Christmas Eve

We have no real progress to report on Jim's recovery this evening. We visited him twice today and on both occasions he was in a fairly miserable state. He still has a temperature and is experiencing some pain from his injuries and operations. He has had to return to some serious pain medication.

Jim is also very agitated when he is awake, and tries to pull out his feeding tubes and catheters. It is almost as if he cannot control his limbs though he is trying very hard to do so. We have been assuming that all Jim's movements occur by his own volition. But what does this mean in a brain that is hurt and trying to heal itself? Perhaps if he could speak then he would say that all his movements are essentially involuntary, so not to go blaming him.

It has been difficult to see him in such a distressed state, but we are told that this is a stage that brain injury patients go through in the early stages of recovery. We hope that it does not last long.