She's Coming Home

Communication

Gabby POV
I hear someone, I don't want to deal with people, why won't they leave me alone. The person isn't leaving so I give up and open my eyes. I'm still sore from earlier but it's a bit better
Janet- hey, I'm back with the SLP I was telling you about. This is Lisa, I met with her after your PT session and we brought a device for you to try out.
I'm confused, after that PT session how does she think I'm going to use some device?
Lisa- hi, nice to meet you. We've brought an eye gaze device for you to try, it tracks your eye movements so you can make selections just by looking at it. Janet's going to get you sitting up a bit more in bed while I get the device ready.
She pulls out this screen thing and some polls and clamps and starts attaching it the the side of my bed. Janet starts lifting the head of the bed up further while staring at me. I give her a questioning look.
Janet- I'm just making sure you're doing ok and can still hold your head up when you're sitting up more.
Lisa- ok, it's going to take a while to figure out the best setup so just stick with us.
Where else am I going to go! But I refrain from rolling my eyes because I think I'm going to like these 2 the best out of the whole team.

Lisa- ok, first is a test to see how accurate you can be. It's ok if you don't get that many it just tells us how many buttons per page to start with. So look at each target as it pops up for a few seconds. There will be a circle showing how long you need to look at it for.
She turns it on and I start looking at the targets. After a while it gets really hard to focus on them, I'm not sure if it's because they're smaller or just because my brain doesn't want to cooperate anymore.

Lisa- ok, that was really good and we can always test you again another time if you think you can handle more. Give me a few minutes to get it set up.
I close my eyes to wait, I don't understand how looking at things can be so tiring.

Lisa- ok, can you give this a try?
I slowly open my eyes, they don't want to cooperate anymore but I really want this to work.
Janet- I know it's been a long day but you're doing amazing. Everyone's surprised you woke up at all today after the seizure let alone did all this work.
Lisa- ok so this program has categories where you can say certain words or you can go in here and type and then you select the bar at the top to speak your message.
It takes a few minutes to type out one word but eventually I get it.
Gabby- cool
Lisa- awesome, what do you think of the setup?
Gabby- good. Hard.
Janet- it will be hard for a while. As you learn where things are it will get faster to say words that way instead of typing. And we should have a wheelchair ready to try in the next day or two which should help, you'll be supported better so being upright should take less energy.
Gabby- thank you help me
Lisa- of course! Is there anything we can do for you?
Gabby- call Nat
Janet- dr Manning?
Gabby- yes
Janet- ok, I'll get someone to page her and we will see you tomorrow.
Gabby- thank you

I closed my eyes until I heard someone come in.
Nat- hey Gabby, what's up?
Gabby- hi. Help call Tonio.
Nat- sure, do you want to call or FaceTime?
Gabby- call.
Nat- ok, do you want me to stay or just get you set up?
Gabby- stay
Nat- alright, one minute.

Phone call
A- hello
G- hi Tonio
A- what? Gabby?
G- yes. How guess fast.
A- you're the only person who calls me Tonio! You made it pretty easy to guess!
G- yes.
A- so how are you using this computer thing?
G- eyes. Look screen. Nat help.
N- want me to explain?
G- yes
N- she's using an eye gaze device, it tracks where she's looking and when she looks at one thing for a certain amount of time it selects it.
A- that's really cool, do you like it Gabs?
G- yes. Hard. Tired.
A- ya, you've had a really busy day. Can I come visit again?
G- no tired sleep. Tomorrow.
A- ok, I'll come see you in the morning. Want me to bring Shay?
G- yes. And CIs hear me. Want sign.
A- I know, it's great that you can communicate now but you want to be able to sign for Shay, it's ok. I'm sure she'll wear her processors for you and if she doesn't understand I can interpret for you. We'll figure it out.
G- ok
A- ok, get some sleep. We'll see you in the morning.
G- bye
A- bye sis
Call ended
Nat- ok, I'll leave you to sleep. See you later.
She lowered my bed so I was laying down more then left. I fell asleep immediately.

Next morning
I heard people and started to wake up then someone started sitting me up in bed. Could they seriously not wait a few minutes until I woke up completely? I open my eyes and see dr Abrams. Oh yay, another neuro check.
Dr Abrams- good morning, how are you doing today?
Gabby- tired
Dr Abrams- well I just need to do your neuro check then you can sleep more. I have more questions today now that you have the device and I think you've graduated from the light.
Gabby- good
He does all the same things, I manage to breathe on my own for almost a minute.
Dr Abrams- ok now for the questions. Do you remember what happened?
Gabby- no, leave Shay daycare then wake up here.
Dr Abrams- ok, it's normal to have memory loss around the time of the injury, I'm surprised you remember everything else with the extent of your injury. Do you know where you are?
Gabby- med
Dr Abrams- have you recognized everyone who's visited you so far?
Gabby- yes
Dr Abrams- ok, I've got a meeting with your team soon and we'll come up with a plan to start your rehab. I'll be back later to discuss it. You'll probably stay here until you're off the vent at least during the day and the seizures are under control then switch to a rehab facility. We'll talk more later.
And he walked out.