11/30/09

To all of our friends and family:

We appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers and kind words. My parents have told me that they have been getting emails that infer that Paul is doing a lot better than he actually is. They asked me to let everyone know that while Paul is making some progress, he has suffered very severe and devastating brain injuries. He may never be the same again. This does not mean we should give up hope, but I need to clarify that I have just been posting what my parents tell me, but I am not there and it is difficult to interpret all of it. Paul still cannot see and is still very disoriented. He has periods where he is oriented; however, that is variable. His friend Amy visited yesterday. I was told that he was alert when she came in and did recognize her voice, knew who she was and hugged her. He was only alert for about five minutes though and then he ran out of gas and went back to sleep.

Having said that, it will be quite some time before we know which of his injuries will be permanent and which may improve. I also want all to know that although he is in “rehab,” this means he is no longer in need of acute hospital care. He has not started the “rehab” process as he still has problems associated with severe traumatic brain injury that are preventing the process from starting such as extreme agitation and sleep/wake cycle disturbances. There is so much that is unknown right now and it is too soon to make any type of prognosis, so we just have to hang tight with what we know at this time and hope for a better future for Paul.

This is a very difficult time for our family and we appreciate all of your prayers and support.

Tara

11/26/09

Paul has been at the rehab for about a week now. Not much progress has been made so far; they want to give him more time to come out of this PTA state before working with him. He has been sleeping alot and has not been very responsive. My parents met with the rehab team yesterday. They said it could be 18 months before we will know what his permanent functional status and cognitive abilities will be. The plan is for him to fly back to the States when he is medically cleared to leave. My parents will meet with the neurologist on or around December 15 to try to determine when this will be. There is not too much that we know for sure right now except that he has a long, difficult road ahead of him.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and thank you for all of your support.

Tara

New Email

My parents are now set up with a new email address. They can be reached at:

kjbailey120@gmail.com

Please continue to send words of encouragement, thoughts and prayers.

Thanks,

Tara

New address

Paul has been moved from the hospital and is now at the rehab center!

The address where he can now receive cards and packages is:

Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Center
1 Yarra Boulevard
Kew, VIC Australia
3101

Keep that support coming! Now is when he needs it the most!


- Kesi

11/17/09

Paul is now eating a full soft diet. The therapist told my Dad he walked 200 meters; however, that sounds really far (I think it equals 600 feet) and my Dad was not completely sure he got that number right, but it sounds great! He is still in the same place cognitively, but he is supposed to be transferred to the rehab tomorrow where they will be working with him intensively. A couple of people have asked me about his vision and it has not returned yet. They still haven't made a diagnosis or prognosis with his sight. I've also had a few folks ask me about having a fundraiser or beef and beer. My family is going to plan something that will probably take place in January or February. We are currently working on this and I will keep everyone posted on this via the blog.

Tara

11/16/09

Paul started drinking fluids through a straw and is able to eat small diced fruit. He is also sitting upright for short periods of time. He can correctly answer where he is (Australia), who he is, the general time of year and his birthday. He was not able to answer questions like "what do you wear on your feet?" and this may be due to the PTA. They plan to transfer him to a rehab center on Thursday where he will recieve intensive rehabilitation services. I will get the contact information there and add it to the blog ASAP.

Tara

11/12/09

In the last post I mentioned that Paul had surgery to place the bone back on the front of his skull. I haven't had much to report because he has been sleeping a lot as a result of the sedatives and morphine that were used during the surgery.

He still has symptoms of post-traumatic amnesia (PTA). He is supposed to be evaluated by the rehab center today with the possibility of transferring there on Monday for a minimum of five weeks.

As far as his vision goes, one of the main doctors here thinks he has "Traumatic Optical Neuropathy" which is very rare and occurs in only 1% of brain injury patients. This has not been officially diagnosed yet, but if this is the case, there is a 50% chance of him getting his vision back. He is also scheduled to be seen by an Opthamologist today and after that they plan to do an MRI at some point.

Other than that, his brain scans look normal and good. He has the peg tube back in his stomach and the sodium is somewhat controlled now.

Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, kind deeds and good energy...

Tara

11/9/09

Paul just got out of surgery where they successfully placed the bone back on the front of his skull. This was removed so that his brain would have room to swell. We are told that the surgery went well and he just returned to his room. My Dad said the MRI was not done yesterday, but we do not know why at this point. He was able to say who my Mom was by her voice yesterday. Other than that, no other news right now.

Tara

11/8/09

Paul is having an MRI today to try to determine why he cannot see. His sodium was dangerously high so they had to remove the tube feeding, but I believe it is stable now. I hope to have more of an update by tomorrow.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers...

Tara

11/4/09

Paul is awake now and has been frequently moving his arms and legs in the bed almost as if he were climbing. He has also begun to say words and sentences although what he says is not usually coherent.

Currently, his right eye is completely open, but his left remains closed. They do not think he can see right now, but they are hoping this is temporary and due to nerve damage.

Paul is experiencing symptoms related to "post-traumatic amnesia" which we are told include confusion, disorientation, agitation, restlessness, and repitition of words, ideas or actions. It sounds like he is repetitively moving his arms and legs and verbally focused on getting the casts off of his arms as he keeps saying, "I have to get these things off of my arms."

The doctors are anticipating that they will not be able to fly him home for about three months; however, they are beginning to discuss transferring him to a rehab center in Melbourne. We do not know when this will be yet. They are also planning to transfer him to a private room in the hospital to minimize noise which may agitate him in his current state. The doctors say this state of post-traumatic amnesia is normal and should subside at some point.

Tara

11/2/09

Paul is now completely off the sedatives and is breathing on his own. The swelling in his brain has also gone down significantly, and he is occasionally opening one eye and yawning. His is still not fully alert and his responses are variable, but he is once again responding to simple commands and has even added an audible "Mmmhmm" in addition to nodding.
Although we still have to wait and pray for him to continue to improve, everyone is very pleased with the progress he's made so far.

Kesi