Wednesday, January 18th

What comes next......

Now that Brandon is awake, many friends and family are asking the question "what comes next?"  Mom found a really great website that identifies 8 stages of a coma recovery and what we can expect as Brandon wakes up.  It is located at http://www.waiting.com/rancholosamigos.html.  We feel he is currently in between stage II and III of his progression. We are reminded by the doctors that Brandon's recovery will take some time and we can expect some up and down days.

Brandon had another MRI today of his brain and spine.  Dr R. says that the scan showed improvement!  He remains confident that Brandon will fully recover from this trauma in time.  The scan took approximately 4 hours and exhausted him for most of the day.  However, there were a few moments today when he did open his eyes.  One of the student nurses, who did not help with Brandon yesterday, assisted with the MRI today.  Halfway through the scan, while she was turning him, he suddenly opened his eyes! This startled her and she asked, "when did he start doing that?" He also opened his eyes for about 10 minutes this evening!

Another bit of great news today is that the biopsy from the mass removed from Brandon's brain came back as a benign cyst! This means that there should be no further treatment necessary in regards to this mass! 

Whoo-hooo!  You are on your way Brandon!

Citation
Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr./Los Amigos Research and Educational Institute (LAREI). (1990). While you are waiting...... Retrieved from http://www.waiting.com/rancholosamigos.html