Update from Megan:

“Our time living at Shepherd Center is wrapping up and both Michael and I are so happy to be leaving. The therapy team has been amazing and done such a great job but at the end of the day living in a hospital is taxing on both of us. 

We’ll be moving into a new routine of outpatient therapy two days a week but I hope to supplement that with other therapy sessions outside of our insurance plan. Michael has maintained such joyful spirit throughout all of this - it helps that he can’t quite remember how long he’s been away, but it’s still a gift! 

Prayer requests:

1. Please pray for Michael’s sleep. It’s been pretty poor overall. This is common in brain injury patients as his circadian rhythm is out of wack. And he is still disoriented at night after he’s been sleeping a bit. I spent the night with him in the hospital training room and he was up from 1:30am on. It was pretty miserable. I surprisingly had patience with him but I know that won’t last if this is what it will be like at home. 

2. Michael’s defibrillator has been making him very uncomfortable. It hurts him throughout the day and definitely at night. The incision site is on his side under his arm and the actual device is tucked into a muscle. He can’t lay on that side anymore without pain. 

3. Pray that his working memory and short term memory advances and gains continue. The doctor took him off Aricept for a second time yesterday because now the EKG showed prolonged PR waves (I think that’s right - I am running on 4 hours of sleep here remember?). So the medication appears to be effecting his heart in a way his doctor is not comfortable with. 

4. Pray for our transition home! I decided against an intermediate facility for neuro behavioral patients and I am confident that was the right choice for Michael. However, I am certainly not confident that all will be easy back at home. 

I was able to purchase our plane tickets back thanks to everyone’s generosity with the gofundme. As the initial medical bills start rolling in, I am continually so grateful for how this community has held us during this time. 

5. Lastly, pray for me. I am not certain how to articulate it but I am missing the whole person that Michael is to me, to our family, to his friends. I fully believe his healing is still progressing and hope that in time all the dots will have reconnected. I think the weight of sole responsibility for everything in life just feels like a lot right now when I used to share it beautifully with my partner. 

As we have been receiving training for moving back home, the therapy team has given us a list of items we’ll need to have. I created an Amazon wish list for them because I know some of you are asking how to help and this is truly a help to me.”