I can't make myself do ANYTHING productive! It's making me crazy. I am going to work out today, so hopefully that will kick start my dopamine or seratonin or whatever the heck needs to start pumping through my brain again.

I did work for a little bit yesterday, and I have a whole bunch more to do tomorrow. I need to make a list so I don't lose focus while I'm working.

Right now, I know the difference between me having a B-maybe-A and a solid A in one class is writing 4 article reviews worth 5 points each. Enough to make the 75 I made on that last exam a 95. I found and printed the articles today, but I can't make myself read them and summarize them. I think my boss made the right call setting aside a grading position for me during MayMester, because my brain just runs in circles and probably isn't much good for research right now.

The day of the accident, I bought an exercise mat, and I am dying to use it with my 30 day shred DVD. OK, I WAS dying to use it, now Tom and I used it for some physical therapy exercises yesterday, but it isn't making me want to pop that DVD in one little bit. And I was doing so well with it before. Maybe today's elliptical (or maybe bike) half-hour will jump start my exercise again.

So anyway, back to real life. I'm gonna change and hit the gym!

Things at home are a lot better than I expected. I was really nervous about it. Turns out, I take pretty good care of Tom even when he doesn't have a brain injury, so there hasn't been that much extra to do. We took it easy this weekend. We ate, had visitors, had coffee in the mornings, he takes a cat nap at about 5pm everyday, then he sleeps at night. We played Monopoly on the Xbox, and mainly watched a lot of TV.

I had orders to follow him around and help him walk with the walker. So I did. I have been scared to death that he'd fall in the house. The dizziness he had in the hospital seems to be gone, but his balance is still off because of the weakness in his left leg. A few times, especially when he had either just woken up or was tuckered out at the end of the day, he'd stumble and catch himself on some conveniently located furniture like the couch or the bed. I could tell you what those stumbles (and everything from the last month) did to my nerves, but let it suffice to say that I plucked my first gray eyebrow hair today. Ugh!

Yesterday, Tom was doing so well, and the walker just seemed more harm than help, so I let Tom walk around without it, with me closeby or holding his arm. He did so good. I even "let him" put away the silverware from the dishwasher. Then, we went for a physical therapy evaluation today, and he aced it. His balance (brain wise) is great, it's just that weak leg that trips him up. Today he walked all over that gym without a walker, walked up and down a flight of stairs, and even did some jumping. He was cleared as a "low fall risk" and doesn't need to use his walker in "controlled" situations.

Tonight, he got up to fix his plate, came back to the couch to eat, then got up, dumped his bones into the trash, rinsed his plate, put it in the dishwasher, shut the cabinet I left open, turned off the oven I left on, walked to the bathroom, let Sasha inside on his way back, and safely sat back on the couch. Meanwhile, I sat on the couch watching and I didn't have a panic attack. We are inching closer to normal.

Tomorrow, we have a speech therapy evaluation, and afterward I'll have a clearer picture of what his outpatient therapy will look like.

My dad called Tom a walking miracle, and Tom said to me, "If that were true, I'd be on TV!" I explained to him that he'd only be on TV if we sent the story into a news station, and I asked him what he'd say. He said, "That I'm a walking miracle!" I said, "Is that all?" And he said, "And that you left the oven on." LOL Sorry Tom, your inspirational story of recovery will just stay in our circle. ;-)

I can't thank everyone enough for their prayers and well wishes. He is doing so great. :-)

I get to know again tomorrow what it means to be HOME. I'm at home right now, but Tom comes home tomorrow, and we'll be one step closer to normal (for us, anyway).

Tom is doing well but so ready to come home. I think yesterday sealed the deal, when they made him do group exercise with a bunch of old people. I can see how that would be sort of depressing, it made him feel like an invalid. For him, rehab is about getting back to 100%, for a lot of those older folks, it's about being able to do enough to get by. He doesn't have anything against old people (in fact, Tom loves old people, and they love him) but he had a hard time having a good attitude having to do that twice yesterday!

He still loses his balance a lot, which gives me a new gray hair every time I see it. I am scared about him having a fall. It's amazing to make it through one brain injury, and you just don't get two. I gotta let it go. We gotta do our best to be careful, but I also need to let it go. I might go get some help from the doctor to "let it go" next week. I have some anxiety meds for night time, but I need something during the day for now. I'm normally wound up pretty tight, but my current state isn't going to cut it.

