Day 43 - Thursday January 26, 2012 - Coma questions

Coma update--I am posting this seperately so everyone notices it.  This whole question about when did Bridgett come out of a coma, how long was she in a coma etc. is very complicated.  She is emerging from a coma is properly what I should be saying--not that she's out of a coma. Actually that makes me feel lots better, because if this is out of a coma-scarey!  She still doesn't really even know who SHE is let alone everyone else!  As the family, we are still trying to understand this whole process, so if you are confused, join the club!  For background--I asked Bridgett's doctor to sign something saying she was in a coma (to use to get her out of her apartment lease) and he said he couldn't do that but he could say that she had a traumatic brain injury.  So, then I asked the patient care coordinator about it and she said she wasn't in a coma. But, I said to the patient care coordinator, she was in a coma when we left Provo, so when did she get out of a coma.  She said--well she's emerging from a coma.  So, properly that's what her state is I guess.  So, I posted she was out of the coma and I really shouldn't have. I have been worried about saying things incorrectly for all the medical people reading this. So, I jumped the gun saying she was out of the coma because Dr Speed said he couldn't say she was in a coma.  That day I was really shaken, not really understanding what was happening and intimidated by all the medical jargon from everyone.  I do want to state the facts correctly and have tried to be really careful about this.  Talking to Penny yesterday, we both agreed that it's all in semantics and hard to define.  Emerging from a coma is a good way to define it at this point.  She said she considers that Courtney is still emerging from the coma, even though she talks, reads, cooks and does lots of things but that she was comatose for a period of time.  So, we should say that Bridgett is still emerging from a coma, but she was comatose for a period of time.  I'll have to look that up exactly how long that was.  I think I was also upset right before she left Provo because I read a definition about coma and vegetative state and coma is when the eyes are closed and vegetative state is when they are open but still not responsive. That's how Bridgett was.  It was hard to think of her in a vegetative state.  I did ask one of the doctors if they considered her in a vegetative state and he said well, she is like in a very deep sleep that she is trying to wake up from and can't yet.  Maybe she was considered vegetative and he felt bad and was trying to break it nicely, I don't know.  It's all so hard to understand and very emotional being the family and trying to hear the news and understand it.  So, anyway, thankfully we are past that point.  Apparently that's why they started on the provigil etc, to try to wake her up out of that vegetative state.  So, anyway, at this point she is emerging from a coma.  She has post traumatic anmesia.  She still does not remember things, even long term memory things.  She still confuses people, although she is now getting immediate family members' names correctly (which happened only a few days ago).  She is still completely off on the year, often thinking it is 2000.  She is still very disoriented and doesn't remember where she is or why.  But we're working on it all the time.  There will come a point (soon I hope) where she will begin to remember these things.  Her brain injury is called Traumatic Brain Injury TBI.  She had a severe TBI.  Her post traumatic amnesia PTA would be considered severe.  At some point I will discuss her brain injury in more detail.  I hope this all makes sense.  It's all very complicated!  And yes, we still have the faith that she will recover from this injury.  We know that Heavenly Father is watching out over her and her progress is a miracle at this point and will continue to be a miracle.