Day Twenty-Four - Tuesday

December 14, 2010:  The broken record continued ALL day today.  I'm bored, I want to go home.  I have been telling him for over a week that he needs to accomplish three things before we want him to go home; keep his balance while walking, have his ability to remember return, and correctly swallow liquids.  There were six things that made today different. 

First, Brandon answered all his daily questions this morning without any prompting and with 100% accuracy.  He woke up and started giving me the answers without my asking any questions. He also gave a detailed synopsis of Kassi's injuries to anyone who would listen.

Second, Brandon can remember everything that has happened since Saturday night. Not only does he remember, he remembers in great detail including names.

Third, He has been walking without assistance for over 24 hours, except for stairs. 

Forth, This is the third day he has remained awake all day long and sleeping all night long.

Fifth, He passed his swallow test and is now able to drink thickened liquids. 

Sixth, For the first time in twenty-four nights, he will be sleeping somewhere other than the hospital.  As of 4:12 this evening, Brandon was discharged from Intermountain Medical Center. 

We will be spending a few days adjusting to the outside world.  He has always been nervous around people he does not know.  He has been experiencing panic attacks when he is in a crowd.  I was impressed that the first time he started to panic, he put his head down, started breathing deeply and relaxed his way through the experience.  It has gotten better over the last two days.  We will be working on taking a few more small excursions and letting him re-acclimate to the outside world.

It is amazing how much of Brandon has returned to us.  He has spent most of his life proving he is able to beat the odds.  This experience is no difference.  We expected to be in the hospital for two to three months, with months of specialized rehab hoping to bring him home sometime next year. Twenty-four days and he is out of the hospital and into outpatient therapy. 

He still has some voice/swallowing challenges and right sided weakness.  Based on the last two days improvement, I expect that to improve rapidly.  He now smiles with both sides of his mouth and his right sided coordination is much improved.  He is able to care for all his own needs.  My remaining concern is that he has improved so quickly; he will try to do too much too soon. 

Nevertheless, he is out of the hospital and is working his way home where he will continue his treatment on an outpatient basis at Dixie Regional as we try and figure out how to pay for our half-a-million dollar man.