July 16, 2014

The past 10 days we have been very busy with an increased PT/OT/RT/ and Speech schedule with Jacob. He is making gradual improvments and he is putting forth consistant effort and tries so hard.  Jake is in the stage of level VI on the Rancho Los Amigos - Revised - Levels of Cognitive Functioning. He is becoming more aware of the nursing staff and about 50% accurate of naming them when they care for him but need cues and prompts for consistency.

He is very consistant with dialogue with Jeff and I as his parents, as we are there evey day for him, and even asks of us to take him home in the car. At times when I am gone on my tech trainings and I call and text Jeff, Jake is aware we are talking and states that he wants Mom to come to bring the car and take him home. Those words are so comforting, but Jake is still along way from coming home, as he has much healing to take place with his bones and his brain. 

We have some visitors that come and go, some are family, some are visiting other patients and some are the social workers in the Bethesda facility. Jacob's reactions on any givien day to these individuals can be very kind- if you sit and visit with him and try to carry on a conversation as long as he is provided a cue or prompt, and he may even tell you he "loves you" to a perfect stranger- but provides you with an incorrect name- as he may call you "Shelly" or Christie" or "Justin" - as those are nurses names that he has heard at the hospital. As you can see- this is the state of his healing stage he is in- and has no idea the context that goes along with those words to a passing by visitor, nurse or social worker.

But when Jake interacts with Jeff and myself, he does have inflection and tone differentiation in his voice, he will initiate a conversation with us and maintain to a degree- he will even call out our names and then pose a question, and at times may smile and chuckle as he "get its" with us. He does recognize both of his brothers by calling out their first names when he sees or hears their voices- this is also a consistency in his life. But there are even times with us that Jacob will carry on a conversation and we are not quite aware of what certain words he is meaning to stay, as he is still learning words that have escaped his immeidate vocabulary. We assist him him with clues or word choices of the noun or verb he was struggling for to help him find success to formulate the sentence. 

Jake has a very long road ahead of him, a long recovery for his memory and brain healing and the entire healing of his body. The first 6 months is where we will see the most rapid improvments and we are almost to month 4. It will be the next 18 months to hit that two year mark from his accident date- to see what life has in store for him and what type of physical and permanent disabilities he will endure and try to overcome.