NICoE Discharge

Today we had our predischarge meeting and received the rest of the results from all of the testing that Allen has underwent the last 3 weeks.  There were not any big surprises for us, although they did change his diagnosis here from mild TBI to a severe.  This did surprise me, but at the same time, it really doesn't change anything with his care.

Tomorrow we will have his final discharge meeting.  While in many ways I am sad to be finished here and I do think we could actually benefit from a few more days of what they offer, it will be good to have it done and be heading back home.  He will undergo one more test in the morning for vestibular, and then head back over to Walter Reed for a follow up with the sleep doctor there.  We will then get a treatment plan, something we've never had since his injury.  I think we are both really excited about that!!

So, some other things that have happened here.  Allen came in with a very extensive medication list, one that all the doctors here were not too thrilled with.  They all, very early on, talked with us about reducing this list.  Well, I am happy to say, through these 3 weeks, he has been taken off of 4 medications completely!!  And, even better than that, they were completely taken away, not replaced with something else!!  He has also had the dosage of one dropped in half, and we are beginning to titrate another one down, with the hopes of getting that dosage greatly decreased.  He did have a couple that the dosage went up on, but we also have hopes of possibly getting off of a couple of other ones.  So, we are both very happy with this part of his plan!!

One of my favorite parts of the process is the ability to try out many different options for helping relieve stress.  We tried one yesterday called heartmath that we both loved!!  I will be blogging about this one in the near future to provide you all with more information on this!

One of the best things for Allen has been the reduction in his pain.  The second day here he received some nerve block injections in his head to reduce his headaches and has not had a headache since!  This is so huge for him.  He also this week had injections in each knee and his knee pain is now greatly reduced.  He did find out that he has a tear in his meniscus in one knee and we will get results for the other knee tomorrow.  Just seeing how much reducing his pain has done for him has been incredible.   He seems like he has taken about 20 years off of his life.

Another thing he had the chance to do that he loved was a range simulator.  He was able to us a service rifle and a 9 mil.  It was actually really good for both of us.  It gave me a lot more confidence in him and his potential to be around fire arms again at some point.  Since we live in the midwest, hunting is such a huge part of our culture.  Every body does it!!  I also had the chance to shoot the 9 mil today and did really well.  I had never shot a hand gun before and my shot group was within the size of a quarter!  (I was told that was excellent!)

For any of you who are struggling with TBI and PTSD, and are still on Active Duty, I highly recommend you check into going to the NICoE.  It is a unique and incredible experience.  We are both so thankful that we were given this opportunity.

Even Now.......Gina