Holy shit, you guys – someone actually LISTENED TO ME. It’s a Christmas miracle.
As you know, I am a Cute Deaf Lady. It’s bad and getting worse and there’s no way to fix it and the hearing aids only do so much. Therefore, if you need to talk to me for any reason and you need me to understand whatever it is that I’m saying to you, you’ll have to email or text. Otherwise, everyone gets frustrated.
Yesterday, when I met with the rehab case manager, she explained to me about how they do a conference call every couple of days for update purposes. I explained that a phone call, especially in a situation like this, is not going to work for me and she said “oh! No problem, we can make it an email.”
HALLELUGE. Finally. After years of me saying “please put this in an email or a text, please for the love of god” someone finally did it. Amazing. We’ve had the technology for years, let’s put it to good use!
So the update I received is all good news. Tour de Freddie can walk pretty well with no assistance and can go up and down a set of stairs and all that stuff. He probably won’t be joining the Olympic Men’s Gymnastics squad this time around but he can move and not keel over, which was really the main thing.
He is still having some issues with his vision, which is to be expected, given the level of TBI he suffered. We will work on that. He’s also having some memory issues, which are also to be expected, and will probably resolve over time (along with therapy and other treatments). I’ve been doing some reading about TBI and some of it is TERRIFYING but most of it is like “yeaaaaaah, recovery is possible but it takes time.” Okay. We can work with that.
Someone asked me the other day if his condition was as serious as I’m saying it is. My answer was “it’s actually quite a bit worse but there are details that you people don’t need to know. I will carry enough of that with me until the end of my days, and I don’t need to share it with everyone.” It was bad. It’s getting better. But yeah, it was pretty bad for awhile. Nobody spends 11 days in the hospital for a mere bump on the head. But as bad as it was, it could have been so much worse.
Helmets. Every time.
Overall, I’m pleased with the progress he’s making. Just two days in rehab and he already sounds so much better, even though I have a little trouble understanding him on the phone. Most people I’ve allowed him to talk to have done just fine, so that’s probably a lot of static on my end more than any deficit on his. Since he is progressing so well, I have decided to allow him to have his phone back. He asked me to bring his computer but I laughed because I’m going to be hiding that until he’s good and ready. He will be allowed to have his phone and even though I will tell him to take it easy, be prepared for him to start replying to emails because that’s how he’s made. If it gets to be too much, I will confiscate the phone again, but it will be helpful for him to have a connection to the outside world.
So get ready, kids.