We've Finally Made The Move To Kaiser

Yesterday at about 2pm Mike was taken to Kaiser on Morse Ave., in Sacramento by ambulance. Roger and I met him at the hospital and a very busy day with Mike.

I had asked the doctors to take Mike off of his pain medications to see how he would respond. I wanted to start treating Mike for his pain as needed and not left on a running drip of morphine. Boy what a difference that made. It took about 2 hours and he began to wake up and become more clear of his surrounding. He still takes little naps, like 5-10 minutes and then he'll be awake for 10 minutes or so. This is an improvement from the few prior days of only staying awake for 1-2 minutes. By 6pm Mike had realized that he had a TV in the room and after asking him if he wanted to watch TV he was in control of the remote. He picked up pretty quickly. I would have to help hold it in his hand but it was amazing to watch him. He's really aware of his surroundings, he's just a slow to process his thoughts. It should get better each day.

Roger and I had a chance to meet with a few of the doctors from the hospital. He will start going through many test to determine the extent of his brain injury. Only time will really tell. I should be meeting with the physical and occupational therapist either today or tomorrow.

Mike is still on the respirator but they don't think he'll be on it by the end of next week. Once he gets that out then we can start working on the feeding tube. He really hates that one in.

The next few weeks will be very busy for me. Mike is aware now of when I'm there and when I'm not. I spend most of my time telling him not to touch his tubes and reassure him that things are getting better. I will only be updating the blog probably once a day from here on out. (especially since Kaiser has no wireless Internet services, darn.) Please keep Mike in your prayers. I think the real struggle is only beginning for him. I'm hoping to keep things as positive and motivational as I can to discourage disappointment and depression. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers.