Early AM 2/28

It’s 2:30am at bed side. Stevie has been restlessly *sleeping* since midnight. Sleeping is more like cat naps between turning this way and that. This is a grand improvement from 6 days ago when she was continuously restless all night and one had to literally stand over the bed to keep her from pulling off her bandages or out her various tubes. The standard technique is to tie a patient down with hand restraints. Neither Susan nor I could countenance that so we held the restraint lashings in our hands to keep her one good hand “free” while keeping it out of mischief.

During these six days she had become more communicative and cognizant of here surroundings. The pace of these changes is frustratingly slow but as one of the nurses said as long as there is progress there is hope. Taken in aggregate, the changes are wonderful to see. This evening with Roland (boyfriend), Sam (friend), Spenser (brother 16) and Stacey (sister 14) to keep her going, she was attentive for an hour and responded to their joking around with each other and with her with smiles and condescending glances – typical Stevie. We remain optimistic that she is all in there and that it will just take time for all the brain connections to re-establish themselves. Of course, always lingering in the back of your mind is the “what if not”.

The right side of her body took the brunt of the accident and remains problematic. You likely know the right side of her pelvis was shattered as the leg was rammed up into the socket. The two operations have not been as effective as the doctors had hoped and at some later date she will likely need a total hip replacement. Not surprisingly she is not moving here right leg though we have been surprised at the lack of apparent pain from the injuries and the operations. Her right foot has multiple smaller fractures and her leg is in a boot that covers her calf.

She moves her right arm minimally and it tends to draw up to her chest. We have been working with the arm to keep it as limber as possible and the doctors provided a soft splint to keep it straight.

The staples from her abdominal surgery and the stitches on her right knee and head were removed yesterday. Staples remain from the two hip surgeries. Her left knee has a cut that required two stitches but Stevie picked at them to the point that there the doctors has to cut away some meat and now they have to pack the wound to keep it from abscessing.

On Thursday we finally bit the bullet and cut her hair. The frontal lob had already been shaved for the drain tube in NICU but we had remained hopeful that the rest of her hair could be saved. When we were finally able to wash it the mats were too thick to untangle. A half hour effort using detangle spray and shampoo failed.

She stirs so I must get back to job one.