Hi Everyone,
Corey had a full day of therapy and a late afternoon follow-up appointment with the Neurosurgeon.
Neurosurgeons and Neurologists are not warm and fuzzy doctors. They also do not commit to any definitive answer when it comes to the brain. Quite frankly, it’s maddening and I feel like begging, ‘Come on! Give me something to hold onto here guys’! Of course they don’t hear my silent scream.
Today the Neurosurgeon threw me a bone! I’m happy to say he was pleased with her progress. She responded to commands for him, too. I did push him to try to get some sort of long term prognosis. My prayer is that Corey can have a life where she can be independent and functional. With this level brain injury there are no guarantees and no predictors that will assure us it will happen.
The doctor did share that they typically look for a response to commands as well as alertness from the patient in the first month. They like to do the cranioplasty by week 6. In Corey’s case, she was alert but her cranioplasty was in 9 weeks. Then you have to tack on a week recovery from the surgery. Looking at the responses from Corey, although they seem delayed, they might actually be on time given the 3-4 week delay.
This still does not guarantee she will be fully functional. The Corey we knew is gone, we are waiting for the new version of Corey to appear. What he would expect next would be speech and/or a progression of sound. The concern the doctor has is with her memory. Will she remember words or even how to speak? Will there be long term or short term memory loss? We will not know these answers until she tries to communicate with us. He reminded me that this is a long healing process. We may not know what Corey is “beginning with” for a year or 18 months. This also doesn’t mean she won’t improve for the next 5, 10 or 20 years. We just have to wait and see how she will recover.
Honey, we were thrown a bone today! The doctor is “encouraged” by your progress. I know you hear it from us everyday, but this is your neurosurgeon! If he’s encouraged, we should be. This is a man that saw you at your worst and told us you might not live through the 1st surgery and if you did live, you might not survive the 1st week! Well sweetie…you’re in week 14! Way to show them kiddo! Keep fighting, keep working hard, keep proving them wrong. You will be the example they will share with others to show what can happen! We are so proud of you. Happy dreams, xoxo