Today starts the 33rd day since Ben's longboarding accident.
Ben is staying awake longer and talking more now, so we let him have some visitors today.
His motor skills are improving, but he still has to keep his feeding tube in. The doctor is thinking about putting in a g-tube tomorrow, one that would go directly into his stomach. Ben can swallow, but apparently having the tube causes problems with swallowing, and Ben doesn't want to eat anything. (The tube somehow affects taste.)
While Ben can talk pretty well, his reasoning skills are way off. First, his sense of timing is off. He can't tell an hour from five minutes. His favorite words are, "I want to go. Let's just walk out of here," and "it's time to go." Seriously, he says something like this every minute or two.
So he really wants to get out of the hospital, and he's feeling sorry for himself. Another favorite saying right now is "It sucks to be me."
These two things are so not-Ben. He's always been patient, and doesn't complain much. Since he's something of a jock, I'd even describe him as stoic. Normally if he's tired or hurt, he just brushes it off.
The doctors warned that the brain damage would really affect his sense of timing, and since it was in the reasoning portion of the brain, it makes sense that he will have to re-learn a great deal. He's also not properly remembering words or objects all of the time. Spencer handed him a little orange exercise ball, and Ben tried to take a bite out of it, perhaps thinking that it was an orange. When Spencer said, "That not good to eat," Ben studied it, turned it around, and said, "It could be?"
So in a few ways, Ben seems to be thinking like a toddler. We're just glad to see him doing this well, this soon.
Me, I'm still recovering from my sinus infection, trying to finish up taxes and paperwork that the government requires to see if they will assist Ben.
Here is a picture of Ben today being visited by his friend Ty.
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