EEG Today

Randy had his EEG up at Harborview today (EEG being an Electroencephalogram, or brain wave test - it is used to detect abnormalities in the activity of the brain). They were testing for any seizure activity. For part of the test, Randy needed to be asleep or in a very restful state, so they wanted him sleep deprived. So I made it my mission to keep him awake until midnight. I made it until about 11:30 and then just couldn't keep my eyes open. I woke up, though, a little before midnight and he was still awake - so mission was accomplished.

He and his mom headed up to Harborview bright and early this morning. The EEG took an hour and 45 minutes they said they got the necessary information, so he was able to get to a restful enough state. We will get the results of that on November 15th when we go back to the Neurology Clinic. Randy also has an appointment with the TBI Triage clinic through Harborview on that day, but I am a little unclear of what that clinic will do for us.

Randy also went through his evaluation for the Metro Access system today. They tested him on his ability to remember what buses he would need to take in simulated situation. Randy said he didn't do too well on that one. He tried to venture a guess but then had to admit to the evaluator that it was purely a guess. Then they took him outside of the building to see if he could read a map, which he did great with, but then they turned him around to go back inside and they wanted him to backtrack his way back. Randy said it was kind of hit or miss on what he remembered. Once he started on the wrong path, though, he could tell it was the wrong path. They will let us know in a couple of weeks if Randy is approved for the Access program or not.

Then, when Randy got home, he began diggin through things in our garage. He has been fixated on finding a stereo system that he knows he put in there a few months ago. Currently, finding anything in our garage is not a small feat. Things have no organization and we have too much stuff in there. Randy did end up finding the stereo system, though, along with a few other things he had completely forgot he had.

Also today, Randy commented that his double vision was definitely better, which is definitely good news. He did have to go to wearing his patch tonight, though. We went over to the house of some people in our church ~ we had joined a small group (which is sort of like a bible study group. Ours happns to be the 40 days of Community). We had missed the last few sessions because of the chronic pain seminar and so we went tonight to get caught up. Randy walked in with his patch and the Marty asked him why he was wearing it. Randy explained the double vision and Marty immediately began praying over Randy for healing of his vision. So we expect to see continuous improvement in Randy's eyesight. We know there are a lot of people out there praying for him. We know this because of the improvements Randy has had so far.

Randy also bought himself a watch today. For those who have known Randy for quite some time, this might come as a bit of a shock. Randy has not owned a watch since his early teens, outside of a pocket watch I bought him around the time that we were first married. He was a firm believer that cell phones could easily double as watches. He decided, though, that he needed something easily accessible that could tell him not only the time but also what day it is. So, Randy bought a watch. Randy joked that using a planner doesn't do much good if you don't know what day it is!

I told him that there will be a day when we are much older, sitting outside on the front porch that he will eventually build for me, and I will be able to turn to him and say "Life with you has never been boring!"

BBQing

Randy spent the morning at our neighbor's house today. His mom needed to go into the dentist. Since her dentist is rather far away, she went to our dentist, which happens to be a good friend of her dentist. While she was there, Randy hung out at the neighbor's, who was thankfully working from today today. Randy took the time to read some more of the textbook of the class that he is taking. The class ends here shortly and he did what he always did with online classes ~ he saved everything for the last minute!

Throughout the afternoon, Randy worked on his models, of course. He also made dinner tonight. Randy makes excellent burgers.

Then, it being Tuesday night, he took off with his friend Brandon.

Today I started my physical therapy today for my pinched nerve. My coworked today asked if I had brought shorts or some sweats and I kind of looked at him like he was crazy. I informed him that I do not wear shorts, EVER! I have very white legs and would rather not show them off to anyone. I told him I was sure I could move around just fine in my slacks. So I get to physical therapy today and right after the therapist introduces herself, she hands me shorts to put on.

The session went very well despite the wearing of shorts. During her evaluation, she seemed to know right where to find all of the spots that hurt. However, she finished the session up doing some stretches that really helped. She told me that my posture is a big culprit of my lower back problems. I tend to stand mostly on the front part of my foot with my body leaning forward, so she had me working on shifting my weight back.She also gave me a couple of exercises to do that were very similar to the ones that Doug emailed me a week or so ago. Overall, I feel better.

Our Monday

In occupational therapy today, Tina, the therapist asked Randy how the taped worked for him. He said it did help. She did a motor free visual tape, which is part of pre-driving. Tina advised Randy to check with his eye doctor to see when they think Randy will be ready for the driving test. I am assuming that as long as there is double vision, he will not be able to get behind the wheel.

In speech today, the therapist worked on word retrieval exercises. Randy had to name vegtables. He had to name as many as he could in 30 seconds. He was able to do 11.

Randy brought home a large rubber tube that he is to use to do exercises to strengthen his left foot and ankle. He tried to demonstrate at home, but Max and Daisy thought they needed to join in with the fun.

Tonight, Randy and I ran down to the Supermall. His jeans don't fit him all that well (probably from all the ice cream and gummy worms!). So he thought he needed to go to the Eddie Bauer outlet down there. He had a lot of fun going through all of the sales racks and trying on clothes. We ended up spending a lot more time down there than I had planned, but he had a great time.

Togetherness

We went to church today. During the sermon, they played the video of Dick and Rick Hoyt. I had heard their story on Oprah a few months ago. But for those who don't know, I will give a website and tell a brief description. The website is: http://www.teamhoyt.com/index.html. The story: Rick was born in 1962. Due to a tragedy at birth, Rick was spastic quadriplegic, cebral palsy and non speaking. His parents wanted Rick to have as "normal" a life as they could possibly give him. At one point, he was taught to "write his thoughts" using a computer device. Rick voiced his desire to run in a marathon. His dad, Dick, made it happen. He pushes him through the marathons. It was said perfectly in the video today ~ Dick, the father, is the body (it is up to him to push his son through the marathons) and Rick is the heart. The point is togetherness. Rick couldn't do it without his father Dick, and Dick, the father, wouldn't do it without his son.

Ephesians 4:16 says "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every support ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

We weren't meant to go through this life alone.

The pastor pointed out Randy and said "Randy, you can't become strong by yourself". It is so true. Randy couldn't have made it this far without his family pushing the doctors and pushing him to do what is necessary, those who have prayed for him for healing, or those who have emailed him to give him support.

I couldn't have been strong for him without the prayers of all of those out there or the support of all of those who have commented to the blog or called or email me their support.

For those who don't believe or aren't sure there really is a god out there, contact me. I have proof. I can send you the pictures of the car that Randy came out of and send you the events that happened that day ~ a trauma nurse being right there and willing to stop to get him breathing again. Without God's love and "interference" Randy wouldn't be here.

God intended up to work together, to support one another. Christine was there and gave the talents and knowledge that God gave her to Randy and saved his life. Many people were there for us to help us through this time. We are like puzzle pieces, meant to fit together to make things whole. Don't try to go through things by yourself.

Togetherness makes things happen. As the Hoyt's say "There isn't anything in the world we can't go together."

Not much

There isn't much to report today. It was my Saturday to work, so I got up early and headed out. I tried to get Randy up, but it was a futile effort. He was pretty asleep when I left.

When he did get up, he and his dad went out in search of airplane models. They ended up getting one in which his dad flew in many years ago. Randy is excited about putting it together. He has yet to paint any of his models. He simply enjoys the process of putting them together.

It's Friday!

There isn't much to report today. I went into work a little later than usual this morning. I made sure to get Randy up and going before I left. So I got to sleep in a little and for him, he had to wake up earlier than usual.

Randy didn't do much today. He did get in a short walk with his mom. He then spent most of the rest of the day working on his model airplane. He didn't feel very well throughout the day. As soon as I got home, he was asking for some medication for pain. He says he hurts all over.

Randy's Therapy

Here is Randy with his occupational therapist

Therapy, therapy, and more therapy

Randy had all three therapies today.

His speech therapy reviewed Randy's planner. She talked about having Randy set monthly goals and let him know that it is okay for him to change his mind about the goals that he sets. She advised Randy that having 3 main goals to accomplish each day would be a reasonable amount because he does need have some "down time". She then went over some papers she had given him to do. He hadn't finished an assignment where he had to read a paragraph and come up with the main idea, so she had him read the story out loud and re-read the questions. He was then able to pick out the correct main idea. Talking through the questions seemed to help Randy answer the questions more easily. She gave him a sheet of homework to do until the next session.

In occupational therapy, Randy let the therapist know his shoulder was still hurting him so she gave him a little bit of a massage, worked on some exercises, and then gave him some kinesio tape for him to wear on his shoulder to help the muscles be retrained to go back into their normal places. Then Randy and the therapist worked with a rubber ball, bouncing it back and forth between them (see video clip in previous post). They then worked with a board, nails, and colored rubber bands. Randy was given "task cards" and had to duplicate the pattern with the rubber bands, matching the color and the design. It was good perceptual practice and good utilization of both hands in stretching out the rubber bands.

Throughout the therapy sessions, Randy's mom noticed that the harder Randy had to concentrate on a task, the more he seemed to have more "tremors"(the shaking of his entire body, though most noticeable in his head).

