Welcome. My wife's brain injury was similar: anoxia, another lack-of-oxygen type. Beth functions pretty good in society. In fact, when we wrote our book about surviving brain injury a long time friend asked, "What do you know about brain injury?" He'd been our friend for years and never noticed anything "strange" about Beth.
Believing it will be okay is one step. But there will be a lot of work between now and then. We've written dozens of articles on http://www.braininjuryguide.org , many of which are for people like you and me - the caregivers.
Hi! I'm in Arkansas too. My son however, was injured in Missouri and we were blessed with being in a fantastic hospital with treatments that far exceed what I have worked with in the Memphis area (where I worked for a long time in health care.) As a health care worker, I am amazed at the lack of education regarding TBI. I now work in Arkansas at a local hospital and I can recognize a TBI patient and understand their behaviors. Often times, people misunderstand folks with TBIs as being "combative" or "obnoxious," "violent and rude." When in actuality if the nurse would take a deeper history, she might put two and two together! Anyway, we need more education in our health system! Oh, and "camping out in ICU.." my my I will never forget! It really was "camping out." As for the military, I agree.. who can "fully recover" in three months? That's ludicrous!
Larry
Sandra