November 2004
For the first time in a long while, Chad did not lose any weight this week. In fact the weekly tale-of-the-tape showed a slight gain. He continues to 'vocalize' more than usual accompanied by head turns from side to side. The Kaiser speech therapist delivered sherbert on Tuesday and vanilla ice cream on Thursday as she continues to work with him towards directed responses. Chad's hands and legs remain tight despite the family-provided range-of-motion exercises during the week. On Friday, Chad got up in his wheelchair and escaped the hospital briefly for a stroll around the neighborhood farmer's market where sights and sounds abound. We have been reminding Chad all week about the hardwork that Elke & Steve and their volunteers are putting into the Casino Night Benefit for him this Saturday, November 13. One last reminder to all, get your tickets early this week so you can be assured of participation on Saturday.
11/8-11/14
CASINO NIGHT ROCKS!
Kaiser offered up the possibility of moving to Chad to their Vallejo facility for 'caregiver training', which the family declined since they feel adequately able to care for him after being bedside for the past 11 months. In addition they were not fond of the idea of transporting Chad two hours away because of the amount of stress he would encounter. If the move was for extensive rehab, it would be a different story. Meanwhile, as anticipated, Chad is not in need of acute hospital care and planning by Kaiser is underway to move him from their Santa Teresa Facility. The hospital had run out of dantrolene (muscle relaxer) this week so Chad did not get it for several days and there was a noticable difference in his muscle tone. Another week filled with lots of 'vocalizing'. He is letting it be known when he doesn't like something by turning away and this is usually accompanied with a moan. On a relevant side note, so many of the arguments against embryonic stem cell research have been based on morale issues surrounding the destruction of embryos. Develop your own opinion
11/15-11/21
This week was filled with 'vocalizing' but it was very obvious that these were sounds of discomfort. No one knows exactly what is wrong and Chad had to be given multilpe doses of valium late in the week after some awake periods in excess of 24 straight hours combined with the sounds of discomfort. The writing on the wall got a bit larger this week as we are all anticipating that Kaiser is preparing to discharge Chad from the acute hospital environment before the end of November. The Kaiser speech therapist continued to work with Chad this week, getting on his good side by delivering ice cream.
11/22-11/28
The writing on the wall got even larger this week when a delivery truck showed up with a hospital bed at Chad's mom's house. Just for curiosity sake...the bed was too short, had a mechanical crank and was not even close to what Chad needs. We are all guessing that Chad's days at Kaiser Santa Teresa are drawing to a close as is November. The 'vocalizing', more accurately described as 'moaning', continued throughout the week. The medical staff had to intervene with morphine to get Chad to settle into a level of comfort and away from the 'moaning' and discomfort that was obvious. Chad got outside a couple of times this week making a swing through the neighborhood Farmer's market the day after Thanksgiving. A little fresh air and sunshine never hurts.