WE MADE IT TO CRAIG!
Today was a bit of an uneventful and very eventful day. It was so exciting to be admitted and finally make it to our last stop! Craig will be his final hospital inpatient stay. 👏👏👏 Brian is SO ready to be home and is still having a bit (the slightest bit) of a hard time staying in the hospital every night when Lincoln and I can't stay with him. However, with that said, he did kick us all out at 6 tonight so he could go to bed.
We had a great send off from the LTAC today! I want to give myself a bit of a self-five here, and while I really hate doing that, I am also really proud of this. It is what I really work hard at while being with Brian. The speech therapist at the LTAC, Evelyn, wrote this in his discharge notes today, "Nicole, you have been an amazing caregiver. You've been really intuitive about Brian's low stim needs and cueing him appropriately for a person with a brain injury." I am so grateful to be able to provide such support to Brian and to hear that I am doing a great job from a person who works with patients like Brian often was a really big win for me today.
Then we made our way to Craig! It was a bit (nope, a lot) chaotic when we got dropped off because we literally got dumped at the front door. So I had to help Brian walk in (no biggie normally) while also carrying all the bags of Brian's stuff in, at a brand new hospital that I have never been to before. It's unusual to walk in to the front desk and say, "Hi, this is Brian and he's a new patient." But we made it and got it figured out.
After getting in to the hospital and finishing up the admissions paperwork, he had a variety of people come in to ask him (and me) questions about how he is doing currently as well as pre-accident. This was more of evaluations from everyone and more like meet and greets. We also met with a neurologist, not his since his is out of the office right now, and talked about what tomorrow looks like. He said they were looking through all the info from Brian's previous hospitals and will use that as well as the tests they are going to do tomorrow to plan his care at Craig. Tomorrow he will spend quite a bit of time at Swedish hospital getting some more tests done (not exhaustive but ultrasounds on his limbs and another CT scan for his head) and after (I think) he will do an hour of therapy with each of his therapists. I am expecting him to be pretty tired tomorrow because this is more therapy than he has done up to now, but such a great start.
Visitor info:
Since Craig is way more therapy focused since it is a rehab hospital, no visitors should come by on weekdays. I also think no visitors should come on weekday evenings only because he is gonna be WIPED OUT and he needs to be able to participate in therapy the next day. Weekends he does not have therapy and would love all the visitors. He is currently not allowed any screens due to brain injury (this is different from LTAC, but I am actually surprised LTAC let him have the TV on at all) so he would love having company since he won't be able to waste the day away by channel surfing.
They did not provide any specific info on visitors, but Brian does still need low stimulation due to the brain injury. However, I would like to try out just a bit more of a free for all with visitors this weekend without the schedule and see how that goes. If you could still let me know if you are coming by, that is always helpful. I have stopped carrying Brian's phone with me since I don't need to anymore (and that dang Sazerac work chat never stops, just kidding, I love you guys! 😜) so if you do not have my number and want it, text Brian and I'll send it over at some point.
So depending on how this weekend goes, we may change up how we schedule visitors, but let's try this for now (and it's easier on me 😅). One big update for Craig, is kids are allowed! 🥳 So if you have wanted to come by but have had to wait due to kids, now is the time. 😊 Also, I did not see a waiting room, but there is a bistro just down the hall from Brian that could maybe work as a waiting room or there is likely something on the main floor too. I also might be able to explore the hospital a bit better tomorrow when I'm there and be able to give an update on this.
With all this said. If Brian gets overstimulated, I have noticed he gets grumpy and that is when he tends to get a bit meaner. If he gets that way, we will have to limit visitors moving forward. I know I said it before, but I know how much everyone wants to visit Brian, but I also know we are all way more concerned about his recovery and will prioritize that over visitation. 😊
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