Long live the super hero

i should let everyone know that we are home as of this afternoon. once again another miracle that is impossible to explain. after our day yesterday i never would have believed this. it was an anxiety-ridden day for me. he met with the occupational therapist last night; that was a much anticipated visit for me. all along i had been waiting for someone to tell me everything, especially that everything would be normal again. i was hopeful this would be the person who could do that. unfortunately that was not the case. she recognized that there was definitely cognitive ability and remarkable thought process, but she was concerned that he was very unaware of his impairments which posed a safety issue. he would require 24 hour supervision. she was discussing short-term inpatient rehab centers for pete to spend a few weeks. perhaps i shouldn't have been discouraged, but i was. i wanted him home, but i didn't feel prepared for this. as i drove home i also started worrying about our financial future. pete only has 13 paid days, and we will have our health insurance for 12 weeks if we continue to pay our portion of the premium. i was worried even though i knew we could manage for a little while, but i didn't know how long that little while would be. no doubt i was afraid. then i had to factor in another new problem. up to that point pete had been awake for 40 hours with not an ounce of sleep. they had been giving him sleeping pills for the last 24 hours to no avail. he just couldn't sleep his brain was so trashed. i was concerned about this because i could tell that what a lot of what he was missing was caused from lack of sleep and just being tired. the nurses started expressing concern and informed me he would not be coming home until sleep was regulated. thankfully last night at midnight he fell asleep and slept for 8 hours. i honestly couldn't believe the difference sleep made! i knew he was so much closer to being fully back when i got a phone call from him this morning telling me he was missing me. he was able to call his mother's number from memory. he did say he couldn't remember if it was hers or mine, but he knew it and that was the big part. we spent the whole morning in evaluations from rehab, speech therapy, ot, cardiology, etc. i know everyone's jaw was on the ground when they saw him. the only conclusion that could be made about fine tuning the edges for him was to do a month of speech therapy. this is not so much that he needs a lot of re-training, etc, but it's intended to be more of an observation period to see when he can go back to work. yes, go back to work, you read that right. they are anticipating after christmas break at this rate. great news, and then we were sent on our way.

i'm no longer anxious about things having him back; he's so normal. actually, i can't believe how much better home feels having him here. he's very excited, too. at this time we are keeping visitors to a very minimum because he needs so much rest right now. i know everyone is dying to talk to him and see it with their own eyes and let them know how much he is loved and supported. there will be plenty of time for that later. you may have an added benefit of hearing from him though. he has been composing a post for his blog. i will update when he has finished it. this journey is not over; i still have many emotions and experiences to share. i want never forget the depth of how this experience has changed me. more to come.