{Karlton Bontrager}

The nurse weighed Karlton when he took him for a shower yesterday. He was 67.45kg. At 2.2 lbs./kg., that’s 148 pounds, down from his normal weight of 175. He’s lost about 30 pounds in the hospital. No wonder he eats everything in sight.

We had the meeting with the doctor, a nurse, a PT, an OT, and the services coordinator/social worker. We learned that on the Post Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) assessments Karlton had answered 10 of 12 questions correctly the day before yesterday and 11 correctly yesterday. He has to answer all 12 questions correctly on 3 consecutive days to be considered past the PTA stage. The doctor informed us that, generally, the shorter the time a patient remains in the PTA stage the more likely he or she is of full memory recovery. So his prognosis for complete recovery looks positive from that perspective.

We spent some time in the meeting talking about the headaches. The staff emphasized the fact that despite the pain, Karlton is able to walk, move about, and even joke and be pleasant company (well, at least with non-family). They did not discount Karlton’s estimation that these are the worst headaches that he has ever experienced, but they noted that he is not debilitated by them.

The PT stated that not a lot can be done with Karlton while he is in the PTA stage. At the moment, her goal is greater control of balance when he is sitting up. This is crucial when he is transferring from the bed to a chair and back again. He’s tipsy right now, and could easily fall without close supervision.

The services coordinator/social worker pledged herself to getting us in contact with people who can give us more information about the ACC, the accident compensation law. We need to learn more about ACC so that we can make informed decisions concerning Karlton.

When Choy-Lang and I returned from the meeting, Karlton was sitting up and feeding himself a plate of spaghetti. The speech therapist was observing him swallow. He did so well that she decided to try him on a glass of water. Karlton didn’t want to try, fearing that it would make him cough and his head hurt too much for that. But he did agree to drink with a straw. He passed that test with no difficulty. She wanted to graduate him to foods that require more chewing–bread and vegetables that have been boiled until they are soft. But he is reluctant to chew, citing the pain it causes in his head.

In the evening, a guest was visiting when Karlton asked me to scratch his right leg. While I was doing so, he extended the left with a movement that was so natural, I nearly missed it. Earlier in the day, he showed me that he could raise his shoulder and thereby retract his left arm a wee bit. Both movements are very small, but they portend so much for us. We’re hopeful that as the brain recovers from its bruising, he will regain more and more use of his left side.

Karlton’s therapists work Monday through Friday, so he’s likely to have a weekend of rest. I hope you are able to have the same.