Journal Entry after my return from last week's visit:

We had a "family meeting" on Thursday morning with the therapists, case worker, and his doctor. His TBI (traumatic brain injury) is severe. He's got good recall on overlearned/longterm memories. He can still tell you what kind of engine John Force has in his race car, but his short term is weak. He's having trouble with shortterm recall and sequencing.

His TBI also effects his swallow. He has pharyngeal phase-dysphasia. The only machine he's still hooked up to is the feeding tube. His swallow is severely damaged. The food slides down his throat, pools in the little pockets there, and eventually makes it's way further down. He doesn't have a cough reflex when the food goes into his windpipe. This is slightly better than three weeks ago when he just got out of ICU. The plateau period for TBI is aproximately one year from the date of the accident, so there's lots of time to help him get better in these areas. They're using an electric stim therapy on his throat to try to regain function. Their goal right now is to make it possible for him to eventually eat one small meal for pleasure each day. There is a possiblity that he'll be on the feeding tube for the rest of his life, but my research on this therapy shows that it's highly effective (here's an article about it).

He has hemiparesis on is right side. That means that that side is weak and his lower extremities are basically nonfunctional at this point due to the spinal injury. He does sometimes slightly wiggle his left toes and lift his left leg a bit. He can grasp things with his right hand but has trouble letting go. The plateau period for spinal injury is around 6 weeks after the accident. Doc says that it's unlikely that he'll regain function of his legs, but right now their goal is to make him as independent as possible in the wheel chair. They're hoping that he can be at home or close to home by christmas. There's no definite answer, and I know that my brother is one tough so'mbitch so there's no limit on what he might be able to do in time. We're preparing for the worse and all the while believing that the best will happen.