I did a lot of cleaning tonight, not nearly enough, but it's good enough for tomorrow! It will look like a palace compared to Tom's digs the last four weeks. Got the essentials done, like laundry and dishes. I'm pretty tired, gotta get up in the morning to buy groceries then head back to rehab to get him checked out of there. We're getting evaluated for an outpatient rehab program Monday, so he'll get the whole weekend off. I'm making chicken noodle soup tomorrow and really looking forward to it.

Anyway, I wore myself out with a long day and a lot of work, so I'm crashing in preparation for the big day tomorrow, miracle man's homecoming. :-)

Because these are very exciting times. With excitement and progress comes a lot of work for me. If that sounds like a terrible thing for me to say, maybe it is, but even with the MIRACULOUS (nothing short of miraculous) recovery Tom has made, it doesn't necessarily mean it's smooth sailing from here on out, either.

Ugh, I can't even say that without feeling guilty. In the middle of typing that paragraph, I noticed a pink-orange light filtering into the room and looked out the window to see a beautiful sunset. There is still a thick cloud cover that kept me from having to pull down the shades this afternoon, since our window is to the west, but there was just enough break in the cloud cover to give me a gorgeous sunset.

This is the second time in a week this has happened, too. I don't remember what day it was...I think Saturday. My MIL arrived to spend the night, and she asked me what the weather was going to do. I said it was supposed to rain the next day, but I didn't realize why she'd asked until I went outside, and I saw that it looked dark and stormy toward Denton. I drove the 45 minutes home watching the ominous clouds and lightening, wondering if I would get caught in some bad weather, and feeling a little thankful that the atmosphere had finally provided some situationally appropriate weather. A storm. But I didn't get a storm, just some winds and the occassional spurt of fat raindrops that never really broke out into a rain shower.

But I had to go to walmart to get some tasty food to puree for Tom, who could only eat pureed foods at that point. I exited off 35, turned right, and instantly, there was the sun. I can't describe it, and I didn't have a camera, plus it didn't last long, but it looked like this:
http://www.kmrt.org.uk/Images/photos_2006/Aug06/Sun%20Breaking%20Through%20Clouds%20(400).jpg

Could there BE a more obvious metaphor than the sun breaking through the thickest and darkest clouds?? And then to get it TWICE? That's just miraculous.

There is so much to be grateful for, but there are a lot of clouds around that make it hard for me to see the sun. Maybe not HARD to see, I mean, it's obvious. My husband, terrible brain trauma, exceptional emergency care, and MIRACULOUSLY quick progress despite a few discouraging setbacks. I see it. Maybe it's more like it's hard to see the beauty of the sun for the clouds...so many doubts and uncertainties remain, I wish I could go back to that time when I could feel the purest form of happiness just from seeing him open his eyes and tell me he loves me. The everyday specifics and decision making "clouds" some of that up.

Keep us in your thoughts...we're still getting through the storm but the little reminders of the sun make it easier to keep going.

Not ALL good but the good outweighs the bad for sure!

I had to start the morning by going to school. Bleh. And it was kinda a waste of time. I wanted back my exam from Friday, but he won't have it til Wednesday. I got my review for a Wednesday exam though, so it wasn't a total waste. Eh.

Went to Jason's Deli for salad bar to go. If you haven't tried this, you have to. It's $7.57 (with tax) and you get a big plastic container to fill up, as well as a small tub for dressing, and a bigger tub for whatever else you want (I usually do dessert, you could get pasta salad or whatever). It is more than enough for 2 meals, so I knew it would get me through the night.

Tom was up eating lunch with Reade when I got to the hospital. I heard that they were planning to take the catheter out today, and they also put him on a calorie count, so they have to measure everything he leaves on his plate and see how close to 2000 calories he gets. He is NOT a big eater, so for him to eat 2000 is a big challenge!

I sat with Tom and we flipped through our wedding album. He had been a little fuzzy on the specifics, but he remembered it as soon as he saw it. We might look through our honeymoon pics tonight if he's up to it. But I expect that he'll be pretty tired, as I'm about to explain.

