Re-Entry

After my injury I was in a coma for almost three weeks some of it medically induced and some of it not.  Once I regained consciousness I was moved out of CICU to the Neurology wing of the hospital. I didn’t recognize anyone when I awoke. The right side of my body and face was fully paralyzed and I was unable to speak.  I had a plethora of devices connected to me from my calves to the top of my head.

I don’t remember exactly when I started to reconnect with the world but the day it started, I felt like I was wondering out of a cloud.  All of this started with a dream involving a large crowd around me while I was lying in a hospital bed. My reaction to being in a hospital bed was very confusing so I asked about what was going on.  A woman in the crowd stated, “you are in trouble and we are all praying for you.”  I have always been a spiritual person but the alignment of the dream and the return of my memory guided my goal for recovery and added to the foundation of my belief system.

It was shortly after that dream that I began recognizing my family and friends and understanding that I had been injured.  It took a few more weeks before I could speak.  For several weeks I kept thinking I was in a hospital in Arlington, VA.  Even though I could speak I didn’t communicate very well. I had lost a lot of my vocabulary and couldn’t remember the names of things and the trach made it difficult to speak.  My short-term and long-term memory were almost nonexistent.  My family tells me that they would often come to visit only to hear from the nurses that I had pulled out PIC lines and IVs and dismantled my neck brace.  I didn’t want to be in the hospital and clearly did not understand why I needed all of the contraptions that they had on me.

One of the best things that the doctors did was to get me started on my rehabilitation pretty quickly after I was moved out of CICU.  My rehabilitation like so many other TBI patients meant that I had to relearn the most basic functions like breathing, drinking, eating, moving, communicating and going to the bathroom.  It is very much like starting life over again.    The fact that I was very physically fit when I was injured meant that I regained some of my physical skills more quickly than my verbal or communications skills.  This is also probably the result of the fact that my injury was to the left side of my brain and affected my speech, cognition and memory.  This made much of my rehabilitation very stressful.  It also meant that I needed almost constant supervision because I didn’t understand or couldn’t remember what I could and could not do yet especially in terms of getting around.  This was very dangerous because I was missing part of my skull at the time and any type of fall could be very dangerous.

When I was discharged I still had my feeding tube and the incision where the trach had been was still healing.

Shortly before my discharge the hospital told my wife that I would need to continue my rehabilitation (and luckily our insurance allowed for that) and gave her eight pages of facilities to consider. We were so very fortunate to have help in finding a rehabilitation facility from a family friend whose brother had recently needed rehab.   Without this help I am not sure that I would have ended up at Pate Rehabilitation in Anna, TX.  Pate specializes in rehabilitation for those dealing with brain injuries and strokes.  I truly believe that I would not be doing as well as I am doing today without the help of Pate and insurance that allowed me to get this help.

I realize that my recovery is the result of an unbelievable support system of family, friends, doctors and our church.


** My wife helped me compose this post because some of the details are a bit foggy