It  has been 8 months today since James' accident.  He sure has come a long way!  When I get feeling down about the whole situation I try to look at where James was 8 months ago!  Who knows what he will be doing in another 8 months. 

I was amazed this week at how much smoother his walking is getting.  In physio he is walking using the rail in the hallway with the therapist doing very little supporting.  He has also been doing some work on the mat in the gym.  They have him going from laying down to up on hands and knees to kneeling and balancing on his knees.  It is a lot of hard work!  His goal for physio is to be able to walk with a walker 50 meters with minimum assistance by November!

The speech therapist is planning on a swallow assessment soon!  The goal is to have him taking enough by mouth by mid November that he will be able to replace one tube feed meal a day with a meal by mouth! 

He is working on becoming more independent with self care too.  He is working on dressing himself with minimum assistance and the rehab assistant was telling me that he is trying to tie his own shoes!

Last week the doctor took James off of his medication that helps with anxiety.  Good news was that he did not become any more anxious off of the medication.  However the tremors in his right arm have increased a lot.  The medication is known to mask tremors.  So they are putting him back on it,  and will  try cutting the dose down gradually again in a month or so.  As he becomes stronger it is likely that the tremors with ease.

This is the "I told you I could get in your truck, Mom!" smile
 I figured out how to add photos to my blog!!!!  This has been the first week that I am backing away from being with James everyday!  I came home on Wednesday and and going back to pick James up for the weekend on Friday.  I am not sure exactly what next week will look like, but I may just play taxi and come home!  It sounds like James did well without me today,  I did call him and got an update this morning and he called me this evening.  They are also taking him off of one of his meds this week!  He seems to be doing fine without it,  and the fewer meds he is on when he comes home the better.  Review date was on Wednesday too and a discharge date was set for November 10th.  It is nice to have a date for his return home rather than hearing maybe

James using the Nu Step crosstrainer at rehabanother month....                                                   

First weekend visit home

 

James came home for the weekend for the first time in 7 months last weekend!  He enjoyed himself greatly!  He wanted me to take pictures of him with all the pets so he could show them to the hospital staff.  We got pictures of him with some of the pets and then I just started taking pictures without James in them!  He also went to church for the first time since his accident.  He did very well and enjoyed seeing everone again! 

He is doing great in his therapies.  He is walking with just one person assist using the wall rails in the hallway.  His balance and his core strength are starting to really return.  He is taking a writing class and loving it.  His printing is getting quite legible.  He is starting to really text and use his facebook messaging without assistance and a few people have recieved messages from him.  He is doing well at his speech and language therapies,  progress there is slow,  but it is progress!  He is starting to dress himself.  He is able to get his shirt on and off himself and needs just a bit of assistance with pants.

We are heading home again this weekend and looking foreward to a long weekend!  The plan is to go home for the weekend every week now!

We bumped into the neuro surgeon who did James' surgery today!  It was really cool because he recognized us right away,  and was very pleasently surprized!  He may come up to visit James tomorrow morning!  He said that he might make it for physio tomorrow! After the surgery he really didnt think that James would wake up and told us that he would be paralyzed on his right side,  so I am super pleased that James was able to prove him wrong!

We had a fantastic weekend with James.  All his sleep over passes went great.  We decided on Saturday to see if we could transfer him into the truck.  I got him standing by the passenger seat and had just commented that we wouldnt be able to get him in because the seat was too high.  Next thing I know he is in the truck trying to close the door!  He came for a drive and went to Walmart   with us!  The smile on his face did not fade for the hour that we were out!  We went for another drive on Sunday.
James started a group hand class this week.  It is his favourite therapy!   Although when I asked in front of his occupational therapist,  he told her that OT is his favourite and that she is his favourite therapist!  What a teacher's pet! 
He has some more physio time added to his scheduel now too.  They work on walking with the walker in his morning session and balance in the parellel bars in the afternoon.  He is doing great!  His movements and reactions are still quite slow,  but I am seeing a difference in the speed of his movements.  His balance is definetely getting better too. 
He restarted speech and language therapy too.  He seems to be enjoying those sessions too. 
Next week there will be a therapy assistant working with him in the mornings to help him become more independent with self care.  He is already brushing his own teeth and washing his own  hands.  He is starting to help with dressing as well!
He is now spending weekend passes with me and in two weeks we are planning a weekend pass home!  His next rehab review date is September 12th and hopefully we will have a clearer picture of when discharge will be at that point.  I am not in a rush though!  Outpatient rehab is pretty much nonexsistant in the valley,  so the more we can utilize here the better.

James is still doing awesome at his therapies.  On Friday he did a full lap around the unit with the u step walker during physio!  His therapist said that that is about 90m.  He was quite tired afterwards though.  His Occupational therapist is going to see if she can get him into a group therapy too.  He seems to be losing his fear of people,  so I think a group would encourage some social interactions.  He is super excited about Wednesday this week too,  he is going to spend an overnight at Jeneece place with me and his brother!  Then this weekend when his Dad and sister come to visit,  he will spend the whole weekend at Jeneece place with us!  The nurses will do some training with me over the next couple of days around the tube feed and medications.  I am pretty comfortable with them already,  but just need to officially have some training.  He has a new speech therapist now too.  He will start working with her on Tuesday.  He is starting to move his mouth,  wanting to talk,  but is unsure how to form his lips and tongue and is having trouble making sound when he wants to.  He has a great vocal laugh now,  and does make some sounds when he is working hard at something.  Just no actual speech yet.

It has been just over 6 months since James' accident.  I have been too busy to really think about that though!  he has been doing awesome at his therapies.  In the last week and a half he has graduated from the parellel bars in physio to being assisted in the U Step walker.  Each time he has a session in it he gets a bit better at it.  He sent his first text by himself this week too!  He is getting pretty good at typing on the ipad.  He is needing less assistance with his transfers too.  He gets himself up and mostly just needs support for balance.  He seems to working on wrapping some of the nurses around his little finger too.  Last week he convinced the night staff to get him up at 5:30 am to play video games.  Yesterday morning it was 3:30 am!  When the morning nurse came in she put him back to bed for a couple of hours.  He still did great in his therapies though.

Well tomorrow will be 3 weeks in rehab for James.   It has been a rough 3 weeks,  but I think he is starting to settle in.  They changed his meds just after we arrived and he became very anxious and we were given an ultimatum that if he didn't cooperate and participate in therapy by the end of this week they may have to send him back to Comox.  A new doctor saw him on the weekend and was able to get his medication back on track and he has had a much better start to the week.  He has become completely continent this week.  Not only during the day but at night too.  He got a new communication device today.  It has words in it and has predictive software so it is much faster than typing everything out or sign language finger spelling!  He loves gadjets and this is a pretty cool gadjet!  When we were getting him set up with the new gadjet today his favourite LPN came in to unhook his feed and give him his meds.  The OT prompted him to say something to the nurse.  James went into the social page and chose " I appreciate your assistance " and then he typed in "Bud".  It was so funny!    He is walking with the paralell bars in physio.  Yesterday he didnt want anyone actually touching him.  He walked the second half of the session with just verbal cues!