Day 4: Mikey the Ramblin' Man

Today was an especially productive day as Mikey demonstrated to us in more than one way that he was understanding what we were trying to communicate to him. By this time he had tried to remove the ventilator, successfully removed nasal gastric tube, and his catheter was next. Though he could no longer scoot his body down to rip that wretched tube from his urethra he could scoot his butt from side to side to get it closer to his hands. We caught him trying to pull at it and told him to hold his hands to his sides. Instead of going after his catheter from the front the sneaky little rascal decided to try to get to it from the back. As he was reaching around under his butt mom asked him "Does your butt itch?" He nodded his head to say yes and the nurse was thoroughly impressed so she came over to assist him. Next he exclaimed "something under there." At the precise moment when the nurse lifted him up on his side he let out a 4 day fart and relaxed. He eventually succeeded at the removal of his catheter; don't worry ladies he will still be fully functional! While talking to me and Dad he said "here boy" and attempted to whistle but his dry, chapped lips only allowed the sound of air to come out. Dad asked him what he thought about spraying the ditch at Carillon Lakes with herbicides and he said "F--- it." At one point mom said he told her that he is "not gonna be bad any more." One of the nurses said he mumbled "Lakeland Regional Medical Center" when she asked him if he knew where he was. He talks about trying to catch the snake; he caught a huge one while at work a few days before the accident. He is trying to get out of his bed despite being tied down by his wrists. He succeeds at scooting his body down and draping his legs off the side of the bed. We bent him at the knees, put his feet on the board at the foot of the bed and told him to push by saying "make your legs strong." He pushed with all of his might and got himself back into his upright position. Though his speech is not his strong suit, his motor functions are powerful and strong which indicates that he may not need much physical therapy.