Sunday, April 12th

My apologies for not keeping this blog updated daily as I have done in the past. I went to Fort Worth to be with Tim, and forgot the power cord for my laptop.

Tim is really doing well. He is using his right hand more and more. He actually signed his name with that right hand. I expected only an "X", but he signed in cursive. I wasn't sure if he could read, but then he began asking who Gary and Stacy were. Those were his nurses for that shift, and their names were written on the white board in the room. Tim has been saying that he needs to figure out what he's going to do with his life now. I tell him that this is not it. He is still recovering (and judging by the rate that he is doing so), I expect wonderful things for him in the future. He still has problems with his short term memory. He has not been able to respond correctly to ... Do you know where you are? Do you know what happened to you? Where do you live?

During his "foggy" moments he talks about business. He doesn't know who we are at the time, so he assumes we are clients or business associates. His business talks are very professional sounding. Of course I don't know anything about the tire industry. But he has talked to me about inventory, marketing, crew sizes, product lines, and more that I just don't remember. His intelligence is still there, he just needs to fine tune the connections in his brain. His speech is already so much better. When I first came to see him on Monday he was hard to understand. Now he speaks so well. He still has a slurr in his speech, but if he can make this much improvement in 5 days then I feel like the sky's the limit.

Tim is getting stronger from walking with a walker. But also very sore. While he's in bed, his muscles are constantly aching. When you stay in bed for a month, your muscles shrink in size. He is still a big guy, even though he has lost about 30 pounds. His smaller muscles are trying to support this large body. He still has the feeding tube in his abdomen, although it is not being used for anything right now. He is eating and taking his medicine by mouth. However, he has almost no appetite. I'm not sure why. It seems to me that he would be very hungry with all the work he is doing. If he does not start eating more, they will have to start using the feeding tube again. His Neurosurgeon, Dr. Silva, said that they are looking at a week from Monday for replacing the bone flap in his skull. This is sooner than he has been saying. The hospital is still saying that they will reevaluate Tim this Monday to determine if they will discharge him or not. So he may be going home for a week before his next surgery. If you ask me, he might as well stay in the hospital.