According to Wikipedia a thumb wrestle is "is a children's game played by two players in a tournament called a thumb-a-war (or thumb war) using the thumbs to simulate fighting…etc etc" Now I'm not totally sure or convinced myself, almost to the point of hesitating to write about it but, I may have found a way of being able to interact with Justin. It's early days, it may be nothing but It kind of felt like something today. Whist holding his hand, I could feel the gentle grip that I felt two days ago but this time Justin started to move his thumb around, I moved mine too and our thumbs met at the tips. It was a strange sensation because it felt completely intentional by both sides but I'm sure it was just a coincidence. He was still moving his thumb but I sensed that he could feel the pressure of my thumb against his. I responded with a little wiggle and for a brief moment we had our own mini thumb wrestle. I got the goosebumps!
There hasn't been any major neurological changes in the last couple of days. however we are satisfied with the small signs that we've been witness too. Mum has been feeling Justin's arms move and sharing comfort grips like I previously described and Dad and Janie even witnessed a little smile and a couple of eyebrow raises this morning. None of us are reading too much into it but I'm sure it was a relief to see a different expression on his face. I feel that when Justin is awake, his eyes are more open each day and he really seems to want to communicate something with his mouth. If you catch his gaze, he'll focus for a while then slowly drift away. A sound will alert him again and he'll even move his head towards the direction of the sound. The big news is that his chest infection is pretty much cleared up. He is coughing a lot less, in fact he didn't cough once during my afternoon visit today. This means that Justin could be moved out of ICU and into his own room within a couple of days. We asked Daz, Justin's friend to come and pay him a visit, thinking that maybe some familiar voices from his normal daily life would be a comfort to him, to reassure him that he's not in a strange place or even abducted by aliens. Honestly, who knows what he's thinking, It's the sort of thing that would cross my mind.
Thought for the day: Once you start doubting what's possible, it becomes more "doubtful", very quickly it becomes "unlikely". Before you know it's "improbable", "inconceivable", "unimaginable" and then suddenly you've reached "impossible". After that there's nowhere left to go. For all those that are hoping for Justin to recover, I would like to ask you to do more than hope. As hope contains an element of doubt, and you've seen what happens when you start thinking like that. If we all believe to the core that Justin will pull through and recover then there will be no doubt whatsoever that he will. Simple! Well in my head anyway.
C'MON JUSTIN...
There hasn't been any major neurological changes in the last couple of days. however we are satisfied with the small signs that we've been witness too. Mum has been feeling Justin's arms move and sharing comfort grips like I previously described and Dad and Janie even witnessed a little smile and a couple of eyebrow raises this morning. None of us are reading too much into it but I'm sure it was a relief to see a different expression on his face. I feel that when Justin is awake, his eyes are more open each day and he really seems to want to communicate something with his mouth. If you catch his gaze, he'll focus for a while then slowly drift away. A sound will alert him again and he'll even move his head towards the direction of the sound. The big news is that his chest infection is pretty much cleared up. He is coughing a lot less, in fact he didn't cough once during my afternoon visit today. This means that Justin could be moved out of ICU and into his own room within a couple of days. We asked Daz, Justin's friend to come and pay him a visit, thinking that maybe some familiar voices from his normal daily life would be a comfort to him, to reassure him that he's not in a strange place or even abducted by aliens. Honestly, who knows what he's thinking, It's the sort of thing that would cross my mind.
Thought for the day: Once you start doubting what's possible, it becomes more "doubtful", very quickly it becomes "unlikely". Before you know it's "improbable", "inconceivable", "unimaginable" and then suddenly you've reached "impossible". After that there's nowhere left to go. For all those that are hoping for Justin to recover, I would like to ask you to do more than hope. As hope contains an element of doubt, and you've seen what happens when you start thinking like that. If we all believe to the core that Justin will pull through and recover then there will be no doubt whatsoever that he will. Simple! Well in my head anyway.
C'MON JUSTIN...
In the early nineties my best friend suffered a massive head injury and also had been in a coma.
ReplyDeleteThe first was of course drug induced to reduce swelling, the second due to a stroke caused by a blood clot after the initial injury.
My thoughts and prayers are with you. I know that it is really starting to be apparent how painfully slow a recovery from such an injury and coma can be. That long period of total uncertainty is very tough. Hang in there.