1/30

This may be Dad's last week of PT!  He's been going to the gym and doing so well with his physicality that we don't think he really needs the PT anymore.  So his physical therapist is putting together a big "test" for Thursday for him, which will determine if that will be his last session.  Woohoo!

In other news, he got a fancy brand spankin' new computer.  His old one was a dinosaur and had been trying to go extinct for some time, so Marty drove him to the Apple store in Lancaster.  They looked at a couple and decided to get the newest Macbook Pro.  I told him the computer is not only his reward for good behavior this month, but also for contending with the crowded Park City Mall on a Saturday night!

1/25

This was a good week.

The neck pain is still very much present, but has been downgraded to mostly a dull aching throb instead of a constant sharp stabbing pain.  He's often able to get in a position where he has very little pain for awhile.  He's doing awesome in speech therapy, the therapist is giving him more complex logic puzzles.  They're hard!  I swear it takes me just as long to work them out.  He also has a yellow homework folder with a variety of different cognitive exercises to do at home each night.  When we first came home from rehab, I had to pester, torment, and bribe him to do any of this stuff at home.  Now he does it totally of his own accord, and even does the daily crossword on top of that.  He has done something physical every day, if he didn't have PT then he went to the gym.  Tomorrow I'm taking him to Gold's again.  This time I'm going to motivate myself to actually work out instead of lazily trailing him around with a cup of coffee.  February 2nd is his last scheduled PT appointment.  Initially we thought he might need to extend it another couple of weeks, but now I'm doubtful we'll need to.  I think after February 2nd he'll just transition to doing everything at Gold's.  He still has to work hard on the balance exercises in PT, but even he admitted that he would have had a hard time with them even before his illness.

He's gone to pick up Zoey from preschool with me twice this week too, which was great.  Zoey gets all excited when she sees him through the window.  

He's very anxious to start driving his truck again.  We're going to ease into it, at the end of next week I'm going to take him to a big parking lot and let him drive around.  We'll do that for about a week.  When that goes well, I'll start letting him drive on back roads to go places, always with me in the passenger seat.  We'll progress to more and more driving around the area until he's completely ready to have his truck back.  I think he'll be back to driving on his own by the end of February.  Honestly, he probably would do just fine earlier but I'd like to just be on the cautious side and take it slow.  

Sometimes I can momentarily forget how serious and life-threatening his illness was.  He's recovering so much faster and so much better than anyone thought, it's easy to lose sight of.  Especially when he's excelling so well physically and doing so great with his cognitive exercises.  But the biggest reason he's gotten so far so fast is through his dogged determination and constant struggle to improve.  It's cliche, but my dad is a serious fighter.  This recovery hasn't come easy, he's had to earn it.

He continues to battle difficulties with short-term memory, like recalling what he had for breakfast or keeping track of his exact schedule for the week.  He makes it a point to ask enough times until it's cemented though.  Sometimes he might mix up details or dates.  He still can get a bit sensory-overwhelmed in crowded or noisy places or just when his mind has been working on overdrive, but that's getting less.  Things often come up that he can't quite think of or find the answer to but he fixates on them determinedly until he figures it out.  Like remembering which way he used to drive home from the gym or what one of the bridges is called in Harrisburg.  So many things flit in and out of our minds so easily.  He has to work really hard to think of some things that we just take for granted.  But it's that hard work and determination that are pushing him to improve leaps and bounds ahead of when we thought he would.  

1/20

Quick update to celebrate a couple new milestones from this week:

- My dad went with me to pick Zoey up from preschool.  This is something he did all the time before getting sick, he was her primary transportation to school.  So this was a nice step in returning to his old routine.  I know he really enjoyed it and you should have seen Zoey - when she saw Pop Pop in the hall she went tearing out of the classroom into his arms.

- We went to Gold's gym today to restart his workout routine.  Ok, so we didn't actually get to work out since it was closed, apparently last night some drunk drove into a telephone pole and knocked out power to the block.  But I figure he gets credit for showing up.

- Today he also went to lunch and spent the afternoon with Gary Hall, which was his first non-immediate family/non-therapy related outing.  He said he had a great time and it did him a lot of good.

- I think the increased dose of Neurontin is finally starting to help with his neck pain.  He's now able to occasionally get into positions where he is temporarily pain-free.  This would have impossible just a week ago.

Little by little making progress and restoring more normalcy back into life!

1/16

Oh wow I am so bad, I can't believe I'm almost a week behind in posting an update!  Many apologies!

There aren't an abundance of giant changes, the past week has been more of a slow and steady climb.  He had his follow-up appointment with Infectious Disease (they are another team involved in managing his viral encephalitis).  Like everyone else, they were completely impressed with how well he's doing.  The attending physician said that he was "staggered" and that my dad looks the way he would expect him to look at 3-4 months out, not just 6 weeks out.  His mental status has really been rebounding quite nicely.

