12/18 1:00pm

Dad had a good morning.  We had some "salon time", washing his hair and giving him a pedicure.  I threatened to paint his toenails since he was defenseless, but I was a good girl and resisted.  He was able to brush his teeth and floss all on his own.  He had his best PT session yet, after doing some leg exercises he walked with a walker out of his room and halfway down the hall.  Then he came back to his room and walked the same distance again only this time without the walker and only using the assistance of the physical therapist.  He's getting stronger every day.  He also had a visit from Meme and Gary Hall, it's great to have such wonderful family and friends to lift his spirits.

He's also talking a bit more, using more complex sentences and words.  Although he's definitely still foggy, particularly with his short term memory.  He seems pretty good with recalling a lot of things from his long term memory, but for example each day I need to remind him why he's in the hospital and what the plan is.  From what I understand of his encephalitis, that is very much to be expected.  He's also still very tired and spends a lot of time sleeping, also consistent with recovering from encephalitis.  In addition to the physical fatigue of being in bed for 14 days now, his brain gets tired quickly and needs a lot of rest to recover and rebuild.  I notice he's quick to get overstimulated.  He likes a little bit of music, but before very long he needs it turned off because it's just too much for him.  He can concentrate on brief direct conversations for a short time when there are no other distractions, but when there are other people talking in the background it gets more difficult for him.  If you ask him a question right now, it's better to ask him a question with clear specific choices.  For example, if I ask an open-ended question like "what do you want for breakfast?", his brain starts working hard thinking first what breakfast is, then cataloguing every breakfast item he can remember, and THEN trying to decide a preference between all of those things.  It's something that is incredibly simple for all of us, but very taxing for someone whose brain is healing.  So right now it's much better to give him clear choices and say "would you like oatmeal or would you like yogurt?".

But again, today is better than yesterday.  I know that his recovery is expected to take many more weeks and months, he may likely still be getting things back after a year.  But he continues to head in the right direction.