Josh Beecroft Recovery Updates

August 31, 2017 9:00 pm Happy last day of August! It started rough. Josh threw up a lot this morning. Morning sickness, I guess. 😜 As it turned out, the MRI people couldn't fit Josh in their schedule until 8:00 tonight, and since Makley leaves at 7:00, he wouldn't be able to look through the scans anyway. So we cancelled the MRI and agreed that if I think Josh needs to be seen, the on-call doctor will get a quick CT scan and the results of it will determine the shunt setting. Perfect! In ST, Josh was given a paper that had drawings of 12 fruits on it and he had to name as many as he could. He named 8. Then he was given a paper that had drawings of 12 vegetables on it and he had to name as many as he could. He named 5. In fairness to Josh, magnify the picture below and tell me what you think the bottom, middle vegetable is. I wouldn't have guessed it either. Next, he met with Dr. Schraa for Neuropsychology. Schraa listed numbers (e.g., 1-7), and Josh had to repeat

August 30, 2017 9:50 pm We felt like a normal family for about 10 minutes today -- the first time that has happened in over two months. We received the necessary training today to clear us to take Josh off campus (but not in a car yet) and so the three of us WALKED up the hill to our apartment, grabbed a small cup of ice cream in the lobby (yay, it's working!), took the elevator to the fourth floor, went in our apartment, sat down on the couch (big sigh from Josh), and watched 10 minutes of Big Bang Theory. It was nice to feel normal, even if only for a few minutes. The day started with Mary feeling sick -- sore throat, fever, achy joints, etc. Fortunately she improved as the day went on. PT and OT were combined today so that we could be trained on walking with Josh, both with and without his wheelchair. We learned such important skills as helping him step up or down a curb, tipping his wheelchair to go up or down a curb, and protecting Josh from falling into the street or ot

August 29, 2017 8:30 pm As you are aware, the ice cream machine was broken when we arrived "home" last night. But it appears they put the proper priority on it because it was fully functional at 7:00 this morning - just in time for an ice cream breakfast! Paul had to make a day trip to Portland today (no, he didn't get to go home) so Mary was on her own with Josh. Josh's first class today was PT. It wasn't very interesting. He walked all around the building and did leg strengthening exercises. His second class was OT, and the highlight of the day. Check these out! The first video (1:20) is Josh reading words with his RIGHT eye! Yeah, you heard me ... his RIGHT eye. The second video (2:00) is Josh reading numbers with his right eye. After such an impressive start to OT, his PB&J sandwich making skills were a disappointment. This is what the sandwich looked like before he flipped one piece on top of the other. I think it's cruel t

August 28, 2017 8:50 pm NEWS FLASH: ICE CREAM MACHINE DOWN AGAIN! It was great to see Josh again after being away for three days. We were both surprised at how well he is doing -- more verbal, more interactive, more aware. And this with his shunt set at seven, which is still very high. Josh was at Swedish Hospital all morning. He was finally discharged at 2:00 so we got to Craig Hospital at 2:20, and he had a 2:30 ST class. Every Monday and Friday in Speech they ask Josh (and all their patients) to answer the same 10 questions (with the same three multiple choice answers): What town are you in (Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles) What month is it (January, August, November) What day is it What day of the week is it What year is it (1992, 2003, 2017) It is closest to which of these times of day Where are you (hospital, office building, hotel) - he has never got this one correct What is the name of the hospital (Mercy Hospital, Aurora Hospital, Craig Hospital) Why are you he

August 28, 2017 9:50 am (Mountain) For the first time in just over two months, we failed to post on Josh's blog yesterday. This caused a flurry of emails and text messages from many of you asking if everything is OK. YES, EVERYTHING IS OK. We didn't post last night simply because we were en route from Seattle back to Denver and didn't get in until about 1:30 this morning. Since we had been gone all weekend, we didn't have much information to share anyway, so we skipped a day. Josh spent the day in relative peace at Swedish with his beloved grandmother, who took excellent care of him. Nothing eventful happened. He is scheduled to transfer back to Craig today. We'll post again later tonight with an update. Thanks for your concern.

