My aunt Judy called me this morning (she works at the hospital) and said that we had been invited to stand in on the doctors rounds this morning. Seth and I went up to the hospital and when we got to moms room she was having an anxiety attack. She has become aware of her situation and is trying to figure it all out. It took us a minute to calm her down and try to figure out what she was thinking and try to answer questions that we weren't sure she even had. I explained to her what happened and she held really still and listened. When I told her what day it had happened and what todays date was she started to get really anxious again. She would try to sit up and was moving all over. The nurse had restrained her right arm before we got there because she was pulling at her trach mask. We calmed her down again and told her that this was just going to take some time to resolve itself. I told her that she needs to start doing everything the doctors ask her to do so that she can get moved up to rehab. I stayed in the room with mom while Seth went to rounds. They are going to have another neuorologist look at her and than they are going to have speech, occupational and physical therapists assess her.
She really seemed to be grasping what we were telling her. I asked her if she was hot and she nodded her head yes. I asked her if she was in pain and she shoke her head no. I asked if she wanted to get out of bed and she nodded yes. I asked her if she was scared and she nodded yes. We are going to try to always have someone with her now that she is awake. At least until she can be calm when she is by herself.
We kept telling her that her jaw was wired shut and that was why she couldn't talk but than I realized that she knows when your jaw is wired shut that you can still talk. So I explained to her about her trach and that when she was stable they would cap it off and she would have her voice back. That seemed to calm her down quite a bit.
The nurses transfered her to a chair and she settled down and went to sleep. I guess after two and a half weeks of laying down you would want a new position.