Bunn’s Prairie

Kaley and I had a good time at the Twins game today. We made it to the 7th inning before it seemed like Kaley was running out of steam. She said she was having a good time, although I’m not sure how well she was following the game. She did react with the crowd late in the game when one of the Twins players hit a home run.

When I was telling Kaley about our plans for today a few days ago, I told her were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. I explained that they played in the National League and the Twins played in the American League. I asked her if she knew what the difference was. She thought for a moment and said she did not. So I explained the designated hitter and how the pitcher doesn’t bat in the AL, but does in the NL. I then asked her if my explanation made sense to her. She said “I think so, but I’m not sure I agree with it.” At this point, I broke out laughing. Even to someone with a brain injury the DH doesn’t make any sense!

On a separate note, Kaley’s memory ability really seems to be improving. She’s remembering experiences she’s had recently much longer than she had in the past. She remembered that we had been to the ballgame when were were getting back to the nursing home. Another good sign!

I’ve not wanted to post on this for several months, but with improved mental capacity comes increased awareness of one’s situation. Several months ago, I walked into Kaley’s room after work, and she was quite upset. What I could gather from her sobs was “I’m dead”. From what I could gather from her, she was aware that her old life was gone. Today I had a similar experience. Kaley was having a very good moment of levity, she was aware that she had seen her parents “a couple of hours ago” (which was right, and not a normal correct observation by Kaley!). Kaley was upset again, and she kept on saying “I’m not supposed to still be alive.” After talking with her, she was very aware of her situation and was upset that she wasn’t dead.

Combine these conversations with the fact that a few weeks ago she told me to “find another girl,” (the topic of one of our last pre-accident conversations in the event that she passed away before me), just breaks my heart.

Kaley has continued to make slow improvements, nothing profound, but very slow improvements. Little things, like blowing her nose with intent to clear it versus blowing it because someone told her to do so. A noticeable improvement from my stand point is her memory shift towards more recent events. She doesn’t seem as lost in her high school and childhood days anymore. On nearly ever day that I visit now, she is aware that I am her husband again. She’s even remembered the nickname we gave one of our cats, Sasha, is patchy-butt.

Kaley is doing better with her short term memory. I remember last fall getting reports from speech therapy saying that she could only remember things for 30 seconds to a minute. When she’s interacting with things she has remembered them for up to a half hour or more! For example, she will remember the name of the movie we are watching for a significant time into the movie. She is still having trouble transferring short term memories into long term memories.

Kaley still likes receiving visitors on any day.