In physical therapy, RAndy and the therapist started with the shuttle machine (pictured above). He had to do 20 pushes with both legs and then 20 pushes with each leg separately. Then Randy worked on a balance star where he had to walk backward while hooked up to a stretchy rope. The goal was to walk backward as far as possible, then walk forwards using even steps, then sidestepping. It was very challenging. The therapist also had Randy work on standing with his feet toe-to-heel, and get his balance. It was much more difficult for him to put his left foot in front of his right foot.

This evening was suppose to be the last of the seminars for the chronic pain specialist but we all skipped out on going. I am still in quite a bit of pain from the pinched nerve and didn't want to sit there for 2 hours. This evening, we all just hung around the house. Cass played ping pong with anyone she could get to play with her ~ first her grandma and then Randy, until Daisy got ahold of one of the balls and squished it with her teeth. That is one down side of playing ping pong on the floor! You have to be quicker than the dogs!

Ping Pong

Today, Randy and his mom went and got fingerprinted so they can start volunteering at Cass's school.

Then they headed to Fred Meyer so that Randy could get another model airplane (surprise, surprise!). He got one for himself and one for Cass. Next stop was the dollar store to get ping pong paddles and balls to work on some of his occupational therapy at home.

After Cass got home and finished with her homework, her and Randy played ping pong on the floor. The dogs decided they needed to join in as well, so it ended up being a "keep away" game from the dogs!

Randy also worked on some of his tasks today, which is great. He remembered to sweep the floors and to clean up the floor by his side of the bed which was a big mess from all of his puzzle books and stuff. It was so bad I couldn't even open the closet doors. He did a great job, though, with getting it cleaned up and with reorganizing all of his books by the time I came home from work.

More Therpay today

Randy had a hard time getting up today. His mom was able to get him up just in time for him to have a shower and then head out to his therapies today.

For physical therapy, Randy worked on the exercise bike to warm up, worked on some step exercises and some wall exercises. He also did some squats and worked on marching, walking backwards, and walking sideways. Marsha inquired about pool therapy so the therapist put Randy on the list. I think he will really enjoy that and it will be a nice break up in the therapy routine.

In speech today, the therapist got on to Randy for not doing his to do list. He has even stopped carrying the items over as he did before. I tried putting a sticky note on out bedroom door to remind him to check his to do list, but that didn't work. His response to that was to write on the note "What? You think I have a memory problem or something?". Lately, he seems rather resistant to any suggestions or reminders. We aren't giving up, though. There has to be a motivation "button" to get his buy in with following through with completing tasks and such. My thought was to give a rewards system ~ if he sticks with his tasks and completes them throughout the week, at the end of the week he can "reward" himself with getting another model airplane to build since that seems to be what he is wanting to spend his time on currently. The therapist also suggested that Randy set specific times and set an alarm clock on his cell phone to remind him to complete the task.

The speech therapist also today gave him a worksheet to do. The first instruction on the worksheet was to read through the entire sheet before beginning. Randy ignored this instruction and just began working the problems on the sheet. Well the very last problem contained the instruction to only complete items 1 and 2. So Randy needs a little work on his impulsivity and needs to slow down a bit.

In occupational therpay, the therapist put a hot pack on Randy's left shoulder. It has really been hurting him. The heat seemed to really help it. The therapist also gave Randy techniques to reduce stress and possibly pain. The first was going on a "mental holiday". The second technique was meditation ~ starting with concentrating on your breathing, then imagine your head and neck feel light and floating like a balloon and feel soft, then with each breath the muscles get softer and lighter and loose and more relaxed, then you focus on feeling warmth starting with your neck and having it slowely move to your toes, and then focusing on relaxation of fingers, toes, mouth and tongue and end with breathing deeply.

The occupational therapist also worked on eye tracking. She had a laser pen and Randy had to track it with his own laser pen. Randy had to close one eye to see it, but he did well with this exercise. The therapist also did some exercises with ping-pong paddles and sponge ball ~ they rolled the ball back and forth on the table. This exercise was also working on Randy's eye tracking.

Then this evening, Randy went out with his friend Brandon for their usual Tuesday "hanging out". Randy really looks forward to getting out with him.

Trading Places

Today is going to be a very short post. I am currently in rather a lot of pain. I had to come home early today. I have a pinched sciatic nerve. It started hurting Friday and today got bad enough that I gave in and went into the doctor. I am currently sitting on ice and waiting for the muscle relaxer to kick in!

Randy didn't have any therapies today so he and his mom worked on his exercises at home and then went down to Costco ~ so he definitely got his walking in! Randy, this afternoon, has been working on his airplane models and kind of taking care of me ~ the models are really the top priority right now :-)! He has definitely been enjoying putting the planes together and it makes him use his left hand, which is always good.

That's going to be it for the updates today.

Sunday

Today we went to the Free Will Baptist church here in Kent. The church I grew up in was the Free Will Baptist in Yakima (my dad was the pastor for many years). We got together with those in this and other Free Will Baptist churches for things like camp, so I have known some of the people in this church since I was little. Right after Randy's accident, my dad called the pastor and he came and visited us quite often when Randy was in the hospital and the church people there prayed often for Randy. So today, we decided to visit there and let the congregation see the miracles God has done because of all of the prayers of His people. It was great!

After church, Randy's parents (his dad was in town this weekend because of Cass's birthday party) took us out to the BlackDiamond Bakery, which is Randy's favorite restaurant. Randy ordered a coffee and his mom and I, at the same time, told the waitress it needed to be decaffinated. The waitress found it very funny. When she brought refills, she made sure to tell us it was decaffinated.

Randy spent most of the rest of the afternoon working on building a model airplane. His dad took him to a hobby store and bought him another to do when he gets done with this current one. He is finding he really enjoys putting them together. When they got back, Randy insisted on carrying boxes of apples from the back of his dad's truck to our garage. He did excellent with carrying them and keeping his balance. Those boxes have to weigh about 35 pounds. So there is proof that his left hand is definitely getting better and his balance has greatly improved.

With his memory, he has some good days and some bad memory days. Today seemed to be a good day for memory. Friday and Saturday, though, he would forget things within seconds of being told. Overall, though, I do see improvements in his short-term memory. I know his therapists are working on memory things and his mom and I are both reading different books on improving memory. I know that the memory is the last thing to "heal". We are all working hard at helping him find the tools needed to get a jumpstart on getting there.

Cass's Party

Well, the party was a hit today. Cass had so much fun. I wish it hadn't been so rushed in getting it together to we had time to invite the friends of hers that didn't go to school with her (like Brittney!), but all in all it was a fun time. Since it was a bit chilly outside today, we did most of the things inside. The girls made name tags with their "hawaiian name" and then made leis. They then played pass the coconut and did a little limbo. We did go outside for the relay race since their isn't anywhere in the house where there is room to run. For the relay race, the kids had to put on a grass skirt, a sunhat, and some sunglasses and then run a short distance, come back and take everything off so their partners could put the stuff on. I think the kids had a lot of fun with that. Randy played camera man today. It was a lot of fun.

Randy did great with helping get everything ready. We had a bunch of fruit for the kids to eat. Randy spent the morning slicing it all up.

In the evening, he played a game with Cass and I on the Gamecube for awhile. He didn't do too bad with the game, but normally he would always whomp on Cass and I. Tonight we at least had a chance. His attention span is still rather short, though, so he wasn't able to finish the game. He moved on to working on one of the model airplanes he got.

Randy the Funnyman

Randy today, told me "I don't have a brain injury, I am just a normal 55 year old" in reference to his lack of memory. I found it very humorous.

Today, Randy had to go through testing in therapy today because it was his 5th session.The therapist checked his strength, grip and coordination. There was improvement in all areas and had met all of the goals the therapist had set for him. The goals that Randy set for himself were memory strengthening and improving skills for driving.

For speech today, Randy worked on his planner. Randy said the therapist chastised him for his "to do" list. He does a great job of making the list, but not such a great job of doing it. The therapist suggested that he schedule the task. That is funny that she talked to him about this because this last weekend, I had a big discussion with him about needing to actually do his tasks and I suggested that he use the schedule part of his planner and that he sit down once a week and write in the exact times of his therapies throughout the week and then schedule his tasks around them.

Then the speech therapy tested him with the given task of being given a category and then naming 5 things within that category within 15 seconds. With fruits and tools, he was able to get 5 out of 5. With occupations, wild animals, and planets, he got 4 out of 5. With actors, he got 3 out of 5. Then with rivers, he got 2 out of 5. For homework, Randy is to name ten items within 30 seconds for the categories. Randy really wanted to practice this tonight, so tonight on the way to the store, Cass read off the categories and Randy named as many things as he could. Cass was itching to try to help out with naming them as well.

Tonight, we spent the evening getting the house all ready for Cass's party. This one was a little shorter planned than the first one so she didn't get a chance to get invitations out to everyone that she wanted, but hopefully those that she did invite all get a chance to come. Tonight, we dug out all of the stuff we bought in June for the original party and got all of the decorations up. The house looks all Lua-y. Cass is very excited!

Sunflowers

Randy didn't have any therapies today. He did go on a walk with him mom and worked on his eye exercises. Even though the doctor at Harborview didn't think the eye exercises would do any good, if they don't hurt Randy then we figure, on the chance that the one doctor is wrong in their opinion, it wouldn't hurt to continue doing the exercises.

Randy also worked on his sunflowers. He had planted them shortly before the accident. They are now tall enough that you have to get on a ladder to reach the tops of them. They got so heavy that they toppled over, so he and his mom propped them up with bamboo poles and pieces of wood.

