Day 94 – Vacation – Friday, April 10, 2009

9:45 am   We are in Florida on vacation!  Steve is doing great.  His eye is open 3/4 way and blinks normally.  He still has double vision because the eye doesn’t “track” the same as the right one, but he says it is getting better.  Steve wears an eye patch over the right eye for a while each day to get the left one to work harder.

Steve remains positive and focused on the goal of 100% recovery.  He is exercising every day – running with me, doing pushups and situps.   The therapists gave him homework for his time away and he works on that and assembling a large puzzle to help with visual perception skills.

Garrett, Steve’s cousin, is with us and they are busy every minute – playing golf either at a course or at the putting green here at the condo complex.  We have been to Universal Studios for two days and they went fishing on a friend’s boat.  Today we will take it easy and go to the beach.

We are staying at Sterling Village, where my parents own a condo (actually two but that is another story!).   There are many Irish here – and they have formed a friendly and hugely supportive community.  There is music and parties and far too much drinking!

The community has offered countless prayers and Masses for Steve’s recovery and have sent him many gifts.  Steve is a major celebrity here – everyone stops him and marvels at him.  Friends of my parents stop by with food for us each day – I don’t know how I am going to be able to leave these new friends (and the absolutely beautiful weather).

Day 83 – Monday, March 30, 2009

10 pm  Sorry I haven’t written in the past few days.  I am the “costumer” for my high school’s drama club so I get a little crazybusy during play week.

Things with Steve continue to get back to normal.  He is still going to outpatient therapy at Helen Hayes – occupational therapy and speech.  He is working on short term memory tasks.  He told me the last time that the therapist asked him to sort a deck of cards into the four suits as she read him stories and asked comprehension questions.  Steve said he is not sure he could have done this before the accident! LOL!

His eye is still getting visibly (pun intended) better every day.  It is over half open now, and he can blink it just like the other one.  He does have double vision but he tries to get the eyes to work together.  He will also put on the eye patch on his good, right eye to make the left eye work harder.

Steve is the most motivated person I know.  He plays the computer games and card games suggested by his therapist constantly.  Steve remains positive and in good spirits most of the time.   He went to work at the Department Store today for a few hours.

Day 79 – Thursday, March 26, 2009

9 pm   Steve went to therapy at Helen Hayes today with his Aunt Deb (thanks!).  He wasn’t overjoyed at his performance on the tasks that he was given today.  This isn’t entirely bad really because he is clearly seeing (pun intended!) what he needs to work on to get to his goal of 100% healed.

The therapist did say that she would likely begin the process of clearing him for driving after our Easter vacation.  This was, of course, wonderful news for Steve.

Steve’s Dad was over afterwards to play the requisite two hours of games – Wii, pool, cards.  Then I took him out for (another) walk around the Mall…  it’s young adult heaven, I guess.

Day 78 – Wednesday, March 25, 2009

9:15 pm   Steve had a busy day today.  His Dad took him to lunch with Shawn Gallagher, visited the 10 Mile River Preserve (where he used to occasionally work) and played golf at the Vassar College course, which is run by a friend.  After all this, he went to OT with Karen Finnerty!

This evening, we played cards – “concentration” – with 12 cards.  Steve played perfectly and remembered the location of every card we played in several games.

Eye news:  The therapists at Helen Hayes have asked Steve to cover his “good” left eye with an eye patch for an hour or two every day to force the right eye to “work”.  His right eye has been opening up a bit more every day, especially in the morning.  Tonight when he put the eye patch on the good eye, the right eye opened up fully a little more than half way!  It looks great!

100% here he comes!

Day 76 – Monday, March 23, 2009

9pm   Just got back from Gold’s Gym.  Steve is running regularly now.  He says he is not as fast as before, but knows he will make steady progress.   He is also using the weight lifting machines to work on upper body and doing lots of really inclined situps.

Well, he didn’t read today!  But did do lots of the computer games that the therapists recommended to help with his short term memory.  He said again tonight that “his brain felt clearer”.  He is confident in his ability to drive and says that he is remembering more and more as he sees once-familiar sights.  We discover gaps in his long term memories as we talk and sometimes if I describe the events he will remember more on his own.

Day 75 – Sunday, March 22, 2009

11:15 pm

I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to post… it is “school play” season and I do the costuming… Beauty and the Beast is the biggest production I’ve ever done.

And, life with Steve is slowly returning to normal.  We are still at Mom & Dad’s in Hopewell – it is a very convenient location to get to therapy and to get to shopping and other entertaining venues for Steve.  His friends can stop by anytime.  It is a large house that can accommodate lots of people… and it has Steve’s Nana and Poppy who cannot do enough for him.  Nana was even running him around to see his friends at 10 pm tonight.

Steve wants to go home, and we plan on doing so after Spring Vacation.  We’ll be going to Florida for a few days and after that we will try a move home.  If Steve isn’t driving though, it is going to be more difficult for me to manage.  I’ll see how things go.

