Every Day Is Different

Well, two more days gone by and still no two alike. On Saturday Mak seemed to be continuing slow progress. Lorna came to say good-bye before taking off on her month long European tour (nice to have relatives in Ireland and friends in London [JFong] and Paris). Mak looked right at her and talked in what almost looked like normal conversation for a few minutes. Not sure exactly what he was saying, but he definitely focused directly on Lorna. Later he wasn't too happy sitting in a chair and appeared listless, but perked up a bit when Kip, Andrew and Jeff visited in the afternoon. Around 7:00pm his nurse Romy and his mom noticed his face getting red and his body getting warm. As efforts to cool him down weren't working, his heart rate suddenly shot up to 200. His parents just about freaked out as several doctors and nurses scrambled over to him. He was responding to the doctors the whole time and within about 10 minutes the problem was fixed with medication, but not before Joan and I both thought we might lose him right then. I'm still not sure my own heart rate is back to normal. The cause of the sudden spike is unknown. Maybe a low magnesium level? That's all that showed on the lab tests.

Mak has shown over this weekend that he knows when he has to go to the bathroom and tries to get out of bed to go and do just that. Unfortunately, there are no bathrooms in the ICU, so the nurses are using a number of strategies to deal with that issue.

This morning we walked in at 10:30 to find Mak chatting with the nurses about football. He never played football, but he was telling them in completely clear words about playing and getting workouts ready for his team, etc. When Joan asked him if he knows who we are, he said, "I think I've seen you before." He answered another of Joan's questions by saying, "I can't do everything for you." The Shellys stopped in to say hello when Mak was pretty lively and also as Dr. Sadegi declared him ready for any type of food. Luckily Claudia had fresh baked chocolate chip cookies in hand, and Mak enjoyed his first solid food besides jello in the last 18 days. He was in heaven as he ate a whole cookie and washed it down with a cup of apple juice.

He rested most of the rest of the day, but awoke for awhile in the early evening and responded to having a marker and piece of paper offered to him. He wrote a few words and letters, then wrote "GO BEARS". He even did it a second time. So, we see some good things going on. The language is clearer, but we don't know where the ideas are coming from. Even when he's been clearest , he's kind of distracted and unsure. I suspect he's struggling to make sense of things. We'll learn more about his condition, the rehab process, and his chances for recovery over the next days and weeks.