Ian's dad (Tom) posted this late yesterday-it's lengthy!
December 29, 2006 at 09:30 PM CST
IAN CAME HOME TODAY!!!
Well, it has been an eventful couple of days. First, the most important news--Ian was discharged from the hospital today. Our heads are swimming a bit from the information dump the doctors and therapists conducted this morning, but the most pertinent fact is that Ian is now home. We just put him to bed (on an aerobed in our room for now) in our house tonight. He seems pretty happy to be here, though it's been a long day.
A quick summary of events. Wednesday evening, HJ called to inform me that she had caught Ian's bug and was very sick. Fortunately, Thursday AM I was feeling better (though Reagan came in announced that she was now sick), so Morgan and I went to the hospital, I took HJ home and put her to bed, and I sat with Ian the rest of the day. Ian made a lot of progress, but still had a little GI problem yesterday PM and was ready for bed by about 8 PM yesterday night. I watched Texas A&M get whipped by whoever they were playing and went to sleep too.
This morning, Ian woke up and seemed to be feeling much better. He was talkative, ate a good breakfast, and finally seemed to have recovered from his GI issues. He had a couple of great therapy sessions where he was able to move himself around on a little scooter, showed me how he can creep up steps (it's very important that he not bear weight on his broken leg for the next three weeks), threw lots of bean bags, etc. He also was able to do much better on memory games, though he's still not back to where he was.
Then, we had the "family meeting," the precursor to discharge from the hospital. I'm not sure how to capsulize the contents of the meeting, but I'll give it a shot. In general, they said that Ian's recovery curve was very good--better than expected, especially given his setbacks from hyponatremia and the GI virus. On most tests, he had gone from "below average" to "in the normal 4 year old range." We know this is good news, but we know he's clearly not back to where he was. We will continue to work on this and pray for his recovery.
Fine motor skills have shown lots of improvement in the last week, but he still has shortcomings that need to be addressed through therapy. Ian's biggest challenge now is what they call the "higher level functions" of speech and language. He's made a lot of progress, but he still has some difficulty organizing and categorizing things, paying attention for a long time, and staying on topic. Those of us who know Ian know that this was one of his strongest skills prior to the accident, so while we're very pleased with his progress, we are very concerned that he's struggling in this area. Again, this is a place where we will focus on therapy and prayer.
Physically, his broken leg will hold him back for a while. We won't know about his walking balance, etc. for several weeks. We'll continue to work on his upper body strength with his wheelchair and with this cool little hand-powered scooter the hospital let us borrow, but walking will have to wait. His vision continues to be the same. Dr. Tan said his vision in his right eye is about 20/200, while the vision in his left eye is 20/20. Unfortunately, the issue in the right eye is nerve related and will probably not be 100% correctible. We continue to pray for healing, though the doc suspects that this may well be permanent damage.
I'm guessing I'm going to reach the word limit shortly, so I will continue in the next post...
December 29, 2006 at 10:14 PM CST
IAN CAME HOME TODAY! (CONTINUED)
My apologies if you received multiple emails. The page malfunctioned and my second post didn't make it to the server--however, the first page was posted four times...now I have to remember what I wrote.
It's been very difficult to express how we feel about what the doctors and therapists told us today. We struggle about whether to be excited about the progress he's made, or worry about what's to come. The folks at the hospital are so impressed with the progress Ian's made, and so are we. However, they really don't know Ian like we do, so they don't understand the baseline like we do. When we see Ian struggle to remember things, to stay on topic or to express himself, it just kills us, because we know that this was Ian's greatest strength prior to the injury, and we wonder if he will ever get back to that place. It's hard to be objective when you sit where we do, because he's our little boy and we love him so much. He's already proven that he's tougher than nails, but to us he seems so fragile--all we can do is pray, have faith and work hard to help him recover.
HJ and I want to thank all the wonderful people at UW Children's hospital who worked with us to care for Ian and help him recover. The PICU staff, the nurses and nurse assistants on the Peds floor, the people who cleaned our rooms, the great doctors and therapists--we can't ever thank you enough for helping to save our son. After three weeks at the hospital, you became more like friends and family than hospital staff. While we won't miss being at the hospital, we will miss seeing all of you.
Also, we got some good news on the insurance front. Dean agreed to allow us 8 visits for each therapy specialty at the UW Clinic in Middleton, followed by the creation of a treatment plan that will be considered at that time. We think this is a fair place to start.
we thank the folks at Dean and UW Health for working together to make this happen. Using the Middleton location will provide for continuity of doctors and therapists, and will save us a 50 mile round trip to Madison's far east side for each therapy visit. We think this will be good for both Ian and our family.
I think that's about it. We are so excited to have Ian home with us. If you would like to visit, please do so, but don't come to the hospital, because we won't be there! If you would like to visit us at home, we'd love to have you, but call HJ first, or you risk arriving at an empty house!
While Ian's out of the hospital, he is far from finished. We still need all of your prayers for his full recovery. I will continue to post updates, but since his therapy will be on an outpatient basis, progress reports will probably not be daily (unless something big happens, one way or another). Thank you for all you have done for our family. We wish each of you a great New Year's weekend!
And to Harvey's Mom: Ian definitely remembers--he'd love to see Harvey. Give us a call.
BTTT
For now, do not be overly concerned about short attention spans and short term memory problems. Attention spans and memory come back with time.
I had a severe concussion from a car accident and for a while had a hard time reading the funnies in the daily paper.
I was better after a couple of months. Memory comes with practice, as do the organizational skills, he will be ready to work on both as his attention span improves.
Be of good cheer, and May all of God's blessings be made manifest for you all.
Thanks for that new update...
It sounds daunting, I know....but at this point, prayers, love, and Ian's fighting spirit will work more and more every day...
Prayers continuing for all
sleuth
May God continue His blessing of grace and mercy.
Give him time, hugs, love, and encouragement but don't feel discouraged. With little ones, it's always a few steps forward and a step or two backwards.....in the best of circumstances.
You have all our prayers and love!
Ian's Dad posted this yesterday - a blissfully uneventful update! :-) Happy New Year!
December 30, 2006 at 11:42 PM CST
No real news today. HJ and I went to Reagan's BBall tournament and Ian stayed with Shelby, Erin and Meredith. When we came home, Ian and Erin were playing checkers. I'm not sure who was winning. Ian seems to be more relaxed and is getting used to being back in his noisy house--He sat in his favorite chair and watched Sponge Bob Squarepants (that's one cartoon I haven't missed in the background!) this morning. He was doing a good job of moving around on the floor today, pushing himself from place to place with one leg.
Tomorrow, we'll probably make him do some actual therapy stuff--most of the time, though, we just like to give him hugs!
Tom and HJ