March 23, 2010

I picked Johnny up at 6:15 and we picked Mom up at 6:30. They had her all ready to go...she had taken her meds and eaten her breakfast. We loaded her in back of the car (child locks on the door and window with Johnny sitting back there with her). I was soooo worried about her anxiety on the trip but to our surprise....she was calm the ENTIRE 5 HOURS! She did SO well with the drive! She did the ramble talk and "where did so and so go" but nothing too bad. We kept her busy with seek and finds and she stayed so calm.
Touro was very thorough and is EXACTLY where she needs to be. She is in the brain trauma unit so she is surrounded by people in similar conditions and Dr.s and nurses spealilized in it as well. They get the patients up at 6 or 7am every morning and give them their showers like in a normal routine and they can not return to their rooms until 4 that evening....like they would a job. They treat getting better AS their job. This is intensive rehab, designed specifically for brain injury and they will adjust her meds accordingly with brain injury type drugs. We met her Dr personally and watched him give her a series of test and answered questions for us.
She did really well with all of this....until it was close to us leaving.....she freaked out! They had to restrain her with a vest while we left to go get her remaining toiletries...she was trying to get out over and over and wanting to leave. We tried to calm her down when we got back 30 mins later and she did somewhat. We explained her needing to be there and she would almost cry and why again and then seem to understand....and then 5 minutes later forget and then the whole emotional topic would have to be explained again. This was tough on all three of us. We left her at 7:30, finally grabbed us some food and then drove to Baton Rouge to stay with Mom and Dad Dooley. Phew. We HATED seeing her and LEAVING her in that anxious and scared state but we know it is the best place for her to be able to come home sooner and have the best brain injury recovery.

We love you Mom and we really hope you know we want the best for you!!! Hang in there!!!!