On Saturday, Steve visited his dog who is still living at his Uncle Pat’s house.  Then he stopped by the Ten Mile River Preserve where he used to work occasionally.  His father took him golfing after that.  Steve did very well and was pleased with his game.

We relaxed at home on Sunday.  Steve seemed a bit tired, but was in a good mood.  We went to Mass at Our Lady’s Chapel in Hyde Park then shopped at Adams, where Steve found inspiration to cook.  He made lasagna for himself!  My sister Maureen and her children were coming to visit for dinner to celebrate Maggie’s birthday.  After the lasagna was ready for the oven, Steve seemed a little restless so I took him out to the Mall for a walk around.  There he crossed more items off his “must eat” list by downing a Taco Bell Cheese Quesadilla and an Auntie Anne’s Pretzel.   He met a friend from high school and seemed happy with the outing.

Despite eating the aforementioned junk food, Steve was still hungry and loaded his plate with lasagna at dinner.  He ate every last bit of the gigantic serving and finally slowed down when it came to dessert.

When I asked him what his plans were for tomorrow, he said he was – hold onto your keyboards folks – going to read.  READ???  Yep, he “wants to get more of his words back”.  When his dad heard he was planning on reading the dictionary, he suggested that Steve read the new Yankee book by Joe Torre I had bought for him while he was in Helen Hayes (or Haze, as Steve spells it).

Color me amazed!

Day 72 – Thursday, March 19, 2009

10:30 pm

Debbie took Steve to Helen Hayes today and it was a great day.  Steve called me in the afternoon to tell me that he met with the neuropsychologist who had tested him on Tuesday.  This doctor outlined Steve’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, describing specific areas that needed improvement.  There weren’t many and they only involved some types of short term memory.

Now Steve is motivated to work at Helen Hayes with the therapists to improve those areas.  Before this, he really didn’t know what the therapists were doing with him.   I’m sure the therapists knew, but Steve didn’t.  Hence the negative attitude we’ve been seeing.  It is wonderful to see him focused and happy about therapy.

I think I will delay the more comprehensive neuropsych testing in Albany that I have been working on.   There are two reasons – one is that they are “out-of-network” for my health insurance plan and so I would have to pay a significant amount for the testing.  Steve is approved for Medicaid, and Medicaid recently decided to pay for neuropsych testing – but the Center says that Medicaid has not yet paid them for services to four other patients, so they will not accept Steve if I insist on that route.

The second reason is that now Helen Hayes has done a basic test (the WAIS) that has identified areas that Steve needs to work on, and it has motivated him to do so.  I think I will go ahead with the more comprehensive testing available in Albany after his discharge from Helen Hayes, to show that Steve has (hopefully) regained all normal levels of cognitive functioning.

I’ll talk this over more with family and friends …

Day 71 – Jaws – Wednesday, March 18, 2009

10 am

We are back from the hospital where the surgeon took about 10 minutes to unwire his jaw and remove all the hardware except a plate that remains on his chin.  It was a bad break there and the plate will probably stay in forever.  Steve weathered the procedure well – his only complaint was about the pain he feels when the adhesive tape has to be removed because his arms are very “hairy”!

Steve is actually eating pancakes now, enjoying every bite!

Day 70 – Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Helen Hayes today extended the time that they would like to work with him for another month.  This did not make Steve happy at all.  I am going to call the nurse/case manager there tomorrow to ask that she speak with Steve about the current specific goals in the therapy.  From Steve’s descriptions, it appears that they are working on short term memory with him.  He just wants to “be done” and his father and I have long conversations with Steve about the need for continued therapy – until he is 100%.

Steve is looking forward to tomorrow, when he will have his jaw unwired.   The surgery is scheduled for first thing in the morning, so I will update this blog as soon as he is out and all is well.

Thanks to all of you for your continued good thoughts and prayers for Steve.  He is a miracle and I am so happy for each and every day.

Day 68 – Sunday, March 15, 2009

9pm  This afternoon we went down to the Palisades Mall (4 floors!) to help Steve’s cousin, Maggie, celebrate her 16th birthday.    She had a “paint ball” party.  For those of you not familar with this activity, participants receive a paint ball gun and 100 pellets which are filled with paint, along with a bit of body armor and overalls.  They go into a large room outfitted with low walls and other obstacles and shoot each other with the paint balls.

Steve decided not to participate because of the risk of injury to his head, either by falling on the slippery floor or by being “shot” with a paint ball.  They can sting!   His cousin Garrett enjoyed the activity immensely.  While Garrett and the others were shooting at each other, Steve, I and his Nana walked around the Palisades Mall.  I won’t go into detail about that, but suffice it to say that we were happy when the paint balls were all used up and it was time to go home.

Tomorrow we will go see Dr. S, the plastic surgeon, for a pre-op visit as Steve’s jaw un-wiring is scheduled for Wednesday.