Day 8

What a difference between a Rehabilitation Center and a Hospital! I can't even tell you. Dane has been doing really well today. He is anxious to come home, but so far today has had some real perspective on why he needs to stay.
He is improving leaps and bounds each day. Dane's schedule each day, while at rehab, will consist of 3 hours of rehabilitation broken up into 30 minute incriments. Most of this rehab is done throughout the morning, which seems to be his best time of day. He is meeting twice a day with three different kinds of therapists, an occupational, a physical and a speech therapist. He will also meet about biweekly with a neuropsychologist. Then, once a week, his team along with his primary doctor will meet and discuss his progress. This meeting will be tomorrow, so ideally I'll have a better idea of prognosis and potential for rehab tomorrow evening or the next morning. Today when he met with the physical therapist they noticed that he was compensating on his right side. This is the case because the contusion, or bump on his left hand side of his brain is a little larger. He was dragging his right foot a bit when he walked and falling to the side when he turned a right corner and walking into things on the right hand side of him. When this was pointed out to him, he easily corrected it, so hopefully these things will be a quick process. In meeting with the occupational therapist, they noticed that he was having some difficulty in noticing patterns, following multiple sets of directions and math was a little difficult for him also. Also short term memory is not great, but his long term memory is fantastic. He seems to remember everyone and even told me the code to our gun safe today. Finally, in meeting with the speech therapist we noticed alot of the same difficulties along with explaining abstract thoughts. They also asked him to do a clock. He did not do the circle at first and put numbers 1-9 where 1-6 should go, in a semi-circle. He was then directed to make a circle and put the 12, 3, 6, and 9 in the correct place. He was then able to do the whole clock by himself and draw where the hands would go for 9:30. A huge step forward in working with the speech therapist is that Dane was able to write his entire name, address and phone number, along with a sentance that he created about Rylee. He wrote, "My daughter Rylee is 5 years old and is so beautiful." So Sweet. This was a huge difference from not being able to write his name at all a few days ago.
I'm hoping to keep it pretty low key over then next few days, while he adjusts to his new surroundings, so we're asking that visitors wait until atleast Sunday to come in for a visit, besides immediate family. My understanding is that Sunday is his day off, so he will be relaxing, and probably somewhat bored that day.
Thank you to Brittany and Amber for their help babysitting today. When I write my thanks to my babysitters each day, I feel a twinge of guilt for all of the time that I am spending away from my girls, but I know that they are in safe hands with everyone that I have left them with. I am so grateful to be able to leave them and not think twice about their well being. I pray that they will be resilient and continue to be as understanding as a 3 and 5 year old can be in this situation. I love them both so much and hope that they are OK! Continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We love you all!