Dr. Silver

I am so encouraged after our appointment with Dr. Silver. He is very personable, relaxed, and looks at the whole picture, not just at Mike. His main experience with TBI comes from working with soldiers and he actually has an office at Ft. Pickett, which is right here in Blackstone. We can’t go see him there, of course, since we aren’t military. He made me feel at ease right away with a short introduction that went something like this:  “I’m a doctor during the week, a Colonel in the National Guard about once a month, and just a Dad.” The office is quiet, not overbooked, and he was comfortable allowing Mike to walk in and out of the examining room quietly observing Mike’s movements, speech, cognition, awareness, etc.  He wants the main focus right now to be on the cognition which will help with all the other therapies and treatments. He is going to get a neuro-psychiatrist on board and is going to contact Speech and Occupational therapists.  The therapists will contact me and hopefully we can schedule them back-to-back and start real soon.  It takes about 45 minutes to drive to Dr. Silver’s office, but is mostly country until the last few miles, so not a bad drive at all.

We agreed that Mike is still in a transitional period which is causing some of the anxiety and agitation. Dr. Silver wants to move slowly in regard to changes in medication, but was pleased to see that Mike is on very few meds. He did give me a prescription for Trazadone, which Mike has taken before to help him sleep; however, Dr. Silver is prescribing this in a low dose to be used during the day, as needed, for those moments of extreme agitation.  He’s also going to give me a scale to help Mike and I gauge the level of agitation and what should be done at each level to try not to reach the extreme.  Another suggestion he had to try to help Mike sit and relax more is audio books.  He has had good results with this in some of his autistic patients who also have this need-to-move problem. (has a name, can’t remember it)  If these two things work, it sure could make a big difference in our daily lives.

After we left, we stopped and got milkshakes then went to Kroger so Mom and I could get some groceries. Mom was gracious enough to go with us today and I am so thankful. Mike became agitated on the way to Richmond and Mom kept him occupied with the game “4 pics & 1 word” on his iPad. While at Kroger, Mike started obsessing about what to do about the Holiday Inn reservations he had made.  I couldn’t figure out where that came from and he would not be distracted.  Dr. Silver is with Sheltering Arms Rehabilitation Hospital and this office is on the campus of the St. Francis Hospital.  This is a VERY nice hospital with beautiful flooring, waterfalls, sitting areas, etc.  All I can figure is that he thought it was a hotel and that we were going to stay there tonight.  On the way home, he blurted out “that was a cruel joke!”  My poor honey, his mind gets so confused.  Thankfully, by the time we were almost home he said “I had fun today.”

Please pray for Mike’s Mom, Margaret.  She was taken to the hospital today in Ohio with a temperature over 104 and a very rapid heart rate.  It’s been discovered that she has a severe case of strep throat so has been started on antibiotics and will spend a few days in the hospital. Hopefully they have been able to get the fever down and she will be able to rest and recuperate quickly.