As many of you already know, Blaine’s Birthday, I won’t mention which one, is around the corner In a few days he’ll be enjoying some mango sorbet and being another year older!

He would love your thoughts, and any cards or gifts you would like to send would be enjoyed. Feel free to post messages here for him as one day we will show this all to Blaine.

However, due to the extrememly sensitive time we have at Barrow for Blaine, we ask that there be no telephone calls to him there. He is easily distracted and can fixate on something or someone for hours at a time which in turn affects the attention they can get out of him during therapy. The time there is short, but belated calls in the months ahead he will look forward to. Gifts and cards (well. any mail that comes in actually) is opened by the family and then given to Blaine. He can’t figure out how to open mail anyway…it would sit unopened if it were up to him He would read the words then toss the package or envelope to the side….seriously.

Happy (early) Birthday to Blaine! A year older, a changed man with second chance and a different life to live have been given to you in this very special year.  And that is the greatest gift any of us could be given.

5 more to go. Blaine is doing really, really well! The Dr’s/Therapist’s made their rounds today. Overall they continue to be impressed by Blaine’s abilities. His focus has improved from last week and his willingness to participate has increased. He is fully adjusted to the schedule now and knows the Dr’s and Nurses that care for him. He knows the routine and watches the time closely.

ST – Is impressed with his progress. The continue to work on the stuttering and the other thing, which I think is called Afasia? She wanted his liquids a little thicker again as he continues to cough and they want to avoid aspiration, which can lead to pheunomia…of course. They are planning an injection to his throat of a foam type consistancy medication. They inject it directly in during a painless procedure, it lasts about 4-6 months and can be repeated, but it pushes his vocal cords next to eachother. Hoping to stimulate the paralyzed one and get more use out of it but it also (temporarily at least) allows him to speak in a more normal voice and avoid the thickened liquids.

PT – Is impressive! He sat up today unassisted, twice. He is helping to transfer himself now and without pinching or calling names   His drop foot is dissappearing and his brace went in for an adjustment to help with even more walking. He walked over 100 feet today in the forearm walker. He is really doing well in PT. This is the area he is most improving in.

OT – is going well also. He is really focusing on helping with grooming and his fine motor skills are showing some impovement. The bathroom usage is moving along as are other daily life activities.

Neuro – Is adjusting meds….again. They are giving him one they give to altzeimer’s patient’s to help aid in recovery of information but also focus. A few other’s not worth mentioning are changing as well. They are working on his agitation and his foul mouth and have changed a medication they think may be partly to blame for that.

Nutrition – Reports that he is eating 50% of his meals. Now they start tracking how consistant he is doing this. The hope is that by the time he leaves Barrow, he will be off the feeding tube. He’s moving in the right direction at 144.5 pounds today.

Things are moving along. Hard to believe it’s been 2 weeks already. His Neurologist says today that we should be seeing definite progress around the 1 month mark. If they keep up and Blaine keeps up like this, he will be meeting his goals in 2 weeks.

It’s another good day!

The weekend was relaxing for Blaine and family. It’s nice to give him a break from his daily grind. He wasn’t as thrilled with getting up and moving yesterday. Once they dragged him out of bed, he participated like a champ in all of his therapies!

PT has taken to putting him up in a sling device (which looks like something a tight rope walker would wear) and has him walking. He walked over 100 feet in both sessions. Obviously, with more strength, endurance and coordination, he will be walking. They feel certain that by the end of these 7 weeks, Blaine will be up on a forearm walker. Perhaps needing a wheel chair for a few more months as he continues his outpatient therapy for longer strolls outside.

Blaine continues to eat well….the feeding tube’s days are numbered. He weighed in this week at 144. Whoo hoo!

There is no other news other than the PT. They meet again this Thursday for their briefing on Blaine.

He is adjusted to the schedule, the new enviornment and the new staff caring for him. He seems to be enjoying the time there. I think he loves that the room is private and that his visitors are comfortable and in turn, stay longer We all know how Blaine loves a good audience.

Blaine has had a pretty good past couple of days. He continues to improve on his attention and his willingness. It’s always nice to see small bits of Blaine peeking through, but we could do without the stubbornness for right now!

The meeting of therapists went very well. The all concluded Blaine’s needs for therapy and rehabilitation were moderate to severe….meaning he needs a lot of work Each therapist has set short term goals with the families goals in mind for Blaine.

The Neurologist is beginning to take down some of Blaine’s medications. As mentioned before, this is a delicate, timely process. Her goal would be to increase motivation and manage anxiety as well as agitation bringing them to a more normal level. She is impressed at his strength and progress. She is optimistic about his recovery and his ability to gain more independance from his rehabilitation. Though he will never be quite the same Blaine, he will be very high functioning.

