These
days in rehab are very rich and full. All I can say is, when you ask
thousands of loving people to pray for a miracle, be careful what you
ask for!
On
Sept 21, I posted this request: “So for those of you bold enough to
pray for miracles, you can visualize an alert and ever-curious Bob,
waking up interested to learn all that has transpired while he has
slept.” I can assure you, Bob is very much awake and alert (it is hard
to get him to sleep!), and ever-curious! His days are filled with a
million questions as he puzzles over all that has happened and why. In
fact, one of the first challenges the various therapists who work with
him throughout the day faced was to get him to stop asking questions
long enough to focus on whatever skill or exercise they were wanting to
get him to focus on!
Bob
is making really great progress in both his physical therapy and in
occupational therapy (“Does that mean you’re going to try to change my
occupation?” he asks). I am astonished to recall that just a week ago
today, we were thrilled when the physical therapist at the hospital got
Bob up and walking with a walker about ten yards down the hall and back
to bed again. And we were working to get him to sit up in a chair for
two to three hours at a stretch. Today, he was up in his wheelchair the
whole day without a midday rest, and he can walk three laps around the
nursing station with his walker!
Bob’s
memory problems are more of a challenge and these are likely to persist
for some time. Bob is generally very upbeat and engaged throughout the
day. He has particularly enjoyed the visitors he’s had, especially on
the weekends. He received an amazing gift this weekend of an IPad from
his friends Doug and Maisie that has allowed him to watch Animoto videos
of family photos produced by our daughter-in-law Michelle. He is
especially fond of the pictures of his new little grandson Everest Gray
(he is delighted to discover that he is a grandfather, but distressed
that he doesn’t remember becoming one). He has also been amazed to
review the websites of LifeTrek Coaching, and the Center for School
Transformation (as have some of his therapists who have checked them
out!). Although Bob recognizes the people in his world and remembers
names and how he is related to people, he has almost no memory of past
events, and almost no short-term memory. He carries very warm, positive
feelings of having been with people who have visited or who he has
chatted with on Skype, but he can’t remember specifics and does not have
a clear sense of time so it feels like it has all happened “today.”
Each of the past five days, he has ended the day saying “THIS has been a
fantastic day! THIS feels like the day when I finally woke up! I am
going to be SO sad if I wake up tomorrow and don’t remember what a
wonderful day this has been!”
And
then at 7:00am, my telephone rings with a very worried Bob on the other
end saying, “I’ve been awake for hours. I don’t know what is happening.
I’ve read the signs you made a hundred times, and they are very
helpful. But I want to get out of here. This isn’t fun.”
Bob
has started to keep a journal, as well as a “Memory Book” given to him
by the speech therapist. Writing down his questions and impressions is
starting to help cut down on the repetitive looping of his thoughts. He
keeps hoping that one of these mornings he is going to wake up with his
memory fully restored. The doctors have suggested that it will be a much
more gradual process than that. In the meantime, it has been helpful to
keep a Gratitude Journal, and to capture some of the many things we
have to be grateful for throughout the day. We are blessed that Bob is
alive, and that he is himself with his basic sweet, inquisitive
personality and sense of humor intact. The rest we will work out over
time.
I
have said from the start that this experience will give us the
opportunity to learn new depths of faith and new depths of patience than
we’ve had before. Bob has said there are gifts to be discovered here,
we just haven’t found them all just yet.
-Megan
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