August 26, 2017 10:30 pm (Pacific) As reported yesterday, Josh ended up in the ER at Swedish late last night because he was somewhat nonresponsive. He was later transferred from the ER to the neuro floor at Swedish. This morning, Dr. Buchanon, a neuro surgeon, was able to examine Josh and to change his shunt setting from eight (off) to seven. He reported that all seemed well and there wasn't anything serious to worry about. He said he wanted to keep Josh at Swedish over the weekend just to monitor and send him back to Craig on Monday if all is still OK. So, after 36 hours of a lot of hand wringing and worry, it seems that Josh is doing OK. They will continue to monitor his brain fluid levels to make sure everything is OK. We are relieved that Josh seems to be stabilized once again and that his shunt is working properly. It has been a crazy 36 hours, with different reports coming from different medical personnel. Friday, the Craig doctor tried to adjust his shunt setting several

August 25, 2017 10:30 pm (Pacific) We left Denver this morning to attend Sean and Bronte Beecroft's wedding reception and the Beecroft Family Reunion in Seattle. We left Josh in the capable hands of Mary's mom, Donna, and Josh's two friends from Portland, Heidi and Passion. It was a rough day for Josh because of the intentional hydrocephalus, but he battled through in what seemed like good spirits -- certainly a lot better than the last time he had this amount of fluid on his brain three weeks ago. They did an MRI this afternoon and decided that enough fluid had built up in his ventricles that they needed to start draining again.  So they moved the shunt setting from eight (closed) to seven. We weren't there but apparently the doctor had a difficult making this adjustment and needed three or four attempts to get it right, checking by x-ray. Just when things were settling down for the night -- Mom, Heidi and Passion had all left for the night, we got a call from Cr

August 24, 2017 10:20 pm It's a party now. Not only did Paul come home from Cali earlier today, but Grandma Beecroft flew in from the Tri-Cities, and Heidi and Passion, two of Josh's friends, flew in from Portland. We are all just going crazy here at Craig now!!!! Josh started the day again throwing up. No one knows why, but Mary suspects hydrocephalus. Paul thinks it might have been just because he was laying nearly flat on his back when they were pumping food and medicine into his stomach tube. Our best friend at the hospital, Stacey, was discharged today.  😢  Her son, Matt, left Josh his Roku so we can enjoy some HBO and Netflix here. Thanks to the Ortiz/Margulies family!! We wish them well as they continue their "adventure" in Miami. We (Paul by telephone) met with our case worker this morning and she gave us a new discharge date of Sep 28 (but this may still slip). She also again recommended that we take Josh to an in-patient rehab center in Portland aft

August 23, 2017 10:00 pm Josh drove over the cliff 2 months ago today (June 23). It feels like it happened a lifetime ago. The results of Josh's MRI this morning were as expected; Josh has hydrocephalus. That's good because Josh needs the pressure in the ventricles to push out the fluids that are in his frontal lobe. But the hydrocephalus causes behavioral changes. Josh sleeps a lot. He's "groggy" all the time, so he isn't as aware or as responsive. He doesn't talk much. He doesn't know what's going on around him. He frequently points at his lap belt for someone to open it. He's fidgety. He has the neuro shake that yesterday we were expressing gratitude was gone. These are all things that disappear when there is no hydrocephalus. You're wondering, "So what's the plan?" That was our question too. The doctors have decided that the plan is to do nothing until Monday, at which time they will turn the shunt on again. (It'

August 22, 2017 9:30 pm Paul left this morning for a three-day business trip to California, so Mary was on her own with Josh today. Today was both bad and good. The bad is that Josh was throwing up all morning and he complained of a headache. (Well, technically, he grabbed his head and yelled "OW!") This is the first time in 8 weeks that Josh has initiated an indication of pain. Usually he responds yes/no to the questions we ask, but sometimes even those answers are unreliable. So for him to grab his head and yell, "OW!" means he is really hurting. Headaches and nausea are both signs of too much intercranial pressure, but the doctors felt that the fear of the radiation from another CT scan would be more damaging than the scan would be helpful, so they decided not to do the scan. Instead, we will will wait for tomorrow's MRI results to find out how the pressure in Josh's head is doing. In OT today, Josh put together the metal box he has tried to do twic

August 21, 2017 10:20 pm It was another rough start today. It took two hours to get the CT scan done because the doctor's orders were incomplete ... twice. Then we went to ST. Things were actually going pretty well in ST when a doctor interrupted the session and told us that he needed to end it and that we needed to go with him. Mary knew it couldn't be good. As we were walking down the hall, the doctor said, "I need you to go back to your room and wait until Dr. Winetraub gets there." Mary said, "Okay," then as we were parting ways, he added, "Oh yeah, and Josh is NPO." Then Mary knew it was really bad. NPO means nothing to eat or drink, which meant that they were considering surgery. And they were. The results of the scan showed that Josh is "overshunted," meaning that the shunt is draining too much fluid from his brain and the brain is collapsing in on itself. This has allowed fluid to accumulate between his brain and his skull in