This afternoon, they removed the catheter (sorry for TMI, but it's a nice sign of progress!) and physical and occupational therapy came by. They sat him up on the bed, helped him stand, and helped him walk over to the chair. He sat in that chair for about an hour, working with those therapists. Then he accepted our challenge to eat one cup of Ensure pudding and one Ensure shake, and he was successful! I couldn't believe him holding the pudding cup and scraping every last bit out. Then he chugged down that shake. Altogether it was a good 500-ish calories, so between breakfast, lunch, and Ensure, he was up to about 1100.

Still in the chair and eating pudding, the speech therapist came by to evaluate his swallow and speech. She did something I think will make a world of difference - cleared him for chopped up foods instead of pureed, and regular liquids instead of thickened! She quizzed him a bit trying to assess his cognitive level - he is a bit slow to find the words he wants a lot. For example, he was saying he was 53 instead of 33, then when we asked what year it was, it was 1953. He just had 53 on the brain. He eventually answered these questions correctly, though. He said we had 2 dogs and 3 cats (instead of 1 dog and 2 cats), but was able to name all three. Things like that are common, and he will need more therapy to sharpen up his thinking.

Then, they brought his dinner and it was actually edible! Chopped up roast beef, potatoes, and peas. He ate it all except 2 bites. He also ate a piece of bread with butter and drank some water and sweet tea. We put the tray in front of him and he ate it all on his own. It was freakin' cool.

The only bad thing other than school is I really wanted to meet with the case worker about rehab placement today, but I am sure she got busy since I didn't page her til about 1 or 2. Will get started on that ASAP tomorrow morning. :-) He is doing so good, rehab will just cement his progress and get him more ready for home (and give me a chance to clean the house). :-)

1. Is Tom not able to do anything, really? Even talking is hard, I surmise from your posts. I am so curious as to what happens to a person's brain with an injury that makes them not able to move and such. Does he always remember why he is there or does he forget?

Tom is getting better - he brushed his teeth and washed his face today. From what I understand, he also sat on the side of his bed today. Getting him out of bed will be a benchmark coming up. He has always been able to move for the most part, some limbs more than others. When people don't move at all, or movement is limited, it's best explained like a computer reboot. When you piss off your brain like that, it takes a while before it will allow itself to work again. I was a little disturbed when I found out he was "asleep" because of the injury, not sedation. He knows where he is most of the time, but he forgets other things at times. Sometimes he is fuzzy, sometimes he is 100% lucid.

2. What will rehab include? Does he remember all words? Is it a matter of retraining his muscles?

We don't know about his vocab yet. Speech is a big part of the area that was injured. He seems OK now, but rehab will include extensive speech therapy. He is struggling with speech, I can tell because he tries to answer questions but can't quite get the words out. The words are probably still in there, just need help to come out. His muscles will need some serious retraining. You lose 1/3 of your muscle mass after 3 weeks in bed, and he's at 2. He will need help walking again, and a ton of other finer motor skills. I am thinking about bring his Nintendo DS up here in a few days to see what he thinks.

3. Does Tom understand what's going on? I really hope so...I know you mentioned before you got to tell him why he was there (when he first woke up) - what did he say? Does he remember the accident?

We remind him where he is and what happened. I haven't told him the full extent of the surgery (probably not ready to hear "you have 40 staples in your head because they removed a part of your skull the size of a softball and cleaned out some clots in there!") When we (including the docs) think he is ready, I'll show him a pic of what his incision looks like and maybe his CT scans.

4. How is Greg doing? (The driver...if I didn't remember his name right) I hope he isn't taking it too hard. Has he been in to see Tom since he was awake?

Greg's OK, and yes he has been in to see Tom.

5. Did he have any other injuries? Broken bones or anything?
A little road rash on his back and shoulder that are essentially healed. Nothing else that we know of. Neck seems fine.

7. Is Tom job giving him support to get better and come back to work?
Tom is self-employed, and his boss is extremely pissed that he's in the hospital and wants him home ASAP.

8. What's the dealio with rehab? How long will he be in the hospital? Then he'll be moved to a rehab-center-type place? Man, what a trooper. Tell him we send our biggest and best get well soon vibes.

That's the question no one knows the answer to yet. You have the right idea, more hospital followed by rehab (probably in-patient, but possibly out-patient if he progresses quickly). No one knows how long and how extensive care will need to be. I am encouraged by his progress the last few days but also aware that we may still have a long road ahead.

I went to school today to take an exam. It was BAD. I probably got a C, but hopefully the curve will bump it to a B. I am going to stick with my classes for now...in fact, when I am done with this, it's time for a little studying.

