Day 79 - Friday March 2, 2012

Thursday night after Bridgett threw up I went and looked again at the side effects of the antibiotic she was on.  I remembered that it caused nausea, but I was wondering if it caused loss of appetite and IT DID!  So, that was the problem lately.  Since the nurse had told me that she didn't have a urine infection when they cultured it and since I couldn't get a hold of her doctor (I found out that they do not do any after hours answering of calls--no one is on call) I decided to quit giving her the antibiotic.  Well, it worked!  She started having an appetite again by this morning.  She woke up and ate two pieces of french toast.  Throughout the day she ate all of her meals and a couple of snacks.  She drank six glasses of water!  She seems a little stronger, but still complains that everything hurts.  By evening she was exhibiting classic signs of a urinary tract infection--frequency--like every 10-15 minutes. So, this is the third UTI since she left the ICU--two times in rehab at the U of U and then now.  Normally I would give her D-mannose in pill form, plus acidophilus (which I am already doing).  So, I left her with the kids and ran to the health food store and got the D-mannose.   I also got AZO which is a special pain reliever for UTI's that is sold at the any regular store.  You can use it for two days only, to ease symptoms while the medication starts working.  Only two days worth comes in a package.  So we will see how things go now.  I am used to trying lots of natural alternatives, but with Bridgett's serious health history I have been reluctant to do too much.  However, this is a case where I think what I am doing is definitely easier on her system.  Some of these medications really worry me--the list of side effects is horrible and they are bad side effects.  I will feel much better when she is not taking them--and I think that Bridgett will too!   I decided that since Bridgett is missing therapy while she is recovering, we need to work even harder to fill in the gaps.  I found some really neat "flash cards" from Amazon that are perfect for speech therapy.  They are sturdy and brightly colored.  I ordered several sets and the first two arrived today.  I opened just the first box and went thru the 40 cards.  I put out four cards to choose from and asked (for example) this is something I put my head on when I sleep--which picture is it.  She would point to the pillow.  Then I would say what is the name of that? 18 of the cards she knew the correct picture and what the name was on the first try.  20 of the cards she knew the correct picture and knew the name if I gave her the beginning sound (the speech therapists said this is OK to do).  Two of the cards I had to prompt her even more, but she got the name.  I felt really good about this.  Initially, if you remember, they would show her cards and she couldn't get even one.  I have a list of things that we do with her at home, depending on the day and how busy we are with other appointments.  I added these flash cards to the list. This is my list:

• read to Bridgett
• have Bridgett read something I print in large type
• have Bridgett write something
• play some games with money
• play a card game
• do some of the speech therapy games
• describe things for Bridgett to guess what they are, and have her describe to us
• play ball
• play bean bag toss game (football)
• practice her balance
• walk
• quiz her on long term memory questions and cue her to remember things
• listen to classical music for one hour
• flash cards

Maybe we do some other things too, but these are the things I have on my checklist.  By the way, I was remembering when my mom had her stroke.  No one realized at first it had happened, even though it happened at the oral surgeon's office while he was working on her.  By the time dad realized what had happened, it was too late for any emergency treatment.  Dad and mom didn't have any medical insurance, so dad decided that he could rehab mom--and he did an EXCELLENT job!  He got books from the library and studied them.  He found out everything he could.  She was having trouble walking, so he would take her to the grocery store and have her sit in the car and watch how other people walked and then he would have her try to imitate it--using a cart for support.  He did lots of things, but the point is--lots can be done at home.  I want Bridgett to do rehab but when she can't I can certainly fill in.  And sometimes I can see that the student therapist do a poor job.  For instance, the physical therapist student that took Bridgett walking--more and more we realize that this is probably what put her over the edge and caused her to be SO sick that day, which triggered the passing out etc.  I have talked to several experts in the field of TBI's and they all say that it was VERY inadvisable for him to take her on that kind of a walk, especially when they had just started working with her and didn't really know much about her situation.  It was very much an overload of stimulation for her so soon after a brain injury.  Once in the rehab at U of U, one of the student physical therapists hurt Bridgett so much that she almost threw up.  The gal apologized, but that doesn't help much.  In fact, one of the first days we were there, the therapist put an older man on a slant board/leg press and walked away from him.  The man fell off the slant board onto the tile floor.  I was aghast!  I thought to myself that I was so glad that I was with Bridgett all of the time.  This man's family wasn't there and I'm sure no one volunteered that information that he was hurt during therapy and it was their fault.  Mark was with me too and I wished that I had written down the date it happened and maybe even tried to see who the man was.  We were so new and everyone there (there were a lot of people there) just returned to their work or to their family member like we were supposed to ignore it.