Today was a good day

After dragging Todd out of bed to go get his blood drawn (they have to do it every week to check his Coumadin levels) we returned to LDS hospital for more therapy. Today he met with Dr. Marc Steed, who is a Neuropsychologist. Essentially he is a psychologist who is more specialized and educated to help with the mental stuff that people who have gone through traumatic brain injury go through. His job, as he explained it, is to help Todd to improve his quality of life.

Marc is a wonderful person, and has been a great support to both Todd and I. After finding out that we were LDS, he has not refrained from calling on our shared religious background for examples, ideas, and strength, which has been very helpful.

We talked about Todd's excessive sleepiness, and Dr. Steed sent a note to Dr. Dodds (the Dr. at IMC (who is following Todd's care,) who called later, and asked us to go in tomorrow to do another blood draw to check his Depakote levels, and also had us reduce his Lyrica (for the nerve pain) to once a day. Hopefully that will help him so he's not sleeping 18 hours a day.

Dr. Steed gave Todd some homework for the week (actually it will be 2 weeks, we will miss next week due to that horrendous long eye appointment.) With regards to that missing filter, he is to try to catch himself when he's about to say something inappropriate, and tell me confidentially, and I'll try to help him say it in a more appropriate way.

Then he saw Michelle, the speech therapist, and finished up his baseline testing, which he did really well at. He did some reading comprehension, sequencing, and organization. He was given some story problems that even I had trouble with, but he did great. He had to write down meals for 2 days, and then compile a grocery shopping list, and did perfect.

Afterwards we decided to get some lunch, and went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Su Casa. Those who saw Todd struggle with feeding himself at the hospital would be very impressed with how well he handled his smothered bean burrito and tostada. AND he ordered water, instead of Coke, which he wanted very much. He was talking about going to get one later somewhere cheaper, and was about to tell me where, when the waiter came over, and instead of saying the name of the place he sang quietly "you know, da da da da da, I'm lovin' it!" Ofcourse I knew he meant McDonaldas, but didn't know that Todd actually knew the name, it wasn't an episode of aphasia, he just didn't want the waiter to hear him say it and get mad! Cracked me right up!

At lunch he did some great problem solving, leaning back so he could see his plate better. He said that he hated having to do that, but the point is that he DID it, and it worked. It went right along with things the doctors have said, that he will be able to do all the same things he used to, but that he may have to make adjustments, and do them differently.

After we ate, he took the bill to the front and paid, including figuring the tip, adding it up, and signing the credit card slip. I was really proud of him.