Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Justin 10 Day Update

"10 days:

Thank you to everyone on "the Fish" and in the longboarding community who have been so involved in Justin's recovery. You've been great!

Although Justin is out of the ICU and off of most of the monitors and life support, he is far from recovered. He still needs a feeding tube since he can't be counted on to swallow past his airway, and his strong, uncontrolled movements require him to be strapped to his bed. His eyes open but they don't track or focus yet and he doesn't respond to verbal prompts or directions yet, except for once last Friday when he said his name and again on Saturday when he said both his first and last names. So far, those three words are all we've gotten from him. This is all to be expected while his brain injuries heal themselves, but we're anxiously waiting for him to come to and talk to us.

He had orthopedic surgery on his broken pelvis yesterday where they discovered that his whole right illiac crest had separated from the pelvis in addition to the several small broken pieces we had already known about. A plate and a couple pins put him back together, and they reattached some tendons and muscles.

His liver laceration seems to be healing, and he appears to have recovered full motion, mobility and reflex movements although he's still slower and weaker on his right side. We're hoping for a full recovery, but it's going to take some time before we know.

We appreciate the cards, letters and visits he's gotten so far although Justin hasn't been aware of them yet. Either Carol or I read his messages to him and hope he can hear them. I'm sure he'll read them all and respond when he comes around. His mother and I had to trade places last Saturday, so I'm back at home in Virginia now and Carol is at the hospital with him.

Thanks again for caring.

Drew"
Best of luck to you Justin and thank you Drew for keeping us updated.

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