Update 10/16

Hello All—

The doctors have decreased a lot of Kari’s medications, so she has definitely become more alert over the past few days.  She always knows who people are, but still has a lot of confusion about what is real and what is not.  She will often look at a picture on the wall or just think about somebody and think that they are here, so we took all of her pictures down off the walls and ceiling.  It has helped a little bit, but Kari’s mind still races, especially at night.  I think what is happening is that she imagines things happening, things that are usually bad, and then believes that they are real.  Often she will be very panicked about something because she believes that someone is in danger.  Kari also still has a lot of trouble making sense when she talks.  Generally, what ever she is looking at makes its way into the sentence she is saying, and then she gets frustrated that no one can understand her.  This keeps her from sleeping a lot, although she has gotten some in the last few days.  Spasms too get worse at night and will keep her up for a number of hours.   She has had a resurgence of some of the pain, but overall it is still better than it was before.  I’ll be interested to see how this next week goes.  It has been 18 days now since Kari became confused.  She is so fragile mentally that much of her time is spent just managing stimuli and trying to keep her relaxed.  I’m not sure what the plan is this week as far as therapy or medications.  Although she got up in her chair today, she did not get up for therapy except for Monday last week.  

My brother Rick and his wife Desiree were here this weekend, and we got to go to the mountains Friday because Dustin (Kari’s brother) was out here for a day too.  Pictures should be coming soon.  Still feeling like we’re never going to get out of here, but at least we’ll get to see some beautiful winter scenery!  Monday makes it 3 months since the accident.

Aaron.