January 3, 2018
Happy New Year to all. 2017 was a very difficult year, dominated, as it was, by Josh's injury. We hope that 2018 will be a much better year, as Josh continues his recovery and life eases back into a more normal routine.
The last two weeks were relatively good weeks for Josh. He enjoyed a nice Christmas at home in Portland with his family, including Eden & RJ and their boys. Josh's emotions are so flat now that it is difficult to know how he is feeling, but he always seems to enjoy being with people. This was certainly the case with his sister and her family.
For New Years, we drove to Tri-Cities, WA to welcome Josh's cousin, Bradley, home from his mission in Brazil and to spend some fun time with Mary's family. Again, Josh seemed to enjoy being around his cousins and aunts and uncles, who are all very warm and kind towards him.
Most of the medical concerns from our last post have been resolved -- more or less. There really doesn't seem to be any further symptoms that could be tied to the car accident we had at the beginning of December. Josh still struggles with controlling his internal body temperature, so we have to monitor that carefully. He almost always wears at least one jacket or coat in the house and sometimes as many as three if we go outside into the cold. I'm not sure I've ever seen Josh get hot!
We have now started a new program that is supported through Medicaid. This program brings a caretaker into our home five days a week for three hours each day. The caretaker is tasked with doing anything that Mary wants her to do as long as it relates to Josh's needs. Mary has created a daily schedule that includes therapy -- reading, writing, math, educational computer games -- as well as just having some fun. It can also include helping Josh with basic skills, such as cooking or cleaning. The caretaker is also authorized to run errands that relate to Josh (take him to a doctor's appointment, get his medications from Rite Aid, etc.), cleaning parts of the house that Josh uses, or doing Josh's laundry. The caretaker that's been assigned to us is a 21-year old woman. She is very young and very quiet, obviously without a lot of work experience. She is kind to Josh but we're wondering if she has the professional training we need to really maximize the benefit to Josh. We are still looking into other possible options, even a few outside of Portland.
As for Josh's progress, the days when Josh made major advances on a daily basis are now long behind us. It has been more than six months since the accident and so Josh's recovery rate is much slower now. We still expect improvement, but probably nothing dramatic. We miss the days of rapid improvement but are glad that Josh has made it through all of that and is where he is today.
Aphasia and incontinence are still Josh's two main obstacles at this time. His aphasia is so bad that it makes it very difficult for him to connect well with the outside world. For the most part he understands what is said to him, as long as it is basic, but not always. For example, this morning in the kitchen, Mary asked him to get a grocery sack from the pantry. He wandered upstairs. And he struggles mightily with being able to say anything back. When he is trying to tell us something, the words come out all wrong and most of what he says doesn't make sense. Consequently, he doesn't say much at all. Having any sort of meaningful conversation with him is impossible. Incontinence problems continue to dog him as well, both during the day and at night. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to get upset or frustrated when occasional "accidents" happen (see above re flat emotions), but it's hard on his parents and definitely impacts his life in a negative way.
As we move into this new year, we are grateful for what we have but also feel some trepidation about what we are still facing. We continue to need and appreciate everyone's support.
Happy New Year to all. 2017 was a very difficult year, dominated, as it was, by Josh's injury. We hope that 2018 will be a much better year, as Josh continues his recovery and life eases back into a more normal routine.
The last two weeks were relatively good weeks for Josh. He enjoyed a nice Christmas at home in Portland with his family, including Eden & RJ and their boys. Josh's emotions are so flat now that it is difficult to know how he is feeling, but he always seems to enjoy being with people. This was certainly the case with his sister and her family.
For New Years, we drove to Tri-Cities, WA to welcome Josh's cousin, Bradley, home from his mission in Brazil and to spend some fun time with Mary's family. Again, Josh seemed to enjoy being around his cousins and aunts and uncles, who are all very warm and kind towards him.
Most of the medical concerns from our last post have been resolved -- more or less. There really doesn't seem to be any further symptoms that could be tied to the car accident we had at the beginning of December. Josh still struggles with controlling his internal body temperature, so we have to monitor that carefully. He almost always wears at least one jacket or coat in the house and sometimes as many as three if we go outside into the cold. I'm not sure I've ever seen Josh get hot!
We have now started a new program that is supported through Medicaid. This program brings a caretaker into our home five days a week for three hours each day. The caretaker is tasked with doing anything that Mary wants her to do as long as it relates to Josh's needs. Mary has created a daily schedule that includes therapy -- reading, writing, math, educational computer games -- as well as just having some fun. It can also include helping Josh with basic skills, such as cooking or cleaning. The caretaker is also authorized to run errands that relate to Josh (take him to a doctor's appointment, get his medications from Rite Aid, etc.), cleaning parts of the house that Josh uses, or doing Josh's laundry. The caretaker that's been assigned to us is a 21-year old woman. She is very young and very quiet, obviously without a lot of work experience. She is kind to Josh but we're wondering if she has the professional training we need to really maximize the benefit to Josh. We are still looking into other possible options, even a few outside of Portland.
As for Josh's progress, the days when Josh made major advances on a daily basis are now long behind us. It has been more than six months since the accident and so Josh's recovery rate is much slower now. We still expect improvement, but probably nothing dramatic. We miss the days of rapid improvement but are glad that Josh has made it through all of that and is where he is today.
Aphasia and incontinence are still Josh's two main obstacles at this time. His aphasia is so bad that it makes it very difficult for him to connect well with the outside world. For the most part he understands what is said to him, as long as it is basic, but not always. For example, this morning in the kitchen, Mary asked him to get a grocery sack from the pantry. He wandered upstairs. And he struggles mightily with being able to say anything back. When he is trying to tell us something, the words come out all wrong and most of what he says doesn't make sense. Consequently, he doesn't say much at all. Having any sort of meaningful conversation with him is impossible. Incontinence problems continue to dog him as well, both during the day and at night. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to get upset or frustrated when occasional "accidents" happen (see above re flat emotions), but it's hard on his parents and definitely impacts his life in a negative way.
As we move into this new year, we are grateful for what we have but also feel some trepidation about what we are still facing. We continue to need and appreciate everyone's support.
Thank you for this update... all in all It seems things are moving positively... Still praying.
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