Gabriel and I arrived at 12:30 PM and found Chris on his wheelchair in the TV room. Chris was awake the entire afternoon, and was focusing and tracking both me and Gabriel; we spent a lot of time downstairs in the piano room and the rest of the day in his room upstairs. I played his Christmas CD, washed hands, face, massage and stretch, the usual stuff…

Although he is aware of our presence and has some responses to us (i.e. following), Chris does not respond to any request or gives any indication of understanding what it’s being said … He does not communicate and I have been trying to establish different ways of conveying yes and no without any success for a couple of months now…Except when he is refusing food and drinks, he clearly shakes his head in refusal… I know though that he recognizes people and familiar voices. That seems to support my suspicions that Chris has some emotional ability but no cognitive ability.

I am not sure if cognitive ability heals over time in anoxic injury. I know it is a long road to recovery so probably we should just adjust ourselves to the reality.

Later in the afternoon he got uncomfortable and was vocalizing by moaning in pain, discomfort. He was put back in bed and as usual fell asleep for half an hour. He woke up – and as Gabriel was taking a nap in another room – I was quietly watching him coming out of his sleep. He shook his head right and left as if trying to “wake up” from a nightmare (I am being subjective here by using the word nightmare), but that’s how I felt he was feeling… he opened his eyes, shake his head right and left as if trying to establish reality, and then he shed a tear… From then he was just moaning and agitated, trying to lift himself up and just visibly in some sort of discomfort. I could not detect why because his positioning was fine, he has no blister or wounds… He normally calms down when I soothe him but there was nothing to be done tonight. We left around 7:30 PM.