Today was Saturday so there was no therapy except occupational therapy. Unfortunately we did not get there in time for the therapy. He said that they spent more time with the pushing with the stick and things that they started on Friday.
When we got there he was outside with the nurse, Joey. They have a wonderful courtyard behind the Polytrauma center that they can go to for outside air. He seemed to be in a good mood and we spent a lot of time just talking with each other all of us. We finally went inside and went to the day room and watched Larry and John Trolinger in a few games of pool. Nathan was talking very clear during this time. We also had the TV on Fx and he was enjoying the programs that were on. They were funny and he spent a lot of time laughing. He also kept saying "yumm" when the food commercials came on. They told him yesterday that they would do a swallow test this next week to see if he could swallow and keep the food in his esophagus. If he can then they will begin to help him get back to eating. He is excited about this as you can imagine. He has had several incidences with the therapists when they were giving him a "taste" of something by rubbing it on his tongue and he has shut his mouth and not let them have it back. On Thursday when we were trying to watch some fireworks his friends the Ferrins came up. We were talking about this and the things that he had been able to "taste" by rubbing the flavor on his tongue and I asked him if he wanted to have me rub a gold fish cracker on his tongue. When I did he immediately shut his mouth and would not let me have it. Then he left it on his tongue to melt. Obviously he has survived.
This afternoon we spent some time on the courtyard again and he was able to call his brothers and sisters except Erick and talk with them. Erick did not answer and we left him a message but he did not call back so he must have been somewhere. We also called my Mom and talked to her some. Each time he started to talk to them he got upset and started to cry for joy. He has said several times this week that he misses his family and sometimes he is talking about Sara and the kids that are in Missouri this week but sometimes he has said that he misses his brothers and sisters. I think that is what he meant tonight.
The article that Maren sent him on Facebook made him think that maybe he could use his Viola to help strengthen his right hand that is weaker so he wants me to bring that up tomorrow. We will talk to the occupational therapist about it on Monday.
It seems that reading a conference talk every night and saying a prayer with him has helped to calm the paranoia that he sometimes feels about his medicines. He really seems to enjoy it and it has helped to bring up concerns that he wants to talk about.
Some times he can carry on a good conversation but it is hard to understand some words still so we have to use the alphabet board. He said today that the alphabet board was a life saver. It has got easier as he can now point to the letters. They say that his tongue and the back of his throat needs more strength to say some of the letter sound so we can understand them.
He complained of numbness on his right side last Saturday and I flipped out because I thought it was a sign of stroke again but they did two CT scans and found nothing different from last time. He did not complain about it all week and today he started complaining about it. The theory tonight is that maybe on Saturday's when he does not have so many therapies to keep him busy he notices the numb feelings more. We will see.
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