Praying for him and his family. May God be merciful to them and grant them strength and comfort.
I wanted to send you a quick email update about John's progress. Because he was not meeting the specified goals in PT/OT/Speech Therapy, he is being discharged from Texas Neuro Rehab - but, my Mom was able to get him into another rehabilitation facility for the short term. :)
(He does have to continue to meet goals to stay in this facility, so we are not sure how long he will be there.)
I will be down in Austin for a few days next week and will be going to see him, so I'll have a first-hand update coming in a couple of weeks. However, Dad's sister went to visit him yesterday and wrote me such a fantastic, detailed email about what he did that I am including some of it below. It gives a great play-by-play about what his day is like:
Just got home from visiting John. Thought he had a very good day in all 3 therapies. First Michelle (nurse) got him dressed and up in his wheelchair; so we sat and read over his birthday cards and played the CD and read him a Bible story.
Then Barbara (speech therapist) came by and said the swallowing study went OK except John moved around so much. Not quite ready for food yet, but today he got bites of yogurt and thickened apple juice, besides the ice chips. He kept pointing to the apple juice when she asked which he preferred; she even switched positions of the two containers. He snickered when I mentioned that he looked pretty hungry. Also I got to feed him additional ice chips on my own, which he enjoyed. Then Barbara told me I could brush his teeth, but luckily just then Sara came to do OT.
So they sat there and she (being very patient) helped him get the toothpaste on the toothbrush, but once he got used to it he did a good job of brushing on his own. That was great. Then she took him to the room with the kitchen and he pivoted to the bed thing with some assistance but he was so much stronger than I'd seen him before. He was supposed to take some folded up socks from the left and place them in the laundry basket on the right. He reached for the socks on the left but couldn't see the laundry basket on the right until she brought it almost in front of him... Guess the vision field may not be quite equal on the right side; plus he wanted to unfold them and fold them a different way.
He had another speaking event in OT. He said, "didn't know I was supposed to" when she mentioned something; and then he said something we didn't understand. That was the only speaking other than yeah and no that I heard. He did make different facial expressions and kinda laughed (about my age) earlier. Pretty soon Jenn (physical therapist) came and took him to the gym where he again pivoted to bed with just a little assistance. This was impressive since he was standing and fairly balanced with just a little support from therapist, and did it quite a while; that was great. Then he went walking (with the shopping cart) and he had that shopping cart going almost out the door before you knew it. He walked out in the hallway (she asked him which hallway he wanted to walk down and he pointed to the shorter one) and all the way to the windows and then we had him sit in the chairs to rest.
She also mentioned to me the other day she told him to "march" and he put his hands on his hip, had a funny facial expression as if to say "I don't think so." All in all I was so pleased since the last time I was there, he seemed to interact more.
I will continue to keep you posted, and will let you know how my trip to see him goes at the new facility. Please thank all of Dad's FReepers again for keeping us in your continued thoughts and prayers, and for all of the cards. Mom and I just love to go down there and read them to him, and Dad likes to hold them and look at the designs.
Have a blessed week,
Lisa
From me....cards for Valentine's Day would be nice. Hint, hint.