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 number one priority is my brother, it's hard for my parents to stay and socialize. It's very different to go to a ward where you don't know too many people.

The rest of the morning was spent playing matching games and trying to relearn shapes and colors. Grandma Beecroft got him lots of fun puzzles and games, but one in particular Josh really likes. There are templates that have letters on them, and Josh fills out the letter with magnets that come in different shapes. Josh really liked putting them together and did great! Interesting fact: Josh can count to 20, but not to 21.

We quit the puzzles to eat lunch. Dad got him a hamburger, fries, strawberry cupcake, and chocolate Ensure. Josh wasn't eating so I tried to make it into a game. I told him I would take a bite if he would. It worked! He ate more, and he ate faster, but he still only ate about 1/4 hamburger.

After lunch we walked the halls for about 30 minutes. Josh held a part of the cupcake frosting in his left hand for most of the walk, and every time he passed a Purell station, he will fill up his right hand with sanitizer. He didn't like having both his hands full, but he was unwilling to relinquish the cupcake frosting AND he couldn't refrain from filling his other hand with sanitizer. It was rough.

Anyway, walking around for so long is quite a feat for someone who has spent the better part of 8 weeks in a bed. He enjoyed getting out of the room and was very reluctant to come back. Once we did, he agreed to try to nap and he fell asleep super fast.

While he rested, we snuck away to see some of beautiful Colorado. We went to Red Rock but we didn't see the amphitheater because there is a concert tonight. That was a bit of a disappointment. But we were able to enjoy some of the beautiful outdoors and that was a very nice break from the inside of the hospital. We went to Dinosaur Ridge, but to see the fossils requires a 3-mile hike round trip. We decided that was too long to leave Josh, so we headed back to the hospital.

We got back to Josh's room and noticed that Josh was shaking, having tremors. It didn't last too long, but long enough to concern Mom and me, so we called the nurses, who in turn called the doctor. Blood work was run, seizure medications were doubled, and a CT scan was ordered for early tomorrow morning to see what's going on in his brain. Mom thinks the neurosurgeon needs to adjust the shunt to remove more fluid. I guess we will see tomorrow.