Friday, July 17th 2009

This morning at Kindred Hospital Daniel's doctor (Dr.Clark) provided Cathy and I with extensive explanations on a couple of things that are of concern with Daniel.

Medication and Dosage:

Is Daniel's medication interfering with his recovery?
Why morphine and not adavant?

Morphine is preferred instead of adavant because adavant is a much more potent medication, and the amount of morphine being given to Daniel is minimal. The dosage is 2 milligrams of morphine for pain. If we give an individual with no health issues 2 milligrams of morphine it would not cause the person to fall asleep, it would most likely make them feel "happy" for a while, now if we were to give a person 2 milligrams of adavant, it would definitely knock them out for a while. The dosage Daniel receives does not impair his recovery, it is only for pain purposes and is only to be given to him when necessary. To avoid any misreading of his level of response, Daniel is not checked after medication has been provided.


Increased Heart Rate:

What is happening when Daniel's heart rate increases so much?

His bouts with an increased heart rate are a result of discomfort he is experiencing at the time. When he feels discomfort his body reacts by triggering adrenaline to his heart, thus his heart rate increases significantly. We should not be too concerned, it would only be a concern if Daniel was in his 50's and had previous heart issues, but that is not the case. Daniel is young and his heart is healthy, so he can handle his heart rate fluctuating like it does. It is similar to when we exercise, by doing so our body triggers adrenaline to our heart and the rate increases by a significant amount, and if we exercise for hours, it will remain at that increased rate with no danger to our health.


Dr. Clark was happy to note:

While at Kindred, Daniel's blood work has continually shown a normal count of white blood cells, this means he has had no infections of significance. If he had an infection his white blood cell level would fluctuate.

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Later that morning, Daniel's speech therapist (Deb) came in and worked with him while we observed. Deb used small pieces of ice in a cup to get Daniel to react to the cold cup in his hand and then she got him to swallow the melted ice on his own. It was good to see Daniel respond to Deb's therapeutic methods. Deb went on to explain that she believes Daniel is currently suffering from apraxia.

Apraxia is a neurological disorder characterized by loss of the ability to execute or carry out learned purposeful movements, despite having the desire and the physical ability to perform the movements. It is a disorder of motor planning which may be acquired by lesions in the language-dominant (usually left) hemisphere of the brain.

Deb will continue to work with Daniel to help him improve on this.


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Daniel's 35th Birthday is tomorrow July 18th 2009.

Happy Birthday Homie.


Peace,

Chuy