November 5, 2008

Day 2

Day 2 started a little early, about 1 AM. Dennis was moved to a room of his own, room 19, on the Trauma Unit floor. It was a restless night for Dennis, trying to pull off the monitoring leads and the cervical collar every minute or so, but that seemed to be a good sign, since it showed that he was active, alert and somewhat aware of his surroundings. So most of the night was spent making sure that "stuff" stayed on, waiting for the next CT at 6 AM and praying. There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty that surrounds head injuries, because the damage isn't visible, there is no apparent "wound" that can be used as a gauge of the extent of the injury sustained. The only method at this point is the neuro exams to test responsiveness, like holding thumbs up (not always the thumb in Dennis' case), or sticking out your tongue and telling the nurses and doctors your name and what year it is (Some of us believe, like Dennis, that 1954 was worth mentioning). Dennis did well on these, though there was a distinct difference in the opinions of the nurses and the neurologists/neurosurgeons, and this was the beginning of the anxiety over the prognosis. The second CT was "as expected", there was some additional bleeding into the brain and another CT was planned for later in the day. The rest of the day would be spent with continual periodic neuro exams by the nurses (particularly Elli) and watching and waiting. Dennis would spend the rest of the day in room 19, mostly in a state of light to moderate sleep. The odd part here is that eating and drinking didn't seem to be part of either of our day and night activity.