Saturday, January 16, 2010
Andrew has been doing amazingly well this past week. He has been working hard in his therapies and is still making gains each day. Mom and Dad’s practice apartment with Andrew Wednesday went very well. Mom and Dad were on the second floor of the hospital getting their stuff put away for the night in the apartment, while Andrew was in physical therapy. All of the sudden there was a knock on their door. Mom went to answer it and it was Andrew with his physical therapist, Alice. Mom was shocked they were there. She asked them if they took the elevator and Alice told her that they took the stairs. Mom was taken aback. “The stairs?” she asked. Apparently, Andrew can walk up and down a flight of stairs with support from someone. Alice showed my Mom and my Mom practiced walking with him up and down the stairs 2-3 times. This is great news! Because now Mom and Dad aren’t going to have to completely renovate our house in Fort Wayne (since all of the bedrooms are upstairs).
Later that night, they sat around the dinner table and ate ribs (off the bone for Andrew), green beans, and macaroni. He sat in a regular chair without any support! This is the first my parents have seen him sitting in a regular chair without any help. I am so amazed at how much stronger he is getting each day! After dinner, they played blackjack, which he won 7 out of the 8 hands played, watched TV, had a shower, took his meds, and then went to bed.
He has had three tests taken this week to check on his getting sick. The first test was another CT scan of his head. The results from that didn’t look any worse than before. There is still some fluid on the brain, but no more than before. There also wasn’t quite as much pressure on the brain as well. The doctors are still hoping the fluid (blood) on his brain will be absorbed by the body.
His second test was with the GI. He spent three hours in a tube and drank a powdery liquid that contained a dye. They watched to see how his body digested the liquid. They found out that his body doesn’t digest as fast as it should. They are not sure if this is something new or has always been the case. They are now having Andrew eat 5-6 small meals a day or 3 small meals with a couple of snacks in between.
The last test they gave was a uriology test. They are checking to see if he has any infections. We have not heard the results yet for this test.
Andrew has been keeping busy by taking walks and practicing going up flights of stairs. Dad said he walked with support for about 45 minutes one day. Andrew does not like using the walker or cane. Apparently he prefers holding someones hand and then having the supporter use his/her other hand to support his back (kind of by holding his pants up).
Andrew is still being visited by friends and family. His friends Edgar and Matt heard he was filling in parts of songs and they brought a guitar on their visit. One of them played the guitar and they sang songs they remembered Andrew liking at the bars and karaokee’ing. He filled in the chorus lines for Yellow Submarine, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and his favorite Depeche Mode’s Precious.
Andrew is now living at my parents apartment outside of Rancho. They didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time together the first night just because he came in the afternoon and then tends to go to bed around 8:30 p.m. Mom and Dad said he slept in the practice apartment for 12 hours and they eventually had to wake him up. Well, that is normal for us Davis kids, but I am guessing he probably hasn’t had a good night’s sleep with all of the beeping sounds and people coming and going out of his hospital room all through the night.
Hopefully everything will continue to go well with Andrew staying with Mom and Dad in the apartment. The only downside, we just found out, is that he has now that he is out of Rancho he has been put on a waiting list for outpatient therapy. They told my parents it might take 4-5 weeks before they can get Andrew in outpatient therapy. I am sure my Mom and Dad will keep him busy, but that is a long time and time is key to his recovery right now.
Sorry it has taken so long to give an update. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.
