So, to bring things up to speed, first of all, I want to give a long overdue thanks to my good friend Andy Gribble. Andy and I met back in 1995 when he was the superintendent on the renovation of WestGate Mall and I was the property accounts manager at the time. Andy builds malls, among other things, but several weeks ago, he built a ramp. A ramp that both Riley and I can go down to get in and out of the house without having to use the stairs. It is going to come in really handy when Riley decides to start walking again! Thanks Andy. We can't tell you how much we appreciate it .
Speaking of WestGate Mall, I started working there back in 1990 when I was 19 years old. I met 4 wonderful women during my time there, and they are some of my dearest friends. Beginning about 10 years ago or so, we all started meeting once, sometimes twice a year, to get together since we are spread out over the country now. Last year, we had booked a trip to Charleston, SC for our spring trip. I planned to drive down and take Riley with me and drop him off at my mom's, also in Charleston, for a long weekend with his Grammy. We were to leave on Thursday, March 5. Riley had a grand mal seizure on Wednesday, March 6 and the rest is history. This year, my girlfriends were kind enough to forfeit a trip to the beach or the mountains and instead come to Chattanooga since I can't really go anywhere. We had a wonderful time doing mostly nothing. It wasn't near as relaxing as our usual trips, as they insisted on cooking, cleaning and taking care of me and my family all weekend. Alice and Karen even took our cat, Ling, to the vet Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it wasn't good, and I'm sure you will all be hearing more about that in the future. We are just trying to keep her comfortable at this point.
We did manage to get out to a movie on Friday, then spent 2 1/2 hours trying to get home in the snow. Riley enjoyed the company as well, especially Gail, who he calls Nonna. After two wonderful, happy days last Thursday & Friday, due basically to an increase in Riley's adavan, he began getting more agitated and unhappy as the weekend went on. Dr. Martin at Duke had spoken to Dr. Stephanie here in Chattanooga and they had prescribed a new medication, an anti psychotic, to help with Riley's mood and obsessive compulsive behaviors. Since we had such a good result from increasing the adavan, we decided to wait on the new medication. It was just a little scary putting him on a new drug, but we finally broke down last night and started the medication. He looked pretty stoned for a little while, then he became very sweet and happy. He woke up the same way this morning (after sleeping all night). That didn't last long. Poor Tiffany, his Nanny had to listen to his inconsolable cries and screams for practically a straight 7 hours today. We did feel a little better when we were told it would take a few days for the medicine to begin having an effect, so there is still hope.
Two other things we are very excited about - one, Riley has an appointment tomorrow morning at Sisken with an awesome doctor that specializes in brain injuries. We are meeting with the whole team - the doctor, OT, PT and speech therapy. The guy that set up the appointment said it is unheard of for the whole team to meet with a patient at one time. We are hoping this means they are taking a special interest in Riley's case. Second, we were approved for 10 overnight nursing assistant visits. Our nurse assistant, Alexis, stayed with us last Thursday and again last night. She will be coming on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for 3 weeks. If needed, we can try and get more visits approved, but hopefully we will have Riley's sleeping back on track by then. If not, we may go crazy by then!
I also want to say hello to Joel's Uncle Bill and Aunt Jan. They stopped here on Monday on their way back to Chicago and stayed with us. I wish Riley would have been in a better mood!
I guess that brings everyone up to speed. We are busy all the time and typically functioning on very little sleep. That's about the story of our lives right now. Say prayers for a great visit at Sisken. We really hope they are able to help Riley.
As always, you are in our prayers.
ReplyDeleteLaurie