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 that she makes him take a bite of the sandwich when he finishes.

The last thing Josh did today was try to trace circles with a pen.

Josh had lunch but didn't have time for a nap before his ST class. The first thing she tried was having him look at a calendar and figure out the date, but that was a disaster. He couldn't get passed the month. She pointed at the word "August," but he kept saying Saturday. No matter how many times she told him the word was August, he said Saturday. He knew the word was coming out wrong, but he couldn't fix it. He became very frustrated, so she switched activities. As she was moving to the next activity, she asked said, "You obviously know the word but can't say it right. How does that feel?" He answered, "It feels like being wrong," which is one of the worst feelings Josh feels. Since he was little, when he was wrong on something it made him feel stupid and worthless. So that made Mary sad. But Mary also felt hope because at least he knows he is wrong!! He can't fix it if he can't see there is a problem, so now that he sees it's difficult for him, maybe it can get better.

Then she pulled out a flip chart that had drawings of things, and his job was to tell her what the drawing was. Again, he started strong, but went downhill as the session progressed. (It was only a 25-minute session.)

The next few were:

• coat hanger was a hang glider
• wheelchair was a mushroom, but after she said "wheel" he said wheelbarrow
• camel was a camelback
• mask was a mattaloon
• bench was a shoe glider
• racquet was steak

Josh deserves credit because he tried really hard, and didn't quit trying despite the failure and frustration.

Class ended at 1:30 then he had a 30-minute break before his next class, which was ST again. This time she gave him a list of sentences followed by three multiple choice answers. For example:

A device you use to call friends: teeth, wire, phone. Josh couldn't read the sentences even wearing glasses. He really needs to see an ophthalmologist that will measure his eyesight and give him a prescription for glasses. The OT told me that his prescription will change in both eyes as his right eye improves, but I think it's better to start with something certain than to start with a bad guess ... which is where we are right now. But as for how he did on this activity, if Mary read him the sentence, he had a 50% ratio of getting the answer right, which makes it hard to tell if the problem is receptive or expressive aphasia.

Class ended at 2:30, so we had a lot of hours until bedtime. First we laid on his bed and watched Minnions together (although it didn't really keep his attention and I'm pretty sure he didn't understand it).

Then we had dinner. Then we walked around the property for a really long time. Then he took a shower and went to bed.

This is the first time Josh didn't wet or soil his pants all day long, which is HUGE!