Josh Beecroft Recovery Updates

September 30, 2017 What a nice day for our small family. We rolled into the hospital at about 8:00 am. Josh was in the middle of breakfast. We asked him if he wanted to get out of the hospital for a few hours. He readily agreed. So we packed up, checked out, loaded Josh in the car (sans wheelchair), and took off for Red Rocks and Boulder. It was a beautiful day here in Denver this morning -- blue skies and about 70 degrees. We rolled into Red Rocks about 20 minutes after we left Craig Hospital, parked at the top circle parking lot, and walked down the slope to the famous amphitheater. We pointed out all the large rocks to Josh and he seemed duly impressed. Here's a photo of Josh in front of Creation Rock. After a little more walking around and a failed attempt at souvenir shopping, we headed on to Boulder. We enjoyed the drive along the front of the Rocky Mountains. Boulder is a beautiful city, sitting at the foot of the "Flatirons." The Flatirons are striking,...

September 29, 2017 10:20 pm Yesterday morning Mary was told she had to choose: Josh could go either on the fishing trip on Thursday afternoon or on a tour of the Mile High Stadium on Friday morning. After discussing the options with Josh's therapists, Friday morning's tour was selected. In the 10 weeks we have been here, Josh hasn't gone on a single outing. Either he's been moved to Swedish, or the one time we were here, there wasn't enough room for him. Today followed the same pattern. Because Josh wasn't acting well yesterday, Dr. Makley decided it was best if Josh didn't go on today's outing. Mary was upset ... REALLY upset. Josh was doing GREAT this morning, and the tour was only a few hours. AND this was Josh's last chance to do something fun here. Nonetheless, we were relegated to the hospital. Since there was nothing to do all morning, Mary set up her computer for Josh and asked him to type her a letter. He typed: Dear Mom, Today I w...

September 28, 2017 10:00 pm The night before last Craig Hospital had a fire drill. The alarms went off the lights blinked. It was loud, and for Josh it was scary. Before I left for the night, he said, "Don't lock my shoe." What he meant was, "Don't lock me in my bed because if there is a fire, I won't be able to get out." I was sad that he was scared, but happy that he figured that out. Anyway, since then Josh has been afraid of being zipped up in his bed. (And I don't blame him.) Josh woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. When I got to his room at 7:40, the blinds were closed, the lights were off, and he was wide awake, locked up in his bed. I opened his bed, sat on the side, and rubbed his arm. He was asleep almost immediately. Because his first class was at 8:00, the nurse came in and woke him up after maybe 2-3 minutes. I helped the nurse get him dressed, and by the time we were done dressing him, it was 8:07. So Jos...

September 27, 2017 9:10 pm Rough day ... but I'm tired of saying it's a rough day. I want to say, "GREAT DAY! Josh is rockin' it! He can feed himself, he can go to the bathroom by himself, he can walk without help!" Maybe someday, but that day is not today. Josh was wide awake when I got to the hospital this morning. I asked if he'd been awake for a long time. He said yes, but he probably doesn't even know what 'a long time' is, or means. The BA and I got him out of bed. We got him dressed and ready for the day. We got him breakfast, but he wasn't eating. I kept encouraging him to eat, but he wouldn't. After at least 45 minutes, I sat at the table with him. He was holding two cubed potatoes on a fork, and they were soggy from the ketchup that had been on them. He'd been holding those potatoes for a long time. I said, "Can you put that in your mouth?" He said, "I don't think so." Then I realized that it wasn...

September 26, 2017 9:45 pm Another day at Craig. Josh had a few of his normal classes but lost some time today due to medical issues. Here's a video and a photo of Josh cooking cookies during OT. They were YUMMY. On the medical side, Dr. Rubin came by to give us the results from the MRI yesterday. The fluid in the front of Josh's brain has drained substantially but his ventricles are still the same size. So Dr. Rubin dialed down the frontal lobe shunt to one (its lowest setting and where it should remain for the foreseeable future) and the ventricle shunt to five (the lowest its been in weeks). We are expecting this to decrease the size of the ventricles over time. We're anxious to see how it impacts Josh's memory and learning abilities. Josh was also fitted with a set of wires on his head to measure brain activity, specifically seizure activity. Josh has to wear these wires for the next 48 hours. Finally, our nurse removed most of Josh's stap...

September 25, 2017 10:25 pm The nurse this morning was WAY late with Josh's morning medications, causing him to be 20 minutes late to Speech. He was shown a drawing of a kitchen, and he told the pathologist everything in the picture (except he got cupboards/cabinets wrong). Then he was shown a drawing of a bedroom and he was supposed to tell the pathologist the items in the bedroom (lamp, nightstand, bed, blanket, pillow, etc.). He didn't get any of them right. The same thing happened when she showed him a drawing of a closet. PT was the same as always: walking and stretching. In OT, the therapist had a box. (Imagine 10" tall, 20" side, and 4" deep, with a center divider that is 2 1/2" taller than the box.) One side of the box was filled with 1" blocks. She asked him to move the blocks from the full side to the empty side, one block at a time. She did this once with his right hand and once with his left hand. When she tried this activity abou...

September 24, 2017 10:06 pm It was a chilly Sunday here in Denver. Autumn is definitely here. The rain reminds us of the weather we'll soon be facing as we head back to Portland soon. We're both sad to see summer go. We Portlanders cherish our summers. This year we feel like we lost most of ours because we've mostly been sitting in hospital rooms for the past three months. It was also a relaxed day for us today. Josh had breakfast and then a nap. He didn't get out of his room to do anything until after lunch. Mary and Josh worked on a couple of puzzles that we bought when we were out shopping yesterday. Josh 1.0 hated puzzles but Josh 2.0 seems to enjoy them quite a bit. He stays focused until it's finished. Very interesting to see some of the personality changes. Another change in Josh 2.0: We asked Josh if he wanted to go out shopping with us, and he said yes. Josh 1.0 wouldn't go shopping unless his very life depended on it (and maybe not even then)! ...