Shakeel

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted... and honestly, there hasn't been much to post about... just every day stuff: wake up, take kids to school/activities, come home, work, eat dinner, work some more, go to bed.

Unfortunately I have something to post about now.

My little brother Shakeel was in a terrible accident Monday night at around 5:45pm. There's a rope swing that goes over a gully behind their house and Shakeel was swinging on it (like he does every day) and lost his grip and fell about 50 feet on to rocks and logs. He was taken by ambulance to Abbotsford Regional Hospital. He was unconscious and not breathing. They stabilized him and intubated him and helivac'd him to Children's Hospital in Vancouver where he is now.

That first night was awful. We knew he hit his head bad and that he had a massive contusion on the back of his skull. We also knew that he broke his arm in two places. It was so scary to say the least... and nobody was saying anything. After about an hour and a half of them working on him in the ER at Children's, they took him for a CT scan and then moved him to the I.C.U. The CT was very positive. There wasn't as much swelling on the brain as they had originally thought.

They left him heavily sedated and on the breathing machine till morning, even though he woke up a couple times during the night VERY agitated and aggressive. Tuesday morning, they reduced the sedation and took him off the breathing tube and he did great. He started to wake up, but only for 20 second spurts and couldn't really say anything.... but he did smile at me Tuesday night and said my name.

Wednesday morning, they moved him to the Neuro Ward at Children's and that's where he is now. He's much more alert now, staying awake for a few hours at a time but definitely sort of in and out the whole time. He's also very upset and very confused. He asks the same questions over and over so it seems his short term memory has been affected. The part of his brain with the damage is the language part and it's pretty obvious. He's having difficulty getting out what he's trying to say and when he does he has weird ways of saying things. He's also having difficulty pronouncing words and forgets a lot. He remembers faces but doesn't know the year or how old he is.

As of this morning, there wasn't really any change. He was awake a lot of the night quite agitated and wanting to go home. His arm is giving him quite a bit of pain and asks us "Where can we throw this thing?" "It's done" and " Here, take it" all referring to his arm/cast. We're hoping over the next few days things will improve. Every day has gotten better so far so I'm sure it will continue to do so!

The docs will come in and reassess him on the weekend to see when/if he can go home. He will probably need language therapy to get back to where he was but they seem optimistic.

I am keeping regular updates on my Facebook at www.facebook.com/lucylime.jillian so you can check them out there. Email me if you'd like at jilliankirby@shaw.ca .

Thanks to all of you who have already expressed your care and concern and your offers of help. It is appreciated more than you know!!!

**Edited to add a couple photos I just found on my computer of Shakeel playing around with my photobooth in my office! Miss him so much right now. Can't wait to have my old Shakeel back.