Getting better = exhausting for everyone else

Hi everyone,
I tried to write a post earlier today, but Liam has been so awake and active that it demands all my attention. I got here are 11:30 this morning, Marylyn came in early so I could sleep in. At about noon he started waking up and demanding water. He is very thirsty, but not allowed water. He spent the next almost 2 hours sucking on this sponge on a stick that he is allowed to use to wet his mouth, pulling himself into sitting positions, and having us help him sit up. At one point when Marylyn was struggling to help lift his weaker left side while I was lifting his right said he pointed at her and said "fired." He fired here from helping because she wasn't doing a good job ;) It was rather funny. Then he sniffed her and looked at her and very pointedly said "stinky." Apparently, he doesn't like the smell of her perfume. The feeding tube clogged this morning, so they had to remove it. Marylyn and I fought with the nurses not to put it back in until the speech therapist could come as she thought Liam might be able to swallow and eat and not need the tube. We finally convinced the nurses to wait after a lot of arguing, Marylyn was very vocal about Liams needs, it was great.

The Neuro doctor came by to check on him and cautioned us again that this is going to be a long process, but that if Liam keeps improving as much as he has that he should be able to move up to the rehab floor in a weeks or so and not have to go to an outside facility. Alot depends on how much time he is awake and how much he can participate in therapy, as I have mentioned before.

The speech therapist was able to come by while he was awake around 1:30pm. She introduced her self and started with some questions. "I know this is your mom, but who is that at the end of the bed?" (pointing at me) and Liam says "I'm not stupid, that's Erika." When asked what year it is he said "I'm not stupid, 2009." Very entertaining, the smart alec side of him is alive and well.

I do need to mention that when I say that he said something he is not talking normally at point. His voice is very quiet, and he is hard to understand, we get about half of what he is saying. Somethings are very clear, like when he asked for pink lemonade, ice cream, and when he called Joel a "wussy pussy" (sorry Joel) but other things are unintelligible and we just can't figure out what he wants. This is very frustrating for everyone involved.

Back to speech therapist. She asked him to stick out his tounge for her, he did, and the he proceeded to screw up his face and really stick out his tounge in a nasty face and put his thumb to his nose and wiggled his pinky finger at her. She did a couple other things and then went through a swallowing test with him. First she gave him a spoonful of crushed ice and water which he gulped and chewed. Then she let him drink out of a straw, eat some juice the consistency of honey, eat some apple sauce, and finally eat some canned peaches. He did really well, however, he has a delay in his swallowing. Get something in his mouth, and there is a pause before he swallows. What this means is that he can only have things that are a honey consistency or thicker. The worry is that since he isn't swallowing right away anything thinner, like water, could run down his throat into his lungs before he swallows. When you swallow your body blocks off your airway so that food or water don't end up in your lungs. He may not be able to do this, so he can't have anything to liquid, but he is on a liquid diet. When the therapist used the word diet he got very annoyed and was quite adamant that he did not want to be on a diet, we had to explain that it was just a term for allowing him to have food, that he was very excited about.

He drifted off to sleep about the time his mom left (around 2:30) but they physical therapy showed up and woke him up to get him sitting up, and standing!!! He needed a lot of assistance, but he did stand! He does seem to be having some problems with his left arm. The nurse was trying to put in a IV and trying to unbend his arm with a lot of force and he kept saying it hurt and wouldn't unbend it. Then the rest of the afternoon he didn't want to use the arm. He would pick his left arm up with his right hand and move it and place it somewhere, I am thinking that he may have landed on his shoulder during the accident because the ICU nurses thought his shoulder was hurting him, and now I think it got re-aggravated by the nurse trying to unbend his arm. Well have to keep an eye on it.

He asked for Joel a couple of times this morning so I called Joel and had him come by this afternoon. Liam was very interactive with Joel, trying to role the soccer ball back and forth on his arms, tossing the soccer ball to Joel, and trying to head but the ball, which we quickly put a stop to. We don't need anymore trauma to his head right now. He also kept throwing his wet washcloth at Joel. He figured out how to work the bed controls and the TV remote and used those a lot. Joel and I had quite the afternoon trying to keep him in bed. He really wants to get up and was constantly trying. Throwing his legs over the side, reaching for the end of the bed, turning onto his stomach, trying to get on his hands and knees. He's quite acrobatic. The nurses finally fed him so pudding with hydrocodone and tylenol and he fell asleep at 6:30pm.

On one hand, it's absolutley amazing and wonderful having him up and so interactive all day, but on the other hand its completly exhausting. As Kiea put it, it's like having a kid. He either can't, or isn't allowed, to do things on his own so you have to do everything for him and he needs attention all the time. I am enjoying a bit of solitude in his room while he sleeps, and then just now went for a chest x-ray. Hopefully his lungs are clear and he didn't aspirate any food so he can keep eating and not need a feeding tube again. I think that's it for now. The hydrocodone just knocks him out completly, so he will most likely sleep until tomorrow sometime. It'll be interesting to see if he is more awake tomorrow, or less because he is tired from today. All in all, it was a great exhausting day! Thanks to everyone for everything:)