Post Coma: Doug Part Five
What does a normal day consist of for Doug post coma? Doug talks about his daily routine post coma and his traumatic brain injury.
Let’s see, my alarm usually goes off at 7:30 because that’s when I got to take my pills. They have me taking Depakote every 12 hours, so I got to take it at 7:30 in the morning and 7:30 at night, so I have, so that’s why I have to take it 12 hours apart. So I take my morning pills at 7:30. If I feel a little bit tired I’ll lay back down and sleep a little bit otherwise I’ll get, I’ll get up and, and then, let’s see, I have a meal that comes during, during the week from the healthcare center at about about 11:00, my parents set up for me so I don’t have to cook a meal, cook a lunch.
So I usually, I’ll usually eat breakfast in the morning and then I’ll, I’ll have like a lunch, whatever they the healthcare center sends and then in the afternoon I’ll watch TV and then I’ll wait for, wait for my aide to come in, at, you know, in the evening, you know, make supper and wait for my aide to come.
He comes at about, at 6:00, yeah, at 7:00.
I cook my own dinner. Usually, I can cook pretty much. I usually cook whatever I feel like cooking. I’m trying to think what the most complicated thing I’ve cooked. I know I’m, I know I’m pretty well known for making my pizza hot dish and that’s a pretty, that’s a pretty complicated recipe to make.
He explains the process of cooking his favorite recipe post coma and TBI:
You got to make, let’s see, you got to ground the hamburger and then you got to boil, then you got to boil the noodle, egg noodles, and then you got to put the egg, yeah, then you got to put the egg, drain the egg noodles. So you got to put the, trying to think, after you put the ground, the hamburger, and you either got to put the hamburger or the noodles on the bottom and then you put all the, then you start putting the, I think it’s the noodles on the bottom and then the, and then the hamburger and then there’s two cups of tomato sauce.
As one can tell from his explanation of this recipe, his memory functioning is far better than one might assume seeing his physical limitations and knowing the length of his inpatient stay at Clearview post coma and TBI.
Once in a while I’ll forget, I’ll forget something but, you know, I just feel like that’s something normal that other, you know, people always forget. You know, people forget to do something on a certain day. You know, I just think well that’s just something you know, people forget that, you know, on a certain day.
He states that he doesn’t have to write everything down. He learned about the time for our interview from the facilitator of his local TBI support group and told his aide, who wrote it on his day planner. Doug was on time for his interview.
Doug was wearing a Packer jersey and we interviewed him in the middle of the Packers’ playoff drive to the Super Bowl. As a check of his memory capacity, we asked him about the Packers.
It’s pretty exciting that they’re going to the Super Bowl. I would not have thought they were going to the Super Bowl with 14 players being on injured reserve earlier in the year, but it’s pretty amazing that they’ve come this far.
He could adequately explain why Brett Favre might not have been happy about the Packers’ success this year.
Doug uses the computer quite a bit in his day-to-day life post coma . He says he is on his computer a couple of times a day, even though he can only type with three fingers on his right hand because of his physical disabilties post coma.
I’m checking my emails, I’m checking sport, sports stuff, my scores information, my sports stuff; I’m now on Facebook.
He seems to have relatively few problems with change in routine, distractions noise post coma and TBI. While his days tend to be pretty much the same, he handles change in routine without reported problems. He looks forward to watching the Super Bowl, as he did the NFC championship in a crowded situation, with other people who live in his building. “Out in the lobby of my building, because there are a lot of other people that are handicapped.“
Next in Part Six – Seizure Medications and Headache
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