Today was a decent day for Darren. He slept until the Surgeon’s PA came in to check him (Surgeon is off work this week) and Darren was still complaining of his neck pain and could not touch his chin to his chest. Darren’s short term memory is far worse than it was before surgery. He can’t remember names that he was just told. He struggles with the year and the name of the hospital he is at. He was asked my birthday and he got it right!

He went over 8 hours without pain meds last night.

After talking with the neurology team they had decided to do a lumbar puncture to test for meningitis. If he has it then it could have come from the gel used in the closing of his incision or from the leads inside his head. We will get results tomorrow. They also were sending him for a CT scan. Again, we will get results tomorrow.

Here his Dad is quizzing him with pictures in a book I had made for him. He did pretty good with it. He did say “I don’t know why Scott and Kayla aren’t married yet.” We had a good belly laugh over that one. (You know who you are!)

Briefly met with his caseworker and he had a speech evaluation. He will finish his evaluation tomorrow. We are still discussing outpatient therapy, but we will know more tomorrow.

Oh, I have lost his phone. I am in so much trouble!! But he does qualify for an upgrade.

I stopped at the Lakeshore Learning store on my way home tonight and I spoke with one of the staff persons, Cheryl. She was awesome! She works with a high schooler that had a similar surgery and she suggested some items and some of them Darren & son can work on together!

Hmm…have I forgotten anything? I will add it to tomorrow’s if I have forgotten anything.

Good night! Exhaustion is building up and my emotions are fragile as I write this. I love this man with my whole heart. He does have some mild (so far) personality changes and he is learning to navigate his world all over again and it is hard to see and accept that at times.