The Speech Therapist names something Blaine does and I can’t remember the title! I’ll fix it later. But, it basically means that he get the names of things mixed around. For example, he asks you for a blanket but what he really wants to say is that he wants a drink of water. Obviously…this can be very frustrating and the root of some of his agitation could stem from this. She also said that Blaine stutters. The will continue to work on both of these and these are both things can be learned to work with or corrected. They also changed Blaine’s liquids to regular consistency rather than the nectar consistency. Blaine will no doubt enjoy this change….anyone would! His liquids, thickened up,  looked like honey or applesauce. How refreshing, right?

Nutrition has said that once Blaine eats 50% of his food with each meal by mouth, they can remove the feeding tube. Blaine still uses it during the night to get the nutrition and calories or during the days when he refuses to eat. The food at Barrow is on steroids! Everything Blaine eats is full of protein, fat, calories and carbohydrates. Even their pudding is not something you can buy in a regular store. They weigh him all the time and he is at 143 now.  Blaine has always eaten a lot and always burned a lot of calories. He has been difficult to put weight back onto and with the added activity, they are watching this closely. He also dehydrates easily and they use the feeding tube to get much water into him. Perhaps the change in liquids will have him drinking more water. Then again, he can be seen much of the time with a cup of cranberry juice in his hand. A long time favorite of Blaines, without the vodka

Occupational Therapy is not one of Blaine’s favorites. Ironically, he does not enjoy working on “life skills.” He has refused his session once this week and she has had to really coax him a couple of others. However, this is essential to Blaine coming home and one of the top priorities. Thankfully, she is patient, kind and willing to work around Blaine’s moods. They begin official bathroom training today. He will go every 2 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night. Yes. They wake him to take him!

Physical therapy is great and they work diligently with him. He is up on a walker now strolling along with the help of his leg brace and special shoes. He walked 5 feet yesterday morning and afternoon. They also work with Blaine with things like raising him arms over his head, sitting on the floor unassisted, sitting in low back or no back chairs and rotation and range of motion. This is exhausting and difficult for Blaine. The physical challenges from being in a coma and in a bed for such a long time make these activities hard on him. He is a trooper here and he desperatly wants to walk again.

Go Blaine! Go Blaine! Go Blaine!

On a very tight therapy schedule, Blaine is working 3-4 hours in the morning and 3-4 hours in the afternoon. Each therapist sees him twice a day. With meals in between, showers and daily duties, there isn’t much down time. Visits are spent watching Blaine work much of the time.

The officially set Blaine at a 7 week stay at Barrow. They agreed that less than that is just to far of a stretch. We are very happy at that news as typical stays at Barrow are 3-4 weeks. It is rare for insurance to pay for any longer. There is an outpatient segment to the Barrow Rehabilitation that will follow this inpatient.

They have asked that the family begin to think of what life after Barrow looks like for Blaine. It appears that is a few weeks, just over a month, Blaine will be moving home. With a large family like Blaine has, there is no doubt that many of us are willing and able to care for Blaine until he is independant enough to share housing with a roomate or live alone somewhere that family can regularly check on him and we continue to have every hope that will happen one day.

Work, work, work! Blaine is hard at work! His regular schedule is Monday through Saturday Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

The therapies are going….sort of well! The PT mentioned yesterday, like the Prosthetic company last week, that the damage to Blaine’s right leg is severe. They are not sure yet of the level of use he will regain, but they continue to remain optomistic that he will walk again. Perhaps with a limp, perhaps with a cane but with much work, it can happen. We all know what that means to Blaine! If there is a 1% chance it could be done…he will give it all he’s got.

He is still adjusting to his new surroundings. Asserting his will in not being completely agreeable to all of the tasks they are working on with him. He is swearing and angry with them at times, but joyful and willing to try others. Luckily, these folks are very used to seeing people just like Blaine. They redirect and go back to the activity he was refusing. One way or another….they are getting it out of him!

