Updates: (11/24/2025)

I keep saying that each day feels like a roller coaster, and today was one of the hardest we have had so far.

The day began with my mom arriving at the hospital around 8:00 AM. While she was parking, Eli called her and said he was being held against his will and that she needed to come get him immediately. She rushed to his room and found him sitting in a chair in the hallway, surrounded by a couple of public health officers (they work at the hospital and are called whenever a patient becomes aggressive) and nurses.

He had become extremely combative and aggressive, to the point that the officers were called in to help calm the situation. He was fully convinced that he was being held against his will and had no understanding of where he was or why he was there. This was especially alarming since he had such a good day the day before.

That behavior continued for most of the day. He was agitated, irritable, and very angry. My mom said that in the entire day, there may have been only one sentence that made sense. Everything else was completely disoriented.

At one point, his behavior became so intense that the doctors had to hold him down in order to give him medication to try to calm him. They gave him both an anti-anxiety medication and pain medication, but neither seemed to make a difference.

Eventually, they attempted to give him Haldol, a strong antipsychotic medication. They tried to hide it in applesauce, but he tasted it, which only made him more paranoid and even more angry.

Throughout the day he kept repeating that he wanted to leave and go home. Around 4:00 PM, in an effort to calm him, my mom suggested they put him in a wheelchair and push him around the hospital floor. Their hope was that seeing his surroundings would help him understand that he was in a hospital and realize that he could not safely leave yet.

As they wheeled him around, his mindset seemed to change dramatically. My mom described it as him “waking up.” He started speaking more clearly and said that he was very tired and just wanted to go back to his room and eat.

He had not eaten anything all day, so they brought him back to his room, helped him sit up in bed, and he ate his entire dinner. After that, he was much more like himself again. My parents said the shift was unbelievable. At one point, they even helped him into a special walker and into the bathroom, where he was able to use the restroom, wash his hands on his own, and even brush his teeth.

The doctors and nurses have repeatedly reassured us that these extreme mood and behavior swings are very normal with his type of brain injury. While it is incredibly hard to witness, they expect these episodes to gradually become less severe over time.

When my parents left this evening, he was finally sound asleep, which was a huge relief since he had barely rested all day. They left feeling more hopeful than they had earlier, which made a big difference after such a difficult day.

Because of his disorientation and combative behavior earlier, physical therapy was not able to work with him today. We are really hoping that tomorrow he will be more lucid and able to begin PT. ❤️