Jess had a week of one event after the other. On Sunday we had visits from friends and even a visit from a sweet little dog Lola who visits patients in the hospital. Jess' brother Joey and girlfriend Angie arrived on Sunday from Minneapolis. It is so nice to have them here. They brought a little 3 month old puppy with them. She is a "Pug" and loves to crawl all over Jess and give him lots of kisses.
Jess had PT, rode Charlie Brown and had a CT scan on Monday. The CT showed no change in swelling or fluid in his brain and actually showed a decrease in the swelling across the frontal portion of the brain. All good news. He does have enlarged ventricles which are probably a result of the injury. It has been 9 months today. In the evening we took Jess to the high school to watch a Donkey basketball game in which the seniors played the faculty on Donkey's. It was very interesting. Tuesday we had Speech therapy in which Leslie uses an electric stimulator on Jess' throat while we feed him sips of water and fruit in the consistency of applesauce. He swallowed very well. We get to try a few other blended varieties with caution. After speech we took Jess up to Sun Valley to the ski hill Baldy. We loaded him a sled built especially for the handicap, strapped him down and watched 3 ski instructors get him on the lift. He made two runs with the ski instructors and Chris at his side. As they made big GS turns down the slope Chris said Jess was wide eyed. Joey and I stood at the bottom and watched. I couldn't help but cry to see Jess coming down the mountain. He loves to snowboard and when he got down to us his eyes were so big and I know he knew where he was and what he was doing. Our thanks to all who made this possible...and he's going again next week. After that he went to school for 2 hours. Wednesday he had acupuncture, OT and we had a special visit from the school speech therapist who felt very good about Jess' eye contact and responses to commands. We worked on getting Jess to trigger a button that activated a recording that said "hi mom". Each time Maura asked him to move his thumb he did. Movements like that will open other doors for us to help him communicate and have some choices.
And, today, Chris and I left Joey, Angie and Daniel with Jess while we had a meeting in Twin Falls. A big step for us and a fun day for Jess. He rode Charlie and we heard it was his best day ever. I think we only checked in maybe 4 or 5 times. Later we were treated to a wonderful St. Patrick's Day dinner provided by our good friends Linda & Paul.
Jess has also been standing for 10 to 30 minutes a day in his standing machine. The van has been such a gift and has made transporting Jess so much easier. We are still hoping to get his new wheel chair soon. Tomorrow we have PT and Cranial Sacral therapy and a visit from the school OT therapist. I know I have forgotten a lot of details...our days are so packed full. We are so lucky to have so many talented wonderful people helping our Jess recover. He is making small changes and we are just patiently (most of the time) waiting. Good night...
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