Dear family and friends
Friday night – Movie night! And, as usual, I had no opportunity to talk to either Grayson or his residential assistant (RA). Tomorrow he is up and off to the store for groceries. When he returns, we will be there to greet him, have lunch and whatever else the day presents.
I realize that I never completed my report out on the last weeks' patient conference. I'll share a bit from his counselor tonight.
Grayson currently has good self esteem. He has the ability to respond to questions, but he does not have the ability to initiate a conversation. His responses are usually 1 and 2 word answers – rarely more. His awareness is generally limited to here and now. He appears to be gaining greater appreciation of the fact that he has a brain injury. He is able to tell you that he has a brain injury, and he continues to learn more as he is educated about coping with it. At this point, he has not yet recovered enough to understand how much capability he has lost due to the injury. In some ways this is good, because he remains in relatively good spirits as a result of being in this ignorant bliss. Once the reality of losses moves to awareness, we anticipate a period of depression. At this point, we are not sure how long it will take for Grayson to become aware of his loss.
There are a few more small elements of the patient conference that I haven't reported out on and I will do so if time permits – my time, that is! We are off to Bakersfield in the morning. Pray for safe travel!
Pax!
Brant
Each challenge in its own time. Dealing with what you can do is enough of a challenge--who needs the added baggage of dealing with what you can't do, especially if "doing what I can do" is already presenting quite the challenge?
ReplyDeleteAnd as Aslan told Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,, "No one is ever told what might have been."
Our daily bread comes in many forms... but if we ask, it will be given to us.