I am terribly exhausted today and will have to make this brief. I invited one of our dearest friends, Manus Gallagher, to come over and share Nicole Devereaux's yummy dinner with Imogen and me. Manus will take care of James's car with long term parking! Hooray. Our wonderful friend and neighbor, Dan, will no longer have to move it around to avoid parking tickets. Love out to both families for letting me borrow their men for car related duties!
I received many requests for visits with James. Thanks for pouring out the love! I have to look at everyone's requests and figure out a good schedule. We are a bit in limbo this week waiting for the response from the rehabilitation facility to see if James will be accepted. He may transfer out so I will not begin scheduling visits until after the weekend. I apologize for having to give everyone short notice on their possible visits. James is actually booked up already for the next few days.
I feel it might be a good time to summarize James's state of being and the trajectory of his illness. I provided Gail's Facebook post which was not entirely accurate about James's condition and it might be good to clear the air, so to speak. James had an abscess in his brain that was the result of a bacterial infection. My thought has always been that the source was from his teeth which required root canals but that has not been the official diagnosis. The doctors do not know how the bacteria traveled to James's brain. The type of bacteria which was identified appears to be sourced from his mouth. The doctors arrived at this conclusion by ruling out other sites of possible infection (his heart or GI tract) and by identification of the specific kind of bacteria. I have castigated myself for not making that root canal appointment for James myself. A kind doctor told me that he has seen many patients with rotten teeth but that it did not cause them to have a brain abscess. I have to remember that it was a perfect combination of conditions that allowed for the bacteria to travel to his brain--whether or not the source was from his teeth is somewhat besides the point now (although, I still want them to yank those bad teeth straight out of his head as soon as they are able!).
James continues to fight the infection in his brain. He will be on antibiotics for weeks to come.
James has been assessed by the rehabilitation team at Bellevue in consultation with the neurological, infectious disease, and respiratory doctors. They have provided their assessment as part of the application to the rehabilitation facility. My concern now is that James has not been as responsive in the past few days compared to the day the first assessment was made. The social worker told me today that the rehabilitation facility may ask for an update and hence, my call out to all of you to visit James and bring his spirit out.
I am fearful about his recovery, in all honesty. He has lost so much weight and muscle tone that I fear he will not make it into the rehabilitation center.
One last thought about those that are visiting and my reservations about it. James is a particularly modest person. He was so private, that even as a teenager, he did not like to kiss me in public! One of the moments recently when he initiated his own movement, it was to move his hand to pull down his dressing gown as the physical therapist stretched his leg. I find that terribly touching that James was worried about being exposed in front of hospital workers! It's rather amazing, in a way--it proves he's still in there all right! He's also very private about his bowel movements. Sorry to be so specific but he truly has privacy issues around it. I think he may have shame connected with this aspect of his illness and would be humiliated if any visitors encountered him in a say, compromised position, because the nurses have not had the time to address his issues.
James had a visitor today, Cheryl Bodian, one of his students (James and I like to think of her as his "first" student). When I told him that I was leaving and that Cheryl would stay on to read to him, he opened his eyes and gestured with his hands. I am not sure why that was the case. He loves all his students and I am sure they had a fine visit but I do wonder why he had that response when I was leaving. I thought that perhaps, he had concerns that I would not be there to usher her out in the event I noticed he needed nursing care (I discovered a situation when Karen and Chris were here and managed to guide them out of the room as soon as it became clear that James needed a change of dressing gown).
This is the one of the most difficult aspects of caring for James. I do not want to humiliate him or hurt his feelings in any way and he has no way to communicate what is going on inside him. I ask all of you to please be patient with me as I manage my way through this--I want everyone to be comfortable and enjoy their visit with James, including the man himself!
Love out to you on this windy night. My grandmother from Japan loved the wind. She particularly liked a warm, blustery wind that happens during the monsoon season in Japan. Although it's a cool spring wind outside, I still think my grandmother would appreciate its wild reach. She was a doctor and I hope she's keeping an eye out for James as well.
I received many requests for visits with James. Thanks for pouring out the love! I have to look at everyone's requests and figure out a good schedule. We are a bit in limbo this week waiting for the response from the rehabilitation facility to see if James will be accepted. He may transfer out so I will not begin scheduling visits until after the weekend. I apologize for having to give everyone short notice on their possible visits. James is actually booked up already for the next few days.
I feel it might be a good time to summarize James's state of being and the trajectory of his illness. I provided Gail's Facebook post which was not entirely accurate about James's condition and it might be good to clear the air, so to speak. James had an abscess in his brain that was the result of a bacterial infection. My thought has always been that the source was from his teeth which required root canals but that has not been the official diagnosis. The doctors do not know how the bacteria traveled to James's brain. The type of bacteria which was identified appears to be sourced from his mouth. The doctors arrived at this conclusion by ruling out other sites of possible infection (his heart or GI tract) and by identification of the specific kind of bacteria. I have castigated myself for not making that root canal appointment for James myself. A kind doctor told me that he has seen many patients with rotten teeth but that it did not cause them to have a brain abscess. I have to remember that it was a perfect combination of conditions that allowed for the bacteria to travel to his brain--whether or not the source was from his teeth is somewhat besides the point now (although, I still want them to yank those bad teeth straight out of his head as soon as they are able!).
James continues to fight the infection in his brain. He will be on antibiotics for weeks to come.
James has been assessed by the rehabilitation team at Bellevue in consultation with the neurological, infectious disease, and respiratory doctors. They have provided their assessment as part of the application to the rehabilitation facility. My concern now is that James has not been as responsive in the past few days compared to the day the first assessment was made. The social worker told me today that the rehabilitation facility may ask for an update and hence, my call out to all of you to visit James and bring his spirit out.
I am fearful about his recovery, in all honesty. He has lost so much weight and muscle tone that I fear he will not make it into the rehabilitation center.
One last thought about those that are visiting and my reservations about it. James is a particularly modest person. He was so private, that even as a teenager, he did not like to kiss me in public! One of the moments recently when he initiated his own movement, it was to move his hand to pull down his dressing gown as the physical therapist stretched his leg. I find that terribly touching that James was worried about being exposed in front of hospital workers! It's rather amazing, in a way--it proves he's still in there all right! He's also very private about his bowel movements. Sorry to be so specific but he truly has privacy issues around it. I think he may have shame connected with this aspect of his illness and would be humiliated if any visitors encountered him in a say, compromised position, because the nurses have not had the time to address his issues.
James had a visitor today, Cheryl Bodian, one of his students (James and I like to think of her as his "first" student). When I told him that I was leaving and that Cheryl would stay on to read to him, he opened his eyes and gestured with his hands. I am not sure why that was the case. He loves all his students and I am sure they had a fine visit but I do wonder why he had that response when I was leaving. I thought that perhaps, he had concerns that I would not be there to usher her out in the event I noticed he needed nursing care (I discovered a situation when Karen and Chris were here and managed to guide them out of the room as soon as it became clear that James needed a change of dressing gown).
This is the one of the most difficult aspects of caring for James. I do not want to humiliate him or hurt his feelings in any way and he has no way to communicate what is going on inside him. I ask all of you to please be patient with me as I manage my way through this--I want everyone to be comfortable and enjoy their visit with James, including the man himself!
Love out to you on this windy night. My grandmother from Japan loved the wind. She particularly liked a warm, blustery wind that happens during the monsoon season in Japan. Although it's a cool spring wind outside, I still think my grandmother would appreciate its wild reach. She was a doctor and I hope she's keeping an eye out for James as well.
Though not always 100% comfortable for James, it does sound like having visitors and human interaction is getting the neurons sparking!
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