They moved Tom to a regular room last night! It's NICE too. Visitors are still limited to family. He is essentially starting rehab now, and he has a lot of work and relearning to do. It's not like he's laying bored all day. :) It's nice being able to ask him what he wants, too, from food to visitors to TV. I've been making guesses the best I can, balancing between what's best for his recovery and what I think he'd want, but to hear him pipe up with an opinion about stuff is one of the coolest things he's done, in my opinion!

I figured out how to work the TV in here. Could work it in ICU but the remote didnt work, so I had to control it from the TV. Today, the remote was working, but the volume wouldn't come up. Turned out I was incompetent, and his nurse showed me how to do it. They brought him lunch, so I woke him up from a good nap to eat a little bit. He lasted through about 10 bites before he was tired again.

I think this must be the same exact size of room, because these floors all have the same layout, but without the huge columns in there that power the ICU equipment are gone, so it seems much larger in here. I LOVE IT. It could've been a lot worse. There was a possibility that we'd end up in a shared room in the 70-yr-old building. I was a little spoiled by our ICU room and wasn't sure how I'd like the shared one. I kept thinking surely they wouldn't put a TBI patient in a shared room, especially when they still have their fuzzy moments! That could be so scary waking up with strangers around.

Anyway, we're having a great day over here. My dad will come crash overnight to make sure he's taken good care of. :)

1. Did the docs give Tom any Ritalin?
Yes! Yesterday and today.

2. Was he more awake today?
Yes! He has been awake more than asleep (at least since I got here at 11). He is in a great mood, too. Laughing, making jokes. Right now we are trying to get him good at using the nurse call button (a prerequisite for moving to a regular room), and one nurse was joking that before long, they'll regret having given it to him. I said, yeah, especially if he gets a cute nurse. His (cute) male nurse said, "What, are you saying I'm not cute?" and Tom said plain as day, "EXACTLY!" LOL!

3. How are YOU? Eating, sleeping and drinking enough water???
Eating, yes. Sleeping, yes. Thanks to my doctor's appointment 2 days ago. Drinking enough water? No! Ugh. I am so dehydrated. I need to drink more. I'll load up tonight when I go home. The tap water here is pretty gross.

4. Ya'll still in ICU this afternoon?
Yes. They are talking about moving him tonight or tomorrow. That would be pretty cool, although I am very happy here with the staff and facilities in ICU. There is a chance they'll move us to the old hospital for the regular room. It will be shared and much older. Either way, it's a good step!

5. Has he had any physical therapy? Is he moving about - wiggling fingers & toes okay?
Yes, he had a good round today, and the occupational therapist came by, too. He is moving around quite a bit, still struggling with that nurse call button (finding the remote, picking it up, finding the button, and pushing it hard enough.) He's been wiggling limbs like a pro for the last 5 days. :-)

Do you have any questions about what's going on? Just post in a comment!

The hospital won't let me edit my blog here, so thanks to Kim who logged in and set this up for me, now I can just send an email and it will post to my blog!

OK, let me further explain the twitter thing. Twitter is for cool people with active social lives so they can let their peeps know where they are every second of every day so their peeps can hit them up on their cellies and meet up or whatever. I have been a little embarassed for Pete Delkus on channel 8 ever since he set up a twitter account called "Pete's Tweets". What grown man is comfortable with tweeting?! Tweeting is for birds! Anyway, the function of twitter and tweeting is fantastic and without it, I don't know HOW I would keep people updated. But, the cutesy tweeting stuff makes me uncomfortable. LOL I may use twitter but I will never be a tweeter. ;-)

No REAL news. They extubated him Sunday, so now he can wake up and talk, etc. He is very lethargic and sleeps about 22 hours a day. He wears out very quickly. I think we will probably be in ICU through the week. If not, it will be a happy surprise, kinda like getting the tube out as quickly as they did!

The next benchmark is getting him awake and alert more. Right now, it is very difficult to wake him from a deep sleep. Another benchmark will be putting the hospital bed into a chair position to get him ready for sitting up. Neuropsych tried to do an eval on him earlier this morning, but he just wouldn't wake up for them! They are going to come back this afternoon.

