Dustin LaFortune

Archive for July, 2010

Last night, Lynn wrote to friends and family about what it was like spending all that time with Dustin, supporting him as he heals, remembers, comes to terms with what happened and learns to become an independent man again. When I read this, I was hit with the stark reality of what Dustin is going to need for years to come what his support circle will face. Here are Lynn’s own words on how it felt:

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I just got home from Regina. The trip was great, we had a really good time doing a bunch of “firsts” since this all happened. It took about two days before he fell into pieces. Same goes for me. We took turns. Renee said it perfectly: this trip was my reality check. It’s not all dreams of fishing and sitting around with friends having a good time anymore. We have hit a wall, the recovery is slower now, the hard stuff is surfacing and I didn’t realize how hard this was actually going to be. I did, but, until you’re in it, you just… don’t know.

This was the hardest trip yet. It is not going to be easy for any of us. This visit was a HUGE wake up call for me. He made leaps and bounds so damn fast in the beginning that now that it’s starting to slow down, it’s tough. Not to mention mentally draining and exhausting with feelings of horror, helplessness, sadness, anger…

When I think of someone taking care of him 24/7 it’s too big to fathom. I was only there for 4 nights/5 days and can honestly say that NO ONE should have to go at this alone. This will have to be a group effort, everyone pitching in, driving him back and forth to places. I DON’T THINK IT’S HEALTHY FOR A LONE SOLDIER TO DO IT ALL. Dustin is repetitious, sad, happy, needing everything. When he does do things on his own, you have to watch and be there to make sure he doesn’t fall; this is not a “one home/person” job and it’s definitely tougher than I ever expected it to be.

In all honesty, I am exhausted to the MAX. I’ve cried, I’ve smiled, I’ve gotten frustrated, I’ve eaten, I’ve not eaten. It’s hard to explain, but I just don’t think one person can do this. He is going to need a team of caring people around him.

July Visit with Lynn

Hi everyone!

Lots of people have been working really hard behind the scenes to make this all happen – Thank you Stephanie and Daryl! We now have the posters available to view online, send to friends and download. If you live in Regina, we are also still looking for a few good people to put some posters up around town so if you or someone you know is able to take a few, please contact us and we’ll let you know how to pick them up.

What a night it will be!

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We are very excited to announce that the wonderful Canadian Comedian Daryl Makk (currently doing is cross-Canada Planet Tour) is having a show in Regina at the newly-renovated Applause Theatre on August 11th thanks to Stephanie Thomson!

Facebook page link

Announcement:

DARYL MAKK COMEDY helps DUSTIN LAFORTUNE at APPLAUSE DINNER THEATRE – AUGUST 11, 2010

Local Story of Dustin Lafortune tortured and beaten in the city of Regina has brought both compassion and outrage in our community.

Daryl Makk, famous Canadian comedian is bringing his talents to Applause Dinner Theatre where both venue and comedian are sharing proceeds with Dustin’s Charitable Organization.

Dinner and Comedy: $40 (includes full course meal & desert)
Comedy Show only: $25
Dinner: 6:15pm-7:45pm. Show starts at 8pm.

1975 Broad Street
Regina, Sk.

Call 791-6868 for your reservations NOW!! Help Support Dustin!!

Click for Full PDF

I just got this message from Renee:

I spent hours on the phone with Dustin today. He gave me an item-by-item medical update for the website. (Yes, he saw it!)

Here it is:

This update comes from DUSTIN himself:

Weight as of July 19th: 164 lbs.

I passed the video swallowing test today. No more nectar thick liquids! I still get to have 6 coffees unless I sneak more.

I’m using a two-wheeled walker to do rounds of the unit twice everyday. Still wobble sometimes, still get dizzy sometimes but no wheelchair! When I have nothing to do, the nurses make me walk. If I concentrate and breathe, I don’t think, I just walk looking at my feet.

My memory is coming back. It sucks. The counsellor helps me a lot. She smudges with me and she brought her little dog to visit.

I cooked spaghetti for my OT (Jodie’s note: Occupational Therapist). I wrote everything down but I still forgot to boil the noodles. She ate the spaghetti. Next time I’m going to do Chili for Lynn.

