July 22, 2017 9:00 pm

There are no therapy sessions scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays, so today was a free day to do what Josh wanted. Consequently, we are just about worn out trying to entertain him all day.

Josh is still not in a stable enough condition to leave campus, so we didn't do much that would be considered fun. We walked around campus quite a bit, both inside and outside the buildings. Paul and Josh played Foosball for about an hour and a half. It's interesting to watch Josh play. He has good problem solving skills. For example, he is able to figure out the trajectory of the ball and choose the best player to kick it. But he's slow. If the ball were rolling at full speed, he would not be able to keep up with the game.

 

There was an archery event Josh sort of participated in. Instead of shooting with the arrow, he took the arrow to the target and knocked the plastic bottles down. They served root beer floats at the event, so he had one of those.

Two hours later we ate dinner together in the Bistro. It was nice to eat somewhere other than Josh's room. Josh ordered shredded barbacoa beef, egg noodles, mixed vegetables, 8 oz. of grape juice, a carton of chocolate milk, and a chocolate shake. He ate it all!

After dinner we went to the gym where he lifted weights to burn off some of those calories he consumed. He weighed about 149 before the accident. Two days before we left OHSU, he weighed 134. He now weighs 138.

After his 5-pound reps, we came back to his room where Paul played cards with Josh. Paul lined up a set of cards in random order, and Josh matched them - King with King, 4s with 4s, etc. Josh was mostly accurate.

When Josh got tired of that, he motored forward and backward in his wheelchair for over 2 hours ... without stopping. Paul tried to keep up with him, but lasted for about 4 minutes.

We spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Josh has a short attention span, so TV shows like AFV work better for him than movies like Transformers.

But here is the news we probably should have led with, in order of importance:
1. We got a new shower head in our apartment! We now have a decent amount of water pressure.
2. When Josh ran over my foot with his wheelchair, he apologized. That's big given his frontal lobe damage.
3. He remembered Eden's name and still knows that she is his sister!
4. He counted to 10.
5. I showed him a picture of AJ and asked if he knew who it was. He said, "Yes. It's family."
6. In some ways, Josh is much more friendly than he used to be. He waves and smiles at strangers, regardless of their physical condition.
7. He got a new pair of slippers so he doesn't have to tie his shoes anymore. (He CAN tie his shoes.)
8. He doesn't know colors. I asked him what color shirt he was wearing. He said "red." (It was blue.) Later I showed him two different-colored copies of my family reunion t-shirt design. One was dark blue and the other yellow/gold. I asked which he liked better. He said, "Purple."
9. He can somewhat manipulate a situation. He kept saying he has to go to the bathroom just to get his seat belt off. Then he would fight the BA when she tried to re-latch it. But if he said he had to go to the bathroom and the BA asked, "Do you really need to go?" he would tell the truth: "No."