Auntie Helen, Uncle Mark and Carrie visit from Chicago and Marco Island

Josh who still "lives in the moment" had a great time with Uncle Mark, Auntie Helen and Carrie.  Josh was happy to see everyone.

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Josh particularly enjoyed himself with Uncle Mark. 

Uncle Mark was great with Josh.  He came with us to Josh's acupuncture appointment and spoke with Elisa, Josh's acupuncturist about the ancient Chinese remedy. 

Josh is a team player and participates willingly in his treatments.  These points on the ear stimulate the brain.  We're trying to get Josh's short term memory back.

You can see the acupuncture needles in Josh's head and hands.  They don't hurt once they are placed appropriately in the right spot.  Josh is a great patient!

Hopefully something miraculous will happen soon because I am getting weary...  Unfortunately there is no magic pill to get Josh back to what he once was.  The good news is that we started speech therapy and hopefully will get in 50 sessions before the end of the year.  I am pushing and fighting for what Josh is entitled to under our health insurance plan.  Everything is a fight.  I walked into Sharp a few days ago and was told by one of the administrators that I would have to start paying for his outpatient therapies --  $140 an hour times 9 times a week  --  $1260 a week.  Wow...  I was upset.    After speaking with her, I made several phone calls and learned that this was not correct.  So all is good at the moment.  I am pushing for those 50 hours of speech therapy before the end of the year.  I think Josh is going to do very well with his speech therapist - a guy named Lance who is very cool and relates well with Josh. 

Physically, Josh is coming along.  His balance is improving.  He is still a fall risk and needs supervision around the clock.  I am sick of sleeping on the air mattress in his room, but everytime I try to sleep in my own bed, the dogs follow me to my room and Josh yells for the dogs over and over until you want to shoot yourself.    "Ruffy, Daisy, Ruffy, Daisy, Ruffy, Daisy."  So, I just give in and sleep on the air mattress. 

Elsie, his nurse, is leaving on Tuesday morning.  So, Josh will be getting a new caregiver.  Hopefully she will be as good as Elsie.  Maybe she will be better!  That would be great.  I need a lucky break - someone firm, but kind, someone who is willing to do some exercises with Josh both physically and mentally.  Lance will be giving Josh homework to do.  He needs mental stimulation and structure.  I get upset when I think of him just hanging out all day when he doesn't have therapies and walking to the refrigerator every ten minutes.  What kind of life is that for a 20 year old kid?   I looked into the Napa Institute in Los Angeles which is a great place that provides 6 hours of intensive physical therapy a day.  No place around here does that.  I spoke at length with the owner whose daughter has a brain injury.  He said, "You will see results.  The program consists of 6 hours a day in a gym for 15 straight days  with skilled physical therapists.  His mind will improve and his body will definitely change..."  The problem is it is out-patient and I would have to live in the corporate living quarters.  Caregivers are not provided.  After thinking about his program, I decided that I could get the same thing here.  I'd just have to do more running around. 

Josh still has severe short term memory deficits.  I need to really pick Dr. Stenehjem's brain and ask specific questions next time I see him.  I want to know what I can expect.  I want to be reassured that he will improve and get better.  The big mystery and incredible source of horrible anxiety for me is HOW MUCH BETTER....  It has been six months since the injury.  They say to give it two years...    I am trying to stay positive, but sometimes, like today, I am overwhelmingly sad.

On a good note, Carrie took us to her friends' restaurants, Savory in Encinitas and The Lodge at Torrey Pines.  We brought Josh with us and he did great!  He still has his gourmet tastes.  Carrie's friends, especially Jeff, were wonderful and hospitable, generous and kind.   They really roll out the red carpet for Carrie! 

I want to thank Carrie for bringing Josh a monogrammed Four Seasons robe.  Hopefully when Josh gets better, we can all laugh about how he thought he was at the Four Seasons when he was at Sharp Rehab...  Josh is such a character - a high roller like his Dad.  Also, Carrie, thanks for my Kiehl's products and Natalie's beautiful headband!  

Also, thanks, Uncle Mark, for going through Josh's football and baseball cards and picking out the pricey ones!  Auntie Helen, thanks for playing Black Jack with Josh and hanging out.  We had fun!  Natalie really enjoyed herself !

