Dear friends,
I'm trying to get this down before I head back to hospital. Although this has been a looooong week, the days have passed in a blur. We've had ups and downs: Bob did really well at the beginning of the week and then his brain started swelling which made him less lucid and sleepier than he had been. It frightened me until Dr. H explained that his brain wants to heal. On the other hand, pray that he's healing AND can stay awake during his rehab. GOOD NEWS! Your prayers ARE working! Bob passed the PT/OT/Speech assessments and he's being moved to Loma Linda University Hospital East Campus Acute Care Rehab Center which is what we wanted. The reason we want him to go to Rehab and not a Skilled Nursing Home is the level of intensity of rehab training. We have a window of 30 days to jumpstart his brain quickly versus just prepping him to go to Rehab and everyone says the sooner we can get him to rehab the better. (Who knew that Bob would be like the celebrities and go into Rehab? Let us hope that Lindsay Lohan or Britney aren't there to encourage him to go commando.) :)
Here are Bob's newest miracles"
He hadn't spoken in a few days (since Friday) and then yesterday the speech therapist got him to say "Sharon". She said that we want to draw out one word at a time so she had him finish her sentence: "My wife is __". She says that we can not ask him the same question/answer more than 4 times because she doesn't want him to fixate on a word and use that word for every answer. You'll love her reason: She had a patient who was doing extremely well at retrieving words. His family took him for the weekend and taught him the song, "Macho Man". When the therapist saw him on Monday and asked him how he was doing, he said, "macho". She didn't think anything of it because he spoke Spanish. But when she asked him where he went, he said, "man". The next answer was "cho". And every answer thereafter was some part of "Macho Man". (I, of course, showed my more empathetic side when she told this story and howled with with laughter.) Now, Jeff, I know that you might think this is your opportunity for getting even with the Bob for trying to teach your son, Chad, naughty words, but the answer is NO!
2) Bob sang happy birthday to me. (Ok, so my birthday is in November.) Anyway, she told me to sing children's songs that he might have learned with automaticity, like "Happy Birthday", so later I said, "let's sing together, Bob" and you have to put my name in. So I started and OMG, he joined me! The nurse ran over 'cuz she thought it was incredible too!
3) When Bonnie D. walked into the room, Bob turned his head (kind of like "Starman") and moved his mouth "B", "B", "B".
4) As Gail and Bob T. told him they were going home, Bob struggled to say something to Gail. His mouth was really working and Gail leaned down and said, "Bob, I know you're trying to tell me something and I want you to know that Sharon is like a sister to me and I know you're worried about her. I'll take good care of Sharon." And he dropped his shoulders and started to cry. Now that started my waterfall of tears and I threw myself on top of Bob, tubes and all!
5) The speech therapist told me to keep my face passive when I'm being funny to see if Bob an get my jokes or if he's responding to my face. I don't think I'm reaching, I think he gets some of my joking comments. AND he got an offended look when I said, "hey Bob, you farted". (Jeff, Josh, and Chad will appreciate this.)
6) Bob fed himself today. I showed him how to sequence using his spoon, "dig, scoop, lift" and he was able to feed himself.
7) Bob put his arm around me!
Ok -on my way to the hospital! He's being transferred today so visitors, please hold off. I need to get the schedule at East Campus. They're very restrictive so that he focuses on therapy. Continue praying for his rebuilding stamina, that he pays close attention to his new teachers, perseverence, positive spirits, and mostly speedy recovery!
Also, thank you ALL so much for your messages and calls. We appreciate them. Know that I'm not ignoring by not responding. All of my energy is focused on the Bob so it's about all I can do to respond to one or two calls a day and then crash. Thanks for allowing me to respond on the Blog a Bob. (Thanks, Josh, for setting this up and for organizing your favorite auntie in the whole world's crazy life.)
Love and kisses,
Sharon and The Bob
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