Penny (Price) Arnold and I went to Lubbock to see Trisha on Saturday. She is in University Medical Center and her husband, Gerald, is just across the way at Covenant.
Sally, Trisha's mother, was there when we got to the Trauma ICU. Trisha finally opened her eyes Friday night. She is on a ventilator hooked up through her trachea. She looks very good, the only outward signs of trauma are a scrape on the side of her face and temple, and her right arm is bandaged. I believe she has had skin grafts.
It is really too soon to tell anything, yet, is what I'm understanding from the different things I've heard. Although Trisha opened her eyes a few times, it wasn't like she was waking from sleep. She was never fully conscious.
Hospital personnel did a physical therapy session while we were there, and we stepped out of the room. Afterward the therapist told us that Trisha was where she should be for someone who had suffered this type of head trauma.
An interesting thing the therapist told us was that once the person has opened their eyes, you need to communicate with them in short sentences or maybe something as simple as thumbs up, thumbs down, because the patient needs more time to process what is going on around them, or to figure out what you're trying to say to them. I kind of felt stupid after the therapist told me that, because I had been talking a mile a minute to Trisha.
Sally said that Gerald is not on a ventilator and he is responding, but when he starts becoming fully awake, he is very combative and has to be sedated.
It looks like recovery is a long way out, and they're not even to the edge of the woods yet. Please keep them in your thoughts. If an address to send cards to or more news comes my way, I'll let you all know.
Please keep me updated on the status of the Claxtons... I met her through the grapevine and I was very sorry to hear that she was in an accident. My thoughts and prayers are with her & her family. Thank you for your blog.
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