January 21st, 2011 by Conor

Let me start by saying that the Graveyard Shift Thoughts can no longer exist. Why? Well the nursing staff would like to have the room cleared whenever they are trying to get Danny to sleep. I certainly can’t blame them. I know that I wouldn’t want someone in my room if I was trying to sleep. So I will begin to try to change my sleep cycles back to normal. I was so bummed that I didn’t get to see yesterday that I didn’t sleep at all last night. Instead I went in to see him first thing this morning and was there till the early afternoon. I finally crashed after a 24 hour run around 3 o’clock. I after the 3 hour nap I headed to the hospital until the newly modified night shift ended, which, was at about 11:30 or whenever Cindy gives us the boot! Side note: Shout out to Leah and Cindy. We love you!

Moving on. Danny is beginning to communicate but he can only talk if he has his voice activated plug thing in. I have yet to actually be in the room when he has the plug in. But I have been there for a few sessions where he wishes to write things down on paper. Tonight I thought I would share Danny’s writing.

1) Pants jeans

Danny wants his clothing back and he wants to get out of there. This is the second time that he has written down that he wants his clothes. I don’t think that he has any idea that he was admitted with his snowboarding gear on and that most of it has been absolutely shredded.

2) Who’s in the bathroom

He is convinced that there is someone in the bathroom. He pointed to the bathroom on two different occasions. He pointed as if to say “what is going on in there.” So as you can imagine this confusion was pretty easily solved when I opened the door, turned the lights on, and walked around the bathroom showing him that there was no one in there. He remained confused.

3) Danny’s signature

I asked Danny if he would sign his name. He signed it the same way he always does. That was a good sign.

4) Thanks for everything both of you!

An absolute highlight of the recovery process for me. Danny wrote this and then made eye contact with me and Michelle. It’s great to know that he already appreciates that we are there for him. It was pretty damn cool to see that he knew that and was already acknowledging it. You are very welcome Danny!

5) North Conway Hospital

I asked Danny if he knew where we were. Despite the fact that myself, Michelle and all the nurses have told him that we are in Montana at least 50 times Danny still thinks that he is in North Conway, New Hampshire. The question is how bad is his short term memory and how long will it remain bad for. Side note, I thought several days ago that Danny had solid memories of or day of riding up in Montana. I am no longer confident that he knows anything about even being in Montana. Time will tell.

6) Michelle asked him (in 5th grade format (mostly to be cute)) “Will you go on a date with me?” Yes, No, If your lucky!

Danny checked if your lucky and smiled at Michelle. It’s great to see that he seems to have a solid grasp on his sense of humor. That i something very positive that is going on.

Things are looking very good. He has his sense of humor, is regaining motor skills, he can write and interpret. We are excited about his progress and have some but not too many concerns about the long term. Danny is surrounded by such awesome friends and family that I am confident he will snap out of this with greater ease than most of the rest of us would. I am very happy with where he is at and excited about where he is headed. I just hope he can remain as positive as he possible when he begins to find out how this is going to change his life over the next year or two.

~Conor

ps. since I have been officially kicked off the graveyard shift I feel it would be lame to continue writing under that category. I am now writing under “Adventures with Danny.” If I know Danny like I think I do, I have a feeling we are about go on a whole lot of funny adventures during the weeks to come.