Finally... The Video Walking Out of Rehab

Sorry Guys... The video is a litle fuzzy and it rotates a few seconds into it. More videos to come... His recovery is amazing...

Robert Comes Home

After a 3 month stint in the hospital and in rehab, Robert walked through the doors to his future; a future that was almost taken from him when that bullet went through his brain. It is amazing... God is good and my brother is a living, breathing example of the miraculous work of my savior. Prayers have been answered and there are so many emotions that I am filled with that it is hard to write this.

Now, that he has made it out of rehab the real work begins. Our journey has really just begun. I don't know how life is going to be now but I am just willing to accept it with open arms. Robert went from only moving his right arm to now being able to walk on a walker, wheel himself in a wheelchair, dance, laugh, talk, read, write, dress himself, and bathe himself. It is wonderful being able to watch this. But now we have to keep him motivated, keep pushing him to do more and make sure that while he is home he is not stagnant. He must move and must continue his therapy regimens.

So we, as a family, have a lot of work ahead of us. Robert has a lot of work ahead of him. It is going to be hard and even frustrating at times but I know that we will get through this. My family sticks together through thick and thin. God could not have blessed me with a better group of people. So with the support system Robert has I think, better yet I know that we will come out of this on top as with everything our family does.

Robert said from the very beginning that he was going to walk out of rehab...and he lived up to his words…so watch him do his thing!!!

So I have been trying to post the video but it won't work but I will try and post it when blogger wants to act right.

It's About Time

Well, It has been a minute since I have updated the blog. I have been having trouble uploading the videos that I want everyone to see, it was graduation week and Robert had a seizure. A lot has happened since the last entry and Robert has of course been making great progress... Below is a video of him walking backward on his walker and a video of him walking on Mother's day with his Aunt Marilyn and his father. I will try my hardest to post the other videos...so keep a look out for them... Right now, here are some brief entries that tracked some of his progress during my time away from the blog.... Enjoy!

Our Minor Set Back
May 3, 2009

We are back in the main hospital again. I didn’t think that we would see this place again. So, once again we are sitting in the family waiting room holding down the fort. This time we had a new family in the waiting room who were just as loud and commandeering as we are. So we shared the room just this one time. Aside from the DVD player, the bed mats and the array of food, this waiting room feels the same as the last time. The emotions are still the same, stifling and impatience and prayer circles and laughter. All the same.

Robert had a seizure…A grand mal seizure… He had four of them…the first was a mild silent one. He said he felt like he was trapped in his own mind. He heard people talking to him but he wanted to respond but he couldn’t, he was stuck. He was rushed to the ER where he had three more seizures. He had to be sedated to control his seizures. He was sent to ICU for observation after he was stabilized. We didn’t like seeing him like this. We felt and prayed that this wouldn’t set him back. He had his hopes set on attending my graduation and being out of rehab for a day. We were hoping that he would be able to make it back to rehab in time to see the ceremony.

May 4, 2009

Robert woke up…he is remembering what happened to him and is trying to adjust to being in ICU. He does not like it one bit. His vitals are fine. He is stable and no longer needs the care of the ICU nurses. So an order has been placed in his file to move him to a regular room until he is released to the rehab. However, we have to wait for a bed to come available for him to move. So he may not move today…

May 5, 2009

They moved Robert to a room finally…It is an individual room no bigger than a small closet. Its quite antique. The bed needs some oil because it squeaks loudly everytime you adjust the bed. The mattress is hard, the food is horrible and my brother is not happy. He is agitated, frustrated and upset. He thinks that because he had the seizure that it is setting him back from his therapy. They said he can be transferred to the rehab and the doctor has signed the order for him to be released.

May 6, 2009
Still at the main hospital and Robert is more agitated that ever before. There is no calming him down… I hate this.

May 7, 2009
Still at the main hospital… this is becoming unbearable for everyone.

Due to lack of staff presence and doctor orders being put in at the right time, Robert was not sent back to rehab until Friday May 8, 2009. His doctor hadn’t had a chance to evaluate him and he was not able to attend the actual graduation but he was cool about it. He watched the ceremony on television and got a surprise visit from me before I went to line up.

We were glad that he was back in rehab because he was so ready to get back t his therapy. He has been ready to walk and play the Wii and see his therapists and sleep in his “sealy posterpedic” bed. He was ready to see his favorite nurses and take a shower. His entire attitude changed once he was finally transferred. I was happy to see his smile again, to see and hear him laugh and to watch the positive spirit return to him. It is amazing.

May 18, 2009

Here is a little update since Robert has been released from his bout in the main hospital...it seems like he is stronger and better than before he had the seizure. He has been sittting up on the side of the bed without any assistance. He is remembering telephone numbers and can recite them without any mistakes. He has mastered his telephone pad and has now begun calling the numbers he remembered with no assistance. I must say I was shocked to get an exciting phone call today from him because he finally dialed my number.

