A Day in The Life: Week 3

Hi Everyone,

I'm here at the hospital, and Liam has been relatively with-it for the past couple of hours, but seems to be winding down now. Mat was here this morning, then Erika and Ashley, so I thought I'd try and piece together what they told me to give everyone an idea of what today was like.

So far it seems to be one of his better days, and that roller coaster is still trending gently upwards.

Mat said that Liam was fairly awake and chatty this morning. By chatty, he was speaking every once in a while, and is still sometimes difficult to hear and understand. He speaks like someone who is sleep-talking. Alot of whispers and mumbles. The good news is, if you ask him to speak clearer, he can usually whisper louder and mumble less.

Anyway, Mat was with him this morning, and Mat got him in his wheelchair and took him outside to meet Erika and and the dogs. Erika says he had fun seeing the dogs and being outside in the sun.

He was up a while more and was falling asleep when I got in at around 12:30. He slept pretty well until about 2:00 when the physical therapist came around. They did some walking exercises. With her holding him, he is somewhat able to walk. He takes very small steps and cannot balance on his own at all. He loses concentration and will start to fall, and the left leg is still pretty weak. She also had him sit and try to move his left arm more, which he was able to do.

When she was working with him, his former boss, also named Joel, came by for a visit. When the PT finished up, we got him in his chair and took him to the 4th floor skybridge for the view. He really enjoyed seeing Joel, and had one of the best conversations I've heard him have so far. He was answering questions, asking relevant questions, and making relevant comments. Not that topics moved much beyond the basics, or we stayed on one topic for more than a minute or so, but it was still great to see.

After Joel left, he got back in bed, but pretty soon after his speech therapist came by. Liam performed well for her. He knew his name, the date, and his birthday. He even knew his age, which was giving him alot of trouble two days ago. He stumbled on the President, saying the current president was "HW," but later, on his own, said Barack. I asked where Obama went to college and he pointed at himself and said "Oxy," and then said, "I got better grades than him." Basically, he was able to answer almost all the questions asked, and was able to read for her.
She asked him to name all the animals he could in a minute. He started well, saying, "Hippo," and then "Zebra." After that, he got distracted, and said "Joel," and "monster." He said another non-animal that I don't remember, and then repeated Hippo and Zebra several times. She told him each time to say a different animal, but he couldn't. Finally, he said "Blue Jay," and "rooster."

She took off, and we watched some of the UW-Stanford basketball game. He was able to read the score for me, but didn't really keep his eyes on the game. He sat up and was able to feed himself, and looked at some pictures we have on the wall. He saw pictures of himself during Spring Break our senior year. A bunch of us had a great time on Lake Powell, and he looked at those pics and said, "we really need to do that again soon." It's something we always talk about, so it was good to hear. He got back in bed, and has now been sleeping for another half hour or so.

When awake, he usually still keeps his eyes closed, but will open them if he is talking. The tests the therapists did were interesting. I think they showed how far he has come, and how far he still has to go. If he is drowsy, he sometimes doesn't know where he is, or thinks he is someplace totally different (he was in Mexico the other day.) He sometimes forgets his age, or says things that don't make sense. But when he is doing well, it is great to see.

Erika, Ashley, Kiea, and Chris Moose are all here now, and Liam is stirring a bit, so I'll end this here. We'll be sure to let you guys know how therapy goes in the next couple of days.