Quintin: June 5:

What Happened to Quintin?

On April 26, 2010 Quintin experienced what may have been a cerebellar stroke. While crossing the street with his best friend, Quintin fell backward and hit the back of his head on a curb. He was unconscious for several moments, then was able to walk, with assistance, the short distance back into the building. After showing signs of a serious concussion he was taken in an ambulance to Legacy Emanuel hospital.

He was in the ICU at Emanuel until his 29^th birthday, June 5, when he was stable enough to transfer to the hospital’s Trauma Care Unit (TRACU). After nearly a month in TRACU he moved to Vibra Specialty Hospital in Portland.

At the end of October Quintin moved to an adult foster care home in Vancouver, WA. He has excellent around the clock nursing care from a team of people who believe in his potential to make positive progress toward recovery.

At times he seems alert and “awake,” other times not. He still has a tracheostomy tube in his throat and is sometimes on a ventilator to assist with his breathing. He is able to breathe independently; when he's on the vent it's usually there as a precautionary back up when he has a fever or needs his energy for something else that's going on. The trach does not allow air to pass over his vocal cords, but speech therapists can periodically check to see if he’s made progress towards being able to speak.

When he fell his occipital bone was broken, causing a brain bleed. The bleeding obscured the injured area, so we may never know the cause of the fall. It took several months for the internal swelling around the injury to subside. Now that the swelling is gone, CT scans have shown that there are damaged areas in the cerebellum, pons, and brain stem. Typically, brain tissue does not grow back, but it IS possible for connections in the brain to reform, and that’s what we are patiently waiting for now.

June 5:

Happy birthday to Quintin! As the Stirlings said, this guy really knows how to celebrate a birthday. And I’m not even being sarcastic here, there’s some really good news this week!

As Adrian said, he’s off the vent, which is an excellent step. The other big news is that Quintin had an EEG (a test that measures electrical activity in the brain). The results showed no seizures (which is truly wonderful news) and no “focal abnormalities”, that is, areas of inactivity in the brain. There is “diffuse slowing”, which basically means that all over his brain the signals travel slower than they would for you or me. This is completely expected for the state he’s currently in. Dr. Chen (the neurosurgeon) remains very optimistic, and so do we.

So raise a glass to Quintin today and let’s celebrate breathing!

13 comments:

darrel said...: June 5, 2010 at 11:53 AM; this is great news LJ, thanks for the blog and thanks for being who you are. q & all of us are fortunate to have you in our lives. happy birthday to your sweet man.

breathing is good.

i love you

d
Unknown said...: June 5, 2010 at 1:42 PM; Happy birthday Q! Thanks for the positive news, Adrian and Laura.
aprildivapoe said...: June 5, 2010 at 2:48 PM; Happy birthday Q! We are celebrating you today. Love to you and your lovely girl.
We love you both.
~April n Eric
judyplap said...: June 5, 2010 at 4:26 PM; Thank you so much, Laura, for sending me the blog link. Sending you and Q all my encouragement and support. Breathing on his own is great news. Hope you're taking care of yourself too. Love, Judy P.
Michael said...: June 5, 2010 at 7:00 PM; We will definitely raise our glasses to Quintin! We knew he could do it. Love, Ellen, John, Mike, Rob, Pete and Brooke.
Aly said...: June 6, 2010 at 7:54 AM; Celebrating you this weekend, Q. SO proud of all the healing you're doing. Next year, biggest birthday party EVER.
Unknown said...: June 6, 2010 at 5:55 PM; This is all so encouraging! So happy to be able to keep up with all the progress.
wendy said...: June 7, 2010 at 10:06 AM; happy, happy, happy! Just keep swimming my lovelies! We are all paddling right beside you!
xo
Brian Forrester said...: June 7, 2010 at 4:16 PM; Happy birthday Quintin! We love you and miss you! Keep pulling through buddy!
Unknown said...: June 7, 2010 at 8:35 PM; I'm so glad to hear the good news about Quintin. I knew he was going to pull through. Keep it up Quintin!
Mama Bee said...: June 8, 2010 at 10:41 AM; Happy Birthday, Q! I know we've never actually met, but when you wake up you'll find that I've kind of taken over/adopted your family! :) The Boths send our love! xoxox Maegan, Rick, Bridget and Bennett
Unknown said...: June 8, 2010 at 6:29 PM; Happy Birthday Q-Ball, sorry we're a few days late.
Siobhán and I think of you often and are hoping for a speedy recovery.

Love,
Tad, Siobhán, PupPup & Tater
Unknown said...: June 9, 2010 at 2:06 PM; Happy late b-day wish q!
byz

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