I can stick 11 tongue depressors in my mouth. That’s 2 more than the last time so my mouth stretching exercises are improving. It still hurts.

I have an art assignement to draw birds.

I answered questions all day for the neuropsych assessment doctor. The puzzles were fun but the questions were weird.

I watched my YouTube video. I was so skinny. Good thing I have physio everyday. Soon I want to walk by myself. My website is so cool. I want to make another video to say thank you.

Hi all! You may have noticed that there hasn’t yet been an update from the normal Wednesday teleconference calls. This is because a normal one didn’t happen last week. However, Renee did say that most of the team members were spoken to individually, so she’ll have some updates for us soon.

Teleconference July 07, 2010

In Attendance:

Dustin
The doctor
Physio
Occupational Therapist
Speech Therapist
Dietitian
Nursing
Mom

Goal #1

Transfer to Winnipeg: The doctor has still not been able to do a proper consult with his Manitoba counterpart (summer vacation schedules). The social worker is handling the application process. The ‘transfer’ discussion will occur separately from the medical updates.  Dustin reported that the Social Worker helped him fill in the forms so he could apply for the residential ABI program.

Physio

Dustin’s new goal is to walk independently using a two wheeled walker because it provides support and stability. So far, Dustin can manage 160 metres, including turns, before he becomes tired and shakey and starts crossing his feet.  There is no indication that Dustin can or will ’self-limit’.  He must be encouraged/directed to ‘STOP’, rest and resume.

Dustin can also walk short distances without the walker but he remains at 100% risk of falling. This is a brain injury issue (balance, perception & judgment, dizziness) not a strength problem. Now that Dustin’s weight is approaching ‘normal’, the wasted muscle tissue is building rapidly with very little effort.

Dustin has been practicing on the stairs and walking between the rails. If he holds on to the rails he can walk up using alternating feet. Coming down the steps he requires support from one person to steady him and ’spot’. (ABI perception issue and balance).

Occupational Therapy

Dustin can dress and perform all personal hygiene tasks independently with cues and prompts. The Aide is in the room to ’spot’ and provide reminders but does not assist with tasks. Dustin can sit on the edge of the bed to do part of the dressing routine as long as there is a person standing beside him. Dustin said that he can even manage to put on his socks and shoes when he is sitting in the wheelchair.  24/7 supervision (not assistance)  will be required for a long time.

Drooling is still a problem because of swallowing, mouth, face and dental issues. The stretching exercises (up to nine tongue depressors) are working. Speech and flexibility have improved but aspiration is still a concern. Dustin is aware of the drooling problem and wipes his mouth frequently. Sometimes he still needs prompts.

The last swallowing assessment (on Monday or Tuesday) did not result in an upgrade. Dustin remains on nectar-thick liquids and a dental soft diet. He can have water but there is still a lot of coughing unless he uses a straw.  The staff are aware that Dustin is ‘cheating’ so family should be alert to ‘coughing’.  This means that liquid has gone into his lungs.

Dustin started Art Therapy and is loving it! The therapist is blown away by his talent! Right now he is drawing whatever he wants but soon, the time will be spent doing therapeutic exercises to help process memory, cognition, emotional and psychological issues.

Dustin will not relinquish the iPad so it is being used by neuropsych to work on memory, cognition, safety, judgment and common sense decision making.

Diet, Nursing, Medical & Miscellaneous

Dustin weighs 69 kg. (152lbs), up from 64 last week! The chart to record snacks and extras is helping Dustin remember and by his own admission, providing an easy way to scam the staff into giving him more snacks. (Of course, the staff are aware of this and have no problem giving Dustin extras because they have their own way of scamming him into believeing that decaf is real coffee! LOL!) The point of the chart is to help Dustin remember and it’s working.

He is on a normal balanced and caloric diet (approx. 2500 per day plus extras) with ‘healthy snacks’ and ‘cheats’. Dustin gets daily vitamin supplements and he is by every measure quite healthy now.

The staff listened to Dr. ____’s recorded notes (nobody could read the chart notes) about the possibility of plastic surgery to reconstruct Dustin’s face. There is still too much damage to soft tissues and not enough flexibility. With another month of healing and stretching exercises, Dr. _____ will be able to start the lengthy series of reconstructive surgeries necessary to rebuild Dustin’s mouth, ears and face.

