Christmas with Keegan

Thank you  so much for your thoughts and prayers.  I was able to get my Christmas wish.  We had Christmas at home, cold ham and chicken but we were also able to bring Keegs home for the first time.

Drew and Keegan sharing an iPod

It was one of those days where he slept almost the entire day, so to see if we were doing the right thing we brought him back again yesterday.  It is quite hectic  planning meals and running a house but also being a care giver.  However the best thing is that everyone is able to take turns turning him and getting him comfortable.  It was my delegation to do food feeding through the tube though. Happily he tolerates liquidised food now - so that expense has been reduced.  He is still on an Ensure type of milkshake but the rest is all real food.

Keegs has tried so hard to stay awake and be there for us all.  Somedays he is awake for 10 - 12 hours and then others he is too tired.

Drew and Bryn have been there when Justin has put the "walking" calipers on and have guided his feet forward.  It is exciting to see that we are training new neural pathways to stimulate Keegs to be upright and to get him to have greater core strength. He is still a long way from doing all of this for himself but I think that it is coming.....slowly....I believe that he still has his sense of smell and taste and is only starting to feel through his finger tips.  Most definitely he can hear us.
 

His eyes are starting to track together but are still jerky like someone reading. Someone said that this is an indication that he is still comatose.  I do not believe that he can see yet although I do think that there are more "pixels" than there was 2 months ago.
The grey area of these observations and peoples ideas make this very confusing for us to understand. However hearing of people that have woken up  it quite possibly means that Keegs is still not quite  there.

Bryn and Drew watch Keegan having therapy in the garden.

Keegs has made huge progress in 9 months but as with any injury it still seems to take so long to get to where we want to get to.  I have recently read a story from a TBI patient that is 18 years down the road in her recovery and she is still having speech therapy and winning....!

Anyway enough now, we are all roaring off to see him and see what he is up to today. Going to try and get him back to this house on Wednesday.  It is such a frustration to know that the therapists are not available to us in Zimbabwe, otherwise we would be home by now.  If all goes well in the next 3 months we are really going to try our hardest to get him back for a holiday.

And that my friends is my New Years resolution!!!! New journeys, new challenges, new change....just do it...live once and do it right!
Look after yourselves and your loved ones.

Thanks again for all your support.....we couldn't have done it without you.

Sal Langley.