Rob's Week - The Abridged Version

Today is Rob's fifth day at the new hospital and it sounds like this has been a pretty rough week of transition.  Physically, his health continues to improve each day and he even had his trach plugged today.  He is still running a fever and we continue to be concerned about infection and the potential for blood clots, but those are probably two aspects of long-term hospital care that we'll be worried about until he's home.

Mentally, this week has been very hard on both Rob and my parents.  He is now working through the steps that need to be taken after a traumatic brain injury and is spending a lot of time talking through memories and figuring out what's going on.  Between having this normal reaction from a traumatic brain injury, dealing with the effects of ICU psychosis, and weaning off of all his sedation and pain meds, I think it's been a pretty trying week for everyone.  Sometimes he's right there with you and other times he's so confused.  At one point yesterday, he was telling people he played basketball for Bishop Luers.  From what we hear this is all very classic TBI behavior (I don't know if traumatic brain injury is given the acronym TBI in the medical world, but it works for me).  It might be normal for now but it's not normal for my parents, and I know they can't wait for the return of old Rob.

Despite the rough transition, yesterday and today were much better for Rob.  He was finally able to rest (CONSTANT loud noise is a problem in his new digs since he's right across from the utility closet).  Not sleeping and resting has been one of the biggest problems, so anytime he can nap or sleep is good.  He sat in a chair for about three hours yesterday and was finally seen by his doctor and some therapists.

I just wanted to update everyone so you know that all is still chugging along.  Even though this was a hard week, it's just another step on the road to home - a road we're all very happy to be traveling.  That's probably easy for me to say from here.

It's really best for him not to have visitors for now.  We really appreciate your support but please know that your support from home is the best you can do for Rob right now to give him the very best chance to rest and recover quickly.  I'll keep you posted when he's improved and will fully appreciate visitors.  Thank you so much for understanding.