Dustin had the neuropsych assessment. The results are still not on the chart but Dustin said that he was asked a lot of questions, played some memory games and had his ‘reaction’ to certain scenarios ‘checked’. Dustin said he was confused a lot of the time but he believes he did his best because most parts of the tests and puzzles were ‘fun’ to do.

The most pressing issues in Dustin’s care involve safety, judgment, common sense and cognition (all ABI issues). Dustin still requires supervision at all times. Gradually, more opportunities for independence will be provided and the results monitored. The really ‘HARD WORK’ (forever) starts now.

Egads We’ve been busy lately! Lots of stuff going on behind the scenes here. Finally getting to posting the PayPal statements too – hoping to have them up at the same time as the bank statement next time – a lot of my time at the computer these days has been ‘drive-by’.

The ‘plan of action’ for taking money out of the account is to try and wait until there is enough to withdraw around $300 to $350 while still leaving $40 to $50 in at all times to cover “unseens” (not sure what the means yet, but since once we transfer it out, we can’t put money back in from the bank [not allowed with the type of account], so it seems like a prudent idea).  For reporting purposes, we will ‘count’ the money as the final total once it is actually IN the bank account.

Paypal statements for June 2010 – page was too long to fit on one, so it’s in three parts.

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While it still remains to be proven, one of the concerns is that Dustin was tortured during his ordeal. Did you know that a regular citizen cannot be charged with torture in Canada?

Linda and Jeanne from http://www.ritualabusetorture.org/ have been kind enough to put together a slideshow to explain just how this is in our country.  Thanks Linda and Jeanne!

To see it full size, simply click on the “Menu” button on the bottom left of the slide and choose “View Fullscreen.” When you’re done, press your “Esc” key on your keyboard to close.

Some Readings

The links from the slide:

• Article re sexualized non-state actor torture and guns entitled, Canada: Torturers, Guns and Bullets:

http://www.iansa-women.org/sites/default/files/newsviews/en-iansa-wn-bulletin22-web.pdf

• Article of women’s stories connected to spillover warring/military non-state actor torture, civil society responses to the previous linked questionnaire and the discriminatory existence of a patriarchal divide that  has valued identifying & criminalizing state torture while invisibilizing non-state actor torture -  Peace Studies Journal:

http://www.peacestudiesjournal.org/archive/winter09/mcdonald.pdf

• Article re spousal non-state actor torture – Defining Torture by Non-State Actors in the Canadian Private Sphere, pp. 29-33 :

http://www.ccvt.org/pdfs/firstlighwinter2009.pdf

A very, very heartfelt and HUGE thank you to all the wonderful people who have opened their hearts to Dustin and donated to the account. We are pleased to announce that in the month of June, we received $1081.85!

There have been no disbursements to report. A screen shot of the June statement is below – simply click for full size:

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Thank you again!

UPDATE: “Wait! Some images are missing! Where’s Courtney??” We know . We had a false DMCA Notice served for this website this morning. False or not, we still needed to go through a DMCA Counter-Notice to ensure this website wasn’t taken down. The papers have been filed and the 7 images that were in dispute have been disabled both here and in the main gallery for the time-being. After 10 days, barring any further dispute, they will be back up!

Dustin had an exciting weekend! His friend Lynn and his brother Rogi were able to visit him and Dustin was given permission for an outing. As well as visiting parks and monuments, they got to go to the Science Centre!

All the practicing he’s been doing with the support bars in physio is obviously helping!  He got to stand up holding railings outside and admire the view for the first time in months. No doubt Lynn and Rogi were tired too by the end of the day after pushing that wheelchair all around town.

You’ll also see that Courtney was able to stop by for a short bit and help Dustin learn about his iPad. I’m told that it should/could be integrated into his therapy.

I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the explaining for themselves – stay tuned later this week for Renee’s regular Wednesday teleconference notes for an update on how he’s doing – as you can see, he’s come so far! Way to go, Dustin

Photos re-published here with the permission of Lynn Ness.