We also went to the second of three seminars for chronic pain. Tonights topic was the very controversial topic of narcotics. This chronic pain clinic does use narcotics to help some people live with their pain. The doctor said that over 50% of their patients use narcotics, but they also work with people that don't want to use them.

We aren't ready to go down this road by any means. We just started taking the new medication and have every intention of giving it plenty of time to work. My hopes and prayers are that the Amitriptyline works for Randy's pain. Our intentions in going to the seminar is to be informed in case other things don't work. We want to know what other options are out there.

In this pain clinic, they only use narcotics that are long-lasting and that can be taken by mouth and that don't provide a euphoric feeling, so they use Methadone and long-lasting morphine. Both of these drugs are rather scary to me. I know there are a lot of people who use them to make their lives livable through the pain, but that isn't the stories that you hear of them. The stories commonly heard are the ones of addiction. The doctor tonight did bring up that issue. He said that dependance happen to everyone, but addiction is rare. His definition of addiction is behavior issues (i.e. willing to sell your worldly belongings to get more). He said the medications are given in a controlled environment and given only to make the road of getting better less bumpy and working towards putting pain in the background instead of having it in the foreground.

It sounds nice, but not a road I want to go down anytime soon.

I think that is it for updates tonight.

Today, Randy saw his other speech therapist, Sohi Oh. She went over strategies to help with word memory such as word association, imagery, auditory input (say aloud what you need to remember), rehearsal (repeating something over and over), chunking (grouping information, breaking things into smaller units), acronyms, and making up a story.

Randy also had physical therapy (see picture). He worked on balance coordination with various exercises. Backwards steps were harder for him ~ he was more wobbly. He worked on a shuttle machine where he had to put a ball in between his knees while doing repetitions. Then he had to push with his right leg and then his left. Pushing with the left leg was much harder.

In occupational therapy, Randy worked on multi-tasking. He had an excel table he had to replicate while being interrupted with needing to send an email and then getting a phone call. Randy did quite well with that.

Tonight when I got home, he was making dinner. He was cooking chicken on the barbeque. I asked him if he needed help or if he was handling things alright on his own. He said he was doing just fine and then informed me that he decided to make Nike's slogan his motto ~ Just Do It!. So that is how he is going to heal and get better ~ just do it.

Randy met Becky

Randy had to go to Harborview today for an opthamology appointment. He was also scheduled to go through the evaluation for the Metro Access, but the opthamologist had put drops in Randy's eyes that prevented him from seeing so he wasn't able to go through the evaluation. It had to be rescheduled for the 25th, when he goes in for his EEG.

In between the appointments, though, his mom took him up to 3 West and he got to meet Becky, Pauline and Carmen. I wish I could have been there to thank them all again for all they did for us. Since I couldn't go, though, I asked his mom to at least get a picture of Randy with Becky. She said it was a nice reunion ~ everyone was crying and everyone had wonderful encouraging words for Randy.

The opthamologist (Dr Sohn) had Randy describe his double vision and wanted to know about the prism glasses Randy was prescribed and wanted to know about Dr Baxstrom (the eye doctor from Good Sam). He said there is a lot of debate about eye therapy and he is of the opinion that the eye exercises don't do any good and that the eyesight, if it improves, will do so on its own.

He checked Randy's vision with eye charts and checked his ability to track light. Randy said that when he was looking left, his double vision subsided a bit. He checked Randy's vision with some prism glasses. He also checked Randy's eye pressure and then recommended that Randy see the neuro-opthamolgist (which we were really wanting him to see). So randy saw Dr Mudumbal. The two doctors examined all of Randy's records from Harborview and they examined the CT scans on the computer screen.

Randy has some nerve damage - 4th nerve palsy. The facial fractures may have caused some scar tissue to form. Dr Mudumbal said that he doesn't think we can get a definitive correction yet because it is still early in the recovery. He said they won't know the total extent of the eye damage until 6 to 12 months from now. They said that at that time, he will be re-evaluated and see if there is a necessity for corrective lenses or surgery.

They said that Randy's eye is having muscle spasms. They put some drops in his eyes to paralyze the muscle spasms and his nearsightedness went away. They will be seeing Randy in 6 weeks. At that time, the doctor will determine if it is necessary to prescribe the drops to Randy. Right now, though, they are wanting to give his body more time to heal.

I admit that I am struggling a bit with lack of patience right now. Randy's eyesight is one of his biggest complaints, second only to the headaches. I was hoping for more answers or solutions today. Throughout this recovery, we have been told often that we have to wait to see ~ wait to see what the mental deficiencies really are, wait and see how much the use of the left side returns to, wait and see how well his eye sight will be. Logically, I know that we are still early in this whole recovery process, but emotionally, it feels like it has been a long time.

I received an email from the RN that saved Randy's life. It made my day! Christine, if you are reading this, thank you so much for your email! This is a picture she sent of her and her "rat".

I have no doubt that God was with Randy that day and had set things accordingly to keep him here with us. Christine said he was an hour late leaving work that day. If she hadn't been there, he wouldn't be here. She commented in her email that Randy must have had a strong force with him or a linebacker for his guardian angel. How very true!

Today, Randy continued to work on drying more fruit. We will be eating dried fruit for years to come!

Randy also talked to the LOA office at Boeing. His LOA expired at the end of September. Randy was able to get it extended. He is looking forward to getting back to work. I had advised him to extend the LOA through the end of the year, but he decided to go only through the end of October and then wants to see where he is at then.

He and I also talked about putting together a set schedule for his days. He is doing great with writing down tasks he wants to do, but is struggling a bit with actually doing them. I thought it might help if he scheduled out his day and put "task time" in there. He is going to give it a try.

With the class that he is taking, they don't have set due dates, so it has been a bit of a struggle for him as well. He has done some of the reading, but I think he needed a bit more structure to the class. The only due date he really has is the taking of the final exam and that is a few weeks off. We were going to try setting due dates for him but then he got very busy with therapies and doctor's appointments. Hopefully, after this week, we can be done with doctor's for a little while and just concentrate on therapies and getting into a set routine.

Randy's Sunday

We had another good day today. We slept in a bit too much this morning and ended up missing church, but it felt great to get sleep.

Randy spent most of the day working on drying more fruit. He took a break so that we could go to the store to get the final things for Cass's birthday party. Her original part was scheduled for the Saturday after Randy's accident. We are throwing her a late birthday party to make up for it. So today we planned the party (our original party was to be outside, but I think it is suppose to rain next Saturday so we had to re-plan some of the games) and got the finishing items needed. Cass is so excited.

We also went to the library today. I got the book "Fighting for David" by Leone Nunley. It is the story of what she went through when her son was in a motorcycle accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury. I have had to put the book down a couple of time because it brings back some of the emotions that I felt those first few days, when we didn't know if Randy was going to make it.

I also talked to Mrs Merrill, the wife of the man that Randy shared a room with during his first week on 3 West of Harborview. Her husand is currently in a nursing home but she is hoping that he can improve enough that she can get him into rehab at Good Sam. They need a lot of prayer. He was doing so well while Randy was still in his coma and then he began having issues with fluid on the brain and he experienced a fall and had to have a second surgery. He is now not even able to walk, but the doctors speculate that it is probably due to the fluid on the brain. They are talking of putting a shunt in to take care of that. Mrs Merrill doesn't have family around here and is dealing with a lot of this on her own. She calls me when she needs support and to talk to someone who has been there. I feel very fortunate that Randy has had an amazing recovery process and I have been blessed to have a great support system that includes Randy' mom who has given up the comforts of her life and moved into our crazy house, and I have had a lot of support from old friend and new friends and Randy's coworkers. For those praying for Randy, please say a prayer for Mr and Mrs Merrill as well.

Randy's Saturday

We had a great day today.

Last night, after playing games together, Randy and I got into a cleaning mode and started working on reorganizing our bedroom. Today we finished the task. Randy has been wanting to set habits, such as making sure he puts things in the same place and such to help with not having a good memory. So we moved a little bookcase that has been sitting in our spare room into our bedroom. It would be an easy task except for the fact that the bookcase was full of books. Our house is actually overrun with books. To have a home for all of the books that we currently have, we really need about two more big bookcases. We ended up boxing up some we felt we could live without having around for awhile and we reorganized other shelves and found homes for the remainder of the books. Now Randy is all set up to have one place to set all of his stuff to make it easy for him to find.

We also went to the store today and got Randy a couple of model airplanes to build. He has it set in his mind that he will not be able to fly again so he has decided to build the models for right now. He has also talked about getting into photography again. Randy has an amazing eye for that sort of thing and he enjoyed developing his work. Before the accident we had talked about turning part of the garage into a dark room. We can't really afford to do that at this point, but he decided today to start working on drawing up the plans to do that.

This evening, Randy decided to make dinner. He did a great job of planning and cooking it. He made cube steak with garlic mashed potatos.

Tonight just felt amazing. It was as close to "normal" as we have had since the accident. Randy made dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen afterward (he has always been a very messy cook). We played Taboo together as a family ~ Randy did excellent with both describing the words that he had and guessing the words of other. Even the way in which he interacted with Cass with giving our Max a bath (even though he is the smallest dog, it takes at the very least, two people to give him a bath because he acts just like a cat), it just made it feel like things use to be, before the accident.

