Today was fabulous

We had a wonderful day. Randy was alert for most of the day and it was so great to get to hang out with him.

When we first got there, the physical therapists were working with him to test out his eligibility for the acute rehab (the full on rehab that they have in the hospital). They said he did pretty well but he isn't quite to the point that he can be successful in the rehab. I think he is pretty close.

Today, when they got Randy up into his chair, I asked if we could take him outside since he isn't attached to tubes anymore. Thankfully his dad walked in just in time ~ I don't know if I could have manuevered that thing out the door! The first picture is Randy incognito. Since he hadn't been outside for over a month, we made sure he had sunglasses and a hat to hide him abit from the sun. While we were out there, I asked him if he knew where he was and he said "downtown" and then he struggled a bit with what he wanted to say. He got frustrated and said "whatever". I said "It's okay, you are downtown where?" and he finally came up with "Seattle". I tried to get him to say the word hospital, but up to this point, he has refused. So, instead, I asked him to say "Harborview" and he did. He then went on to say "3 West unit" which is the unit he is in. I hadn't said anything about 3 west so we only could have gotten that from previous conversations or hearing over the intercom in his room.


When we got outside, we took him over by the helicopter. It is behind a fence because people aren't allowed back there. The pilot came out and he offered to take Randy back there. It was so great. Randy tried to ask him a question, but people kept talking over him and he kept getting frustrated, so finally we let him ask. It took him a but to get the question out and we didn't fully understand the question, but he really tried. The pilot was really nice. Randy loved it.

When we got back into the room, a previous coworker, Dona, was in the room. Randy recognized her and was able to communicate that he had worked with her until he had moved on to another job. His sentences aren't quite completely coherent, but he can generally get enough right words that you can make out what he is saying.

Today, Randy was moved to solid foods. I was feeding him, but at that point, we had a lot of people in the room. I got side tracked with a conversation with someone and he kept hitting me to get me to feed him the soup ~ that was all he really liked from the lunch menu. When he eats, we have to make sure he swallows it and doesn't just keep it in his cheek to choke on later. I wasn't sure he had swallowed some bread I had given him and when I asked him if he had swallowed he said yes, so to make sure I asked him to open his mouth and say "Ah". Instead he kind of spit a bit of the food out then started chewing the rest of it. As his spit it out, he laughed.

We left a little after 1 to celebrate Cass's birthday. We had our friend Kelli come sit with Randy to make sure he had entertainment and someone there to watch over him. I think she had a good time with him because he was interactive. She asked him if he could tell her what her husbands name and it got it right ~ he said Jon. He also spelled Kelli's name for her. When she asked him where he lived, he gave our home address - not just the city, but the address.

I guess the room that Randy in is quite a bit smaller than the one we have been in (I haven't seen it yet), but I am thinking it is a good thing. He can see more things around the room because they are closer to him. He can also see outside of the hall. Since he is on the very end, he might not see too many people, but I guess at one point tonight, a girl was out there, probably looking for someone, and Randy saw her and said "Hey girl". He then told our friend he wanted to look out in the hall. Kelli told him there was no one there and he said "there was". Also, the nurse asked Kelli how long she had known Randy and Randy answered "5 years", which is correct.

Randy also expressed a couple of times today that he wanted to go to the bathroom and he didn't want to do it sitting down. I think that is great!

One thing I forgot to post yesterday, most of yesterday and throughout the day, Randy was talking all work. At one point, the way in which he was talking made me ask him if he was doing a presentation and he said "yes". I don't know what he was presenting, but he was doing a great job.

Well, I am exhausted. Anything I have left out I will try to get in later.