by: Marty Chrisman

Bo was back at the hospital early the next day. Daisy had to work and Jesse had to take care of the work that had been sadly neglected on the farm since the accident. So Bo had borrowed Jesse’s truck and come to Atlanta alone. It was the first time he’d actually driven since the accident. He was a little apprehensive at first but that feeling quickly disappeared once he hit the road.

At the hospital he sought out Doctor Malone to get some answers of his own about Luke’s condition. Somewhat cautiously, Doctor Malone ushered the youngest Duke cousin into his office.

“I wanna know exactly what you know so far about Luke’s condition.” Bo said, refusing the doctor’s offer of having a seat. He preferred to stay standing.

“Alright….he does have some brain damage both from the head injury and the stroke. The area of the brain that is affected is the area controls speech which he can’t talk right now and it also controls his coordination and his balance, as well as some fine motor skills. Basically, that means that he will have to relearn how to keep his balance again when he’s walking or standing up and he will also have to relearn some fine motor skills….how to feed himself using a fork and a spoon for example.”

“But he can do that, right?”

“It will take time but yes, he can relearn how to do these things. The brain is a pretty amazing thing. Other part of his brain will take over for the parts that were injured and relearn the skills that the injured part handled.”

“How much time?”

“That depends on a lot of things including Luke’s own will power and motivation. It could be weeks, could be months, it could even be years. He will have to have speech therapy and physical therapy both to help him relearn these skills and it’s not going to be easy. Even though he can’t speak right now, his mind is still functioning more or less normally and he knows what he wants to say, he just can’t say it. This is going to lead to a lot of anger and frustration on his part. Now he can communicate by writing notes but that involves some fine motor skills so anything he writes right now may not be very legible but the therapy department has some things that will help out with that..”

“Anything else?”

“He may have some loss of memory and changes in his behavior because of the stroke and the head injury but these problems should correct themselves in time.”

“Did you find out why he had the seizure yesterday?”

“Yes, it was an allergic reaction to the morphine drip so I’ve had that discontinued and I’ve put him on Depakote temporarily just to be on the safe side.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s an anti-seizure medication. And that is only a precaution for now.”

“Are you giving him something else for the pain?”

“Yes, just not morphine.”

“Do you have any idea how soon he can get out of here?”

“It will probably be two or three weeks yet at least. I want to start him on therapy first.”

“What about his other injuries, the broken bones, the surgeries…”

“Those injuries are all healing nicely. That was the main reason for putting him into the medically induced coma for two weeks to give his body time to rest and get stronger so he could start getting better faster.”

“But you said he’s still awfully weak.”

“And he is and that’s partly because of some of his injuries but mainly because he’s bedridden for almost a month. You begin to lose muscle tone very quickly in the arms and legs when you don’t use them for any extended length of time. But again, physical therapy will address those issues.”

“Okay.” Bo said, nodding his head, satisfied with the doctor’s answers. “Can I see him now?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, we may be moving him out of the ICU later today.”

Bo nodded and left the doctor’s office to go and see his cousin.