Tony hit the half way point today for his out patient therapy. He has done 4 weeks with 2days a week. He has 4 more weeks left. He is very anxious to be done with them. After the 4 weeks are done he should be able to take the drivers training at Rancho and start driving again. Tomorrow afternoon he has an appointment with the neurologist. He has been taking anti seizure medication as a precaution since the accident. He got an EEG a couple of weeks ago that came back normal with out signs of seizure activity so we are hoping the neurologist will stop the medication. It is the only medication Tony is taking and he will be glad to be rid of it. His speech therapist said usually it is the gun shot victims that are prone to the seizures . We are fairly certain he will be taken off the medication within the year, but the sooner the better.
One Of Tony's therapists asked Tony if he would participate in a panel of survivors at the end of a conference they were hosting at Rancho on Saturday. I got to go to the conference from around 9am until 5 pm. It was really for therapists and nurses so it was a great opportunity for me to get a real taste of what is happening from the therapists point of view. One of the speakers was talking about one the the therapies Tony has been receiving in physical therapy. They had him moving and turning his head if different directions. I found out that was to get little particles out of the fluids in his ear canal that can cause problems with equilibrium. apparently they only need to do the exercise a few times to get the particles out. It only works with trauma patients because the particles are there because of severe shaking, not with people who have the particles because of illness because the cause of it is different.
From 4 to 5 pm they had the panel discussion. Tony and his partner in therapy as well as two other young men who had been patients in the past were on the panel. All 4 of the men were around Tony's age. All of them had very good recoveries. They also asked the parents if they would be on the panel for another prospective. They then had the audience ask what ever questions they wanted to ask. Tony did very well.