August 20, 2017 9:30 pm Howdy, Folks.  It's Eden again for yet another update. Today is Sunday, which is a very relaxed day. There are no therapies, no meetings, and no agenda. So today, we just gut to hang out with our favorite fella. Josh was already up and showered when we arrived this morning. He has an awesome tech that is assigned to two patients. Since Josh still isn't allowed to be alone unless he is confined in his Posey bed, she is the one that helped him get ready for the day. We took him to the Bistro and we tried to have him pick out some foods to eat for breakfast. He hardly had any opinions, but he did say no to eggs. He wheeled around and around in circles between bites. He ate pretty well this morning, so that's a plus! We went to church and left Josh at the hospital with his tech (BOO to not being allowed off campus). My parent's temporary church is small in numbers (maybe 35 people in attendance today), but strong in spirit. Since the

August 19, 2017 9:10 pm Hi Friends! This is Eden, Josh's sister.  I am guest posting today to give a different perspective, and am not the most eloquent of writers, so please bear with me. My parents are staying at a retirement community that is minutes away from Joshua's hospital, which is great!  They are so close, I think it's easier to walk to Joshua's room than it is to drive.  But it has a downside.  Last night, I woke up 11 times from life flights, ambulances and police sirens.  My mom and dad said they have blocked out a lot of the noises.  Mom said it took her 3 weeks to get used to it, but for a newcomer like me, last night was rough. Last night we were told that Josh may have the opportunity to go fishing with Craig's outpatient programs.  Since Joshua loved fishing before the accident, we thought that he would like to take his first off-campus excursion fishing.  In order for Josh to go fishing, he had to be completely ready to go by 8:00 AM.

August 18, 2017 9:20 pm We arrived in Colorado one month ago today, but it feels like we've been here forever. Josh's first class of the day was OT. Using a card game called "Blink," he had to match either shapes or colors. So if the top card was a yellow triangle, the next card had to be yellow or a triangle. It was really hard for him, and he messed up a lot. When that was over, she put a row of beads on the table and asked him to string beads in the same pattern. It took him awhile, but he did a good job. In neuropshych, Josh was asked to do puzzles. Here he is trying to complete the task: PT was at 11:00. Josh worked on balance and stairs. In ST, the therapist asked what year it is. Josh's answer was, "sock." She asked what month it is. Josh's answer was "blue." She asked what day of the week it is. Josh's answer is, "I don't know." Since the accident Josh has a very serious fear of falli

August 17, 2017 9:30 pm The best thing that happened today is that ... well, let's give a little background. After Josh got his temporary VP drain, he had a catheter sticking out of the back of his head. His helmet was too tight and didn't cover it, so he got a new helmet. Mary asked Liz (a young girl at the reception desk who was a good artist) to graffiti the helmet any way she wanted. She was excited to do it! Mary's only request was that Josh's name be across the front. Here is what Josh ended up with: Eat your heart out, RJ! We had videos of Josh in PT, but they were too big to upload. The therapist lined up cones and Josh had to walk around the cones, obstacle-course style. Then she put bean bags beside the cones. He had to pick up the bags along the way. It was really hard for him to bed over and maintain balance. Before ST, Mary asked Josh what a straw was. He searched for the word and came up with "wine funnel."  So in ST

August 16, 2017 10:00 pm Josh's first class today was OT. We had a new therapist and she spent the entire hour exercising Josh's eyes to try and strengthen them. (Which turned out to be a bad idea, as we will discuss later.) Then he had ST. Again, she was a new therapist. She started by asking Josh to recite the alphabet. He got stuck 5 times and needed help. (He doesn't remember the Alphabet Song.) Then she pulled out a flip board with a bunch of pages that had 2 letters on it, like this:            W            W or            C            X She asked, "Are these letters the same or different?" He said, "Different" every time. After 5 or 6 boards, Mary said, "Those are the same." Then he said, "The same" every time, even when they were different. It's strange because he can say, "Those letters are 'C' and 'X'" but when asked if they are the same or different, he will answer "They'

