Where were we? Ah yes, week from hell. Long story short, we are definitely going through another shit storm in the universe, with multiple bad things, including a small car accident (my first! Everyone is totally fine), happening to us and to various family members, but hopefully we are moving through that now!

Peter is more or less the same, unfortunately. I definitely have seen some small improvements from immediately after his concussion, but he still naps 3-4 hours a day and needs to take breaks after doing “easy” tasks for about 1-2 hours, and maybe 15 minutes max of things that are hard for him. What’s hard? Conversation, responding, formulating his thoughts, talking on the phone (SUPER hard for him), processing information. He’s not allowed to read or do puzzles, or other “restful” things. He tried driving a very short way on Tuesday (moving a car from one spot to another), and promptly vowed not to try that again for a long while. That’s a very, very good thing for him and all the other drivers on the road.

He will keep seeing the worker’s comp doctors to be evaluated for his return to work, and they have requested a neurology consult, although I don’t know what that is going to tell us. In the meantime, I will keep yelling at him anytime he starts to feel like he “needs” to do something. Like the other morning he told me he wanted to trim one of our apple trees. Uh… NO! That would be terrible on many, many levels. He is allowed to make himself breakfast, take short walks, and listen to music. His doctor said he could watch movies, and he was able to watch a short one with very little plot to follow, but it still made him tired about an hour into it.

One of the hard parts of this is that there is not really anything that anyone can do to help. Peter’s mom is here, and she is handling the biggest stuff (childcare, Peter-care). People have been so kind in reaching out, but it’s not like when I was recovering from surgery or when I was getting treatment. Peter is relatively functional in a lot of ways, he just can’t drive or do anything complicated (too bad his job as a teacher requires a LOT of communication and complicated thought!). And even more, the very hardest thing for him is socializing, so visits from friends would actually be counterproductive for him.

Thank GOODNESS for mothers-in-law! Peter’s mom is here and I literally do not know what I would be doing without her. It’s been such a load off my mind just knowing that Peter is not home alone, let alone having another driver to be able to pick Emmie up from school, to be home with her when I can’t be, and to help out with all the household chores. Our counters have never been so clean! Emmie loves having her Oma here.

My overall stress level has been increased (even more than it would have been anyway) because I am in a busy time at work and I now work long hours so I can stay home with Emmie on other days. Normally, this really is not a problem, but it has made it much more challenging to make sure everyone is taken care of. One thing I am relatively proud of (and more than slightly amazed by) is that many of my patients have been showing amazing progress, which is always a great feeling, but is something I really need right now.

Hopefully the small signs of improvement we’ve been seeing over the past couple days are good signs, and Peter can continue to improve, and even improve at a faster rate. I’m lucky enough to have a lot of friends who have a lot of professional and persona experience with concussions and head injuries to know that progress can vary dramatically for each person. Please keep us in your thoughts for a quick and complete recovery!