A little father-son time

Today was my (Jon) first visit with Tristan since the night of the accident. While he still has a long way to go, Tristan has come a long way from being on death's doorstep.

The visit started with a few pain killers, a 20 ounce Jamba Juice and almost TWO hours of relatively lucid conversation with a young man who is really motivated to get out of the hospital. His cognition is progressing nicely and he's beginning to connect dots more easily. He's aware of where he is and why he's there, even if it's mainly from what he's been told. However, he still has a big blank spot in his memory between about a day before the accident to a few days after. When discussing the accident itself, he asked with hope whether he was riding his Yamaha in the accident..."sorry, dude, it was the Ducati"......"SHIT!!!....can we fix it?"...."oh no, it was completely totaled"... Uggghhh!... that was my dream bike!!" At that point, his batteries started to dwindle a little, and he dozed off for a while. The great news is that today was the first time he remembered having the Ducati. More progress!

Up next were a few rounds of physical/occupational/speech therapy. His mobility is improving nicely and cognitive/speech tests are getting better, but still clearly being impacted by his subdural hematoma. His mobility was good enough that I was able to help him (and his walker) to the bathroom twice. However, all the activity also drained his energy further, and began to aggravate his pain, particularly in his abdomen. The medical staff are trying to wean him off the prescription pain meds, but he's still in just too much pain to completely go to Tylenol and Advil.

His breathing and, as a result, blood oxygen levels are improving, but he still has a little ways to go. Also, there is still a bit of fluid continuing to drain from his abdomen, but again this too continues to be moving in the right direction.

We're in a full press to get the house ready for when he's able to come home, including a hospital bed that should arrive Friday and a recliner we picked up this morning.

So excited and grateful! Hopefully not much longer before our young man is back home with us! As challenging as it will undoubtedly be, we're all looking forward to starting the next chapter of Tristan's recovery process.

Until then, we received one other piece of good news today. Harborview is beginning visiting hours at 9am, instead of noon, beginning tomorrow. So, we get more time daily with Tristan until he can be home with us again!