A month in March 18th

Good morning: hope everyone has recovered from their St. Patrick's day celebrations. I know that  Jehan, Charlotte, and Maggie enjoyed their weekend in Southie!!!

I also know St. Patrick, Bobby, and my mother were showering 9C at the Brigham with the "luck of the Irish".  Greg's day didn't begin well, but as the day went on, the Greg we all love and know began to emerge. As you know, he can always bring laughter to a room, and today was full of those moments.  He did not always know he was doing it and will likely have no recollection of the day......but we will!!

After refusing to recognize or speak to Jill ( Ii think sometimes he is playing us) he began to get more alert, conversant, and really quite the comedian.  We refer to him on days like this as "pleasantly confused".

John and Ann visited today. He knew them as soon as they walked in. When the nurse showed him his growing collection of golf balls, and asked what he would do with them he replied,  "I have no idea".   He even squared off against Donna in a game of War.  Although he didn't  last through one deck of cards, and had to get a little assistance, he did very well.  Donna came home last night and practiced for today's match.

I have gotten a bit of harassment from our family and friends for my self proclaimed aptitude of Neuroscience. This weekend my understanding of this science was clearly more evident.  I gave Jill, Jehan, Donna, and a few nurses, my theory on the annoying presence of an occasional fruit fly on he ICU.  I suggested, as they openly laughed, that the flies were present as a result of laboratory studies being conducted by the Neurology department.  It wasn't until I backed up this theory with medical literature about the use of fruit flies at the Brigham to study Parkinson's Disease and several other neuro disorders. I think they need to apologize and recognize that after a month in he ICU I am learning a bit.

Greg slept pretty well last night. It was perhaps the best nights sleep he has had in a while. We got him into a chair this morning and he is still sleeping.  Breakfast will wake him I m sure.

The drain will likely be raised today but not clamped.  Based on that, the best case scenario would be getting Greg out of the ICU by the end of the week.  As we have learned though, he is always capable of tossing us curve balls.

Have a great day!

Mike