We also worked on his daily exercises today.

All in all, Randy had a great day today.

Mr Randy Rush

Randy had a good day today. He slept in until 11 this morning. He says he doesn't feel any differences from the new medication, but I think the last few days he has had less energy and been more tired. Randy worked on his eye exercises this morning, but didn't quite get around to doing the other exercises he is suppose to do daily before his mom had to get on the road to Yakima.

Our neighbor works from home sometimes, so Randy hung out at their house. When I walked in, he was looking pretty comfortable, sitting in a recliner doing logic problems. Cass and I have always enjoyed logic problems, but Randy never sat still enough to do any of those things. Now he is really enjoying them.

He worked some on his exercises and practiced walking around the house a bunch without his cane :-) . He also got up and danced a bit with Cass to the ending song of the Ghostbusters movie. I wish I had a video camera!!

We are going to spend the rest of the evening playing games together as a family.

Starting of Speech Therapy

Randy had a very busy day today! He has his evaluation to start speech therapy at Valley Medical Center today. Randy said the speech therapist asked him a lot of the same things that all of the others did ~ she had to get a baseline of where he is currently at. She had him name objects within a box and he got all of them correct. She had him repeat words and phrases and he did alright with that ~ just had with "l" and "s" in words. She had him name all of the animals that he could name ~ he named 8. She asked him questions such as "where do nurses work", "where do you buy stamps", and "what color is snow" and he got all of them correct. She then had him identify pictures, shapes, letters, numbers, and colors and he was accurate on all of them. He had to name things within the room and his body parts. He got caught up on index finger and he struggled with left vs right. She then tested his ability to follow directions. He did well with even those that had were 3 steps.

She then tested his cognitive ability with questions and organizing of pictures into categories, picking out a word within a list that didn't belong, stating how pictures were alike and different, arranging pictures from smallest to largest. He did well with all of those activities. He also had to state 4 or 5 things in sequence that you do to change batteries in a flashlight.

Things he needs to work on: delayed memory skills, memory for detail, and short-term memory skills.

The therapist also asked reasoning questions about opposites and had Randy complete analogies such as "river is to boat as highway is to....". He did quite well with all of that.

For occupational therapy, his therapist asked him if he had been writing in his journal as she had told him to, and he admitted he has not. She then asked him if he remembered what he had done yesterday and he did okay with recalling what took place. The therapist worked on multi-tasking today by doing things such as working with cards on a table by picking them out and putting together stories with them and then whenever a timer went off, Randy had to walk to the sink, turn the water on and off and then return to finish the task. He did quite well with that.

Next, the therapist had to put numbered cards in numerical order and periodically that therapist would interrupt to have Randy answer random questions and then he would have to return to the task with the cards. She said he did quite well.

For homework, he had to pick a task, plan it out and follow it through. He also has to practice multi-tasking.

We also went to a seminar tonight. It is the first of 3 on chronic pain. Randy just started medication that we are hoping will alleviate a lot of his pain, we are going to the seminars just in case the medication doesn't help. One thing that was said during the seminar was to not enable the person ~ not to over help them. This goes right along with what Randy has been asking for. Over the last few days as I start to do something for him, he has been stopping me and asking to do it himself. He said he feels like we treat him like he is in a bubble and he really wants out.

Not Much To Report

There isn't a whole lot to report today. Randy didn't have any therapies. He did do some of his exercises at home such as his eye exercises. Randy says his vision is improving slightly (the double vision at least), but not as quickly as he would like. Randy also worked on his stretches and worked on his exercise bike. He also continued to work on drying fruit. We have enough to last us quite a long time!

Randy was caught a few times tonight walking without his cain. His balance continues to get better, but without the cane he is still a little too wobbly.

The new medication hasn't started helping with the pain yet, but it is only the third night he has taken in it. I am hoping it kicks in soon.

Randy's Day

Randy had occupational and physical therapy today at Valley Medical.

For occupational therapy, Randy has 4 goals he is working on:
1. To increase his grip/strength
2. To improve his multi-tasking activities
3. To plan and follow through an activity from start to finish
4. To increase his memory

Randy accomplished goal #3 with the planning and making of dinner yesterday.

The therapist gave him math problems to do and gave him the task of organizing a stack of books in any manner that he chose. For the books, Randy chose to organize them by size. With the math problems, in the timeframe he had, he finished 10 out of the 14 math problems. With errors, he was able to self-correct and seemed to do well when he talked himself through the process.

The therapist also had Randy do shoulder shrugs as a strengthening exercise.

In physical therapy Randy worked on the exercise bike and some balance activities.

This evening, when I got home, his friend Brandon was down on our kitchen floor looking at our fridge to try to help with getting the water attached again. I teased Randy about inviting his friend over to put him to work! We didn't get it hooked up but we at least now think we know what the problem is.

I think that is it for updates for today.

Dr Visit Today

Today was a long day! It started at 6:30 this morning for Randy and I. We got up a little after 6:30 to drive the car down to the dealership in Fife to have the coolant leak looked at. They gave us a new 9-7 to drive around today (the 9-7 is the Saab SUV). Randy was excited. He had just been checking one out inside the dealership. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't Randy that got to drive it, it was me. I hate driving big cars. It was very nice inside, but I was very excited to get my little car back this evening!

After dropping the car off this morning, we headed to Randy's doctor appointment at the Neurosurgery clinic at Harborview. I felt a lot more confident with this appointment than I did with the one with the Neurologist from Multicare. The doctor today asked Randy a series of questions. She really wanted to get down to what was different about him since the accident. We talked about the weakness in his left side, the issues he has with his memory, the trouble with finding words, the shakes that come and go, and the constant pain he has in the left side of his head, his neck and his tailbone. We described the happenings of September 5th when we had to take Randy to the ER. She said there is no way to really tell if what happened that night was a seizure. She said it could have been petty seizures because you can be cognizant during those. They are going to do an EEG on Randy in about 3 weeks to see if there is any visible seizure activity or anything out of the ordinary going on. What was funny was that she had said that because of Randy's injury, his brain is expected to show as "not normal" through the EEG and it might not be able to tell us anything. Then, after she left the room for awhile to view Randy's records from Harborview and to consult with an attending physician, she came back and told us that Randy had 2 EEGs done while in Harborview and the 2nd one (which was the only one I was actually aware of ~ I believe it took place about a week after the accident), came back normal. She seemed surprised. She said that since that that came back normal, we should be able to see if anything is out of the ordinary going on now.

She did say, though, that she does not believe Randy had a stroke. She says that what she thinks the other doctor saw was from the initial injury. The recent MRI showed some changes, but she believes the changes were from the weakness and lack of use of the left side.

I asked her about the seizure medicaiton given to us by the other Neurologist. She said that she wouldn't recommend it for seizure medication, but it would work for the pain. The attending physician, however, recommended a different medication ~ Amitriptyline. They chose that medication because the side effect is making you sleepy, which would be great in helping Randy get to sleep at night. They are starting him out with a low dose and they warned that it won't help right away. It takes a few days to get into your system. I am really hoping, though, that it will help with his headaches. I can't imagine what it must feel like to have constant pain and trying to function through that.

The attending physician asked Randy how he would compare how he is now with how he was before ~ what percentage is he now to what he was then if then was 100%. Randy answered with the low 90's. Randy said the biggest detriment he is dealing with right now is his eyesight.

We started the medication tonight. Of course, Randy wanted immediate results, so he was a little disappointed. Hopefully it will kick in soon, though, and start allieviating the pain. We get the EEG done in about 3 weeks and have a follow up visit with the Neurology clinic in 6 weeks.

After the doctor visit, Randy and I dropped his mom off in time to walk Cass home from school and he and I went to pick up the car. The problem with the car had to do with a water pressure valve. It was a quick easy fix and it was covered under warranty ~ yeah!!!!

Then, after getting home, Randy cooked us dinner. He did an excellent job! He said it felt good to be back to doing some of the things he did before.

The Adventure Continues

It was just Randy and I home this weekend. Today, I decided to lie down and take a nap. He said he has some work he wanted to do on his computer so I thought all would be safe. I really should know Randy better than that!

I heard his sister and her friend come in the front door. I figured Randy was visiting with her, so I got up and took my time coming out ~ I went in and took a shower. When I came out, Melinda and her friend were sitting in the living room by themselves and they commented on how they had just let themselves in. Then they asked him where Randy was. I looked at this a little surprised and said "you are kidding right?". His sister shook her head no and asked if Randy was taking a nap. I said "You mean he hasn't been out here?". I think my heart skipped a few beats and I started into the kitchen andthat was when, through the back sliding door, I saw Randy sitting outside visiting with our neighbor on his back porch.

My Adventure

I have learned that everyday with Randy is an adventure!

This morning, Jon came over and was looking at our car to make sure it wasn't something that could be easily fixed. When he got here, Randy wanted to go out to the car with him but couldn't find his cell phone. I told him I would find it for him. As soon as they walk out of the door, I went into our bedroom and begin looking for it. I decided to take the easy route and used my cell phone to call it. Randy answered, laughing. Then he said "Thanks for helping me find it!"

The adventure didn't stop there.

