In the last update, we spoke of the encouragement and empowerment that Shirley Ryan provides Team Marcus. Another example of this are group sessions. These sessions are held every Tuesday, led by a Shirley Ryan counselor. The group is filled with other parents/family members who are supporting loved ones who may be in a similar situation. Members of TM (Team Marcus) were able to attend a session and found it to be an enlightening experience.

We’ve referred to a couple of different measuring scales to determine Marcus’ progress. We got some clarification on that today. Speech Therapy uses the Coma Recovery Scale  (CRS) while PT/OT uses the Disorders of Consciousness Scale. As a quick recap, CRS is based on a scale of 23 items and DOC is based on a scale of 46 items. Marcus was retested on both of these this week. He went from 9 to 14 on the CRS and from 18 to 26 on the DOC.

Other developments since the last update include that Marcus being taken off another med. The dietician is also adding an extra 600 calories to his diet to try to continue to bulk him up. He is no longer in a cast in either leg. He is still in the braces, which will need to be tweaked to provide the correct support. A lot of little things add up to visible progress, and we are grateful to see it.