Sorry for such a late Post.  Today has already been a busy day.

Jackie’s night went fairly well.  He coughed a bit but fortunately did not get sick.  His hands were busy most of the night with only brief periods of rest. Jim and I started dividing the night shift in half. It is helping us feel a little bit more rested.

The Speech Therapy team came to see Jackie this morning.  I think he was tired from not resting much overnight.  Even with all of Lenora’s tricks to open his eyes, we were initially unsuccessful. Once again I called Lindsay into the room.  Her voice is what Jackie needed to hear.  He opened his eyes only slightly but it was still nice to catch a glimpse of them.  Jackie was tired, every command seemed like hard work for him this morning.  The team will be back for more therapy tomorrow.

Jackie received his daily meds, blood draws, peg site wound changes and all the other checks that happen on a regular basis.

Then the Trauma team made a visit to take out the stitches around his trach and replace it with a new one.  The  Neuro team also stopped by and said at this point they are going to just watch the extra fluid around Jackie’s brain.  We will check in with them again early next week.

Next up was the dynamic duo of Tara and Eric, the OT and PT team.  They always give Jackie a good workout.  With their help Jackie does exercises to strengthen his muscles like holding on to things and even attempting to pull himself forward.  Jackie does not do any of this on his own, they hold his body up for him. They also held him up into a standing position for a very short period of time. He is not strong enough to hold his head up so they assist him by holding his helmet for him.  During the session they thought music would be helpful.  Since I practiced my new ukulele in Jackie’s room over Christmas break I thought I would provide the musical entertainment.  In some way I hope it helped him know we were there rooting him on.

He is now reclined in a therapy chair.  We have to keep an eye on his heart rate during all of the PT and when necessary stop the exercises or get him back in bed.

Think this is all the updates I have for now.  I’ll post again tonight.