April 7th Update

With this update comes both progress and disconcerting news. Jack is coming along well physically, but we are still unsure of how he is progressing mentally. The good news that we had in the last update with him shaking his head no to wanting more ice has now become disconcerting as he seems to be shaking his head no to almost every question he is asked including if he remembers my Mom, Suzy :(

Physically, he is coming along well. The rehab center is slowly getting him off of the ventilator and he seems to be breathing well on his own when it is off. The next step will be to go for reversing the trach if he gets to a point where he can always breath on his own which we think he will be at soon. After that will be removing the feeding tube and getting him to a place where he can eat on his own.

Again, we are being told that it will be at least a month before the blood from the stroke absorbs and the swelling in his brain goes down completely. At that point, we will have a greater understanding of where he will be at mentally.

As of now, Suzy (whose birthday is today, happy birthday Mom!) says that when she looks in his eyes she swears she's seeing the mind of a 7 year old especially in the smiles he exhibits and the ways he nods his head. Also, the only question he has nodded yes to is when asked if he likes Mickey Mouse which Suzy says she never even knew he liked (he must have liked Mickey as a kid because I never knew this either!). Suzy also says that she thinks Jack's mind may be going through many different parts of his life because when she holds his hand sometimes he does this thing with rubbing his thumb on her palm that he has not done since they were first dating! So I do feel that even though at the time he was asked if he remembered her, he shook his head no, he still knows her touch and remembers her sometimes.

This is where we are currently. We know with the St. Vincent's rehab center he is in the best place he can be and getting the best help available. We are all coming to terms with the fact that he had a massive stroke and the repercussions of that are going to be a long, rough road to get through but we are confident that things WILL get better! As always, I will keep you posted on his progress with these blog updates. Thanks as always for all of the prayers, thoughts and well wishes!