Of course the big drawback continues to be the neck pain though.  It's constant and awful and affects everything he does.  The Neurontin has helped a tiny bit, but it really seems minimal.  We'll give it some more time and then explore some other options while his brain is healing.  It's hard to say how long the neck pain will last, it may be another couple weeks, it may be another couple months.  That is an eternity when you have constant pain.

He's doing excellent with his outpatient PT and speech therapy.   Definitely getting stronger and sharper every day.  He told me today that he is anxious to get back to Gold's Gym, which is yet another encouraging sign of recovery.  I can tell he really wants to get his life and daily routine back.  So tomorrow I'm going to take him to Gold's Gym in the morning for a re-introduction to that aspect.  However, I should say that it will not be quite like his previous daily routine.  Did you know that my dad used to go to Gold's five days a week from 4:00am - 7:00am?  Yeah, this girl is NOT getting up that early.  I'm thinking more like 10:00.

His other short term goals have been to organize his belongings (which until now have been in clear tupperware containers from when we moved them back from Louisiana) and start attending Sunday breakfast at Aunt Evelyn's house.  His major long term goal is to drive his truck again.  He really misses that.  He's not quite ready just yet and he'll need to pass some tests by Occupational Therapy in order to drive again, but it's a great goal to aspire to and hopefully won't be too far off.  It's the real symbol of him getting his life back.

1/10

Ok, my dad is kicking some serious butt in this recovery process.  Ever since Zoey's birthday party I've noticed he's much more back to HIMSELF, I love it!!!  He's brighter and sharper, smiling, sense of humor is back, he's awake a lot more.  His mental status is greatly improved, he's still a bit slower than normal and quick to get mentally tired-out and overstimulated, but he's much closer now to his pre-illness baseline.  It's fabulous.

Of course the overall barrier though continues to be the intense neck pain.  It's difficult to treat too since it's not muscular and it's not skeletal.  It's nerve-related pain due to the irritated lining of his brain.  Think shingles pain.  Only think of a shingles-like pain that shoots straight into your brainstem.  It's constant and intense and affects everything.  The pain affects his ability to concentrate, to read, to do simple tasks like shower or get dressed, to sleep.  It's temporary, but it takes a long time to go away due to the slow healing process of the brain.  But once he gets that pain under control, he's going to have a huge surge in returning to his normal functioning.

He had a neurology follow-up appointment yesterday and they were positively THRILLED with his progress.  Everyone says that he's recovering and improving so much faster than anyone expected.  I thought it would take him a good three months to get where he is today.  My dad always has been an overachiever.  We also got a prescription for a new medication, Neurontin, to try to cope with his neck pain.  I'm really hoping it will make a difference.  The only drawback is that it can tend to make people a little drowsy, we've finally gotten him to wake up so I'm hoping that's not too much of an issue with him.  But even if it is, it's worth it to get him through some of this pain for the present time.

He had a really good PT session today.  He actually said during the session that he was glad to be there and had been looking forward to it for the past day!  He was smiling and joking with the therapist and did much better with his balance and endurance.  Big improvement from just a week ago.

1/8

Today was great cause for celebration, it was Zoey's 3rd birthday and her Pop Pop was able to come over to our house for a small birthday gathering.  AND he wore real clothes for the first time!  Until now he's been in sweatpants and comfy t-shirts, but today even though I know he was very tired he actually broke out the khakis and a button-down shirt. Woohoo!!

1/6 9:30pm

Thank you to everyone that has been sending cards to my dad, he got three in the mail today.  I could tell they lifted his spirits so I got out the large manilla envelope full of every card he's received since getting ill.  I didn't anticipate he'd want to look at all of them all tonight, but I just wanted to show him the big stack so he could see how much love and support he's been getting.  I was wrong, he did want to look at them.

We sat at the table and he read each and every one.  If you're reading this, Jeanie Harig, Ray Miletti, and Greg Gorman, he got a particular kick out of yours.  But of course he appreciated them all.

Thank you all for the continued well wishes and support.

1/6

Good PT session today, Dad had a lot of really engaged participation.  Mostly they worked on balance exercises.  His large muscle groups seem to be strengthening nicely, but he still has trouble with fine motor control and coordination.   The therapist praised all his weight lifting and leg exercises, but then set up an obstacle course for him to walk through and after he inadvertently sent the cones flying she compared him to "a bull in a china shop".  I tried to explain to her that he's always had those tendencies, ha!

