I have a kink in my neck from looking up at my beautiful son. We just got him out of the standing machine. Yes, ask and you shall receive. With the help of Karen, our home health supplier, we were able to borrow a standing machine to do a trial to satisfy the requirements of Medicaid. If we can prove it is beneficial for him to have one they may help us purchase it. Chris and I have been standing him for months by ourselves. At one time it took three of us and we could only go for maybe 20 minutes with a lot of effort. Now, we can reach the hour a day suggestion from the doctor in Salt Lake. Jess is one tall young man. We are guessing he is about 6'1 or 2. And, the standing machine is wonderful.
I am sure we do have angels watching over us. Chris flew to Nebraska last week to buy our new used van. It turned out to be perfect. He drove home and stopped in SLC to have a wheelchair lift installed. Today we were able to wheel Jess into the van and go for a ride. Now, I can take him to school or to the horse arena or wherever I want by myself. I am so grateful. I had the help of my wonderful friend, Sheila, while Chris was away. We came up with some pretty inovative ways to move Jess and accomplished our mission with a few laughs and very strange looks from Jess. Can you imagine what he must think when he hears his mom is going to pick him up?
We had a wonderful experience at the horse arena on Thursday. Jess has a special horse, Merlin, that is brought in on Thursdays for him to touch. He is a beautiful gentle soul that just connects so softly with Jess. We generally have to hold Jess' hand up to feel his breath, touch his wiskers and he always receives a few licks. This time after a few minutes of touching him with his right hand all of a sudden Jess raised his left arm and opened his hand so he could meet Merlin's nose...their eyes connected. It was a very precious moment for all of us.
I also met with the school district on Friday and we came up with an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for Jess to attend school two days a week and hopefully increasing to three days, three hours soon. No, he does not really participate but that's okay. It will come in time. He just needs to be in a familiar environment with the stimulation of school. They have some interesting ideas of using assistive technology aids to help Jess learn to communicate. Everyone is more than willing to help him in any way they can. We rode the school bus last Wednesday and I know Jess was curious as to why he was back on a school bus again. As I said, we will try whatever it takes to help him remember.
Joey is on his way home as we speak. He is in Montana in a snow storm tonight and should arrive in the next couple days. We are truly blessed.
A lady I have never met from Illinois called today and told me she had traveled to California and started a pray group there as well as the one she has going in Illinois. There are so many wonderful people praying for my Jess I know someday in God's time he will be able to communicate and contribute something very special to all of us really soon.
"Never, never, never give up." -Winston Churchill-
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