 

       

 

 

Josh is home and we're all adjusting...

The Lawrence family visits Josh...  That's Josh's buddy, Kyle, on the right.  He called 911 on that infamous morning.   

Josh is happy to be home after spending over five months in hospitals.  He has no recollection of those five months due to post-traumatic stress amnesia....but I suppose that's a good thing.  Who wants to remember being on live support and fighting for your life?

The first thing Josh did when he walked into the house was say, "Wow, this looks just like our house..."  I said, "Josh, look around...that's a picture of us on the wall."  He then says, "Wow, this IS our house."  How brilliant is that! 

We're getting into the routine of being an outpatient at Sharp Rehab.  He has about fifteen hours of out-patient therapy per week.  It takes a long time to get it together to go out the door and be on time.  It's S L O W.  To make a 9 a.m. appointment, we have to get up at 7 a.m.  We have to get Josh out of bed, on his feet, to the bathroom, to the kitchen table for breakfast, back to the bathroom, into the bedroom to get dressed, then down the stairs and into the car.....     I sleep on an air mattress in Josh's room so I can help him get up in the middle of the morning to use the bathroom and also to keep a watch so he doesn't fall.  He has already fallen twice on the watch of a clueless caregiver.  Caring for Josh is MAJOR.  I feel old and tired...

Elsie is the best nurse and caregiver anyone could ask for.  However, she can't work 24/7 with no breaks.  She sleeps on an air mattress in the family room, close by.  She is extremely efficient and helpful.  She took a few days off and we had this clueless caregiver that claimed she was a nurse with experience in brain injuries.  We soon learned that this was all untrue.  She was pathetic.  I was wondering why she would just kind of stand by and let me do everything.  One morning we were on our way to therapy and I noticed Josh's knuckles were bleeding on both hands.  I knew he had fallen.  I confronted her and she says he slipped when they were walking down the stairs.  She also said, "He pushed me and I am more injured than he is."  Josh was holding his shoulder and I looked under his shirt and noticed that it, too, was bruised and bleeding.  I was livid!  We arrived at Sharp Rehab and I had the occupational therapist check him out thoroughly.  She said he was just a bit swollen, but nothing was broken. 

Later on that evening, I went out with some friends and Natalie was home doing her homework at the kitchen table.  Natalie calls me and says, "Mom, Josh wants to use the bathroom and the caregiver is asleep on the couch...."      So, needless to say we got rid of that gal.  Elsie is back and we're thankful!  I think the plan is to have Elsie 4 days and another gal named Celeste three days.  We'll see how everything works out.

I am looking into other options for Josh such as a place called Learning Services in Escondido which is a more structured environment specializing in integrating brain injured patients back into society.  However, that place was pretty low level.  I checked it out and it was so overwhelmingly sad....   There is another place called the Howard House which I will check out.  Josh has only been home less than 2 weeks, so we have to wait things out and see how he does.  It is just so much work, even with a full time nurse! 

I can't wait until Josh starts speech therapy.  He needs it so badly.  He slurs all his words together and talks so fast.  It is very difficult to understand him.  Yesterday when I got home, Elsie said Josh answered the phone which was a first!  I looked at the caller id and noticed that Joyce had called.  Of course, Josh has no recollection of the conversation, but Elsie said they talked for about 5 minutes!  That's a start...but I am sure Joyce had no idea what he was saying.  I can understand him because I am with him so much.  Hopefully with time and therapy his speech will improve.  He reads well and understands.

Auntie Helen, Uncle Mark and Carrie are coming to visit.  That will be fun.  Josh and Natalie will really enjoy that.  You guys are definitely staying in our house.  Uncle Mark and Auntie Helen can sleep in the master bedroom since I sleep on the air mattress in Josh's room which believe it or not is comfortable.  Carrie will sleep upstairs in the guest room.  So that's settled.  Also Gina Davis is having a fundraiser at the Four Seasons Aviara so I got us tickets to that event.  It's called See Jane and it's always a blast.  They'll be comedians there and you'll get to meet Gina Davis.  She is quite cool! 

