Wednesday 19Feb

 It's another late night update. Lincoln had basketball practice tonight so we got home really late tonight. And tonight's update is short and sweet.

Today Brian had his trach removed. This is a massive step forward. He should be a lot more comfortable once that stoma heals up. Right now, he has the stoma (which is an open hole in his throat) which will take a several days to close up. While it is open we need to put pressure on the stoma while he is talking and eating. 

Brian also upgraded his diet again to be able to eat hard/crunchy foods. This morning he ate all his breakfast for the first time (plus asked for seconds!). He also ate 100% of his lunch and dinner. I spoke to the doctor today about his peg. He said we can probably remove the peg some time next week.

Brian had speech therapy today. She mentioned Brian has some pretty significant aphasia which has been obvious. He is very chatty but most of the time he doesn't make sense. He also has a hard time with memory recall and often makes up words.This is something he will need to work on with speech therapy for a while.

Physical therapy came by this morning and took Brian for a walk in the halls. She walked with him for about 15 minutes to evaluate his strength, balance, and coordination. He still has a lot of work to do to improve his walking. Even with this, he has made significant progress with his walking since we have arrived at the LTAC. We are also trying to push for a bit more therapy for him since Brian tends to get restless during the evenings. Today his nurse was amazing and took him for a walk this afternoon by herself today which was so nice and really helped him this evening. 

Tonight's update was typed by Lincoln, with assistance from me on what to say. 

🤍