He is walking better, seeing better and overall feeling better. He is not taking any pain or sleep medicine any more. Just his seizure medicine and medicine for muscle stiffness and his clonis. Everyday there are new developments in his recovery and everyday he makes everyone see that their prayers have been answered.

I love the fact that he takes joy in the simplist things...seeing you smile, makes him smile... A visit, a phone call, bringing him funyuns or sweets or food for that matter makes him very happy. Robert's personal goal aside from the goals that he set in rehab is to get fat. Last week he weighed 138.9 pounds and as of Sunday he is 144 pounds. He is looking chubby in the face and he is steadily trying to get thick. He says he wants to weigh 250 pounds... So, he tries to eat as much as he can and as many times a day as he can. Today he had 20 nuggets from Chick-fil-a and a turkey sandwich. After an hour passed he ate a pecan swirl... If he hears you opening a wrapper, or chewing on something he wants some too depending on what it is.

All in all... we are moving on the right track. Robert has a projected release date of June 4, 2009. So he is working hard and determined to walk out the doors of rehab on that date. It is still amazing to watch him in action and to watch his recovery period. Sometimes I am at a loss for words because he does so much. Anyway, I have written enough...Enjoy the videos!!! Oh, the videos from my phone are sideways, I tried to rotate them but I couldn't so just bear with me!

It's Been A Long Time...

It has been about two weeks since my last post... I know, it has been a long time. Of course you all know I could not leave you in suspense much longer... I asked Robert if he wanted to do the blog update and he agreed. However, he is doing his message as a campaign speech for the rehab center. Well, here it goes...

I am Robert Obama and I am running for president of the rehab center. Since I have been a patient here I have noticed a few things that need addressing... I am all about change. Although, we do not have a patients council here I believe it is high time that we start one. So, as a patient here, I am running as the first black president of the rehab center. If elected as your president I will ensure that patients will have quality food from the cafeteria and a choice to eat from the grill or the caff. As your president I will ensure that each patient will be drop free and have a pleasant recovery here. As your president I will make sure that we bring some spirit into this dead place... We need to stop being so serious and have a sense of humor and add some comedy and laughter in this dry place. We need to have socials, meet and greets and become acquainted with each other a little more. I think that will help with our therapy and recovery.
I love our rehab therapists they are great at their jobs. For the last couple of weeks they have helped me work on my memory; assisted me in walking with the harness, on the parallel bars and the local mat; tested me on my reading comprehension; worked with me on dressing myself without assistance; and finally worked with me on my stand pivot transfers from the bed to the chair. All the therapist need is the patients cooperation and willingness to achieve the weekly goals set for them.

As your president I want to make sure that each patient is motivated to do each therapy session because the therapists can not assist you in your recovery if you do not want to recover yourselves.

Here at the rehab center we have excellent nursing care. Ms. Jennifer who not only makes sure you are comfortable and every need is met she takes an interest in your life and your recovery. Ms. Freda who can lift me in 2.5 seconds and make me laugh. She makes sure that I am entertained and no one bothers me. Ms. Freda, the picture is coming soon. Ms. Deborah, who escorts me to the eye doctor and makes sure I laugh and forget about the long wait to be seen. Ms. Claudette, she keeps everything clean and in order. Nothing is out of place with her. These are just a few exemplary ladies who deal with me on a daily basis. They work so well with me and other patients. As your president, I want to make sure that we keep staff on hand like these ladies at all times.

So as I advocate for a change in the policies here at the rehab center, I need your help as well. I need your help to not only elect me as your president but to also to an active role in your therapy. Use me as your example…Every goal that is set, I meet it every week. I have my family who take an active role in my recovery by visiting all the time and far and wide. Even my cousin Connie came from Laurinburg, NC just to see me along with my little cousin from Florida. It feels good to be loved and you all can feel the same way too.
There is one more thing I would like implemented as your president. We need to have a regular church service held here on Sundays for those patients who like to attend a worship service. We need to relish in our religion and feel the presence of our Lord always.
Since we are speaking about change… My mother is my first lady because she is the number one lady in my life. So in absence of my wife (which I do not have at the moment) my mother is gladly taking the place. My sisters are my campaign managers and keep me on task as the presidential candidate of the rehab center. Also, in my cabinet there is a place for my Des Babe… She keeps me loved and supports me in ways that my mom and sisters can not do.
Before I go, I want to leave you with one thing thought… We are a community of patients needing the best rehab this hospital can provide. I am advocating for change, we need a change in policy, a change in patient outlook and a change in ourselves.
I am Robert Obama and I approve this message.

So, there you have it! A lovely speech by my brother…working hard in therapy and keeping his mind open to bigger and better things.