JOSH GOES HOME AFTER MORE THAN FIVE MONTHS IN HOSPITALS!!

Josh poses with Ed, one of his favorite nursing assistants as he is being wheeled through the garden and to the car.  Josh is through with sleeping  in this place.  He'll sleep in his own bed tonight after sleeping in hospital beds for more than five months!  How about that one?   We're not through with Sharp Rehab....we'll be back for outpatient therapies on Tuesday.

Josh poses with Joan, his nurse and nursing assistants as he is wheeled out of the hospital.  The gal with the light blue pants and black top is Elsie, the nurse we hired to take care of Josh at home.  She is darling.

Josh is so happy to be leaving the hospital and poses happily with Joan, his nurse.  All his stuff is packed up and ready to go.

 

HOME AT LAST!

On Saturday, September 1st at 11:00 a.m., we left the hospital and headed home with our new nurse, Elsie.  Josh immediately perked up as we got closer to our house.  He recognized all the freeway signs and was so happy to see the Del Mar Heights Road exit and the Via de la Valle exit.  He was talking non-stop...reading all the freeway signs outloud as we got closer and closer.  I said, "Hey Josh, which way do we go?"  He said, "Take a right on Via de la Valle."  I said, "Which way is that east or west?"  He says in a sarcastic tone, "East."  Josh knows where he lives.

We get home and get Josh up the stairs.  That was a bit of a struggle because his sense of space is still off and he doesn't always put his feet flat on the stairs... When he walked into the house, he says, "This looks just like our house."  I said, "Josh, look at the picture of us on the wall..."  He then says, "This IS our house."  He was laughing.  The dogs were barking and Josh was happy!! 

I had actually gone grocery shopping and stocked up the frig for the big event.  Josh hung out in the family room and watched ESPN and the Padres baseball channel all day.  He yelled out Ruffy and Daisy a thousand times... We sat at the kitchen table and had lunch and dinner.  Natalie was happy that the frig was finally well stocked.   She had her friends over and they made turkey sandwiches and ate watermelon.  

I had filled Josh's prescriptions on Friday night.  He is down to two medicines only -- an anti-seizure pill and Adavan.  He is supposed to take one of each every eight hours. I must say that Dr. Stenehjem did an excellent job in weaning Josh from the morphine and all of his other medicines.  Josh was on a laundry list of meds at one time.  Slowly and skillfully Dr. S weaned him from the opiates, the beta-blockers and the blood pressure medicines.  Thanks, Dr. S., you're the best!  You're fine-tuning Josh.

I decided to skip the mid-day dosage of Adavan the first day.  Then, it was 11:00 p.m. and Josh was wired.   We finished watching the USC football game and Josh was reading every score on the screen.  He said he wasn't tired and wanted to stay up.  Elsie and I were exhausted.  We finally got Josh in bed.  We all slept in his room the first night.   I bought a couple of air mattresses for convenience.  You can put them anywhere and they're pretty comfortable.  We made it through the first night.  Josh was unscathed!  He is still a fall risk and needs supervision 24/7... the joys of a brain injury.   As time goes on, he'll get steadier and stronger.  I just hope he stays as happy as he is.  He is so sweet and agreeable.  He's transformed!!!   I imagine as time goes on and he continues to wake up cognitively, he'll become frustrated, especially with the short term memory limitations.  You can only take one day at a time. 

I am happy to be home.  I am thrilled to have found Elsie.  She is efficient and kind -- extremely attentive.  I told her Josh is her only concern.  His safely and well-being come first.  I found Elsie through a service which was started by a gal who used to be the head rehab nurse at Sharp.  What more can I ask for! 

On Sunday, we went to hbot.  Josh was in a great mood.  Elsie, Josh and I went out for submarine sandwiches after hbot.  Josh always comes out of the chamber starving as it burns through your blood sugar quickly.  I notice that Josh is no longer acting wired and crazy after hbot.  He used to confabulate amazing stories about this and that - watching fights and insisting on going to supporting events.  Now, he gets out of the chamber and he's pretty cool...   I hope that continues.   

Tomorrow we start outpatient therapy at Sharp.  I think things are looking up!