August 15, 2017 9:35 pm Nothing of note really happened today. It was another day at Craig. Josh attended all of his therapy classes and did reasonably well. He made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his occupational therapy class. It took him forever and both the peanut butter and jelly layers were thin. He took one bite and was done. Mary got out of the hospital for an hour or so today, which was good for her mental health. The biggest excitement of the day came just as we were leaving Josh's room to come back to our apartment. The power in the hospital went out. As you might imagine, backup generators immediately came on, so although it caused a stir for a moment, there were no emergencies. But that wasn't the case when we got back to our apartment building, which is in a retirement home. The power was out on the card reader at the front door so we had to wait until someone came walking by on the inside to let us in. No sooner did we get in the door (and determined t

August 14, 2017 10:05 pm The day did not begin well at Swedish. When Mary arrived at 7:30 in the morning, Josh was covered in feces. She asked some nurses to help her fix the problem, but they didn't come to help. So after about 10 minutes she went to the nurse's station and announced, "I am giving my son a shower. It violates your rules at this hospital, but I'm going to do it anyway. If you want to send a nurse to help me, you can do that." Then she walked back to the room and gave Josh a shower. A nurse did show up not too far into the process. After the shower, Mary dressed Josh in regular street clothes. No more Seymour Hiney gowns! Getting out of Swedish Hospital on time was a bit of a challenge since the doctor forgot to complete the paperwork before he left, but we got to Craig just before Josh's first class at 9:00. And it was FANTASTIC! I mean, most 7-year olds could out-perform him, but he did great! When the OT saw Josh last, she asked him

August 13, 2017 9:30 pm Things started slowly today. At first, Josh was alert but not interested (or capable?) of answering questions or doing much in the way of interaction. But things picked up as the day went on. By the end of the day, he was doing pretty well. He still perseverates when he eats (either pushing his fork around his plate or holding it right in front of his mouth but not able to put it in) and so we still have to help feed him. And he still requires our vigilance in order to stay dry. But he played some games with us, "helped" us with a Scooby Doo puzzle, took a walk (with PT that included a flight of stairs), and half watched the TV for a while. He initiated conversation on one or two occasions, which is still very rare. Mary sneezed and he quickly offered a "bless you." Josh doesn't understand, despite the fact that we have talked about it 100 times, that we are extremely excited to discharge from Swedish tomorrow and head back to Craig.

August 12, 2017 9:30 pm I'm just gonna say it. Dangerous, but I'm gonna say it anyway. It was another good day today. Again, nothing exceptional, but another day of small progress. Josh just seemed a bit more alert and connected today. He initiated conversation on at least two occasions -- something he hasn't done since the accident. His responsiveness when asked questions is up slightly, but he still inaccurately answers a lot of questions. It's hard for us to know what he understands and what he doesn't. At times, he seems to grasp the conversation around him. (Today, Mary read something to Paul out of a book that was strongly worded and Josh suddenly interjected a "BAM!" into the conversation.) But at other times he doesn't know who or where he is. And it goes up and down. Very hard to read. And we definitely need to work on the some of the word choices (and finger gestures) Josh makes!! Josh also walked quite a bit better today than he's wa

August 11, 2017 10:05 pm We are happy to report that it was a better day today. Now, don't misinterpret. It wasn't that Josh did anything fantastic today; it was just finally a day where we felt he went forward instead of sideways or backwards. And that felt good. He was more alert today and connected with the world around him. He was relatively interactive, answering more questions accurately than usual. He also had more to say than any day before. Some of what he has to say makes no sense, but some does. The nurses ask basic questions of Josh several times throughout the day to monitor his situation. They often ask when his birthday is, which he never gets right.  Except today, when he got it right once! We were both surprised. But he still can't answer even the most basic questions at times (for example, his name and who we are) and gets confused easily (can't remember we're in a hospital), so we have a very long way to go. Victories are few and far between

August 10, 2017 9:15 pm Josh seemed to be getting worse today. He wasn't talking, he couldn't read, he didn't know his name, he couldn't write his name (even after we told him what it is), and he couldn't feed himself. So after a stressful day of waiting, the neuro PA finally dialed Josh's shunt from 6 to 5, meaning that more fluid is draining out of his brain into his abdomen. But if the fluid drains too quickly, that can cause "brain collapse," which results in (more) permanent brain damage. It's pretty stressful with the bone flap on because now we can't see if his brain is swelling of shrinking. Because of the surgery, Josh's face is really swollen.  In the picture below, both his eyes are open. We were moved from the Neuro ICU to the Neuro Floor, where we'll be until we return to Craig on Monday. Our room is huge! Crappy view, though. As soon as we got to our new room, Mary gave Josh a shoulder-down shower - first one in m

