Great Saturday!!!

Saturday came with great sun and great people!.

Vidia and I (Rosie, Mark's wife) set off for El Cajon City to visit Mark and work with his head support. When we got there Mark was very active with his right hand and needed some cleaning and grooming. Well, Mark had other plans, in the middle of trying to clean his face with a cloth he started to lift his head and shoulders of the mattress. He was lifting also his left foot when doing this in order to gain more lift!!, The nurse came in and she tried to explain that he was getting more agitated (stage 4 in the Los Amigos Chart) but we just smiled and shared our joy for this movement with her.

Julia our nurse said "He seems to want to get out of bed...Don't worry Mark soon, soon"

She is very nice.

That same day at 12:30 we took part in our first support group meeting. Here is the information for that:

Brain Injury Support Group For Survivors And Families by The Head Injury & Trauma Support System (HITS) is held every Saturday from 1:00-2:30 PM (more or less, by 1:30 it is usually going strong) in the 3rd floor conference room at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest.  Call 800-986-4487.

 

Well, let me tell you that hearing the recovery and surviving stories from the survivors mouth themselves was just the thing we needed. It was for me and Vidia, the confirmation that the light we have always seen at the end of this tunnel is really there. Mark's 11 week injury was called "very fresh" or "new" by the people in the group. After talking to a man who's accident happened some 20 years ago I could see way.

All of the survivors in this particular group were men that day. All had different ages and different kinds of accidents that took them down the similar path.

After the meeting we head to Mark's side again, we did our routine again with more "gusto" than before, sharing with Mark all the inside that we have gain.

Sunday was much more relax, activity with Mark comes in picks and valleys as told in the booklet that Pia (Mark's sister) mailed to me.

Well, today, Mark is going to take a shower, and we are adding some speech development drills (very early stage stuff). I hope that with this drill he can gain more control of his mouth since I see him spending time on moving lips with what looks like more purpose.

 

Bye for now