Hello everyone.  Peggy is blogging today.  Isabel needs to recharge.  

Jason made great physical progress yesterday but had a little bit of a mental setback after the chaos of yesterday.  He is now able to walk short distances and tolerate up to two hours sitting up in a chair.  He is awake and active for 4-5 hours at a time.  This is a dramatic change from when I arrived on Thursday.  

Mentally he in totally intact except for his short term memory and he does not always understand where he is and why he is here.  It is obvious that his mind is working overtime to get things figured out.  He has had several theories.  One was that he was on a ship of immigrants and that no one spoke English.  He decided this because of the long corridors with rooms off of them, hearing foreign languages all around him and the "festive atmosphere."   His second theory was that he was a player in a multi-layered video game.  He has talked about "getting his matrix on."  By the end of the day we had him somewhat reoriented and talking about the need to plan the wedding.  

It is easy to understand why Jason is confused.  I can't imagine a worse setting for a head trauma patient.  There are lights and beeps and alarms all the time.  The food may look like a waffle or sausage but it is really pureed food reformed to look like what it was originally so you bite into it and it doesn't taste anything like what you thought it would.  New people come in and out of the room at all hours and many do not speak English or speak it well. Lights go on and off with little consideration for whether it is night or day. 

Yesterday I was talking to a nurse in the hall about Jason and she asked me "are you door or window."  His last name is Vanstaveren so I said, "no, neither."  Then I realized she was asking me if he was the patient near the door or the window.  Isabel and I are becoming disoriented and we have not have any bumps to the head.  

The good news is that Jason is incredibly smart and his mind is working all the time.  We believe that this constant mental activity is what is going to hasten his recovery.  Also, aside from short term memory and being oriented to place and current situation, everything else is fine.  He can read, reason, joke, grouse and speak passionately about injustice.  He is still the Jason we all love.  

Tomorrow we are hoping to get Jason transferred to the inpatient head trauma rehab.  This is a quiet, sane setting where they will provide him with therapy to reconnect his damaged circuits.  We expect to see exciting and rapid healing.  Please keep sending your prayers and affirmations.  We are so grateful for all of you.  Peggy