August 9, 2017 10:20 pm After we posted late last night, something very interesting happened. Josh returned to his room at Swedish after surgery at about 10:00 pm. He was still mostly out of it from the anesthesia. Paul decided to stick around in his hospital room until he came out of the anesthesia, as that can be a painful process. (Paul knows.) Josh finally started waking up at about 11:00 pm. When Paul and his nurse started asking questions to see if Josh was OK, they were VERY surprised when Josh answered the questions verbally rather than through gestures. Until now, Josh has mostly used head nods, pointing, shrugs, thumbs up or down, and other gestures to answer questions and communicate his thoughts. But immediately after waking up from his cranioplasty, he was using his voice rather than his body. This has continued somewhat throughout the day today too, so we feel like this is a small step in the right direction. (Mind you, dear reader, this doesn't mean the CONTENT of

August 8, 2017 10:15 pm Josh was very agitated when Mary arrived at the hospital this morning. She asked him if he was feeling anxious and he nodded. She asked if he knew why. He nodded. She asked if he could tell her why. He nodded. She asked, "Why are you anxious?" He said, "Someone's going to shoot me." She said, "With a needle?" He shook his head. "With a gun?" He nodded his head. She tried to calm him, but it's virtually impossible to calm someone who can't comprehend what's happening. He was obviously very frightened. Mary talked with the doctor about it. He told her that Josh has "ICU delirium." It could be, but Mary asked the nurse if she'd talked with Josh about the surgery today. She said she had. Mary thinks Josh knew something big and frightening was going to happen, but couldn't understand - so for him big and frightening equated to someone coming to shoot him with a gun. He was scared for about th

August 7, 2017 9:30 pm Another relatively uneventful day for Josh. Tomorrow is the big day, as we are expecting that they will replace his missing skull piece and insert an internal shunt. Josh did spend some time with both a speech therapist and physical therapist today. With the speech therapist, he was asked a lot of questions and asked to do a lot of things. When asked if he could say hello, he went with a vulgarity. The therapist said, "OK, I'll take that." He was able to close one eye, give a thumbs up, point to his mom, and give the opposite words for yes, up, mom (he said "Paul"), and short. He was unable to put up three fingers; touch his shoulder, nose, ear, and knee; point to the TV; or give the opposite words for clean or black.  And he has an especially difficult time coming up with words. He couldn't come up with a word for watch or phone and said "photograph" for pen. We have a long way to go in these areas. His physical thera

August 6, 2017 9:00 pm Mostly we are in a holding pattern, waiting for Josh's surgery on Tuesday. It will be great when that surgery is done. He will be bald, but it's the last time they will shave his head. (They really should shave his head uniformly instead of just where they cut.) Josh played a lot of Geometry Dash and Flow on the iPad today. He really did quite well, but when Mary gave him a 4-piece puzzle, he was unable to put that together. He was a little more communicative today, using a couple of words and a full sentence. When they brought Josh dinner tonight, he grabbed the fork and loaded it up. He does that, but then he can't move the fork from the plate to his mouth. Mary asked, "Do you need help?" He answered, "I think I got it." It was exciting to hear him say that! But he didn't have it, so Paul fed him dinner. Josh's stats today were high. His heart rate was 137 and his BP was 152/101. His head is so sunken in that Mary

August 5, 2017 9:00 pm The doctors ask Josh the same questions every day: what city are we in, what kind of building are we in, why are you here, how old are you, etc. He never knows the answers to the questions because he has no short-term memory - he doesn't recall anything since the accident. The therapists tell us to review the information with him multiple times every day because repetition is supposed to help. So Mary made a video for Josh to watch. The answers to their questions are in red. Josh has seen the video 4 times, and after each time, Mary asks, "Have you seen this video before?" He answers, "No." If you want to see the video (be forewarned there is a graphic picture of the injury), it is here: Josh's video . Josh walked one time around the unit again this morning. He did better than yesterday. He is still very slow, but his left leg wasn't dragging. Josh was resting this afternoon and he woke up a little when Mary walked in the roo