I got motivated for real life activities yesterday. I got our bills organized, which is normally something Tom handles. And, I answered/wrote some work emails. I need to do more still....but it was a good step. I am sleeping at home tonight and tomorrow, planning to stay at the Riley center again this weekend.

testing testing 1 2 3

I was never meant to tweet, or have people following my tweets, or anything. But twitter.com/teamtna is still the best place for updates. Tom is doing great, no more ventilator, he is able to talk, and sleeps like a baby when medical staff isn't poking him. That's the short version of a loooong exciting completely exhausting 3 days. I am home tonight, spending the night again tomorrow in the room. Thanks for everyone's well wishes. I am OUT!

I'm gonna need some kind of help, via books or something, on coaching Tom through recovery. I would imagine he'll get super frustrated if he has a lot of work to do at rehab and possibly depressed. There has to be some good resources for caretakers about what to say, what not to say, what's helpful to a patient, etc.

Random news from today, some good, some "eh".

Doc said his injury looks more like a serious concussion instead of traumatic brain injury. This means the tissue damage might not be as bad as with TBI. Won't know til he's up! Time to get up, dude! I want to get excited about this news, but you need to get UP first!

Lungs were looking better, but he still has pneumonia. Still running a low grade fever, slightly higher than yesterday (closer to 101 than 100).

Got the results of his cultures they took Tuesday night before his fever spiked. He has a very rare bacteria. I have the name, I'm gonna google it. Weird huh? They are treating him with antibiotic for that.

Then the news that sucks...they expect that we will be in ICU for another 2-3 weeks. He just isn't progressing quickly. And that's OK with me, he can take all the time he needs to get better. I want him back whether it's tomorrow or May. I just need him back.

It's very difficult being the gatekeeper for who goes in to see him.

Met with the case manager who will help us find a rehabilitation facility for him once he's ready, and make sure home care is going well later down the road. It was encouraging to start thinking ahead. I hate to say this, but from her perspective, it is almost a good thing that he will likely not be ready for another few weeks, because it gives her more time to find the best place.

To be clear though, he still has one more stop before rehab - he'll start in a regular room with some therapy, then when he's ready to leave the hospital, then it's rehab time. What kind and level of intensity of rehab he will need is uncertain until he starts waking up.

My dad is with him tonight. I am staying again tomorrow.

This is the big concern - he had a significant midline shift. His bleed was not IN the brain, it was in the layers of "skin" (there has to be a fancy word for brain skin...) surrounding the brain. So, as the bleed grows, the rest of the brain gets smooshed over to the other side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midline_shift

The picture in that article differs from Tom's original CT in that his is more centered on the left side of the head and doesn't reach quite so far around the front of the head (which is at the top of the pic).

What happened??

Tom and Greg had fixed the go cart (Tom's first welding project since he got the welder for Christmas), and they took it to the elementary school a block away to play with it. Greg was driving, Tom was riding, and they took a left turn really fast (which they do all the time because it's more fun that way). When Tom felt the wheels coming off the ground, he tried to stand up and get out of the cart, fell backwards onto his shoulder and left side. They got him a towel for his head, Greg loaded up, they came to get me (luckily I was dressed and hanging out in the kitchen when I found out, just needed to grab my purse), and we headed to Denton Regional. Tom was cognizant enough to say we should go in Greg's car instead of the truck so no one would steal the go cart out of the back of the truck at the hospital...LOL. So we did.

At the ER, they got him back there, did the CT, afterward Tom was in bad shape, and that's when I started calling family. I had to leave him to go outside because there was no signal in the ER. UGH! I came back in to find out that they were going to careflight him to JPS in Fort Worth, our new home. The short version of that is - we arrived, they did an emergency craniotomy, and the doc came to talk to us at 7pm, post-op (time frame: accident was about 2:45, got to ER at 3, so four hours for all that, I find impressively quick). "We got the two clots out within 6 minutes of beginning surgery, but we have no way of knowing what damage has been done in the meantime, he may not wake up, he may die, yes this is the same thing that happened to Natasha Richardson." I don't mind his bluntness. This is not a situation that needs to be sugar coated.

And the rest is "my new normal". The biggest deviation from that was Tuesday night, when his fever spiked to 106 and stayed for a few hours overnight. The doc was in surgery so the nurses couldn't get an antibiotic approved. The nurses tried a ton of different things to help him. Eventually, they packed him with ice and stuck a fan on him as well as two cooling blankets, and his fever slowly went down. By morning it was 100 again ("his new normal"...) It was seriously the scariest night of my life.

