Day 115 – Grayson’s Condition

Dear family and friends

Regina and I had an opportunity to speak with Grayson today. He sounded fine and it was great to hear his voice, since it had been a few days since we talked with him.

This week I have been sharing information that we received from Grayson's therapists at our conference on Monday. I will conclude that info share this evening with a more delicate topic – problem behavior. As with any parent, we all want our children to be perfect, and so it is a bit difficult to talk about problems. I do so tonight just so you are aware of some of the struggles that Grayson is having fitting in the "real" world. With brain injury issues, especially traumatic or anoxic injuries, behavior problems are to be expected. While we can physically keep small children from doing dangerous things, when the individual is 6'2" and 200 pounds, it is a losing proposition to try to physically prevent dangerous activity. Active supervision and a strategy is required!

There is a descending scale of problem behavior. From worst to least bad here is the list – aggression with contact, attempted aggression, angry language, active refusal, passive refusal and exiting. As the psychotherapist told us, "It's a good thing Grayson is a nice guy." He is big and strong, so imagine how difficult it would be if he was mean! Grayson has a low incident of aggression with contact, but not zero. Generally the issues revolve around someone trying to get him out of bed, and he kicks. For a time, if you tried to slow him down from eating, he would attempt to hit at you. This behavior has mostly waned in the last week or so, but it was still evident in this reporting period. Refusal, active and passive, is much more Grayson's style, and much of the time if he decided he didn't want to do something, he would put his head down and try to sleep. Clearly, the desire is to eliminate all of these behaviors, but the aggressive behaviors are certainly the most socially unacceptable, and most important to eliminate.

In the last two weeks, Grayson was put back on one of the meds that he was weaned off earlier. There is a strong correlation between the reintroduction of the med, and a behavior improvement. When I spoke with his residential assistant (RA) tonight, she stated that he has exhibited no behavior problems in the last three days. Now that indeed is great news, and will allow Grayson to spend more time in the community.

Thanks for listening. The past few days I have shared a lot of information to help you understand where Grayson is on his journey. We know where he was, and we know where he is now. The gift of therapists, neurologists, RA's, activity coordinators and a healthy dose of prayer will allow Grayson to continue to "re-grow" capability.

Pax!

Brant