November 19, 2017
Dear Family & Friends:
It has been more than a month since we last posted anything here about Josh. Our original intent after returning to Portland at the beginning of October was to cut back on the number of posts but to continue to post periodically. But Josh's recovery is much different now than when we first returned. He doesn't have the big, dramatic stories from day to day. Instead, his progress is more subtle and routine. After 3 weeks felt like there wasn't enough material to keep the blog going. But a number of you have asked about the blog just in the past week, so we will try to be more diligent in posting to give those of you who aren't here in Portland more of an idea about how things are going. Feel free to contact us at any time if you want more information. We appreciate your love and concern.
Thanksgiving will be 5 months since the accident, 4 months since Josh transferred from OHSU to Craig Hospital in Denver, and 6 weeks since we left Craig and came back to Portland. Josh improves every day, although, as noted above, the improvement is much less dramatic than what we saw during the first few months after the accident.
Since coming back to Portland, Josh has been living with us at home -- his childhood home. He seems comfortable here and has done well. He is now nearly completely independent with bathroom, showering, dressing, and eating! He spends a lot of time on his computer and phone. (Yes, he has his old phone back, so you can call or text if you want to.) He also spends a lot of time on an iPad that was given to him. He spends all of his computer/iPad time playing brain strengthening games that either Mary found or that were recommended by his therapists. He has a lot of focus on these games.
He goes to a special brain rehab center called PRA three times a week for three hours each time. There he continues with speech, occupational, and physical therapies. We drop him off and pick him up (he still can't drive) but, for the most part, we now leave him in therapy on his own. He seems to sense that it is an important thing for him to do to aid his recovery. This therapy will continue until March.
Physically, he is doing great. He is mobile and needs no assistance for any basic physical activity. He easily goes up and down stairs, enjoys playing Kinect games on his Xbox (more therapy), and even takes the dog for a walk (once, by himself - followed closely in secret by Paul). He remembers just about everyone now even if he can't remember everyTHING. He eats mostly normally in terms of time. He still doesn't have much of an appetite and so is pretty thin. His right eye, which was blind after the accident, is doing better. It is still slightly off of alignment, which causes him to have double vision, so he spends most of his time with a piece of tape on the right lens of his glasses. He is scheduled to get new glasses in a couple of days. These new glasses use prisms to correct the vision in his right eye, which hopefully means he will be able to see out of both eyes without double vision. The vision in his right eye (near sighted) is still weaker than in his left (far sighted), but we are hoping this will continue to improve.
Emotionally and behaviorally, he is doing well. He is very sweet and obedient, doing whatever he is asked to do without any complaining or battles. Other than having to remind him to keep moving along when we are feeling some time pressure (he spends an hour in the shower), he is nothing but a delight to have around. He basically has free rein of the house (but we have cameras posted everywhere so we can watch him, which is both necessary and convenient while trying to encourage his independence). His emotions are still rather flat, meaning that he doesn't experience the highs and lows that most people experience. He spends most of his waking time feeling calm and relaxed. This is both good and bad. We would love to see him experience more joy in his life but are glad that he isn't super unhappy or depressed.
His biggest problem by far continues to be aphasia. This is the brain condition that makes it extremely difficult for him to find the right words to use when he speaks or writes. Josh 1.0 was never much of a conversationalist, but he was 10 times more of one then than he is now. Answering yes and no questions is by far the most comfortable way for him to communicate, but even that can be a challenge and many questions go unanswered. We have to be very patient when talking with him to give him time to process each question and find the best way to respond. Without his words, it is very difficult for us to know what he is truly feeling and thinking. This breaks our hearts. Gratefully, his voice is completely normal (not too loud - something that is NOT the case for many other TBI victims).
He still has three friends from pre-accident days who stay close. Heidi comes by once or twice a week to spend time with Josh and Alicia and Passion come by once every other week or so. It isn't an easy thing for them to hang out with Josh 2.0, as memories of Josh 1.0 are still fresh and cause a measure of feeling loss and sorrow. We appreciate these good friends and their on-going devotion.
We love Josh and are grateful every day that he is still with us and doing as well as he is doing. The doctors tell us that improvements can be expected up to about a year, although the pace of change will probably continue to slow. Our goal is to do all that we can to facilitate Josh's recovery and to help him have a happy and fulfilling life.