At one point today, I was in the bathroom and I heard Randy walking around and noticed that I wasn't hearing the familiar sound of the "third leg" (a.k.a, the cane). I yelled at Randy "where is your cane". He responded "I am on my way to get it". I turned my head a bit more and saw the cane hanging right next to me. He had been walking around a little while without it and I hadn't even noticed! I yelled back "Randy, get in here". He responded "I am grabbing my cane, just give me a second". I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Then there was the key incident. I had given Randy the key when he and Jon were looking at the car. When they went to leave for Home Depot, Jon came in and said "We need the key to the car." I laughed and said "I gave it to Randy, check his pockets". I believe the key was actually found in the ignition.

I don't think my life will ever be boring again!

On another note, we received a copy of the statement from Christine Thompson (the trauma nurse that stopped at Randy's accident). In reading through her statement, there is no doubt in my mind that God was there with Randy and brought to there.

According to the statement she gave our attorney, she had completed a nursing trauma class a short time before the accident occurred. She witnessed the truck hit the concrete barrier and hit Randy's car. She stopped and went over the barrier to Randy's car. The doors were locked. This strikes me as odd. Randy didn't have a habit of locking the doors when he drove as far as I know. It reminded me of 10 years ago, though, when we were in a roll over accident in a little Geo Metro. I had a feeling that we were going to be in an accident or that something bad was going to happen to us that night, so I insisted the doors be locked because I wasn't given a clear vision of what exactly was to happen. It ended up that Randy fell asleep at the wheel due to being sick and taking cold medication before driving. The road turned and we didn't. We went off a small little embankment and rolled a couple of times. I ended up with some permanent scarring on my hand and Randy and Cass ended up with some bruises. God was definitely there then too!).

Anyway, because the door was locked, Christine had someone knock out one of the rear windows and unlock the passenger door. She found Randy slumped over on the passenger side. Randy wasn't breathing. She said it was obvious that his airway was obstructed because he was gurgling and rocking in an attempt to breathe. She said that she help up his head and blood discharged. She believed that he was seizing at that time and she opened his eyes and his left eye was "blown" (whatever that means exactly), which told her that he had an injury to his brain. She was in the car for an estimated ten minutes. I owe her Randy's life. If she wasn't there, if she hadn't stopped... Randy wouldn't be here.

As hard as it is to see him struggle through healing with a brain injury, life without him wouldn't be life at all. He is my best friend and my partner through this life.

Tonight was nice

We have a working fridge and freezer! Sears showed up today and spent a few hours working on things and now the freezer is freezing and the fridge is keeping things cold. The ice and water thing aren't quite working yet. We have to buy a hose for the water thingy (our friend Jon is going to help Randy with getting that tomorrow since I am a little clueless on this stuff ~ hence the words "water thingy").

Tonight was great. We went out to dinner with Jon and Kelli and their friend Jeanette. Randy had a great time. We both did. But it was great to see him out and about and laughing and having a good time being around people. It was funny, at dinner "Nero" came up and Randy had something to do with it in the back of his mind but couldn't quite bring it out. The conversation went on and then awhile later, without any warning, Randy switched right back to that conversation and commented that Nero had something to do with a role playing game and that was what he had been trying to come up with earlier. He did it in his very Randy way. Even before the accident, he would keep things like that in the back of his mind until he figured it out. It was how his mind worked. It just seems more pronounced now. He seems more "one-track" minded now. He did great, though, being out tonight and keeping up conversations with everyone. Much improved!

Randy's Day

Randy started off his day by saying he wanted an "easy" day today. He didn't have any therapy sessions, so it was pretty much an easy day. He and his mom went to the grocery store. He got more of the logic problem and crossword puzzle books ~ he has really been enjoying doing those. He has also been enjoying working on his exercise bike while he watches tv.

Then this afternoon, our neighbors found that their lawn had been delivered a day earlier than planned, so Randy went over there and helped out by doing some of the watering and keeping them company while they were working. When I came home he was over there sitting in a chair in the middle of the lawn. He said he really enjoyed hanging out with them, but he wasn't sure if he did a good job watering because he couldn't see well enough to know where the water was going. But he enjoyed trying to help!

Today in the mail, we got a copy of the entire accident report. Both Randy and I read through it and we both had very different reactions. He, of course, doesn't remember that night or the days to follow so it was a bit less emotional for him.

The accident happened earlier than I had thought. I called him about 6:15 and had thought the accident had just happened, but it was reported around 5:30. The officer identified Randy through his Boeing badge. When she arrived, they were in the process of cutting Randy out of the car. Also, the guy driving the truck that hit Randy had to crawl out the driver's side window because of damage to the truck from hitting the cement barrier. His first reponse, though, wasn't to go see how Randy was. According to witness statements, he instead went up to someone who had witnessed the accident and said "Did you see that? The guy cut me off."

Traffic was backed up for over 3 hours according to the report.

I think that is all that we have learned from the report.

Outpatient therapy

Throughout the day, Randy worked on reading his book for the class that he is taking. One of the first assignments for the class was to post an introduction to the discussion board so you can kind of get to know the other people taking the class. This was Randy's introduction:

"Hello everyone, This is my first class back to Green River since I graduated over a year ago at GRCC with my Associates degree. I have been working through an online program in Technical Management at Embry Riddle. I have also worked as a project manager in process engineering for the last 6 years. In June, a 2 ton truck totaled my car and I landed in a coma for 14 days and the hospital for two months because of a TBI. It’s been a long struggle to recover to a more “normal” life. This is my first try back to school since returning home. In addition to learning, I chose the course to prove to myself that I still remember aspects of being a project manager after the brain injury from th wreck."


Aside from the class stuff, Randy also went to his evaluations for occupational and physical therapy at Valley Medical. I didn't get to go, but his mom took great notes!

For occupational therapy, she tested how high he can lift each arm and the degree to which he could turn each arm over. She also tested strength on each side to get a baseline. She also had him put pegs into a peg board and then put them back into a dish with each hand. She asked him questions to get a feel for how he was doing with various tasks such as showing, grooming, cleaning, getting dressed (he has been having some issues with putting things on backwards lately) and she talked about working on some cooking (Randy did most of the cooking before the accident). She also said they have a driving simulator so he can start working on driving without having to be behind the wheel of an actual car.

For physical therapy, she had him hold his hands on his thighs while in a sitting position and tur both of his hands over at the same time. She also had him tap both feet at the same time. She advised that we check with the neurologist about the shakiness that Randy feels in his head and his body. It is something that comes and goes. He will be sitting there and all of a sudden his head just starts shaking.

We will be going to the neurologist on Monday.

Randy's Day

Short post because I am very tired:

Randy's mom has started to keep a log of what they do during the day, which helps me post what he has done. Let me tell you... it is very hard to ask someone who has very little memory what they have done during the day! This will definitely help me better track what he has been doing during his day!

Today, he started off wanting to watch a show about a group of guys who build custom motorcycles. Randy has always had a love of motorcycles. With what we had to watch going in and out of Harborview, though, we have been telling him that it is time to sell his motorcycle. He has said a couple of times "Well, maybe after just one more ride". We have seen both those who were at fault and those who were riding the motorcycle safely, but got hit by a careless driver. No more motorcycles!

Throughout the day, Randy and his mom also worked on his exercises ~ both for his left arm and hand as well as his eye exercises. He also went on two walks today ~ one with his mom and then one with me after dinner.

When I got home, Randy was working on reading his textbook for the class that he signed up for.

Last night, before he went to sleep, I had him make a task list for things he wanted to accomplish today. Tonight, I started to ask him about tomorrow and he interrupted me to tell me that he had transferred over tasks he didn't complete today to tomorrow's list. So he is using it. This is good.

Tonight, he got out of the house and hung out with his friend Brandon. That was definitely good for him.

Check out Randy!

He mowed the lawn today. Well.... part of it. His dad did part of it and then had him finish it. He did pretty well. His dad said he probably couldn't dump the bag, but he did alright pushing it.

Randy had a pretty busy dad. Aside from the lawn mowing, he also had speech therapy today and an eye doctor appointment.

His speech therapist worked with him on a few different things. Randy showed her some of the crossword and logic problem books that he has. She said it was important for him to do those types of activities to help him lengthend his attention span and build his concentration ~ to improve his overall memory. She had him do things such as repeating number patterns and the making it a little harder by remembering a list of numbers and then putting them in numerical order and repeating them back. He was able to do that with 6 numbers. His mom said the therapist offerred him a piece of paper, but he did it all in his head. She also had him counting backwards by 2's, 3's, 5's and 7's. Then she had him listen to a list of 4 numbers and he had to add another number to each and tell the list of two numbers (so for 3, 6, 7, 9 he would be asked to add 2 to each and say the new list ~ 5, 8, 9, 11). I think it was a good visit today. He emailed me and said "I think she thinks I am smart."

Randy then went back to his eye doctor to follow up regarding the prism glasses. Even though they still aren't quite working for him, the doctor wanted him to give them a bit longer before trying to adjust them. He gave Randy some exercises to do with some funky looking glasses to help work things a bit. I think he goes back in a couple of weeks.

Our Sunday

Today went pretty well. Randy, Cass and I made it to church. Randy did very well with walking in. He would much rather walk than use the wheelchair. He then got more exercise by going on a long walk with his dad. Then later in the evening, he asked to go another walk with me. He definitely got his walking in today!