Halfway There

We are halfway there. Robert’s doctors estimated that he would be in rehab for 12 weeks. We have hit the 6th week mark and as usual Robert continues to progress. It seems like with each passing day his spirit grows a little stronger, his will to recover gets a little bit thicker and his determination to surpass the doubts of his doubters is off the charts.

He has learned to control his emotions a little more and being sad is no longer an option. He quickly lets people know, “don’t come in here telling me what I can’t do, don’t down me. You are supposed to be here to encourage me, to assist me in getting through this.”

You know there are always those faithful few who want to be your biggest supporters but yet tear you down instead of building you up. Robert doesn’t want that negative energy around him. He is capable to fight his verbal battles alone now, no longer is he letting me or Donna do it. He lets us along with our Mother to fight the battle with the medical staff.

At any rate, this past week he has had an increase in therapy sessions and has started combating other obstacles in his recovery. On he finally moved his toes. He has been trying to move his toes since he was hospitalized. Now he is working to crack his toes (which he loves and use to do all the time.)

On Tuesday, Robert gave love lessons to his younger cousins. He told them, “wrap it up, and don’t be concerned about picking the right girl right now because these girls right now don’t even know how to be the right girl. Enjoy your youth, when the time comes for you to find your forever; you will know it’s her. Once you find that right one, just hold on to her.” Aside from love lessons, he stretched his legs out real good and worked on pushing himself up in the bed by using the bed rails and no assistance from nurses, techs or family members.

Walking Wednesday, Robert walked on a walker.

He was very excited about that but he said, “I will be more excited to walk by myself.” He stretched some more today, his muscles tighten up a lot so he has to work and stretch his legs and arms to keep his muscles loose. He had group therapy today as well. He was read a paragraph and he had to summarize what he heard and had to answer a couple questions afterwards.

On Thursday he worked on standing up and transferring from his chair to the bed using the stand pivot combo and the squat pivot combo. His friends came and visited and they had a semi freestyle studio session in the atrium. Robert was giving God thanks for his life, and rapping about how well he has recovered he even amazed himself. His friends promised to bring the keyboard and some beats in for them to have a real freestyle session.

Friday he had fun. He worked on puzzles and played basketball. His recreational therapist promised that she would bring the Wii in for him to play that. He worked extensively on remembering all of his therapists’ names. He has gotten better with recognizing them and saying their names with little or no prompting.

Surprise…surprise…Robert’s New York family surprised him with a visit today and he was overjoyed and excited. He let me trim his beard today so he wouldn’t be a wolf for too much longer. He chilled today, not much therapy.
Sunday, Easter Sunday… Robert went to church. The rehab center had service and Robert was escorted to service by the New York crew, our uncle and Dad. He was had visitors all day long. We had a big Sunday dinner that our Aunt Edwina catered. We enjoyed mac & cheese, ham, baked chicken, rotisserie chicken, sweet potatoes, collard greens, homemade corn muffins, potato salad and stuffing. For desert we had apricot rum cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Robert refused to eat the cake because it had rum in it… no drinking for him. He joked saying, if he eats the cake we would be sticking a spoon in his mouth to stop him from swallowing his tongue. “I’m seizure free and I will remain that way,” he said.

All in all Robert had a great week. He enjoyed his visitors, his therapy and reveled in the fact that he is still alive and that accounts for everything. He is a blessing everyday and I can’t stop thanking God for all the blessings and miracles he has bestowed upon my family and my friends.

Stepping Stones

Hello followers of Robert’s progression…

These last two weeks have been rough trying to write and post progress stories on the blog because my laptop broke and Robert has been improving so much that when you are visiting with him he demands all of your attention. Every little thing you do he questions or want you to come sit beside him. He is still keeping everyone on their toes with laughter and his constant appetite. You would think that he would be fat by now because of everything he eats. He is putting on some weight but he had lost so much weight that it’s hard for some to see him getting chubby. His last weigh in he weighed 148 pounds. I will let you all know how many more pounds he has gained since then.

Well, without further adieu, here is Robert’s two week update:

So far Robert spent one week in ICU, one week in the main hospital, and five weeks in rehab. Robert has transformed from a comatose state to a very mobile and continuous evolving state. As mentioned before, while in ICU Rob was only moving his right arm. However, with therapy and healing time Robert can now feed himself, sit at the sink and wash his hands, he is beginning to see colors and shapes, he is remembering details and retaining information.

For the past two weeks in rehab Robert has really progressed. His vision has improved, he is walking more without the use of the harness and he is also becoming more aware of his left side. He is learning how to handle his muscle spasms and to control his emotions. And we have had two weeks fall/drop free. He is coming along very well.

