Day 74 – Grayson’s Condition

Dear family and friends

Today we spent the entire day 100 miles away from Grayson – that was a weird feeling after so long being with him in the hospital. I called to talk to him tonight, and discovered that he was on a field trip – out playing pool! They piled on the bus and went out to a local place to play pool. I am most interested to talk with Grayson to see what he thought of it. Unfortunately, I don't know how much he will remember.

It was fun to talk with Grayson on the phone last night after we got home. First, it is fun to talk with him on the phone! Last week, he couldn't carry on much of a conversation. Now, if you work at it, you can actually understand much of what he is trying to say.

When I talked to him last night, I found out that he had just gotten back from the rec center where they watched the new Michael Jackson movie, "This is It". This was after he had already made dinner, and cleaned up and put away his dishes.

As you can tell, there is lots of activity to keep these guys occupied. I say "guys" because there are women, but not many – only 1 of 7 of the patients is female. Women are just less likely to engage in high risk behavior that is one of the leading causes of traumatic brain injury (TBI). After observing the patients at the center, and seeing just how many are recovering from TBI, I have a new found respect for, and additional reason to wear, appropriate protective gear when engaging in certain activities. While certainly not the cause of Grayson's current difficulty, we tried to do our best to control our risk factors. From our ski trip in January 2009, here is an unintentional advertisement for ski helmets from the Reed family. Protect your head!

Pax!

Brant