Job Notes

I figured since some people find my job interesting, I might have a post every now and then about some of my highs and lows or interesting things that have happened. I had a low this week that I don't want to write about, too frustrating, but I had two good things this week. This weekend my 17 year girl got discharged home, she still has major cognitive deficits and doesn't talk. I can get her to copy the words that I say, but she doesn't self initiate any speech. I have trouble deciding if that is because she had major damage to the temporal lobe that is the language center of the brain or if it is the overall damage to the brain that keeps her from trying. But she has made very good progress and hopefully she will continue to. I still have her on a thick liquid because regular water/liquids goes straight into her airway every time she swallows, and the bigger problem is that she doesn't have a cough reflex with it because her sensory system is damaged. But I think in 1-2 months she'll not need thick liquids and can go back to normal drinks. But my big excitement this week was with my fella that is a few years older than me, (he got beat up and ended up with major head trauma, a craniotomy (piece of skull removed to alleviate the swelling) and a trach). He is breathing completely on his own now and is swallowing better. So I will be doing an xray of his swallow on Monday to see if I can start him eating. But prior to this week, he could only track, which is he could follow objects with his eyes, but couldn't follow any commands or talk or nearly much of anything. But I just had a very strong feeling that he could understand alot more than his body would let him do. And this week with a lot of coaching and helping him remember how to sequence it, I got him to use his voice! I felt like a genius! I nearly did a little touchdown dance there in his room and I swear he smiled. This was very important to me because his insurance wants to send him to a nursing home since he hasn't been making progress, so I really needed to show that he was doing something/had potential so that we could keep him a little bit longer. Hopefully I can start him eating on Monday and that might buy a little more time too. I swear insurance companies will be the first to burn at the second coming.
It's very common for people who have brain injuries to have their spouse leave/divorce. But sitting with this guy who is so damaged, just made me realize that if that was all that I could have of Mark, I would do it. I have no doubt.