Day 16 — Tuesday, July 2, 2024

9:00am #

A good day. Shane was calm and all vitals were good.

10:00am #

Sarath Nair social worker
Helen Heyes was the top preference after narrowing them down. HCD, Chivonne also confirmed this was the best rehab option so we should go for it first. For inpatient rehab there were two different levels of care. Acute, intense short. 3 hrs of OT PT lasting about 2-3 weeks long. Or sub acute, slower schedule for therapy and lasting a longer period of time, 2-3 months. They were applying for acute care for Shane because they could project that he was progressing rapidly. Helen Heyes was 13 miles from Warwick. As a coincidence it was in our congregation territory. So we knew it well, although we’d never been there.

12:00pm #

They removed the metal staples from his head. I found one that was still on the left side. They said they would get it before discharge. They also removed the stitches around the trach and peg. Speech therapy was scheduled for the next day so get him the speaking cap so we could hear his voice again.

3:00pm #

Chivonne explained that after serious injury, the brain shuts down all unnecessary functions and focuses just on life sustaining actions. It’s a diva, she said, it will do whatever it takes to protect itself and protect life. And then little by little it will repair and start up different areas again. It will repair memories of whatever is most important to the patient. We would know more about the condition of his memory when he could speak again. I felt pretty sure there was no way he could remember the accident. But I believed he still could remember many of the important things. I was so excited that I could hear his voice again soon.