Wednesday 05Mar

 There was this guy that I used to work with that every single Wednesday he would walk around and just randomly shout HUMP DAY! Like that camel commercial. I don't know why I just thought of that, but I did and it made me smile. 

Overall today was a good day. Brian was pretty calm most of the day and he did really well participating in his therapies. OT came by this morning and worked with Brian on his morning routine and that went very smoothly. After that he had speech therapy, which is just with him and his therapist. She said it went well and Brian did a great job. She is working to determine kind of a baseline to then develop his therapy plan. Then after lunch he had PT and she determined his whole range of motion for his lower body and gave Brian a few stretches. She also worked with him a very little bit on some balance exercises. 

And although today was a decent day, there were a few moments both yesterday and today where Brian kinda said some things that I would consider precursors to how his behavior was presenting yesterday which is why we have the no visitation rule in effect right now. He is still mildly unpredictable because of the injury to his brain. The brain is not doing it's job of controlling impulses and he is very confused and volatile. I do want to reiterate, this is all normal and part of how brain healing goes. 

I want to mention a bit about how Craig works for anyone who does not know, and in reality, very few really would. Brian has one care team that he is assigned and was determined pre-admission. He has one doctor who is his neurologist and he acts as his team's lead. Then working with him is a PA, an OT, a PT, a Speech Therapist, a neuropsychologist, a behavioral health specialist, and a case manager. These all work together and create the best care plan for Brian's recovery. There are then also some additional people who assist, like T. Rec. He does also have nurses and techs, but those rotate patients. Since Craig is a rehabilitation hospital he sees his doctor and/or PA (just to make sure Brian's doing okay medically) once a day and always sees OT, PT, and Speech. Those are considered the big three and he sees them every day for at least an hour. Then the other members of the team will meet with Brian and us a little less often. Right now the neuropsychologist, behavioral specialist, and case manager are here mostly to support me, as his care giver, and the other members of his care team. 

One big thing those more support roles are working on right now is a behavior plan for Brian. Once they get some more data through the week and start to understand him a bit better, they will create the behavior plan which will best explain how to treat Brian, especially when those undesired behaviors start to present. They do not do negative punishments here, but instead work on reinforcement (both positive and negative). An example of a negative reinforcement is if Brian works to always be safe and really can control his impulsive behavior when transferring, he can get his lock belt removed. You are reinforcing the behavior by removing something that he does not like. A positive reinforcement would be if Brian does not continue to try and escape the hospital he can have his on campus back reinstated. Right now that has been removed after Monday. As of right now, the behavior plan is still being developed, but will hopefully be ready by early next week. At that time, we will reevaluate if visitors are appropriate yet. 

So overall, today was a good day, but we aren't totally out of the woods behaviorally as of right now. I talked with the nursing staff manager on Monday after everything and she had said this stage of recovery is the hardest, second only to the life saving stage. And for me personally, this was worse (other than night one in the Emergency Department). Seeing that is something that no one should have to see their loved one go through ever. So as much as the no visitors is for Brian's brain health, it's for everyone else too. 

Okay, I'm getting wordy now and acting like I'm paid by the word here. Here's to hoping for each day to continue to be a little bit better. 

🤍