Monday, April 22, 2019

Two weeks home, seven weeks post-incident

Keith is doing better every day. His balance is improving, he's walking with just a cane, mostly (still uses the wheelchair in the bedroom and his office, because it's more comfortable and he doesn't get as tired). Today he and Holly went to Costco, and he used the cart as a walker. :-) He gets tired easily, still—from a combination of muscle atrophy and of difficulty breathing.

The upper back side of his head above his left ear is still numb. That injury, nobody cared about earlier. It's probably where he hit his head when he fell back downhill on March 3. Because his long hair was all matted up there for a month, it wasn't noticeable until the hair was cut.

There are a few little oddities that will probably go away. He has kerosene cans with a side cut out, flat with the hendle out, as drawers on shelves in the garage, and though he used to know what they all were, now he needs to look in them. He might label them, or his memories might come back. That's not the sort of thing they could have tested him for in rehab—"What's in those cans in the garage?" He said when he's playing music, he's having a hard time not just with breath (lungs, ribs, sternum—that would affect air), but with fingering and rhythm. I think that could be weak muscles, and playing recorder uses muscles way up the arm, on lower notes, especially an alto or tenor, and he's still weak in the shoulders and chest.

This will come back too, but his speaking voice isn't strong, and he can't sing well or right, yet. I fell in love with him for his singing, and his musical ability, and now that's messed up!? Good thing that over the years I've found other lovable things about him. :-)

This morning we went and watched Ivan for an hour at Marty & Ashlee's house. Yesterday, Devyn was over to eat and hunt eggs, and baby Kirby was here. She'll be here tomorrow for a while, too. So he's able to do his grandfatherly duty, which is sweet. :-)

We still play Dr. Mario nearly every day, and we've been playing Five Crowns. Yesterday we played two games of Azul with Kirby and Destiny, and they left the game for me and Keith to play. We will.

It will still take a few months for Keith to get back to his own strong singing self, but he's doing well.

2 comments:

Suzanne Perkowski said...

Great update, thanks for sharing.

Robyn Coburn Writer/Artist said...

I’m so glad. Thank you for the update.