We had a LONG day with a lot of activity today. I'll try to relay it in bullet points so it is not as confusing:
1) We met with Dr. Hochheimer to (1) get a better feel for Joel's progress thus far and (2) hear the projected plan for at least the next couple of days. He showed us Joel's CT scans from the first to the most recent. The trend was not too positive. The accident bruised his frontal lobe pretty sever
ely. The frontal lobe controls your personality and your emotion: motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social behavior. This bruise started in the left front and has since grown toward the center of his brain. I was asked if Joel had any other head injuries within the past year, since he is not following normal recovery patterns. I said, "not that I know of," but I'll ask the Marines who were with him, since I know he's been doing a lot more martial arts as of late. Ugh.
2) While I was in with Joel in the afternoon, I looked across the way and saw a tall Marine in cammies suiting up to see Alex, another Marine in the ICU. I couldn't see his face and didn't think too much about it. The next thing I know, someone peeked their head into Joel's room to tell me the Commandant General Conway was on deck and wanted to speak with us! How did I NOT know he was coming? Although shocked, I was very excited to get the opportunity to speak not only with him, but with Sgt Maj Kent (Sgt Maj of the Marine Corps) and with General Conway's wife, Annette. Mrs. Conway was so extremely comforting and compassionate -- a beautiful woman. I expressed to General Conway how much I appreciated his speech to us at TBS. He was very personable and very funny. Doug and Sgt Maj Kent discovered they attended boot camp around the same time and knew several of the same people. Before they left, Mrs. Conway gave me a yellow ribbon pin in a fancy red box, both General Conway and Sgt Maj Kent gave us their coins for Joel, and General Conway called me "L-T". What a fulfilling visit. The only thing that would've been better is if Joel could've been awake to join in!
3) We left the ICU and headed to the Nationals (baseball) game with a few other people from the hospital (Chief O'Keefe chaperoned us). We were privileged enough to eat a delicious dinner at the President's Club and also to sit only 5 rows from home plate. Both the seats and the food were amazing! The travel, the delayed game due to the rain, and the dinner all took about 8 hrs total! It was a good time. Don't think I didn't call the hospital to check on Joel midway. I did, of course.
4) We visited Joel for one last time at 0130-0230. He was much less swollen (noticed mostly because we could finally see his bony knee caps), seemed a bit more awake, and was still able to keep his ICPs down! They were even lower than we usually see them. The only confusing thing was that Joel continuously jerked his legs. It was almost as if he was having that falling dream over and over. I know that wasn't it -- there's something else going on. His eyelids were twitching and his body was lightly shaking all over at times. This could be because he is more aware of the cold from the Arctic Sun. I told the nurse, and he said he would relay it to the Doc when he comes in. He didn't seem too concerned about it.
So, that was our big day! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Please continue them, as the doctors are kind of at a loss as to why Joel isn't following normal healing patterns.
1) We met with Dr. Hochheimer to (1) get a better feel for Joel's progress thus far and (2) hear the projected plan for at least the next couple of days. He showed us Joel's CT scans from the first to the most recent. The trend was not too positive. The accident bruised his frontal lobe pretty sever
ely. The frontal lobe controls your personality and your emotion: motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social behavior. This bruise started in the left front and has since grown toward the center of his brain. I was asked if Joel had any other head injuries within the past year, since he is not following normal recovery patterns. I said, "not that I know of," but I'll ask the Marines who were with him, since I know he's been doing a lot more martial arts as of late. Ugh.2) While I was in with Joel in the afternoon, I looked across the way and saw a tall Marine in cammies suiting up to see Alex, another Marine in the ICU. I couldn't see his face and didn't think too much about it. The next thing I know, someone peeked their head into Joel's room to tell me the Commandant General Conway was on deck and wanted to speak with us! How did I NOT know he was coming? Although shocked, I was very excited to get the opportunity to speak not only with him, but with Sgt Maj Kent (Sgt Maj of the Marine Corps) and with General Conway's wife, Annette. Mrs. Conway was so extremely comforting and compassionate -- a beautiful woman. I expressed to General Conway how much I appreciated his speech to us at TBS. He was very personable and very funny. Doug and Sgt Maj Kent discovered they attended boot camp around the same time and knew several of the same people. Before they left, Mrs. Conway gave me a yellow ribbon pin in a fancy red box, both General Conway and Sgt Maj Kent gave us their coins for Joel, and General Conway called me "L-T". What a fulfilling visit. The only thing that would've been better is if Joel could've been awake to join in!
3) We left the ICU and headed to the Nationals (baseball) game with a few other people from the hospital (Chief O'Keefe chaperoned us). We were privileged enough to eat a delicious dinner at the President's Club and also to sit only 5 rows from home plate. Both the seats and the food were amazing! The travel, the delayed game due to the rain, and the dinner all took about 8 hrs total! It was a good time. Don't think I didn't call the hospital to check on Joel midway. I did, of course.
4) We visited Joel for one last time at 0130-0230. He was much less swollen (noticed mostly because we could finally see his bony knee caps), seemed a bit more awake, and was still able to keep his ICPs down! They were even lower than we usually see them. The only confusing thing was that Joel continuously jerked his legs. It was almost as if he was having that falling dream over and over. I know that wasn't it -- there's something else going on. His eyelids were twitching and his body was lightly shaking all over at times. This could be because he is more aware of the cold from the Arctic Sun. I told the nurse, and he said he would relay it to the Doc when he comes in. He didn't seem too concerned about it.
So, that was our big day! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Please continue them, as the doctors are kind of at a loss as to why Joel isn't following normal healing patterns.
Posts
1 comments:
Thanks for the update <3
Post a Comment