December 8, 2010: I told Brandon I needed to write an entry for tonight and he told me, what to write.
"I am here with my son, we're having fun. We're having a fun time. He gets to talk to Kassi soon, hopefully she is awake. Me and my dad are hanging out. We wanted to go to COSCO but they wouldn't let us. Therapy wasn't too bad. I went on a walk to the Women's Center. Holy cow, it wasn't as bad as I thought." - Brandon
Brandon's day is ending as it began, pretty amazing. Today he has been lucid most of the day. He has had periods of rambling and some confusion after his nap, overall he has been mostly here. He has been studying for his swallow test. This is a big one. He has been able to eat food for days, but has not been allowed to drink liquids. If he passes the test, he will be allowed to drink. This is one of our discharge benchmarks. He is practicing breathing with his diaphragm and swallowing even as I type this.
The brain injury has Brandon needing to re-learn the basic things we take for granted; walking, talking, eating, drinking, etc. He also needs to re-learn how to do them in the correct order. This is referred to as sequencing, (first underwear, then pants.) He did amazingly well with orientation to place, date and purpose several times today. He also flew through an association test; hot-cold, light-dark, etc. He was stumped, as I was, when after light and dark, she did black for white, followed by cream. I thought cream, what color is the opposite of cream? It took me awhile to realize she was referring to the liquid and most likely wanted strawberries or peaches. I think both of us got the rest of them correct.
It is even more enjoyable to watch the response of the staff if you know Brandon and his personality. One of the therapists today was asking questions that show his thought process. "What are anchors made of?" "Name something that is wet?" She kept asking questions about water and lakes. She then said something about ducks and then asked about something that expires and moldy bread came up. It didn't take long to confuse the therapist as Brandon went on and on about moldy bread and water. If you know my wife you know that stale or moldy bread always means a trip to the river or lake to feed the ducks. Not what she was looking for, but definitely an indicator that Brandon's memory is still there, a little scrambled still, but there.
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