1. Michael is conversing in a much improved manner, even though his vocabulary is still jumbled. It seems he could carry on a normal conversation if he could just find the correct words. This frustrates him because often we can't understand what he's trying to say (so we guess), which leads to our responses also making little sense to him. Just pray that the vocab continues to come back to him. If it does, I seem him being able operate on close to the same high level we're all accustomed to.
2. Michael is now showing more emotion than just frustration. He's smiled and carried on at times, shown a genuine interest in the well-being of those around him, and has expressed a healthy interest in the opposite sex (In addition to his interactions with Maisie, and I won't go into detail on how I brought this out of him). I can't be sure, but based on our conversations I think he's concerned about his employment, and what all is expected of him right now. He talked about how "he didn't do anything" to get to this point. We (Landon, Corey and I) explained to him that he did nothing wrong and there was nothing he could have done to change his current predicament (obviously I didn't use those words). I explained that all anyone wanted was for him to rest, relax, and get to feeling better. He seemed to accept this.
3, Along with the vocab, the biggest issue is his lack of memory. It's very hard to gauge what he remembers about his life; whether it was this morning, yesterday, 2 weeks, or 10 years ago. He's still struggling with names but seems to recognize some of us. You can see him trying so hard to remember words, events, names, places, and things. Hopefully his memory and vocab will continue to return as the inflammation and infection in his brain subsides.
4. All in all, today was the biggest step we've seen Michael take. His capacity to understand has increased dramatically. I'm excited and hopeful of what the following days will bring.
5. As Loren mentioned in the previous post, the doctors will discuss discharging Michael in the very near future. This certainly doesn't mean that he is "cured" or "ok", but it makes sense since his all vitals are (and have consistently been) stable and he can take his medication from home. The only other treatment he is truly receiving is a heavy dose of help and love from his family and friends. I think the comfort of convalescing in a familiar atmosphere will benefit him greatly. Obviously he still has a long ways to go though.
6. Finally, I was in the corner of the room when Michael looked over at Corey and asked "where's Jordan?" This is the first time I've heard him speak my name (just this morning he looked at me and asked, "I'm sorry, what was your name?"). I went to him and told him that "I'm here", that "I'm Jordan." He said he had to make sure something (I can't remember his exact words) was getting taken care of. I told him not to worry about that, that I was going to take care of all of that for him, and that he just needed to rest and I was on top it. I told him "I got you brother." He nodded his head and said, "ok" before he rolled over and went to sleep.
Definitely the highlight of my week.
Jordan, this sounds great. Can't wait until I can see you guys.
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