4TH PATH : BRIAN FRANK STRONG

Hopping on with this week's updates. I'll keep it short and sweet: On 10/16, Brian's 33rd birthday, we were able to spend the afternoon outside with family & lots of friends!  Two weeks ago, Brian had a mini storming episode before I left one night. I bought Brian a ring that tells me his blood oxygen and heart rate and as I was leaving, I heard the alarm go off that his HR was in the 100s and he visibly started to look uncomfortable. The urgent care team came to monitor and they trusted my input and treated it as neuro-storming with a nitro glycerin patch and it solved his elevated HR and BP. He's been stable ever since! We are pretty certain it was triggered by allergies, but it could also be a random incident indicative of healing (hoping for the latter). On Saturday, Brian received the flu shot, which made for a sleepy weekend.  Tomorrow, Brian will go for a swallow test in the morning to see if we can start giving him blended solids (like apple sauce) and other...

I haven't updated because September was a whirlwind in so many ways. And I truly just wanted a moment to stop feeling like we are in a fish bowl and be take the time to be more in tune with myself and present with Brian. With our 3 year anniversary coming and going on 9/22, I was very much just trying to get 'through' it. Celebrating solo was hard. Best friends and family made it easier for sure, but anniversaries are special because they belong to the 2 people involved. And my other half is still unable to consciously be present with me. Quite a different anniversary than we had dreamed up or celebrated before.  But anyway - here's overall how the month went: After we got back into the brain injury unit at Shirley Ryan, they gave us a discharge date of 9/21. At that point, we had only been accepted into one long term care facility in Illinois, which was in Arlington Heights. It was (and is) a great option as they are newly renovated and just received a grant to do brai...