After PT he actually suggested that we go shopping so that he could buy Zoey's birthday present.  Until now I had been putting off taking him out because I didn't know if he was quite up to that challenge.  A "simple" trip like that is incredibly taxing on the healing brain - all of the lights, sounds, people, walking/physical effort, and just visual overload from all the stuff on the shelves.   And Dad is definitely not the world's biggest shopping enthusiast so I had been debating when to give that a whirl, but this was a great opportunity.  We went to AC Moore and lasted about 5-10 minutes before turning around and leaving.  I told him that is a huge accomplishment, seeing as how he probably wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes in there before his brain infection.  Have you been in that place?  It's like an explosion of kitschy crafty mayhem that smells like a geriatric potpourri dish.  I personally love it and could spend hours in there indulging all of my creativities, but wow talk about overstimulating the brain.

Yesterday was much more relaxing, I picked him up and brought him over to our place for a couple of hours.  We sat in rocking chairs by the fire, watched the kids play, I drank coffee while Marty and my dad sipped on glasses of whiskey.  Dad informed me "this is the best medicine I've had yet".

1/4: One Month

I just looked at the clock and realized that at this very minute one month ago, I received a phone call from the Hampton Inn hotel employee Barbara that began with "I think there's something wrong with Mr. Urich".  Those minutes are frozen in time and I recall with complete clarity the helplessness of being hundreds of miles away and the agonizing uncertainty if that night was when my dad would be taken from me, from all of us.

So much has changed in a month.

In one month he has gone from ICU in Baton Rouge, flown on a medical jet, ICU and then floor at Hershey Medical Center, inpatient at Osteopathic Rehab, and now home in his own room.

He spent over 1/4 of this past month intubated on a ventilator.  During this past month he had to relearn simple things like how to walk again, how to use a fork and eat independently, how to do his own bathing.  The first week off the ventilator he was fairly confused, unable to recall dates and places, unable to correctly identify many people he's known his whole life.  Now he easily knows who everyone is, does simple crossword puzzles at the dining room table, and is recalling all kinds of things that I never knew.  He is still fuzzy with memory, he has a hard time keeping the timeline of the last month straight and remembering which hospitals he was at.  His short-term memory is still dodgy overall.  I tease him that this gives him an excuse for life:  "It's not that I'm getting old and can't remember things, I blame the brain infection!".  I figure he can keep that ace up his sleeve indefinitely.

His cognition is very much there, he just has difficulty focusing for long periods, coping with distractions, and paying sharp attention to detail.  These things will definitely improve.  We practice doing simple math at home, balancing checkbooks, puzzles, doing brain games.  We did a game today that my friend Katie recommended, where I name a month and he names the holidays that fall during that month.  I named February and he not only named Valentine's Day and Groundhog Day, but Washington's birthday & Lincoln's birthday (of which he knew the exact dates).  I am a terrible citizen, I didn't even know their birthdays were in February.  My brain-injured dad is teaching me all kinds of things.

After one month the biggest barriers continue to be his severe neck pain and extreme fatigue, both associated with his brain infection/injury.  His neck hurts so much and he's so tired that he tends to find a comfortable spot in bed and wants to just stay there.  So he needs continued encouragement to get out of bed for more than just meals/shower.   He's beginning to get aches, pains, and muscle stiffness from being in the bed for so long.  We are trying to get him in the habit of stretching and doing small range of motion exercises every time he gets out of bed.  I also threw out all his ice packs.  He kept wanting to put ice on EVERYTHING, his neck, shins, ankles, joints.  The cold was locking him up and making things worse, so I told him when he has aches and pains he has to get out of bed and stretch for awhile then he could have 20 minutes of a heating pad.  Although I'm glad to report his appetite is definitely back.  He lost about 35 pounds in the hospital, he looked so peaky last week.  But now after some home cooking he's eating well and looks healthier.

Thinking back to what he looked like when I first walked in his room in the ICU in Louisiana to where he is now, I'm ecstatic.  He still has a long road of healing ahead of him, it will take a lot more time and patience.  But he's made enormous progress.

Happy New Year!

We are so ready to leave 2011 behind, bring on the bright shiny future of 2012!

My dad's first weekend home went well.  As expected, the familiar environment has been very good for his recovery.  Although he still sleeps a LOT, he has come out of his room on his own to sit in the recliner, read the paper a little bit, eat, shower.  Today he laid on the floor to play with Uncle Scott's dog, Max.  His appetite has finally returned and after losing over 30 pounds in the hospital over the past month, we're hoping to fatten him up.  The fatigue and the constant neck pain (from the continued brain irritation/swelling) are difficult to cope with though and he spends much of the day in bed.  However, at least he has a little company when doing so, Zoey loves to be at her Pop Pop's side: