It might be Groundhog Day

noreply@blogger.com (Against all Odds - Austin's Blog) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:40:19 PST

By Lee

You know this movie where this guy wakes up every morning, and every morning he doesn't know what's going on, and you have to explain everything to him again? I think it's called Groundhog Day. I think the actual Groundhog Day was like two weeks ago, and the creature predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Ehh yea. We have our own Groundhog Day. Just without a Groundhog. Here's a little memory… it's Wednesday, and your Wednesday treats have been shining with absence. Austin is totally digging this pic tonight. So I thought I'd share.

Here's the thing though, his memory has seen better days. As stated on Facebook the other day, Austin wound up in the Neurology unit at the hospital/inpatient part of the clinic. After the strange night, Jay took him to his Neurology appointment, and the doc there said that he was most likely gonna seize again. And yes, he did. He had two pretty heavy seizures within 24 hours, slept for a long time, but the weird part was that when he woke up after the second seizure, he wasn't being himself. He couldn't talk. He only made noises that let you assume he was trying to say something. He also couldn't move in any coordinated fashion. He was prompted to put his hand on his head, but he couldn't. He lacked all coordination. The EEG's showed some crazy action in his brain, which looked a lot like seizure-activity, but the doctors wanted to make sure that everything was kosher with him.

Since he's on high risk, and always will be, for stroke, brain aneurysms and other bad stuff, they'd rather be safe than sorry any minute. With the behavior, coordination issues, etc, they instantly checked him for stroke, and they also ran a CT. He was asleep the entire time, but woke up right in the middle of the CT and started moving around. So they had to give him light sedatives and try again. Thankfully, the CT and all other tests came back clear. No stroke, no brain aneurysm, hemorrhage or other things we despise. He also had a slight spasm in his right hand, and some of his reflexes weren't working right, but the tests were rather reliable. So they waited.

He slept like a rock until sometime this morning. When he woke up, he had no idea where he was or how he got there. He was hurting quite badly, and still is, (soreness from seizures), but otherwise seemed ok. He could talk, follow commands again, move better, without spasms or twitching. So you think that everything is back to normal, right? Yea… if there wasn't for the fact he just doesn't remember for the life of him what happened. Mrs. Jay asked him if his legs still hurt. He said "my legs?" and was totally confused. Then he said he was hurting all over. She told him that his legs had been hurting so badly the night before, and she wanted to make sure they aren't anymore. He looked at her like she was trying to pull a joke on him.

He looked at his foot at some point and asked what happened to it (referring to the bandages.) Jay reminded him that he had surgery a week ago to remove two of his toes. His reaction was "what? Why?" It's like he's never even heard of that before. I asked him what my name was, he said Lee. At the same time he looked at me like I was crazy for asking. Jay asked him if he remembered going swimming last Monday. He was like, swimming? Hmm at the beach?

What??

I'm sorry, but he is talking the biggest crap right now. He's got everything backwards. He doesn't seem to remember anything from the last couple of days. How many times do you have to tell one man why he had surgery? He knew very well just a few hours before that. He does remember his name and a bunch of other stuff, but it's like he blanked the last week or so… the neurologists have their theory, and I have mine. The neurologists think that his brain is trying to "do something" with his legs. Because here's the thing. He's got a bunch of motion in his legs all of a sudden. He moves his feet back and forth, which he has been, but he can bounce his leg. I was told NOT to mess with him right now, even though I wanted to so badly. I wanted him to kick me and stuff. They said to stop and let him do his own thing for now, and then the therapists would work with him. Man… Overall, the neurologists are shaking their heads, because his legs acted up, then he went into seizure twice, was completely messed up, slept for about 12 hours, and then woke up perfectly fine.

My theory is that is brain is having hiccups. That's a stupid way to put it, I know. Otherwise I'd call it "God at work," because it's something the doctors can't explain once again. Austin's brain is a science in itself. Hey at least the docs don't get bored… I think it's trying to move the legs, but it somehow took up some memory space that was designated for some for other things. Now he's blanking some stuff completely, but he's moving his legs. That would confirm my theory again that when he seizes, something good happens in his brain, and he can do more things after than before. I was right. Can't wait to hear if he kicks one of his therapists… I wanna see that so badly! But on the other hand, now we have to start over with a few things. It's like Groundhog day. We're not starting at square one, we're just rewinding a bit and start over once again. So if he seizes again, we'll have to go through all the steps of explaining again? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind it. It's just strange. Really strange.

We got him back in his room earlier, in a wheelchair mind you, even though he was hurting, but he was sitting up. He just let out one or the other curse words… by the way, did Jay ever tell you what he told the nurses when they removed the drain from his foot the other day? Well I shouldn't repeat that, but he dropped the F-bomb on them several times. Yea he was in pain, but that's a heck of a way to verbalize it. And who got blamed for it???? Guess once!!! Yes, you're right. "Lee, you say that too much around him. He screams F*** at the nurses…" and how exactly is that my fault, I wonder? I would scream the same thing at them if they pulled some tube out of my foot. Oh… errr, I would say "ouch" too. Ahem.

Well I just got home after being down there all day. Jay was exhausted, and she got some sleep. So did Austin. I got some work done, and when he was awake, I showed him stuff on Facebook to stay entertained and tried to figure out if he knew who Punxsutawney Phil is….

I'm getting some more pictures together for him, because he wants to know all about the time he ran around on stages and sang to people. I guess I'll share the occasional picture here ;-) Since some of you started this new trend… might as well dig in the past, right??? Let's start with last week. --- ..

PS: Now that I look at those old pictures intensely, he has changed quite a bit. But hey, he's still the same guy. I guess it's just a slight difference if you're on tour or live in a Rehab clinic… how life can change.