Everyone in our household went off on separate ways today, so Randy and I took some time and went to Coldstone to get his ice cream fix since we can't keep ice cream around here currently for him with out freezer being out.

That is really it for updates today. It was pretty much just a quite day, which was very nice!

Updates from the lawyer and other stuff

Before I go into our day, I have to take the time to brag about our kid. We just got the WASL test results back from the end of last year and Cass passed all three sections. She exceeded the standards in both Reading and Math, and she met the state standards in Writing. Her scores were above the average for her school, the district and the state in all three areas. We have a smart kid!

Okay, so for our day:

The attorney came by today to meet Randy. He is a very nice man. He said that he sent letters to the driver of the Taurus (the one that started the chain reaction), to the driver of the truck that hit Randy, and to the company that owns the truck that hit Randy. The Taurus guy got the letter (it was certified), but has not responded to anything sent by our attorney, our car insurance, or to the officer who was at the scene. The company who owns the truck that hit Randy did respond. Their insurance sent us a letter saying that per their investigation the sole liability should be with the Taurus. So our next step is to file a suit. We were warned that it is a very long process. Once we file, the date they set for trail will be at the minimum 18 months away. The only legality we have to stand on is the fact that the truck shouldn't have been in the HOV lane due to its weight. The HOV lane has a limit of 10,000 pounds. The truck was 11,000 pounds. If Randy has even a 1% fault in this, we would have no chance of collecting anything from the company due to contributory negligence. However, since Randy has absolutely no fault, we only need to show that the truck was at least 1% at fault and then they would be responsible to pay for everything.

So that is where we are at with the legal side of all of this. We will start the process of the suit and in a couple of years, we will see how it all comes out.

As for the rest of the day, we have had "one of those days"! The freezer side of our fridge has decided not to work anymore. Of course, it decides to do this just a few months after the warranty expires! Sears came out and checked on it today and decided that a part needed to be ordered. It should be fixed by next Friday. Our neighbors are letting us store things in their freezer for the time being. Then my car has decided to have issues ~ something is going on with the coolant. Shortly after the accident, I got a message saying that I needed to fill the coolant level. Someone filled it for me. Then a month later, I got the message again and when someone checked it for me, it was definitely low again. He filled it up and now I am getting the message again. I scheduled it to be looked at. Normally, Randy takes care of all of the car stuff since my knowledge with cars is very limited. When scheduling the appointment, the guy was asking me a bunch of questions and I sounded like an idiot trying to answer them! But I did get it scheduled.

Oh, one thing that I wanted to mention today is that, through the attorney, we found out a little bit more of what happened around the time of the accident. After Randy was hit, there was a lady travelling north on I-405. She saw the accident and pulled over and jumped over to the barrier to get to Randy. She was a trauma nurse. She was the first one to reach Randy. She sat him up and helped him breath. She saved his life. All I know is her name ~ Christine Thompson ~ and that she is going to or has moved to Colorado to be around family. I hope one day to meet her and thank her.

I think that is it for the updates.

It's Friday!

This week seemed really long to me. I am glad Friday is finally here!

Randy had occupational therapy today. The therapist worked on stretching his left side. The therapist wanted him to schedule a time each day to journalize what has happened throughout the day. When I asked him tonight if he was going to do that he responded that he wasn't quite ready to yet. When he was in Good Sam, he was working really hard to trying to get better because he wanted to be home. Then, when we first got home, he seemed driven so that he could return to work. Now, he seems to be falling into "I will get around to it later" mode. I did my "you are only get to get better if you do the work" speech and the "it is all up to you how quickly and how fully you recover" speech, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears tonight. I am hoping that getting him into outpatient therapy will revitalize his drive to get better.

I set up his evaluations for physical and occupational therapy with Valley Medical for next Wednesday. It will be along day for him. Each evaluation is an hour long and they are back to back.

Today

There isn't much to report today, but Randy had a great day.

He was very worn out from all of the running around yesterday so he slept in until after 11. Then this afternoon, he had a friend from high school come and visit.We haven't seen him in a few years. Randy really enjoyed the visit.

Then this evening, his friend Brandon came and picked him up and took him out to dinner and hung out with him for awhile. It was his first time to be out and not around family. It was good for him and he had a great time.

All in all, a really good day.

Dr Visit Today

The visit today ended up producing more questions than answers.

We started off with an MRI and then headed to the Neurosurgery clinic to find out the results. The doctor at the clinic was a resident that had worked with Randy while he was in the hospital ~ he was on his team of doctors. He said there appeared to be a small stroke that showed on the MRI. At first, he was talking as though that would be the reason Randy was weak on the left side. We weren't told of any stroke while he in Harborview and when he went back to check the MRI results from June, he said there were no documentations of anything then. I don't know when it could have happened. It is possible that the episode on September the 5th was a stroke, but the doctor in the ER said he didn't think it was based on the blood work and the Cat Scan done that night. The Resident today advised us to keep the appointment we have with the Neurology clinic with Harborview to get more answers. He was there on a purely surgical basis and this was outside his realm of expertise.

We also asked about the diagnosis from the Neurologist down here regarding the seizure. The answer we got back was that, again, it wasn't in his field of expertise. He did say that he didn't see any harm in waiting on taking the medication until we had our appointment with the other clinic, which is on October 2nd, since we don't know if it really was a seizure or not and he hasn't had any episodes since that time.

He did say that, from a Neruo Surgical standpoint, he was very happy with the recovery Randy has made. He thinks that where we are at right now is now where we are going to end up, meaning that he believes Randy will continue to get better. He said that Randy does not need to be seen by the surgery team anymore because everything on that end has healed up fine. There is some other clinic, though, that he recommended ~ it was the Traumatic Brain Injury one that can help deal with other "non neurological" issues such as change in personality and such, which we haven't really seen, but he recommended that we give it a try to see if there is anything they can help us out with.

So, it was a good day in that the Doctor is pleased with the recovery so far, but it was also a frustrating day in that we found out about a stroke and have no answers on that or the seizures.

So that is where we are at right now.

Randy's Tuesday

Randy worked his mind with games today. He played some Sudoku and some crosswords. He also worked on peeling and slicing apples to dehydrate them.

So often, Randy will seem to be so close to being back to "normal" but then days like today bring it back that his brain still has a lot of healing to do. Today, Randy took a couple of calls from different doctors' offices. He took notes when talking to them and then tried to tell me what they had called for. He was able to tell me some of what they needed, but then he confused the two calls. I tried to ask him questions to clue his memory, but that didn't work. I finally gave up and called the doctors' offices. One called just to remind of the appointment and the other was calling to discuss the orders needed for his outpatient therapy.

Tomorrow, we got back to Harborview for an MRI and then a follow up visit with the Neurosurgery clinic.

Randy's Monday

Randy's speech therapist is finally back from vacation so she came to meet Randy today and do her evaluation. She reviewed the planner that he has been keeping and asked him his goals. It was pretty much just a time for her to see where he was at and where he was wanting to go. She commended him for using the Franklin Covey planner system, but her recommendation was a PDA. He likes his planner, though.

I talked to his physical therapist for a bit today. She said it is time for her to discharge him and he needs to start outpatient therapy. I left a message for his Primary Care doctor to get the orders for that so we can get started. The therapist said that technically, she should have discharged him awhile ago since we have been taking him out and he does well with it.

Good Sunday

We have pictures from the party. here is one of Randy and I. For more pictures from the event, you can check out the photo album on our msn space: http://rarush.spaces.live.com/.

I did not get anything done that I wanted to today. Our room is still a big mess and very little cleaning got done throughout the rest of the house, but today was a really good day. We managed to get up in time to go to church today (not an easy thing to do currently!). After church, Randy wanted to try going to a restaurant. So, for the first time since the accident, the three of us (Cass, Randy and myself) all went out to lunch. We went to one of Randy's favorite places ~ the Black Diamond Bakery. We then went down the street to the little book store and spent quite a while going through all of the books (it is a great place to get well taken care of used books for a good price). The whole excursion wore Randy out, but he had a great time! We started to do some cleaning ~ Randy worked on sweeping the floors so he could work his left hand a bit, but we didn't get too far with it. Jon and Kelli came over for awhile and by the time they left, we had lost focus on cleaning.

Randy decided to try to do the Continuing Education online class through Greenriver Community College. He signed up for the Project Management Applications class, which will be centered around the applications that he would use at work. I think it is a great way to occupy his time and his mind and to see where his endurance is currently at. Tonight, he was working on a small project that entailed data entry into an excel spreadsheet. At one point, he asked me to take over because he felt like he was too slow at it, but with some encouragement, he finished out the task and did pretty good with it. He had just a few mistypes. We will see how he does with the class. It starts this Wednesday.

Organization

Today, we put Randy's desire to go through everything to good use. He and I went through filing cabinets and got rid of a bunch of old stuff (we had mail from 2004 in there!). We came across some old notebooks that he took notes from meetings in and he had a great time going through those. They, of course, looked like a foreign language to me, but he understood what things meant and enjoyed seeing them.

Today we talked more about him doing a Continuing Education class from Greenriver. The one we narrowed it down to was a Project Managment Applications class, so pretty much stuff he would know already. He and I were thinking it might be something to occupy his time and his mind. I am a little worried about setting him up to fail, though. If he struggles too much with it, or fails at the class, I am scared that he would get let it get him down. I can sit here and have a "normal" conversation with him and I start to feel that he is so close to being back to where he was prior to the traumatic brain injury, but then there are instances where he will say or do something that brings back the reality that he isn't the same Randy right now and I don't really know what his capabilites are right now.

