Progress, Movement, and a Storm on the Horizon

Graham Update Day 43 (7/21/14)

Graham is wrapping up his last full day at Children's Medical Center and preparing to leave tomorrow morning for the rehab floor at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth.  This time we hope it's really his last day here.  It's been a month and a half since his an SUV ran over his head, and it has been a little more than three weeks since brain surgery.  It still blows my mind when I think that 43 days ago I didn't think that Graham would survive his accident, and now he is doing all of the following things, each of them being new to Graham in the last 48 hours:

• Walking to and from the hospital gym without ANY balance assistance.  He's a little wobbly and his therapists always hold their arms just outside of his frame like a halo, but he's doing it 100% on his own - no canes, walkers, wheelchairs, rails, or helping hands.
• Convergent Thinking - Graham can now be shown an apple and a banana and let you know that they are fruit.  In other words, he can tell you in what group a specific object belongs.  He couldn't do that to save his life even a couple days ago.
• Divergent Thinking - The opposite of convergent thinking:  Graham can tell you an item that belongs in a specific group.  For example - "name a vegetable?"  One answer would be "carrot."  Graham is all over that!
• More short-term memory progress:  Yesterday I told Graham I was going to name three things and then tell him a story, and after the story I would ask him to recall those things.  I picked three completely unrelated things - ball, lion, plate.  I then told him a short story that lasted about 30 seconds.  After the story I said "Do you remember the three things I asked you to remember?"  Graham's answer: "Ball.....Lion......Plate."
• Throwing and releasing items with his right hand:  Graham has been able to throw things for weeks, but about 99% of the time when he tries to throw with his right hand, he is unable to release it.  His timing has just been off.  Today he seems to have found his timing though, having very little trouble in throwing items across the room (on purpose of course) with either hand.
• He's also using both hands together really well.  For a long time they have been able to work well independently, but today he played basketball and made a lot more shots than he missed.  He also got to swing the bat around and knock a beach ball out of the park!
• Talking in a normal voice - one week ago Graham would only occasionally speak in a normal voice, and only on command.  Otherwise, he would either use hand signals and gestures, or else he would whisper or even just mouth the words he was trying to say.  Now about 50% of his regular speech is his awesome voice.  He's speaking more articulately too.  Just last night when I was chatting with Graham I asked him a question.  He was trying to think of the answer, and he said "It's right on the tip of my tongue..." before finally recalling his answer.

So yeah, Graham is making remarkable progress.  There is still a lot to work on - he's not walking smoothly enough to turn him loose yet.  And while he can go up and down stairs holding on to a rail, it's not safe to leave him alone to do that either.  He can stand and throw without any balance assistance, but kicking a ball is another story - he can kick just fine, but left to his own devices he would fall down pretty quickly.  And while his recognition and memory are improving, he still has a long way to go.  Plus his right eye still only occasionally opens a crack.  But that's OK!  43 days ago I thought he would still be in the ICU, and here he!  Besides, that is what a 1-3 week stay at Cook Children's is for, and that's why they have out-patient rehab facilities.

So moving day is tomorrow.  Lindsey and I are prepared to give full instruction on everything Graham needs -How much his DDAVP doses are at morning and night, how to measure the doses in both micrograms and units, and how what syringe to use and how to draw the medicine into it.  We will also have food ready for Graham in case it takes a while to get his "food orders" into the system.  In short we are ready to manage Graham medically on our own, and just rely on Cook for rehab, if needed.   We're certain though after visiting their facility that they will provide an exceptional level of care.  We're just ready to prevent the fiasco that happened at the last place should all hell break loose.

One thing that has worried me for a long time is that at some point, Graham will become much more aware of everything that has happened to him, and become aware of the things that he struggles with.  It was that worry that drove me to request that if anyone has been touched by GRAHAM (not touched by anyone in the rest of our family, but touched by GRAHAM) that you send him a note to Prayers4Graham@gmail.com to tell him how he has helped you, in hopes that he will someday see the silver lining which Lindsey and I see surrounding his accident.

Today after occupational therapy, his therapist pulled me aside to give me both a word of encouragement and a word of warning.  She said Graham's progress is amazing, both in terms of the pace and the degree of his recovery.  She said that Lindsey and I need to be aware, though, of something she has seen over and over again in her experience rehabilitating kids with brain injuries:  at the rate Graham is going, he will soon be much more aware of where he is and the things he can and can't do.  He'll start doing puzzles or writing things, and he'll wonder - why is this going so slow?  Why can't I do this the way I used to?  She said that Graham is a very happy kid, but even happy kids get down, get frustrated, and get sad.  It's a reality that I can just now start to see it on the horizon - today right before physical therapy we had to wait just a minute for his "teacher" to step out.  While we waited to "go to the gym" Graham got very excited and said "How come I can't just hop out of bed and go?"  His desire to do might finally start to exceed his ability, at least for a season.  It makes my heart ache to think that after all the physical pain he has endured, the emotional trauma might meet or even exceed it.  So while Lindsey and I ride the waves of joy that come with his progress, we are careful to watch for signs of distress in Graham.  We pray that his burden will be lifted, that he can power through his rehab, and get back to being "Happy Hammy" at home some time soon.

#Prayers4Graham