Bring on the New Year

(guest post by Kate)

We can’t wait for 2009! The last month has been really hard, and I’m anxious to see Adam continue to make progress. In good news, Adam was on trach collar for 8 consecutive hours today and felt good doing it. It’s getting easier to be on trach collar and he reports that it feels good to breathe all on his own. Here’s hoping he goes even longer tomorrow.

In unfortunate news, Adam is having fevers again. He felt pretty crummy yesterday, but was able to enjoy visiting with Nick and Joachim. The team drew all kinds of cultures to see whether he might have an infection and he was started on antibiotics today. Adam’s white blood cell count is low at the moment, which puts him at an increased risk for infection. The attending can’t rule out pneumonia at this point so he’s back on an antibiotic cocktail. They’ll watch him over the next couple of days, and if they can figure out what’s causing his fevers, they may try to send him to rehab next week even if he’s still on antibiotics. Adam’s team is hoping that they can get him to rehab sooner rather than later to avoid further infections in the hospital. I have appointments to look at two other rehab facilities on Friday that could take Adam on a ventilator if he isn’t fully weaned off on trach collar by the time he’s ready to go to rehab.

Adam continues to have some improvements in his motor skills. This morning, he was able to bring his left arm up and do a bicep curl motion, which is a new trick in the last day or so. He was able to bring his hand to his nose unassisted and scratch it lightly, but mentioned he couldn’t feel what his fingertips were doing. It’s become a new habit to have Adam show us what new things he can do each day so as not to miss any small improvements.

Kathleen flew back to Wisconsin today, and it was hard to have her go. Adam and I will miss her, and her amazing support.

Happy New Year to all. Here’s to 2009 being much better than the end of 2008.