Thank you.
Posted on 11/07/2014 3:01:52 PM PST by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
Arrowhead (John) fell off a 20’ ladder at work, onto his head, and has a severe brain injury!
Broke all the bones in his face and skull, broke his shoulder blade and some ribs.
His last post was 10/20 in the morning. He fell about 2pm that same day and was LifeFlighted to the hospital; then, after about 6 hours of surgery, he went directly to ICU. It was touch and go for days in critical condition.
After 2 weeks in ICU he has been transferred to a Specialty Neurological Rehab center in Austin, as of 11/3.
He can move his arms and legs, so no spinal injury, but he is not cognizant. Sometimes he can respond to “can you squeeze my hand?”, sometimes not. His daughter is getting ready to go back home.
The nurses are calling them every day. Small improvements are noticed, such as he sat up for 10 seconds today, but no one has a prognosis. Brain injuries heal how they heal, when the heal, if they heal....3 to 6 months at least.
PRAY HARD, please!!!! And spread the word to your prayer lists.
I've been waiting to send an update with the hope that I would have better news to share.
Dad has taken some few strange and baffling steps backwards. At his best - in his early days at Texas Neuro Rehab - he was responsive to questions and would try to talk, and could correctly answer basic questions. (eg. "What's your name?", "What's my name?", etc.) However, this does not seem to be the case anymore. He is often confused and most days does not speak or answer questions, and in the case that he does answer "yes" or "no" questions, oftentimes the answer is incorrect. Some days he is somewhat alert and will try to interact with us, other days he will not interact at all and acts as if no one is there.
He has also taken a step back with physical therapy. At his high point, a couple of weeks before Christmas, he was able to walk 60-70 steps with moderate assistance from the physical therapist... now, the expectation of that task would be incredibly unrealistic. His center-of-gravity seems to be off; he tends to lean to one direction or the other, and is very afraid if the therapists do try to correct the center of gravity. This makes it near impossible for him to sit up straight, much less stand up straight, on days where his balance is not centered. Even when his balance is centered, the best the physical therapist can get out of him is 5 or 6 steps in an hour-long session with maximum assistance.
He does seem to have some excess fluid where he has had tissue loss in his brain, so he will undergo a spinal tap next week. It was attempted at TNC this week but due to the arthritis in his back, he will have to have the procedure done at St. David's South Austin Hospital. He has had a bladder infection that shut the rehab process down for a bit, and still has a dislocated finger that needs to be surgically corrected (but the doctors want to wait on that, as anesthesia would not be the best idea at this point.)
We appreciate the continued prayers, and our prayer right now is that he does keep making some kind of progress in therapy. He is not meeting any goals in physical, occupational, or speech therapy and thus is at risk of not being able to stay at Texas Neuro Rehab much longer. I wish I had better news to share, but we will just have to wait and see. Again, I am so sorry I haven't written... I've been putting this off for quite some time because it is difficult to share bad news, when you're hoping for occasional improvement. Please pass on our thanks to everyone for your kindness and support, and for those of you who have written and sent pictures and memories - we are so very grateful.
Thank you again.
Please keep those prayers and cards coming.
Anyone who would like to send a card, please FReepmail me and I will send his address.
Please add “Update at Post 401” to the title. Thanks.
Prayers continued.
Prayers lifted.
Thanks for the update.
Prayers sent.
Prayers on the way. God bless.
My prayers continue. I pray that an improvement comes with the spinal tap. God bless our FRiend.
They mightiest of Prayers going up!
BTTT
Praying. Any updates?
Thank you.
Prayers up for our dear FReeper FRiend!
Thank you for the continued updates. I’ll keep praying.
Prayers continuing...
Thank you for the update, Kathy.
Fervent prayers continuing, for our dear FRiend Arrowhead1952.
Thanks Kathy,Wish it was better news.I’m going to pray a rosary for him tom.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they put in a shunt/drain for the fluid in his brain. It is possible that fluid is causing the balance issues.
Hang in there, hope for the best, and continued prayers!!
Prayers up for your healing, Arrowhead.
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