The Neurophycologist will see Blaine once per week. They don’t adjust medication, that is the Neurologist and Mom sees her on Thursday afternoon. They do, however, work with Blaine on assesing his current neurological state regarding behaviors and abilities. They are impressed at Blaine’s progress thus far. After the accident and complications, there is no medical reason to believe he would have been able to make this kind of progress, let alone that he continues to keep it up! His swearing is not unusual and most of the staff seem to just ignore it’s happeneing other than reminding Blaine “That’s not appropriate. We don’t talk to eachother like that.” It’s kind of funny at times! His lack of motivation is also par for the course. This is a lot of work for Blaine and it will take him a little while to adjust to the schedule. They did some little things with him….asked him the year, his name, his age. He was correct about 80% of the time. They then asked him to repeat 5 things in a row…rabbit. boat. car. hotel. dog and he could do that all of time but when they returned to it 10 minutes later, he could not remember any of them. He could read, do math, time and comprehend it for the most part. Memory is an issue. It’s not concrete that he will never get it back, but he seems to have little recall of the events of the past 6-7 years. It’s not completely gone, but not completely there. We become most comfortable with long term memories and they are easiest to recall as they become ingrained. This is very common. He is getting better at what we call short term memory…What did you have for breakfast? Who came to see you today? That is an indication that his cognition, or his ability to be tought has not been affected. And to those who have entered Blaine’s life in the past 6- 7 years, it’s an opportunity for him to get to know you now and establish a relationship going forward.  He may not get your name, but he will know your face after while and his smile is adorable when he looks at you that way A perfect example is a visitor that was a nurse at the last facility he was in came to see him yesterday. He knew they were familiar to him right away. So. Neurophycology says he is definitely making great progress and it will only continue to improve. This stuff is interesting to hear!

Another sweet thing that happened….a Neorologist came to see Blaine that was his Dr. when he first came back from Denver to Phoenix. He cared for Blaine in those first few weeks. He was amazed to see the progress Blaine has made and positive in the thoughts he had for Blaine’s future.

A medical mystery/miracle Blaine is! Who knew that in a world of fluke events, Blaine should be on the Discovery Channel’s ” I shouldn’t Be Alive.”

Stay tuned…more Thursday after the Neurologist speaks!

Sunday…the day of rest. Blaine had a quiet, uneventful day. He had some visitors and that was about the extent of this day. There is no therapy scheduled on Sunday’s.

Yesterday…he continued to eat well. They weighed him in at 142, up from his lowest of 123 so that is the right direction. He is toileting and performing well at the life skills they are working on thus far…. brushing his teeth twice a day, helping to dress, combing his hair and more.  He stood up in PT and was more agreeable to walking in his new brace and new shoes. He had 2 rounds of PT which wore him out and he slept really well last night.

His Neurologist was in to see him this morning….very early on her rounds. We are anxious to hear what she has to say tomorrow as there was no way of hearing today.

Blaine seems to have started to settle again. He was very “random” the past few days after moving. It’s to be expected. All new surroundings, all new people caring for him, a rigorous schedule of therapy and treatments. It’s bound to take a few days to adjust. It appears he is on the right track. He has also figured out the nurses have no time at Barrow for chit chat and is now ignoring the “girls.”  Lisa and I are supposed to introduce him to new ones Talking at the nurse’s station has been one of Blaine’s favorite pass times until the move.

Tomorrow is a busy day again! Blaine’s days are filled to the brim with things to do. Tomorrow is also the end of the quarantine period. All of his labs came back and he is a healthy patient.

Good to hear as the work must go on! More this week as the Barrow adventure continues…..

First days are most always not very productive. Blaine had a good day in that he saw an Occupational Therapist, a Speech Therapist and Physical Therapist along with a few other Dr.’s, nurses and a Chaplin. He however, didn’t really get much work done.

He told me on the phone the food there was much better and the official word is that he ate fabulous at breakfast and at lunch.

The gave Blaine a Vail bed to use here. This is to avoid the problem of him slipping out of bed. They cannot use bed rails or restraints on him and were putting mats and such on the floor before to help with any kind of injury that may occur. The Vail bed is like the enclosure you see around an outdoor trampoline. He said he love his new bed and the cover around it and we love he is not able to slip or roll out of the bed any longer.

Wearing his new brace, the got him to stand in PT but not to attempt walking. He seemed to be distracted by the brace but they were assuring that would change with time. Mom had to assure them that Blaine indeed has the skill and ability to walk…he was choosing not to.  A little more of Blaine’s stubborness showing through here!

The Speech Therapist ordered another swallow test. These show them what kinds of foods Blaine is able to tolerate as well as the liquid consistancy of his drinks. Well. She will order that when she gets the final notes, which were not included from the Skilled Nursing Facility but should be there in the next couple of days. They will continue with the exercises to strengthen Blaine’s vocal cords. At an ENT consult a few months back, we became aware that the left side of his vocal cords were paralyzed from the accident. They can work to strengthen them for Blaine to have a louder whisper, but Blaine does not speak in a regular voice.

A Chaplin came in to visit as well. Our family has varying opinions on religion, but one thing we share is the belief that prayer has helped carry not only Blaine, but all of us through this. I am delighted, as one of the Catholics in the family, to say when she asked, “Do you believe in God?” Blaine’s response was a loud, “Oh yes.”

