A Box of Cranes

Sunday 18 November 2001

10;20 am Thom called at 9:15. he had been with Brian since 7 am. Brain was afraid to fall asleep last night, afraid of dreaming.
Brian is convinced he has missed his junior AND enior years of high school. "Damn! I still have to do my junior and senior year!" 
This morning Brian and Thom played "Hangman" with the word "coma". They also did some writing, with Thom drawing the initial line and Brian completing the letter. They wrote sentences: "I went into a coma on October 8th", "I will graduate in 2002." The latter is dangerous: Dave and I are trying to stay away from expectations around graduating, so that Brian is not set up for frustration and disappointment. But it was a sentence Brian wanted to write, apparently.
Another activity with Thom this morning:drawing geometric figures. They drew a parallelogram, pentagon, star, octagon, triangle, circle. Brian said, "How about a trapezoid?" and Thom didn't know what it was. "I don't either," said Brian. Thom said they wrote 4-5 pages this morning.
(11-19) (7:50 am) Brian's writing looks like his printing from kindergarten - big, block, capital letters.

From Thom's Notes:
10:50 am  Just did physical therapy - down to the gym! On 2nd floor - parallel bars - trying to stand - almost all the way up - worked hard w/Valerie and Janet -
"How long until I walk again?"
"I don't know. Maybe some months. Is that ok?"
"Yeah......It's exciting."

I went in to see Brian a little after one. he was very happy to see me, hug and kiss on the lips. Wanted to know where I'd been.
Dave came in around 2 pm, while Brian was eating his big lunch. Brian eventually ate every bite! He used his left hand more than he has been, to help hold his turkey sandwich, to pick up pieces of fruit that fell from his bowl. He had a little round pepper and i didn't know what it was. "Jalapeno pepper!" as it went into his mouth.
Brian immediately started talking about missing school, missing a year, and graduating in 2002. This conversation continued throughout the visit. I (and we, when Dave arrived) assured Brian that he had NOT missed junior year and had, in fact, been a top student. He wanted to see pictures from junior year so we found those in his albums. He is fixated on graduating in 2002, and we are trying to assure him that he WILL graduate, but we don't know when, and it's nothing to worry about right now. Plus, he won't have much to do in order to complete his studies. Dave calls Re-hab "Dancing and Remembering School", to help Brian understand that it will be LIKE school, with hard work and a schedule.
We did a lot of work on length of time he's been in the hospital: separating the concepts of years, months and weeks; re-assuring him that  he has not been here for a year, as he continues to think. ("It feels like I've been here a year!") He is VERY glad it's only been six weeks ("That's a relief!")
Every time Brian asked what day it was, we referred him to his "calendar helper" on the wall. He figured out it was Sunday, November 18th. He had trouble with the year, thinking first it was 2003 (he at first thought he'd lost two years), then 2002. This seems to have been a way to compensate for feeling he lost a year or two.
We looked at lots of photos of Homecoming, cousins, friends, family. He did great with remembering people, except when he got really excited, when he would hurry and make mistakes. He thought we lived in Washington; we told him Jesse and Jamie do, and asked what city. "Tacoma?" "Close!" "Seattle?" "Yes!" Then, with prompts, ("starts with O." "Ohio?") he got "Oregon". He also guessed, without help, that cousins (2nd cousins) Andrew and Georag live in Nevada.
Jesse and Jamie's friend Mary Snyder, and her mother, Becky Peters, sent me a shoebox full of origami cranes, with a card addressed to "Brian and family". I brought the box and unopened card to Brian. He opened the box and said, "A box full of cranes!", then opened the envelope and read the handwritten (cursive!) message inside, out loud, perfectly.
(I still have those cranes. They are on the headboard of our bed. Now I think of Becky, who has cancer and is very ill. Perhaps she needs some cranes of her own.)

When Marshall arrived at 4:45, Dave and I were to leave. Brian didn't want us to leave: "Keep me company until he comes." I opened the door and curtains and assured Brian that Marshall would be coming through the door straight down the hall. Brian was reluctant but let us go.
We returned at 7:30. I went in with Max Jacobson-Fried, who arrived right after us (we were waiting for Nurse Wednesday to finish up something with Brian) and found Alana already there. I left the two of them with a happy Brian. Ahsa, Jessica Erickson, Brad, and Jessica Daly came, and when Max took Alana home, Dave and I got the other four in to visit in twos: Brad and Jessica D. Ahsa and Jessica E. The kids want to set up a mini-concert for Brian (Brad and Jessica D are in choir; Brad was in Chamber Choir with Brian). They also asked about Brian's t-shirt design for the senior class t-shirt. We directed them to Alana and Mark Schoenleber. 
At 9:15, Dave and I went in. Brian felt good and happy. Nurse Wednesday gave him meds and we helped settle him down, choose tomorrow's menu. I read a chapter of Alice in Wonderland; he was asleep by two pages in.
We're still looking at Monday for discharge to Providence.
Marshall is behaving aggressively and not speaking to Dave and I. The people here apparently think Marshall is Brian's legal guardian. Not true: we have 50/50 custody.
Brian got a shower thanks to Thom! And Marshall and Kellie snuck in Laurie, up the fire escape! (Their Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix, family pet, Jesse's originally)