We also dealt with some mood swings today. I have heard of them and been warned of them, but Randy has been pretty much even tempered as of yet. Today, though, as we were driving to the store, I knew something was wrong. When asked, he said he was in a bad mood, but he said he couldn't explain why. At first, I did the normal "girly" thing of wondering what I could have done to have caused this, but I finally came to the realization that I had done absoultely nothing and this was most likely the injury (and I had a short realization of what men must feel like as we women change moods on seemingly very short notice!)He came out of it pretty quickly, though, and overall we had a great day.

Dr Visit Today

We saw the Neurologist today. He listened to me describe Randy's accident and give short detail of what has transpired since, listened to me describe what happened Sept 5th, watched Randy walk a bit, then tested his reflexes. Based on that alone, he decided that Randy had a seizure and should be on seizure medication. He even said that he thinks Randy will need the medication the rest of his life. Because Randy has been having a lot of pain in the back of his head, he gave us a drug called Lyrica. He plans to schedule an EEG, but still prescribed the medication without it.

I definitely don't want to experience another episode, but am leary of starting this medication without doing some testing for seizure activity through the EEG. I also wouldn't mind getting a second opinion. The episode seemed like a seizure to me, but I have a hard time medicating without more definite testing.

Not Much to Report

Randy's physical therapist cancelled today so no therapy. He walked around our block with his mom. His speech therapist finally called (she has been on vacation the last few weeks). I think she will start next week with working with him.

Tomorrow we have our appointment with the Neurologists. He hasn't had any episodes since September 5th, but I still think it would be good to have him checked out and it will be good to start establishing relationship with a Neurologist that is close by.

Another Day

Randy had occupational therapy today. She worked on stretching out his left arm. She also had him shuffling cards and using his left hand to flip cards over. I had read Doug's comment on having the therapist adjust the setting on the exercise bike after his session, so Randy wrote a note on his white board to ask his physical therapist when she comes next.

Today, Randy also ran errands with his sister. I think he likes getting out of the house as much as he can! They went down to Home Depot to check out the "oops" paint to choose a color for the bathroom that our neighbor has redone for us. For anyone that doesn't know what "oops" paint is, you can get a gallon of paint for $5. It is paint that could have been mixed wrong or that no one came to pick up so they sell them cheap.

Tonight, his mom worked on finishing up the primer and our neighbor came over and put the floor down in the new pantry and helped with finishing of the primer as well. It is coming along very nicely!

Randy has been talking lately about volunteering somewhere, perhaps to do administrative type tasks, to give him something to do and to get him to start working towards getting back to work, which he is very anxious to do.

Randy's sleeping has gotten a bit better than it was last week, but he still quite often will wake up and toss and turn for awhile. I think I am beginning to adjust to functioning on less sleep.

Randy's Tuesday

Last week this time we were taking Randy to the emergency room, right in the middle of the season permier of one of the few shows I really like, "House". I began warning Randy yesterday that I was absolutely not going to miss the show this week. I am happy to report that there were no episodes tonight!

Randy had a good day today. He had physical therapy. She got on to him for not doing his daily exercises. She said his left arm is starting to get more stiff. We bought him a white board for him to write down things he does or needs to do throughout the day to help remind him and us. He also walked along the street. She walked with you today and told him that he needs to go for walks with us a couple of times throughout the day.

Randy worked on his exercise bike some today but the therapist warned not to let him wear himself out on it.

Randy also went out and went shopping with his sister. I think he gets very tired of being in the house every day and looks for any chance to get out!

Dr Visit Today

Randy got an exercise bike today. It works nicely. It has a back on the seat and it isn't too far off the ground. I am a little worried that he is going to push himself on it too much, though.

We met the doctor who will be Randy's Primary Care Physician today. It is kind of funny, Randy had actually met her before. She is with Multicare and anytime Randy has needed to go to the doctor, he goes into the Urgent Care Clinic at Multicare. A year or so ago, she was working in the urgent care center when he had to go in several days in a row. We had offered to take some feral cats over the mountains to a lady who was going to give them a home (they were some found to be abused by some kids). One of the cats scratched Randy's knuckle. He wouldn't go to the doctor right after it happened. He waited until we got back. By then, he was in so much pain. He had to go into the urgent care every morning and every night for a few days for shots of antibiotics. She still remembers him from that!

Today was really just a meet and greet. We gave her the history of what happened and all that he has been through and symptoms he still currently has. We told her about last Tuesday. We have been trying to get Randy in to see a Neurologist since the incident, but have had a hard time. I didn't realize the Neurosurgery clinic and Neurology clinic were two separate things at Harborview. Randy has gone to the Neurosurgery clinic as a follow up visit, but he wasn't a patient of the Neurology clinic so we had to get a referral from Neurosurgery to get him seen. So we got the referral and the first available appointment is October 2nd. I told the doctor today about it and she gave us a referral to another Neurologist ~ one that is closer and more available. We have an appointment for Friday morning. She also advised us to get into a chronic pain specialist because of the constant headaches he has. I tried to schedule with them, but had to leave a message.

Things We Have Learned

1. Share your passwords with someone you trust (or write down in accessible, safe spot): Randy and I have always shared our passwords with each other, excluding work passwords. He has said many times that he is very thankful we did because otherwise he would not have been able to get back into his accounts. It was also very helpful to be able to log into his accounts to notify various people of what had happened.

2. Make sure your partner knows all bill information: Thankfully, I am the one in the family that does all of the financial stuff. This really made us realize that, if anything happens to me, Randy would have no idea what bills to pay when or how to log on to any of the accounts. I had started making a spreadsheet before the accident with websites and login instructions, but I hadn't ever gotten around to finishing.

3. Make sure you partner has a name and number of someone at your workplace to contact: Since Randy had moved up to Everett, I knew from trying to call him the week before that on the voicemail of his new number, the person who had it before had left a voicemail that stated their new number. Otherwise, I would not have had anyway of contacting anyone at Boeing. I would have had to wait for someone to try to call him.

4. Establish Power of Attorney: No matter what your age, everyone should have a designated Power of Attorney. I ran into a few roadblocks because of not having this. Randy had 2 accounts that I wasn't on because we had never gotten around to putting me on them. Even though Washington is mutual property state, companies will not give out information or discuss accounts with someone that is not listed on the account. This even included his disability claim ~ I could file the claim, but I couldn't discuss the status of it after it was filed until I got Power of Attorney.

5. Make sure your partner knows what benefits you have: I am on Randy's insurance, so I had the contact information for them to talk about medical insurance, but a lot of companies have other benefits out there, such as the TotalAccess for Boeing. Without the assistance of other Boeing employees, I wouldn't have known all that was out there.

Museum of Flight

Randy had a good day today. He and his dad went to the Museum of Flight (Randy has a membership there). It wore Randy out a bit, but he had a great time being out and about. I thought it was great because it gave me a chance to catch up on sleep (Randy had another night of not sleeping much again last night).

Tomorrow, we go to another doctor. Randy has never had a Primary Care Physician before. He has always just gone into the Multicare urgent care clinic. Tomorrow we will be meeting who we hope to be his new Primary Care Physician. It is really just an appointment to meet her and see if we like her and see if she wants to work with us.

The Party

The Party went off very nice tonight in my opinion. Randy stayed for almost the entire thing. I was surprised. He really enjoyed being around people and getting to talk to people. I don't know the end result of anything because we left right as bidding was ending. But the food was fabulous!

Randy actually slept last night, which I think is great because it means that I actually got sleep. Today, he ran errands with me. His computer started having issues a couple of days ago so we took it to the Apple store to have it checked out. Randy did all of the talking while we were there and he did a great job! We ended up not getting it fixed because it was a bigger issue than we thought, but I was very impressed with how he was able to converse with the tech guy.

Randy and I have been talking about the things we have learned from this and things we wished we would have had in place before this happened ~ legal things mainly. We had wanted to post on here those things we have learned from this experience. Tonight, though, I am a little too tired to post anymore.

Friday

This might be a short post ~ I am very tired! Ever since the episode Tuesday night, Randy hasn't been sleeping much, which means I haven't gotten much sleep.

Randy had both physical and occupational therapy today. The therapists worked on stretching out his left arm/hand. He, of course, practiced his walking. They gave him some putty type stuff to work with his left hand with. The therapist told Randy to absolutely not walk without his cane (which he tries to do quite often, especially whenever he wants to carry something).

I think Randy might be having too much ice cream or he is thinking about it too often. He and I were talking about something and he commented "They want to have their ice cream and be able to eat it too." I said "Ice Cream? What about the cake". He kind of laughed as he realizedwhat he has had, then responded "Nah, they skipped the cake and went straight for the ice cream!"

Exercise Bike

Before I go into Randy's day today, Randy's Physical Therapist recommended that we get an exercise bike for him. So if anyone knows of someone that has one that they never use and want to get rid of it for a low price, please let us know! It would be preferred to find one that has a back on the seat to make it safer for him.

