Not a whole lot to report on Danny this evening. Sleeping is his main activity it seems, when we are there anyway. He gets scrubbed each day to remove the bad skin, plus he's on a twice daily physical rehab schedule.
We did learn that he's been upgraded to the next level of food. He'll be able to have things that are not pureed now but still very soft, such as mac & cheese. His ability to swallow improves each day.
While we were there, the physical therapist woke him up for a session in the workout room. We followed and watched. Although it was an effort on his part to get out of the bed, he is doing better walking on his own. It only took a couple of minutes to get to the workout room. On the way back, his therapist made him take a lap around the nurses station, but instead of two laps she only had him do the one because of how tired he had become.
When he got in bed, he was exhausted and couldn't help but fall asleep. We waited around thinking we would talk to him later, but as we sat there, we fell asleep too. We woke him up to say goodbye, but I'm not sure he will remember it.
Jan
Just an addition here. Today was my birthday and I don't make a big deal out of it. In fact I consider my birthday as a non-event, always have. Tonight right around 11:00 p.m. I was shutting down the computer and checking to make sure I had all my messages. As I checked to see who was on line for Instant Messaging on Facebook, I saw Danny Erickson was available. It was sort of like a dream because I knew he didn't have his laptop with him, so I thought maybe someone else had his ID and password. I clicked his name and wrote: Is that you Danny? It came back saying: I forgot to wish you Happy B-Day.
Andy and Debbie had his laptop at the hospital and he was indeed online. We exchanged a few more comments, then he was gone. It will be one of my all time best birthdays ever.
Jan
The comment by Trish following this posting is very interesting and informative. Thank you so much Trish.
Jan
I saw Danny tonight and he mentioned he was on FB last night - apparently a bunch of people caught him on the chat - he said he hurried and clicked 'off line' b/c he can't type very quickly yet. He also mentioned about his dad's birthday and he felt bad not wishing him Happy Bday when he was there earlier. I laughed and told him I'm sure his dad was ok with that. I don't think he had his computer tonight, but I think we can start posting on his FB again as I'm sure he'll be checking it again soon. I'm amazed at his progress - his voice is stronger every time I see him - he ate well tonight - didn't love the pureed salmon (yuck), but doesn't like salmon on a good day he mentioned. It dawned on me about 20 min into our visit what looked different about him...other than being a little skinnier - his freckles on his face are gone. Other than that he's looking like ole Danny. He's not happy about losing the weight - he had been hitting the gym a lot prior to the accident and was up to 165 he said - he was eyeing the scale outside his room wondering how much he weighed now. He said to tell everyone hi and thought he might have his phone around a little more so people could text before heading up for a visit to see if he's awake. He thought he might shoot out a couple of texts tonight if he got bored. They were going to give him something like Ambien to help him sleep tonight, so he wasn't sure how awake or bored he would be. Oh - and he had all the tubes out except his feeding tube - I don't know if that's been mentioned. I realized he wasn't hooked to anything tonight - sweet freedom. He likes his nurse - Colby I think his name was. There was a nurse that from the side profile looked like Dan Udy - Danny knew who it was and said he was working on memorizing everyone's name. I guess my point is for those that haven't seen him lately - he's mentally back on track. I think I've gotten lucky the last two visits - he's been very alert and talkative. It's good to see the improvements. Ok - this is about 5 times longer than I planned on. If I ever land in the hospital I hope I can be half as strong and determined as Danny.
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