Updatage

So its been 2 weeks since the last post. Things are looking reasonably good. But I'll give the run down as things happened.

I was down here for 4 days before I headed back to Sydney. I wasn't really ready to go, but my uncle had to head back, and I'd gotten a ride with him, so I kind of had to. Plus Dad was reasonably stable, but still constantly sedated. And I needed to get back to some sort of routine to keep me as sane as possible.

Now, sane as possible really means functional. I stopped eating, and when I did eat it was a continual thing. Then I'd get nauseous and throw it all up again. I'd get panic attacks, want to sleep all the time if I wasn't working, and my libido has disappeared. My first day back at work was really rough. I was there for a week and for the remainder of the time, I was fixing simple mistakes I'd made on that first day back.

Dad had an MRI on Monday or Tuesday. It showed some damage to the area that controls motor control, cognition, speech, emotions, and learning.

On Wednesday the doctors asked permission to do a tracheostomy. This was done on Thursday, and he was left under sedation for the remainder of the day.

On Friday they let him come out from sedation. And he's been up ever since. I found out mid-morning and immediately arranged to head down for the whole of the next (which is really this) week. I was a bit scared because he seemed unresponsive. And we didn't know if it was because of the coma or the brain damage.

I got in Saturday night and went straight to the hospital. I felt bad because I was shocked and relieved at the improvement, and I started crying, and Dad seemed upset. He seemed to have difficulty focusing, and I didn't know how long that would last for, or if it would ever go away.

Since then he's been coming ahead in leaps and bounds. He still has the trach tube in, so can't really talk. But he did laugh at the fact that I have to wait til payday to be able to afford the trip back. He spoke to me today through the trach tube. I asked him how he was and he said 'yeah, good'. Lying bugger. I don't know how he'll go with recovery. He seems very weak, and he is in pain, serious pain. But he is moving around and lifting his ams. The nurse was amazed at how he's doing. The speech patholigist was there today, doing tests on his swallowing reflex. He may be able to have solid food this afternoon. Well, as solid as squishy processed fruit gets.

Its a relief to know that even though he's going to do it tough, he's still the same person inside. Pretty good to see it, considering the news I got 2 weeks ago.

****FURTHER UPDATAGE**** Dad got moved into rehab today. He's out of hospital wards altogether. woot!