{Karlton Bontrager}

It’s been quite a mixed day. The news has been mostly good, but Karlton’s mood has been more negative. He seems really alert when he’s awake, and he’s quite likely having to face the reality of not being able to do whatever he’d like to do. He seems rather sad, and he’s not always compliant when the nursing staff ask him to make a fist, stretch his leg, or open his mouth to let them take his temperature.

The PT staff came round and got him sitting up on the edge of the bed again. Then he took the initiative to stand up. He sat down again immediately, but then he stood up again. And again. He did so about 4 or 5 times. Next, they put him in the La-Z-Boy recliner for a good spell, and he tolerated that well. They predicted that he’d likely be exhausted from that workout, but in the evening he was again alert and raising himself by the elbow up off the bed.

While he was in the recliner, he pulled out his naso-gastric tube. The doctors inserted another one and then X-rayed him to see if it was correctly placed. It wasn’t. It had entered his stomach and doubled back. Later they inserted another one, and again it had doubled back. So they gave up on it. He was without the tube for the night. It bothers him a lot, so he must have been glad to be free of it.

Today the speech/language pathologist is scheduled to stop by. That person will work with him on swallowing to see if he can do without the feeding tube. If he can’t, an ear, nose, & throat specialist will have to use an endoscope to insert a naso-gastric tube correctly.

Holly, one of Karlton’s friends from Queenstown, called yesterday. She’s a reporter for the local newspaper and is doing an article on wearing helmets. She wanted to quote Choy-Lang and me in the article, but I doubt that we gave her any usable quotes. (There go our 15 minutes of fame!)

Another milestone was getting the staples and sutures out of Karlton’s head. It’s a fairly simple procedure and he tolerated it well. The scar is really nastly looking, but at least he no longer needs outside supports to keep his head together.

This morning a box arrived from the hospital where Karlton was first taken. It contained the clothes he was wearing when he arrived there. In addition to his boots, trousers, and the other clothes they were able to pull off him were two shirts and an L.L.Bean fleece pullover that had had to be cut off.

Working in special education as we do, Choy-Lang and I have been rather frustrated with the OTs’ lack of response to Karlton’s communication needs. They provided him with an erasable board, but that doesn’t always work well. We have difficulty reading his writing. It’s as if letters tumble out, and he is unable to slow down to write them carefully or to insert vowels as needed. We were thinking that he could use a communication board or perhaps even a laptop computer. But they’ve been slow to respond.

Yesterday he did use the board to write that he’d like to watch TV. The response was an immediate ‘No.’ They’re concerned about seizures and afraid that the flicker of the TV screen would cause him to seize. Perhaps that will stand in the way of his using a laptop computer too.

That brings you pretty much up to date for now. He received 4 cards from the States today. Thanks once again for all your support.