Two Thumbs Up!

I am sorry that I wasn't able to post yesterday because there has actually been great progress made in the last 24 hours.

Scott is now opening both of his eyes. He appears to be moving his head to follow voices in the room and he is also focusing his eyes on people who are talking.  Most importantly, in terms of his diagnostic condition, he raised his thumb up on the command of a nurse two times yesterday.  (The title of this post is a little deceiving because he isn't actually raising both thumbs, it is only the right thumb and he did it twice.  As of now he has shown very little movement on the left side of his body.)

Jen and I got to meet with the attending neurologist yesterday and she explained that she is very hopeful, now that he is beginning to wake up, that he will be on the trajectory of recovery and rehabilitation.  Awesome.  She reiterated that it will be a long and hard road that will take months and could take years but said that she sees no reason now why it can't happen.  It was a little difficult to hear that as of two days ago the doctors were thinking that might not be the case but that is no matter now.  She stated that on the spectrum of brain injury Scott's is severe.  She also stated that one of the great challenges in his condition is that there has been and still is significant swelling.  The swelling is going down but right now his brain remains out of alignment and pushed over to one side, the side where they have removed his skull, because there is simply not enough room for it.

They still have the fluid drain clamped, which means three things.  First, he is draining enough fluid on his own that they may be able to remove it very soon.  Second, if it gets removed it could signal that he is "safe for transfer".  As soon as he is deemed safe for transfer he will be moved to a Kaiser hospital for insurance purposes.  (His treatment at SF General is covered by Kaiser but they are eager to get him in one of their facilities.)  The final thing about the fluid clamp is that the buildup in fluid is putting a healthy amount of pressure on his brain to push it back over to the correct side.  Doctors want to see his brain align again as quickly as possible.

If he can wake enough to respond to voice commands they will be able to remove the breathing tube and will not have to do a tracheotomy because they will be able to just wake him to take a breath if his breathing slows.  Let's hope he gives a few more thumbs up today!