"I think you need to see this."

Our day began with Rob's Physical Therapy evaluation. That went pretty well. There are notable differences in the strength of his right and left sides, the left being considerably weaker. The plan for PT is to work on stretching, balance, and light strength retraining. We were given exercises for Rob to do at home to stretch out his hamstrings. We were also praised for doing the aquatic therapy, as his Physical Therapist says it'll be a tremendous help.
Thanks to my friendship with "Erika Jones", (haha) I got treated to a new pair of elasticized shoe laces so that I don't have to tie my sneakers. I have a difficult time tying and was only wearing Crocs. The therapists were appalled when they found that out, as they have very negative feelings about Crocs. The Occupational Therapist, Kara, took my sneakers today and changed my shoelaces to these nice elastic ones so I don't have to worry about tying. She doesn't want to hear of me wearing Crocs ever again. :P
Next, we spent four-and-a-half hours at the neurologist's office.
Dr. Smith diagnosed Rob as having Fourth Nerve Palsy in his left eye. This is effecting the eyeball being able to turn down and in, causing his double vision. Obviously, it's acquired, not genetic. Recovery from this is most likely going to take a year, but we're doing the right things. The treatment is the prism lenses glasses and following up with the ophthalmologist.
We discussed Rob's medications, particularly the one he's taking twice a day as an anticonvulsant. Dr. Smith suggested doing an EEG test and an MRI. He said if those tests came back okay, Rob would be able to discontinue that particular medication.
Dr. Smith is also sending Rob for a neuropsychology consultation, which our insurance will not cover. :S He's been wanting me to have one, too, but didn't send me for that reason. In Rob's case, however, it's pretty important to have it done.
The EEG and MRI were both done in Dr. Smith's office this afternoon. The EEG was first and went well. Rob had me take a picture of him with the probes stuck to his head. :P I've had a few EEG's in my lifetime and they were so much worse than Rob's was! Technology sure has changed. I prepared him for something much more uncomfortable.
Thinking things were pretty positive, we went down for Rob's MRI. I was sitting there, waiting patiently with Rob's metal belongings and Memory Book, when the MRI technician asked me about Rob's injury. I told her what happened and she asked if I had a CD of any head scans that had been done. Of course I did! Dr. Smith had already seen them, but I pulled the two CD's out with the head scans on them, feeling proud of myself for being all organized. ;)
Next thing I hear is, "Dr. Smith. I think you need to see this."
An immediate feeling of anxiety came over me. That's never a good thing to hear. I saw Dr. Smith walk up the hallway and into the MRI technician's area, but I couldn't really hear what they were saying to each other. I did finally hear Dr. Smith say, "I'll talk to his wife. She's right out here."
Another sentence that's usually not a good thing to hear.
He told me that Rob has "more than a little" bleeding in his right frontal lobe still. :( He told me that if UMASS had followed up, they would have seen that his bleed had gotten larger than the original CT Scan they did right after his accident. I always wondered why his head was never scanned again! Anyway, Dr. Smith told me UMASS would probably have had the neurosurgeon drain the bleed, since it's a pretty big clot. He doesn't know if surgically draining it would have been a good idea or not, and certainly wouldn't recommend it at this point.
Rob's recovery is definitely going to take a long time. I think things have been looking so positive lately that it was easy to forget the seriousness of his injuries. Dr. Smith assured us that there's nothing we've done that caused the increase in bleeding, and there's nothing we can do but give it time to heal. For now, his medications are going to have to stay the same. The only difference is that the area of the bleed will cause cognitive impairment, so Dr. Smith is holding off on the neuropsychologist consultation for a couple of months. We're going to inform Rob's Speech Therapist tomorrow at his therapy, too.
This scared me a lot. I'm going to try not to be overly nervous about things, but I'm definitely worried that his brain's still bleeding and that it's an area larger than everyone knew about this entire time. Dr. Smith will be following up with Rob in early November and will be doing another MRI to compare. One thing we were given a certain answer on is that Rob will not be returning to work any time in the foreseeable future.