Randy spent a lot of time today continuing to research TBI on the internet. I had found a site where people can post their stories or the stories of their loved ones. Randy has been reading through those. The site also has a chatroom for TBI survivors and caregivers. He also went through some of our boxes in our spare bedroom and found all of his cameras. He was really into photography a couple of years ago. He took a couple of classes at Greenriver. For those who have visited our home, there is a black and white picture of Cass hanging on our wall that Randy took and developed ~ it is an amazing picture. He has a few old cameras he had come across in antique stores.

Randy also went through all of our movies to see what we had. He says he went through everything because it all feels new to him.

I have a funny story from yesterday that I forgot to tell. Randy's sister and Cass were working on drying some cherries. It was mentioned that it would nice to have a cherry pitter and Randy commented that one could probably be picked up at McLendon's Hardware store during the off season for very cheap. What's funny is that, a few months ago Randy picked one up very cheaply at McLendon's Hardware. It was sitting in our garage. Of course, by the time I got home from work and got to hear Randy's recommendation, they had already done a bunch of cherries without a pitter.

Today, something triggered his memory of a train ride that he, Cass and I took a few months ago. He had to email me to ask me where it was ~ down in Elbe, WA. I think it was the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad. The trip is suppose to take 1 1/2 hours. I thin ours was about twice that long. The train had problems on the way back. We had to wait on it while they went to get another train to get us all back.

We called Harborview Neurosurgery today. The nurse said she was going to talk to the doctor and see if he needed to be seen sooner than the 20th and then call us back, but no one heard from her. I will call back tomorrow. I am just worried that what happened Tuesday night involved seizures and I would like him to be seen and try to get things figured out before we have to experience it again.

Also, yesterday I had posted about APD and wanting to get Randy tested for it. I found out today that there is more than one meaning of APD (thank you Chiara!). The one the eye doctor was referring to is Auditory Processing Disorder. The one that my friend's son experienced was Afferent Pupillary Defect. I think the best thing would be to get Randy into a Neuro Opthamologist as our friend Cyndi recommended to us. There is so much out there and so much to learn about traumatic brain injury and what can result because of it and what test to figure out what, it can be rather overwhelming sometimes. I keep feeling like I am missing something and I worry that I am not getting him the best medical care that he needs now because I don't have the necessary knowledge to know what he needs. Thank you to all of those who have sent their advice based on their experiences ~ even down to the foods that his body needs right now.

Info on Party this weekend

Someone asked me to re-post the info for the Party this weekend to make it easier to find, so here it is:

Date: September 9th
Time: 5 pm to 10 pm
Where: 21035 100th Ave SE Kent, WA 98031
Phone Number to Reach Jon and Kelli if directions are needed: 253-856-1069 (or you can call/email me and I could provide directions as well)
Cost: $25 per person $40 per couple Dinner and open bar included.

Randy will be there for the first part of the evening (until he gets too tired). He is looking forward to getting to see those who are able to make it!

Randy got his glasses

Randy got his glasses today. They look like normal glasses, which surprised me. They don't help him as much as we had hoped, but maybe as his eyes adjust to them they might help out more.

We didn't have any of the excitement that we had last night. Randy has been walking fine today with no falling into walls or pouring water where there is no cup. I had his mom ask the doctor about Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) at the recommendation of our friend Cyndi who went through all of this with her son a few years ago. The eye doctor gave us the name and number of an Auditory Integration Therapist, who can test him for that, but he said that it sounded like possible seizures to him. I plan to call the Harborview Neuroclinic tomorrow and see if we can get him in sooner than the 20th. Maybe from there we can get him to a Neuro Opthamologist to see if they come up with anything the other eye doctor might have missed.

We are all rather tired after last night's adventure. I was surprised Randy didn't sleep all day ~ he actually got up around 11. After returning from the hospital, he had a very hard time falling asleep. I think he finally stopped tossing and turning around 5:30 to 6.

Life with a Brain Injury

We have learned throughout the last 2 1/2 months that recovery with brain injury can be an up and down road with many twists and turns. The man that Randy first shared a room with on 3 west in Harborview was walking, talking, and doing seemingly well when Randy was still in a coma. Now he is in a nursing facility, not able to walk or even able to stand; not able to feed himself; and not really able to respond to people. We saw another man who was in the rehab program have to go back to 3 west and have part of his skull removed. He, also, is now at a nursing facility. You never know the twists and turns that will hit you.

Today started out as a great day. It was Cass's first day of school, so I took her in to find her classroom and meet her new teacher. Then headed back home to get the rest of the family to visit the outpatient therapy place. As Randy started walking down our front steps, he turned to me and said "I can jump. Want to see?" The place was okay ~ looked like any other rehab place I am sure. Then I went on to work. Later in the day, when Randy's sister was going to go pick up one of our dogs from the vet, Randy surprised everyone by saying he wanted to go. Normally he would prefer not go anywhere in the car because of the car sickness. So they all went to get the dog and then went to a grocery store. I guess Randy had to walk every isle, wanting to see everything. They got home shortly before I got home from work. While he was at the store, he did a great job walking.

When I got home, though, he had very little balance. He almost fell into the wall a few times. He went to pour hot water into a glass and completely missed the glass, but he had no idea he was missing the glass. Even with his issue with double vision, he has not had an issue with telling what is real and what isn't. He just seemed totally unaware. His speech seemed off and his whole demeanor seemed different ~ he was argumentative and refused to remain seated anywhere or do what I was asking him to do. I also noticed rapid movement in his eyes. It would happen briefly and he was able to respond to me while it was happening, but it was very odd. He was also running a low grade temp.

His mom ended up calling Harborview's neuroclinic and they advised us to call 911. We live right by a fire station, so they were here in no time. They asked him questions and by that point he seemed more lucid and his balance was already coming back, but his heart rate was rather high. They advised us to take him into an ER. We chose Good Sam because Harborview was so far away and Good Sam has his records as well.

The doctor there ran all sorts of tests. He had blood drawn, urine sample, EKG, and a Cat scan. Everything showed up perfectly normal. The doctor there said it could be that Randy has some sort of virus that is going around. Even something simple such as the common cold can affect him neurologically. We spent a total of 6 hours in the ER. Right now, we just need to watch him and see if it happens again. I think next time, I will drive the extra distance and take him to Harborview where he could possibly be looked at by Neurosurgeons. I am really hoping, though, that it was just a viral thing going around and that it will be/is already out of his system.

Nice Day!

Today was a good day. It was my birthday and we had Jon and Kelli over (Jon is the tall guy next to Randy in the picture). They played a dice game with us and Randy ended up beating all of us. It was the first game that Randy really stuck to playing (probably because he was winning!).

Randy was very interactive today when they were here. We had burgers for dinner and Randy was insistent that since it was my birthday he was going to bbq, but then as he started getting stuff ready, he said "but Jon can probably help me out". It was good that he admitted he needed help! I have a picture of Randy flipping burgers at http://rarush.spaces.live.com/.

Tomorrow morning we all go to visit the outpatient facility at Valley Medical Center. I am hoping that we like what they have to offer.

Lazy Day!

We had a very lazy day today! Randy's mom and sister are staying at a friend's apartment this weekend to get some quiet alone time (not much quiet time with a ten year old, 3 dogs and 2 cats!). Randy, Cass and I ended up sleeping in this morning. I think we all woke up a little after ten, but no one ventured out of bed until close to 11, so we missed church this morning.

Randy played around on the computer. He likes to search out information on traumatic brain injury and healing from it. We also played a game together, or at least started to. Randy got through just a couple hands of it and wanted to take a break. I also dragged him to the store. He did great with walking around. His balance keeps improving every day.

Randy continues to struggle with finding words today. When he can't find the words he wants, he often searches others that mean the same thing or that can use to describe whatever he can't remember. Then, there are times like today that he pulls things out of nowhere. For example, he was trying to think of "Praying Mantis" and what he came up with was "sleeping tree".

Randy also went through a bunch of the cards that he/we have received over the last 2 months and read through what everyone wrote. That lead to him talking about work and how much he misses it and everyone there.

That was pretty much our day.

One thing I have noticed over the past couple of weeks is that Randy acts a little different when it is he and I than when others are around. When it is just he and I, he has a lot more inflection in his tone and he is able to voice opinions and frustrations. However, whenever others are around, I have noticed he sounds more monotone and is less likely to voice opinions and such.

Not Much to Report Today

There isn't really a lot that happened today. Randy slept in until about noon. He pretty much sat around watching tv throughout the day.

Last night, Randy watched a movie that he has been continuously asking to see. The movie is "Memento". I think it is funny that he even thought of this movie. For those who haven't seen the movie, it is shown backwards. The main character in the movie suffers head trauma that causes him to have short-term memory loss. He uses notes, pictures, and tattoos to help him remember things.

Randy's Friday

Randy slept in today until about noon today. His mom went in once to see if he wanted to get up and he said "I'm working on it". Then a little bit later his answer was "No".

His Occupational Therapist came today. Her name is Lois and she will start coming 1 to 2 times a week until we enter into Outpatient Therapy. She pretty much did an evaluation today. She checked out what he can do and what he has been doing, checked out the house to see what needed to be changes such as the height of the chair used in the shower, and showed him exercises to do in between visits. When she asked Randy what he wanted to work on, he responded "Anything and everything!".

The therapist said she wants Randy to start using his left hand to do more to get it working better. She also suggested that Randy have a set schedule, which Randy said needs to include sleeping until 10 or so.