So, now the View is on, and that's my cue to hop in the shower and head out.

I thought about titling this post "The ICU Diet" since so many of my posts lately have been fitness/nutrition related. Basically, the ICU diet is not having time to get hungry, and not having much appetite when you do eat. I'm eating, but it's not something I enjoy...which you know is unusual for me!

My new normal sucks. It's being in Fort Worth everyday in the ICU or the waiting room, spending the night in the room rationalizing every beep I hear (have I heard that one before? what does it mean? does a nurse need to come? IS a nurse coming?), having to be around lots of people when I just want to be alone. Mostly, it's a bunch of uncertainty. When will Tom wake up, what damage has already been done, and how long will it take for him to recover?

No one has answers like that right now. People say, "He'll be OK" or "He'll wake up" or whatever. And I know that is very likely and I think about it all the time and can't wait til I get to feel that overwhelming joy instead of this. I can't even describe what "this" is. But I don't get any comfort from hearing that he squeezed someone's hand or moved his head, etc. I am comforted that he is having reactions like that, it's good that he's moving, but the docs told me what's important is that he opens his eyes and answers a command. THAT'S what I want to see. I can't cling to uncertainties, and it doesn't give me hope to give a lot of meaning to something I can't be sure about.

What does give me comfort and hope is knowing that these injuries take a long time to heal. His brain went through a lot, and he's in there, but he doesn't know how to be awake yet. Even if he could wake up, the rest of his body/brain may not be ready to keep up with the stress waking up would bring. That things aren't getting worse is a certainty, something I can say with confidence, and that's comforting. He needs time.

Of course, I feel a little guilty that my hopes don't soar every time he does something...sometimes my heart will skip a beat, but it's followed quickly by a rationalization. For example, Tuesday, he opened an eye, and it was so amazing. But. He never closed it. He didn't do that on purpose. It was some kind of reflex. Tom has enough ups and downs, I can't handle the emotional ups and downs that come with thinking I'm seeing a "good sign" when there is no way I can know for sure until he is awake.

There is a very long road ahead of us. The doctor told me yesterday to start thinking about being here 1-2 months. Not necessarily in ICU...they are trying to get him out of there. But eventually he'll go to a regular room, then some kind of rehabilitation facility so whatever he ends up needing help with (if anything), he can rebuild skills.

Medically speaking, here are a few updates. They took the drain tube out of his brain, because it wasn't draining much anymore, which is a good thing. He has a little pneumonia. This is very common for patients like him. They want to shave the rest of his head tomorrow. He still has a low grade fever, around 100, but I will take anything but that 106 degree spike he had two nights ago. It was horrifying and exhausting. Today was more calm. But then, everything looks better when I'm rested. I slept last night, and I have two more nights off. His uncle is with him tonight, and my dad is coming tomorrow night.

Let me talk about some positive things for a minute. In fact, here is my funny ER story. At this point, he was in a stretcher, and they were preparing him for the first CT. He was struggling to speak - when he spoke, it was very strained and slow, usually only one word answers. They were asking me if he was allergic to any medications, and I said no, not that we were aware of. He said, "Oatmeal..." in his slow strained voice. LOL We had been talking about his oatmeal allergy just a few days before. OK Tom, we won't give you any oatmeal. :-)

I am really happy with where I am staying tonight. I didn't want the Texas Motor Speedway traffic to slow me down this weekend, so I was trying to find a hotel, and my friend/co-worker Rebekah looked into some rooms at a conference center on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. It's safe and comfortable. The room is in a woman's dorm, and there is something comforting about being on a college campus, especially with the fate of my coursework this semester is uncertain. The area around the hospital is scary, and I was worried I would have to spend a lot more to stay in a safe(ish) place. This is an excellent price, and it's nice to not have to worry about where I am. I don't know of a safer place than a women's dorm at a seminary. It won't even let me watch Sex & the City. ;-)

If you made it this far, here is something I could use help with. If you have time to research any of the following, let me know what you find.

Complications related to epidural hematoma? He had an arterial clot and a veinus clot.

Specifics about epidural hematomas on his part of the brain? Looking at this picture: http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/images/brainpic.jpg The injury is in the area there around hearing, memory for speech and sight, etc.
What's up with his left arm and right leg moving a ton more than his right arm and left leg? The injury is on the left side.
Any grant-funded, research-type rehab programs for post-op head injuries?

Thanks everyone.