During a meeting with his entire rehab medical team we learned a lot about Robert’s injuries, his impairments and his overall goals with each therapist. He is classified as having TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). The bullet damaged Robert’s frontal and parietal lobe. The frontal lobe is associated with reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving and the parietal lobe is associated with movement, orientation, recognition, and perception of stimuli. He is prone to mood swings, seizures, and muscle spasms. He is taking medication to prevent seizures and headaches and to control his spasms.

We also learned that Robert has spasticity; this is when the muscles tighten or contract because the brain is over firing and sending continuous messages to the muscles to tighten. Through therapy and slight medication he is learning how to handle himself when this occurs. Robert also suffers from spatial awareness. He is not certain of his body’s position in space. His vision is another impairment and during the assessment Robert was only seeing bright lights and limited colors. Now he can describe what you have on, what you are doing, where you are in reference to him. He has been watching TV and even went on a movie date with Destiny on Sunday. They saw Slum Dog Millionaire in the Atrium of the rehab center.

In therapy he is learning how to cope and overcome his impairments. For his spasticity, his therapist has him walking on a harness assisted machine on the track, and rolling on the mat and walking with out the harness. For his short term memory he has been using reverbalization or repetition. At first Robert was not aware of the day and date. Now he can tell you what day it is and estimate around what time it is. He also gets stuck on a word and he has learned to talk around what he doesn’t remember in order to get him to find the word he wants to use. He is also participating in group therapy during lunch that helps him remember things and process his progress.

Because of vision impairment he is learning new ways to find his food on his plate by tapping his utensil on the table until he has located his food. He is learning how to dress himself and clean himself with out assistance and with limited vision. He is also working on tactile cueing and verbal cueing when transferring from one surface to the next.

All in all, Robert is really overcoming many obstacles. He has a positive attitude and his determination to get back to himself and back to laying pipe is keeping him going. He is doing amazingly well with everything that he undergoes.

It is truly remarkable how well God works. He shows me and my family everyday what he can do for his people. I know I can speak for the entire family when I say we are very thankful for all these blessings that God has bestowed on this family. We have stones thrown in our way so we can step on them and rise to the occasion. Every obstacle that we have encountered this past year is nothing more than stepping stones.

Robert's Fifth Week

It has been five weeks since Robert has been in the hospital, three of the five he has spent in rehab. As stated before, he does so much everyday. He is retaining information better, learning to cope with his headaches as to not become dependent on pain medicing and he is feeding himself and sitting in the chair longer. He is just doing so much that often times I forget to document every little thing he does.

You never know how precious something so small seems such as the simple act of touching your hands or blinking your eyes. Imagine watching someone who was only able to move one arm make a quick turnaround and can move every limb... Watching my brother recover is an amazing process. I know I can speak for my entire family when I say we take things for granted in life and we have all learned to appreciate everything we have and can do...complaining doesn't exist anymore...

Anyway, here is what happened with him this week:

Monday:

Robert had a rough day today. I was able to sit in therapy with him. During his physical therapy he lifted a foam thing in sets of 15 and held for 5 seconds above his head…
He played catch with his friend. He was working on strengthening his left arm, gripping the ball, releasing it and gripping it again.


Tuesday:

Robert walked today. He said he was walking and ready to run. He enjoyed his therapy today, he is gripping juice bottles and drinking without a straw now. He is doing very well… Dancing and moving his body much more. You wouldn’t even think that just a month ago he could only move his right arm. He has hot and cold flashes often which make it difficult for him to get comfortable while trying to rest.

Wednesday:

Laying flat on his stomach atop a mat, Robert worked on doing push ups and learning how to work one on one with his occupational therapist. He had a heavy day today… working with his physical therapist 3 times, therapeutic recreation twice, and speech therapy once and occupational therapy twice. He was so tired by the end of therapy that he just rested.

Thursday:
He rolled…and rolled and rolled. During his therapy today he had to lay flat on his stomach and stretch his limbs and rolled. He rolled until he got dizzy. He said he rolled until he couldn’t roll anymore. He rode on an exercise bike for about 7 ½ minutes without anything holding him up or anyone assisting him.

Friday:

With the assistance of the walking robot…Robert was walking again. He was quite the comedian this day… No need to repeat everything he said but once again, he had the entire room in tears.

Saturday:

Today, Robert listened to a lot of songs and had a few visitors. He sat in chair for a while. His therapy was not as strenuous as his therapy during the week… He had physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. He is doing so well.

Sunday:
The weather was nice today so we took Robert outside. We had an early morning conversation today where he requested to go to church. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to take him off the premises so I told him I would play a sermon online for him. However, my Pastor said he would bring church to Robert one Sunday… I can’t wait to see how he enjoys that. When I got the hospital from church today my sister and I sang some songs with him and he enjoyed that a lot. He even started clapping like our Grandfather use to clap back in church. He was enjoying himself today.