So, they say that with traumatic brain injuries, for every two steps forward, you take one step backward. Yesterday, I felt very down. As our nurse had said, if Ben was aspirating from pneumonia, he's at "square one" all over again. It didn't feel like one step back, it felt like five.
Then Ben came out and had a tremendous afternoon. He woke up this morning and was alert. Mary send a video of him struggling to sit up in his hospital bed. There's a lot of kicking and flailing, like a professional wrestler struggling in the bout of his life. I've never seen anyone work so hard. I was so proud of Ben. He did manage to sit up today for the first time.
So Ben went from five steps back to ten step forward today. I'm hoping that he will keep improving and that we can get him into a rehab facility soon. It's obvious that he wants out of that hospital.
Mary also asked Ben to smile for the camera today, and Ben smiled for the first time in 28 days. (It may have been much more than 28 days. Ben is a teenager after all.) As smiles go, it's one of the crummiest efforts I've ever seen, but I'll cherish this one.
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