Unfortunately, Tom's ventricles (drains) in his brain have walled off due to scar tissue. This prevents draining of cerebrospinal fluid, and becuase the two sides of the ventricles aren't flowing correctly, the shunt (an artificial drain tube) is not working correctly.
Due to this, he is now in Indianapolis to get another surgery, but rather than open his head, they are going in using endoscopy. If this surgery is successful, it will hopefully help him recover a some more funcitoning.
Unfortunately, he sitll is not able to move the right side of his body. He indicates that he doesn't have much feeling there either. He still cannot speak, he still cannot eat.
His wife, Vonda, is doing a remarkable job at staying with him as much as she can, while trying to balance a job, and 2 dogs at home.
Tom has expressed (by rolling his eyes and making sigh noises) that he has had about enough of this, and wants to know when he is going to be better.
When he finally is done with surgeries, I'm hoping to see some recovery. It's just hard to tell, because every time he's waking up, he gets another surgery, and then he is tired again.
On a positive note, it seems like he still understands everything. Vonda reads the newspaper and motorcycle magazines to him, and he acknowleges stuff by squeezing her hand, rolling his eyes, particularly when it's something funny or interesting.
