uncomfortable) and then sleep meds at night. Hopefully tomorrow he won't be too drugged so that he can participate in his physical therapy.

This evening Matt (my husband) and I went to the hospital. Dad had his eyes open quite a bit and was very restless. Still no recognition of us is showing in his eyes but he is looking! To me Dad's responses seem delayed for everything. It's as if he is swimming and he needs to swim through the haze to respond. Not that I'm a nurse but I swear some of his delayed hand squeezes or face scrunches are to a question asked a few minutes prior. For instance, if any of you can remember, whenever Dad was asked something he didn't agree with or thought was funny or he was concerned about he would scrunch up his eyes and mouth. So I will ask him something or tell him something and a few minutes later or sometimes right after he will scrunch up his face. Sometimes I know it is because the pain, but others I would swear are responses to questions.

Another plus is that Dad was starting to mumble tonight. One time he said "ow" the others were not understandable. It was just different sounds, but different is good, right? The doctors and nurses weren't as hyped as I was. But then his mumbles made me a little worried because they were just that, mumbles, which really made him sound like he is truly not mentally there.

Also as Matt was talking to Dad he mentioned Dad's dogs names, Angelo and Crowja. At the mention of the names he lifted up his eyebrows. This is the first time he has done this! I don't want to give myself a false sense of hope but all I have to hold onto is hope. So I look for the positive in all Dad does. The doctors like to tell us that to truly know if his mind is getting better is if he can repeat things or do things on command. I think he is trying to communicate through Jim responses the doctors don't know about!