He Takes His First Steps...

Yesterday and today have both been big mild stones or should we say boulders for Mike. He began with yesterday afternoon, while meeting with his physical therapist he took his first few steps. He was able to walk with the assistance of Juliann (P.T.) and myself to the door of his room and back to bed (about 10 feet). Luckily a good friend of ours (Sean Farrell) was their with us got a few photos for me.

After making it back to bed (very exhausted) his doctor came in and she removed his trachea tube. He's now completely off all breathing assistance's. With all the improvements of the day Mike felt he should continue with the progress and tried pulling out a few other things. Sean, Mike's aunt Chris and I had to restrain Mike and he had his first fit of anger about not being able to things he wanted. Let me tell you this was very hard to see. You all know Mike is a quiet and fun going guy, this anger is something I've never seen and very hard to handle. The doctors and nurses assure me this is part of the brain healing it self. It's not easy but is one of the steps we must take.

Today was much better with Mike's inability to control his anger and frustration. His doctor and I spoke today about stopping the "fits" before they happen. Looking back on yesterday he had signs that led up to the fit. Today, having this knowledge of knowing what to look for we were able to divert from repeating it again. I know we won't be able to control them all but each one diverted is one less to emotionally go through.

Mike was walking much better today. He will still need an aid in walking but he will need this for some time. A couple of times he would sit up in bed, swing his legs over the side and start to stand up. I would jump up to help him and asked where he wanted to go, he would then say , "Nowhere, I just wanted a hug." (YES, there were lots of tears of joy!) Mike was also able to loose all his wiring and tubing as well. This includes feeding tube, catheter, O2 monitor as well as his heart and respiration monitor. He only has his IV. Believe me he's much happier without all the wires. This also makes it easier for him to sleep, meaning now that all the tubing and wires are gone he can now sleep on his sides and not forced to sleep on his back.

With today being day 25 since the accident, it was really the first day that Mike was awake enough to sit up and hold a pretty good conversation (you're lucky to be able to hold a 5 minute conversation with someone who's had a brain injuries and this is how long our talks would last). He even talked on the phone with his brother Roger for a few minutes (this blew Roger away when I told him someone wanted to talk to him. Roger assumed I was talking about one of the kids, needless to say he was so happy when Mike started talking to him.) We talked about the kids and rehab. I explained why he's going and thankfully, he understands. Mike still doesn't want to know anything about why he's in the hospital. I know this will take a lot of time.

Mike will be heading to the Rehabilitation Center for Head and Spinal Cord Injuries on Monday June 18th. I'm so excited that he's made so much progress in such a short amount of time and that fact that he'll be in rehab before he even hits his one month date of the accident. All his nurses are so excited to see his progress and keep telling me he'll do so good there.

We are getting ready for the next chapter of our lives. It will be the physical and mental part of Mike's recovery. His pneumonia is gone. His incisions have all healed. He even got a haircut to round things off. Technically you could say he's walking out the hospital a changed man, we all have changed. Our journey now is to help him rebuild his body and mind so he can return home with our family.