Saturday, July 27 10:00 pm Daniel's friend from school, K.C., came to visit today. His sister Emily went over in the morning and Daniel had been up since 4:00 so he was very tired and crabby. He's not getting enough food or sleep. Toni and Emily went shopping for Daniel so that he is set to go for rehab. Today nurse Ann Marie and her son brought Daniel a keyboard and he gets to take it with him to rehab.
Sunday, July 28 8:30 pm Today Daniel was very worried and anxious. Moving on to Sunnyview is a big deal for him. Having Emily and K.C. there brightened up his day. K.C. left today and Emily leaves tomorrow. Toni and Emily took down all the pictures up on his wall today. Daniel can now open and read his own mail and mail really brightens him up. He has a new address which is listed below.
Monday, July 29 9:45 pm Daniel is at the rehab place today. They transfered him by ambulance. Both Toni and Daniel are anxious, it's a new place. Daniel has a roommate, Nathan. Toni knows his parents from when Nathan was in the ICU. They're very nice and showed Toni the ropes of the place. At this place they do all the physical and occupational therapy, all kinds of things. He basically starts in the morning and then he works as much as he can all day. Daniel feels a little blue and alone so cards would really cheer him up.
Wednesday, July 31 12:33 pm Sorry about the missing report yesterday. Here's what happened. They got Daniel into a wheelchair yesterday. It takes two people and he can't bend his knees yet but he had one of those wheelchairs where his legs are raised. Daniel also still can't put any weight on his legs. He did have speech, occupational, and physical therapy. Daniel said that he is "starting training to do normal stuff." He learned how to do wheelchair pushups. The occupational and speech therapist are working on trembling. He has trembling in his hands, tongue, and jaw(chin.) The physical therapist is working on "range of motion" on his legs. Toni said that by the end of the day he wasn't making sense probably related to the drug reduction. Toni's commute to Daniel's is about 20-30 minutes so she's going to stay at the fisher house but she has to rent a car for the drive.
Wednesday, July 31 9:35 pm Daniel called Jim tonight with part of the report. Daniel said that the rehab is stressful and a lot of work. He was upgraded to weight baring. He said that he stood up two times today with the help of the physical therapists. The first time they weren't strong enough and his knees buckled. He said that when his knees buckled there was a loud crack and it was painful. The second time the nurses were strong enough and there was no problem. He had occupational and speech therapy today. Now, Toni's part of the report was that Daniel is not the same person right now. He has good vocabulary and good long term memory but emotionally he's very fragile and some of his thought processes are a little confused and Daniel is aware of it. Daniel saw a 60's tv show with 60's music and he was singing out loud "I wish they all could be California girls." Daniel's getting very little to eat because he can't keep food down plus they're weaninghim off the drugs. His oxygen saturation is between 90 and 91 and it's supposed to be above 92 so Toni is urging the staff to protect his lungs. Daniel liked the wheelchair today and he got to go outside with Toni to the car. Yesterday he didn't like it. They haven't done any neuro or psycological testing and they won't until he's almost done with the rehab process. Today the psychologist said that he won't be back to "normal" for at least a year. Today was the first day Daniel saw himself in the mirror and he was alright.
Friday, August 2 9:35 pm Sorry there was no report last night, I was having problems with the computer. Anyway, yesterday they took the trach out. Daniel's back on oxygen. They put the leg machine back on his left leg(the worse one) for an hour. He was able to hold down food today. Toni and Daniel's roommate's mom bought colored paper to brighten up the room. Daniel went outside but not for long because it was 90 degrees out and 90% humidity. Today, Daniel was very tired. He was weak and wears out very quickly. He was able to get online and instant message with some friends. He was able to eat but he's back on and IV drip because his potassium is low. That's all for today and yesterday.