Visitors? (One finger for “Yes”)

YES. Join Gabe’s real life support team and make a big addition to his recovery. Gabe is just starting on a 1 to 4 year road to recovery. Friends will be needed the whole long bumpy way of it.

Gabe’s life was saved at San Francisco General. Those of you who visited at SFGH are in the very brave category of hospital visitor friends. You saw him with tubes, lines, IVs, and comatose. The most you could do was hold his hand and wonder with us “Will Gabe ever wake up?” Often you choked back the tears. Sometimes you cried with us. Except for some subtle eye opening and right hand movement he was “sleeping” 24/7.

Finally came the day when he reached for Inge’s valentine and put it on his lap. We cheered! We knew he would wake up and he did. The teary visits came to a stop.

Then Gabe moved to Kentfield Specialty and Rehabilitation hospital north of the Golden Gate bridge. Slowly, over the course of September through December he gained strength. He was levered into standing positions and touched the ceiling. He was transferred into a wheelchair and started to learn to move it with his strong right arm and hand. Outside he ran his hand over Kierie’s bike agreeing about various adjustments and proposed changes. Kierie and I were taught to sit him up in bed so that he could have extra time to work on balancing himself in sitting position. Gabe has a strong right side but a non working left side (as of now) so is still not “rolling” on his side or sitting himself up. Once sitting up he can balance in position with little or no propping. In Speech Therapy he learned to indicate “yes” and “no”, showed us he can read (but may have some double vision problems), pointed out letters on a letter board to form sentences, and with guidance started to write legible letters. In late December he started initiating conversations by questioning his medications and wanting to know where we were all going next.

Friends came and talked to him at bedside, outside in his wheel chair or when he was in the lobby or occupational therapy room. He would answer “yes” or “no” to their many questions. “Do you remember the _____ race? And the time we _______? And you were so happy that we ______? Visitors experienced the subtle smile of the “new” Gabe, his emphatic thumbs up, rapid “yes/no” finger answers and a lively set of raised eyebrows at a remembered outrageous memory. Toward the end they also saw him quietly “mouthing” his answers. He could whisper a mile a minute and so quietly we would still have to guess at his answer and fall back on the communication of one finger meaning “yes” and two fingers meaning “no”. The visitors who were patient, clever, and good at twenty questions could say when they left, “Our old Gabe is in there but this recovery thing sure isn’t like in the movies”.

Now Gabe is at Spaulding Rehab in Boston. The very day he arrived he was coming down with a potentially deadly drug reaction to a past medication. He was moved swiftly to Massachusetts General Hospital where he immediately stabilized and the rash concentrated on his mouth and soles of his feet leaving both blistered and sore. He was down for the count. Lethargic, feverish, lips and mouth sore as hell but still raising those vigorous answer fingers. Nicola, Allison, Tim, and Tyler who visited then were brave “hospital” visitors, quietly sitting at his bedside distracting him with “Do you remember when we _____? stories. He loved it and it helped him know this too would pass.

Now he is back at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Regaining his strength to the point of when we left California. Brain injury recovery is similar to bike racing in that both require tons of energy and leave Gabe exhausted. Therapy sessions are interspaced with power naps. He is the new kid on the block and is still being evaluated as to what he can do. Today Kierie and I should get approval to do bed sitting exercises. Respiratory therapy has him on the fast track to remove the trach and speaking valve that he breathes and speaks through. Fingers crossed that should be totally gone by Valentine’s Day. At that point he will be in training to get that whisper up to speaking volume. Then we will all know what he has been eager to tell us for the past month.

So potential and past visitor. If you are a friend who wants him to achieve his maximum recovery you must come. Now that he is East, Gabe needs support from his friends and relations. He is expecting you to come and see him. He needs to see with his own eyes his bigger community of friends is still there. Scienific research and our own personal research shows us that the patients who had the most caring and sensitive visitors improve the most. No pill replaces a visit and a hearty handshake and a look into those searching brown eyes. Also, Kierie and I need the boost that your visits bring.

Plan on coming a number of times. The first time come to assess the situation. See where Gabe is at. He will remember you and most of your shared memories. He will be alert or tired or power napping when you arrive and you take your chances on that. He should not be over stimulated and renting out a Fung Wah bus and a big welcome back east party group is not a good plan for now. Weekends are best, afternoon and evenings. On week days come in the evening because of therapy and power naps in the day time.

Then, if you want to keep up the support and friendship, come back for a second visit in about a month (or less) and see for yourself the rate of change Gabe will undergo at Spaulding. Kierie and I are close to the action and each new muscle that reawakes we immediately are on top of. But for you it will take a little passage of time to be able to say “Awesome, Gabe you are so much more able to ___ since I saw you last”.

Then, while we are still in Boston, make a third or more visits just to relax and enjoy yourselves ’cause in a month or two he will be communicating more easily and will have more abilities to show off. Finally, plan a fourth and subsequent visits to Gabe’s family farm in Winterport, Maine when he is through all his hospital and most of his outpatient rehab. For those of you from away, the Allens have plenty of bedroom space and Gabe will be relearning his partying skills. I am thinking drop-in pot luck dinners on Saturday nights would be a nice event for local Mainiacs. Gabe will be making the dessert. Moxie cupcakes it is!

Suggestion: Call Donna or Kierie before you come to see how many others are planning the same visiting date.

Directions:
Main Hospital Campus – 125 Nashua Street, Boston
Visiting hours are Monday-Friday, 1 pm. to 8 pm, and Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, 11 am to 8 pm. A maximum of four persons may visit at a time but 1 or 2 is better for Gabe.

Go to this link for directions. http://www.spauldingrehab.org/ourlocations/maincampus/directions

Those of you coming on the T, the closest stop is Science Park using the Green line. You must be on a Green Line T train that says “Lechemere” on the front for the train to actually go to and stop at Science Park. Then when you get off you can see the Spaulding building down river.