DAY 3: In Good Spirits

Day 3

Monday

March 26, 2012

We are back at the hospital bright and early! This time I actually got up with enough time to get ready and have Starbucks! We didn’t get any bad news throughout the night and we got to catch up on a little bit of sleep!

We got to the hospital this morning and walked into Josh’s room. Josh is awake and ready to see us! The stroke that he had yesterday had not damaged his motor skills which is great news. But it did do I little bit of damage to a part that is called the “neglect” part of his brain. This is the part of the brain that makes your body aware of what is going on to both sides of your body without having to consciously think of what you are doing. So unfortunately his braining is “neglecting” the left side of his body, Josh isn’t able to extend his fingers out on his left arm unless he makes a conscious effort to do so. The good and bad thing about Josh is that he gets pissed easily and pushes himself to overcome the obstacles that are put in front of him so when he really thinks about it he can extend his fingers

I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone who knows Josh but he’s starting to get pissed and annoyed of people telling him what to do! Josh has always been the person to fly by the seat of his pants and ready for any type of new adventure but sitting on his butt in a hospital room isn’t ideal for his gotta move and be active kind of personality. He wants to get up and walk and put on his skates and shoot some pucks around which again I’m sure that’s not a surprise to people who know him!

I had a little alone time with my brother this morning, it was amazing just to be able to stand next to him and talk to him. Although he can’t respond with words most of the time I can understand what he is thinking. I think it might be our crazy brother and sister connection that we have! Of course like any big brother he has to put his sister in tears over something. But this morning they were good tears. He wanted to write and when I gave him a piece of paper he wrote “you look beautiful today, worth living for”. He definitely made me cry on that one! After I cried, I just talked to him about who has been coming to visit him. It was good to catch up with him even though he couldn’t really communicate with me! He went down form another head CT scan and since then has been doing well.

There really isn’t much to say today! No dramatic news which is good! Josh has been in good spirits for the most part today! Right now we are letting him get some rest to keep his blood pressure down! He has been having severe headaches and been uncomfortable to the hospital bed.

Dad did an interview with KXLY this morning and will be on the 6 pm news talking about Josh, so make sure to turn on your TV’s and watch that!

Josh really wants to see his friends, but is remaining in the ICU for the next few days. I am asking for his friends to send little positive notes to my Facebook inbox or even my email so I can put them in a little journal for Josh to read when he is healthy enough to read them! Please please please write notes for him! My email is kpickens10@gmail.com

Thank you for your prayers!