Hey everyone. We have been home for a little over two weeks now. However, sometimes it feels like we haven't been home much at all. Our weekdays are usually filled with appointments split between Rochester and Mankato. Ryan does Occupational Therapy once a week and Speech/Language Pathology twice a week with follow-ups in Rochester mixed in with that. When he was discharged from the hospital, there was concerns about the fluid building up in his ventricles. This is somewhat related to a blood clot that formed in one of his sinuses in the back of the head. It is not completely blocked off, but enough to be causing a nuisance. The excess fluid build-up can increase the pressure in his head. However, he had a lumbar puncture and an eye appointment to make sure that that pressure was in check immediately after Ryan was discharged from the hospital, and everything was good. This past Tuesday, Ryan had his first follow-up appointment with neurosurgery. It was nice to be able to see the same person that followed him through his hospital stay. To say she is impressed by his recovery would be an understatement. This was the first time Ryan was able to see all of his scans that have been done & get a thorough explanation of his head injuries. The largest bleed was on the right side of his frontal lobe.The frontal lobes are involved in motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social behaviors. Now that the bleed has resolved, all that is left is dead space on that right side. Fortunately for Ryan, he is right handed. This means that his LEFT side of his frontal lobe is what does most of the work. Had he damaged that left side, we would be in a different situation. Ryan still struggles with his hearing in his left ear, as he fractured the temporal bone on both sides of his head. However, the right side was a little worse. He doesn't have severe hearing loss, it is just very muffled.. like a really bad ear infection. We have been told that this might get better, or it might not. At this same appointment, we went over the results of Ryan's 13th CT scan. Unfortunately, the fluid in his ventricles is continuing to increase. Ryan will have and MRI of the brain and an MRV of the brain (looks at the veins). He will also have another lumbar puncture, but this time they will pull some fluid off in hopes that his symptoms will improve. Ryan is still plagued with headaches after returning home. The worse case scenario is that Ryan will need a VP shunt, which involves surgery. A VP shunt is used to drain extra cerebrospinal fluid that circulates around the brain and spinal cord. The shunt takes the fluid out of the brain and moves it to an empty area in the abdomen, where it is absorbed by the body. However, we won't know of this will take place until after his tests in January. In the meantime, we are both hoping Ryan can return to work and return to driving after he is cleared by his therapies.