A visit from an Occupation Therapist…..now this is the “lifeskill” portion of rehabilitation. Teaching Blaine to use the toilet, hygene, cook, clean and the like. They were no longer available today for an update when Mom arrived and we eagerly await their thoughts from today.

And lastly, a visit from a Neuro Psycologist. They have scheduled his consult on Monday afternoon. This is an evaluation of the medications Blaine takes and also to see what he may need to control aggitation, anxitey, depression and so on. Tramatic Brain Injury survivors are difficult to medicate but is almost always necessary in some way, at least temporarily to regulate their emotions and thought process.

He is a bit random in his chit chat today. I wouldn’t use the word confused, but he is in a new place, with a whole new staff. He seems to enjoy it but it will take some time to adjust. One of the things that has changed about Blaine is his ability to adjust to change….it takes longer now and he is more irritated by it. He seems happy about things, just a bit off.

All in all….a good day!

A little red tape cutting by knowing the right people got Blaine into Barrow today! Blaine refers to it as the “Barrow School.” He is safe and sound in a private room. The room sounds spacious and comfortable for Blaine as well as visitors. Mom spoke highly of the facility, it’s organization and their willingness to hit the ground running….very early with PT at 6:30am – 7:00am tomorrow morning. Can you imagine Blaine’s face when they take him to therapy that early? Priceless!

The staff rallied around him, started asking him questions, asking him to follow simple commands…apparently getting to know him better and Blaine was agreeable to it. Mom rattled off some basic medical things relevant to him and his care, at least for tonight. More of that will come over the next few days as they continue to create a plan for his care and rehabilitation. There is a schedule and a definite agenda here….they want all of Blaine’s attention to the point of asking that phone calls be limited. Blaine is here to work, not play

This is a wonderful day! It marks the beginning of a journey and the end of another. This time at Barrow Neurological is when Blaine will find his independence, his strength and his endurance challenged but a good fight is just what Blaine likes. This is when we will find the Blaine that survived one of the worst tragedies our family has had to live through, and for this we are so thankful.

Anticipation, anxiety and joyfulness all wrapped into one. This is a special time for our family. Keep Blaine in your thoughts and prayers and keep rooting for him in his fight to come back, it means so much to us.

Keep the spirit! Thank you for sharing this journey with us.

Love,

Heather

I am glad to report a few very positive things. Dad was fitted for his new leg brace and will receive it in the next couple of days. The family was suggested to get Dad some new shoes that will be more proper for his physical therapy (PT) process, as well as a half-way decent pair for continued use while not in PT. We are working on getting those for him over the next couple days at most. Dad seems to dislike the idea of wearing the brace and such due to the discomfort, but also seems to be aware of the long-term benefit and necessity.

As much good news as it is that Dad will is on his way to relearning to walk and continuing to make gains, today marks another special day. We have been made aware that Dad is set for admittance into the acute rehabilitation program at Barrow in only a short time. Short time was defined as somewhere between days and weeks, but not months. With as much red tape as these things tend to have, it looks like we were able to luck out with a few connections. Once put in touch with the proper people, due to those connections, we cut down the time for this process exponentially.

Dad, I love you and am ecstatic to see the progress you will make in the near future. I am hopeful that this will be the push you need to really bring your goals into focus. I can’t wait to be there as we begin to meet more of your recovery goals. Keep the Spirit.

~Aaron

Blaine is being fitted today with a new leg “brace” in hopes that will help that right leg with the walking. His dash across the PT room last week is something they continue to work on. Walking is a focus of Blaine’s right now and this should help him with that. Along with some sturdy high top shoes, they are hopeful he will be on a walker in the near future and that would make Blaine very happy.

He figured out dialing long distance over the weekend and I became a part of what Mom, Aaron, and Clint spoke of. He is adorable to chat with, but not so much at 3:00 in the morning I have changed my opinion about starting up his cell phone again to say the least!

They have adjusted a few of his medications and his aggitation and nervousness seem to have settled again. Medication is a difficult thing to manage with someone like Blaine but they are working at getting it balanced all the time.

His appetite has picked back up and he now is telling them what he would like to eat. To the point that the Dietitian ran to the store the other day for spinach and “white cheese.” The people that care for Blaine definitely have an affection for him. I think his constant progression is motivating and inspiring to them.

We’re keeping the spirit as Blaine would like to hear and are hopeful he is on the road to gaining more independence with each passing day. There are big changes on the horizon and we await them with much anticipation.

Love,
Heather