Under the heading of "a picture is worth a thousand words," here are a few short videos:
Dear Family & Friends:
It has been more than a month since we last posted anything here about Josh. Our original intent after returning to Portland at the beginning of October was to cut back on the number of posts but to continue to post periodically. But Josh's recovery is much different now than when we first returned. He doesn't have the big, dramatic stories from day to day. Instead, his progress is more subtle and routine. After 3 weeks felt like there wasn't enough material to keep the blog going. But a number of you have asked about the blog just in the past week, so we will try to be more diligent in posting to give those of you who aren't here in Portland more of an idea about how things are going. Feel free to contact us at any time if you want more information. We appreciate your love and concern.
Thanksgiving will be 5 months since the accident, 4 months since Josh transferred from OHSU to Craig Hospital in Denver, and 6 weeks since we left Craig and came back to Portland. Josh improves every day, although, as noted above, the improvement is much less dramatic than what we saw during the first few months after the accident.
Since coming back to Portland, Josh has been living with us at home -- his childhood home. He seems comfortable here and has done well. He is now nearly completely independent with bathroom, showering, dressing, and eating! He spends a lot of time on his computer and phone. (Yes, he has his old phone back, so you can call or text if you want to.) He also spends a lot of time on an iPad that was given to him. He spends all of his computer/iPad time playing brain strengthening games that either Mary found or that were recommended by his therapists. He has a lot of focus on these games.
He goes to a special brain rehab center called PRA three times a week for three hours each time. There he continues with speech, occupational, and physical therapies. We drop him off and pick him up (he still can't drive) but, for the most part, we now leave him in therapy on his own. He seems to sense that it is an important thing for him to do to aid his recovery. This therapy will continue until March.
Physically, he is doing great. He is mobile and needs no assistance for any basic physical activity. He easily goes up and down stairs, enjoys playing Kinect games on his Xbox (more therapy), and even takes the dog for a walk (once, by himself - followed closely in secret by Paul). He remembers just about everyone now even if he can't remember everyTHING. He eats mostly normally in terms of time. He still doesn't have much of an appetite and so is pretty thin. His right eye, which was blind after the accident, is doing better. It is still slightly off of alignment, which causes him to have double vision, so he spends most of his time with a piece of tape on the right lens of his glasses. He is scheduled to get new glasses in a couple of days. These new glasses use prisms to correct the vision in his right eye, which hopefully means he will be able to see out of both eyes without double vision. The vision in his right eye (near sighted) is still weaker than in his left (far sighted), but we are hoping this will continue to improve.
Emotionally and behaviorally, he is doing well. He is very sweet and obedient, doing whatever he is asked to do without any complaining or battles. Other than having to remind him to keep moving along when we are feeling some time pressure (he spends an hour in the shower), he is nothing but a delight to have around. He basically has free rein of the house (but we have cameras posted everywhere so we can watch him, which is both necessary and convenient while trying to encourage his independence). His emotions are still rather flat, meaning that he doesn't experience the highs and lows that most people experience. He spends most of his waking time feeling calm and relaxed. This is both good and bad. We would love to see him experience more joy in his life but are glad that he isn't super unhappy or depressed.
His biggest problem by far continues to be aphasia. This is the brain condition that makes it extremely difficult for him to find the right words to use when he speaks or writes. Josh 1.0 was never much of a conversationalist, but he was 10 times more of one then than he is now. Answering yes and no questions is by far the most comfortable way for him to communicate, but even that can be a challenge and many questions go unanswered. We have to be very patient when talking with him to give him time to process each question and find the best way to respond. Without his words, it is very difficult for us to know what he is truly feeling and thinking. This breaks our hearts. Gratefully, his voice is completely normal (not too loud - something that is NOT the case for many other TBI victims).
He still has three friends from pre-accident days who stay close. Heidi comes by once or twice a week to spend time with Josh and Alicia and Passion come by once every other week or so. It isn't an easy thing for them to hang out with Josh 2.0, as memories of Josh 1.0 are still fresh and cause a measure of feeling loss and sorrow. We appreciate these good friends and their on-going devotion.
We love Josh and are grateful every day that he is still with us and doing as well as he is doing. The doctors tell us that improvements can be expected up to about a year, although the pace of change will probably continue to slow. Our goal is to do all that we can to facilitate Josh's recovery and to help him have a happy and fulfilling life.
Under the heading of "a picture is worth a thousand words," here are a few short videos:
Thanks for the update! I'm happy to hear that he's making steady improvement - slow as it is. We'll continue to keep him in our prayers!
ReplyDeleteThis update was wonderful!!! I am thrilled with what I read and saw in the videos. He is doing well and you are wonderful parents... God bless you all...
ReplyDelete