The Longest Journey Starts With A Single Step

Make Those Baby Steps

On multiple occasions during the last 13 days, I've thought about where we sit today an how far we have come to get to this point. Each day is arduous and exhausting, taking these baby steps. The baby steps build one upon another. They must come to pass. There will be no recovery without the baby steps.

What started out as a mass of bruised and bloodied flesh, tubes, wires, buzzers, bells and beeps has come to actually resemble a young man in repose. I still hear the bells and beeps, but the buzzers are gone. The multicolored flesh has turned to a pleasant monochromatic tone.

At one point my son had no less than 13 IV meds going at once. Meds for support, infection, stabilization, organ function, sedation, pain, blood. It was a life saving concoction that was tweaked hour by hour as needed. In addition to the IV tubes, there were wires attached to leads. These leads in turn attached to all areas of chest and head. Four tubes made their way into his mouth and down into trachea and stomach. Three tubes punctured his chest and led directly into the thoracic cavity, two on the right and one on the left. These were attached to vacuum pumps. He had IV picks, a central line and a dialysis port in his groin and another pick in his arms. He was catheterized. He had on a cervical collar. A wound vac was attached to his stomach. A pair of compression boots complete with air hoses running to a compressor completed his ensemble. He had monitors for temp, blood pressure, pulse, breathing, oxygen.

It's been 14 days now. The baby steps have taken place, one by one. Sometimes so small as to be unnoticeable on their own, but combined make a vast, vast improvement.

The IVs are pared down to four, sometimes with a 5th added if need be. He has just the heart monitor leads attached for ongoing monitoring. The ventilator tubes have been removed and he now breathes via ventilator, but through a tracheostomy, leaving his mouth free to resume it's natural shape. The tube that went thru the mouth to his stomach to keep it pumped out has been removed completely. The three chest tubes and their pumps were removed one per day. The dialysis port, pick, and central line have been removed from his groin.

All in all, he's doing pretty good. He still retains the tracheostomy/ventilator, heart monitor, wound vac, one pick in his arm, the catheter, and the compression boots.

Something In The Way You Move

The changes in the body's movement can be so minute that they are easy to mistake. The muscles of the body are corded, meaning that they are composed of strands. These strands are laid one upon another similar to the licorice candy Twizzlers.
When the muscle suffers trauma, some or all of these cords are damaged and the muscle itself becomes weakened or inoperable. As function is restored to each cord the muscle becomes stronger and more able to function the way it did before the injury.

As each of these cords comes online or resumes it's normal function, the outward appearance of the muscle function is sometimes visible. It could be a full eyebrow lifting instead of just the corner. It could be the slight upturn of
the corners of the lips versus a lateral stretching, as was the case yesterday. It was the smile of a sleeping infant. Most likely it was not a conscious movement on his part, but at least I know the muscle works.

That is how I measure progress these days, in baby steps. Until he emerges from his coma, I look for muscle movement. I have 24 years of comparisons to measure against. It seems he comes more into himself each day. Those neurons are starting to fire off and
any day now I expect to look up and find him looking back at me. I know there is a chance that these things will not come to pass, but I choose to believe that he will make a full recovery.

He is moving more of his body now and responds to commands as much as he is able. He tries to raise his head and he now turns it from side to side. Difficult to do with the neck brace on. He is still on induced coma, until they grant him a sedation vacation. When he comes out of sedation, he slips in and out of his own coma but remains more awake than not. He is not comfortable when he is not sedated and he has a significant amount of pain. That will lessen over time.

I thank you all for your prayers, healings, light energies, and good thoughts! They are still working their miracles <3 <3

Pictures courtesy of Pixabay