July 16, 2006

Lots of good things happened this week. We got the approval to purchase the turning mattress. They are actually going to pay for it. Yippee! It has been so wonderful to sleep in the bed next to Jess and know that every 30 minutes he will be repositioned. We were waking every hour worrying whether it was time to turn him. Now he is gently turned from side to side and we don't have pull on him and wake him during the night. Persistence pervails! We still take turns sleeping in his room because...we are afraid not to. Thank you to all who helped make it happen.
Jess had a visitor from his good friend, Kyle on Friday. They spent a lot of good times together while growing up. Kyle stayed about an hour and a half and just talked to Jess about old times. I wasn't home but Amanda said Jess was listening so intently and really seemed to enjoy his company. Thanks, Kyle!
I received a newsletter this week from a Parent Network organization for children with disabilities and there was an article in it titled "He Talks with His Eyes". I followed up with a call to the author who is from the University of Idaho's Assitive Technology Project. She was more than happy to talk to me about the possibilities of Jess being able to use some kind of device to communicate. We are going to set up a meeting in Boise to assess Jess' abilities. I have been praying for help in this area and guess what shows up! YOU JUST CAN'T GIVE UP ON WHAT YOU WANT!
It has taken me 2 years to get the courage to take Jess' computer to someone to have them get rid of all of the viruses. Joey said it would be best to wipe out his hard drive and start over. I wanted to save anything important or memorable on his computer when he is able to use it again so I have been afraid to do something that drastic. But, we may get to hook it up to some assistive technology so it became necessary to make the decision. Jess liked to visit a computer consulting business downtown and talk computers with the owner Robby so I took his computer to him. Anyway, before I did, Daniel had just returned home with Jess and was unloading him from the van. I looked into the van while Daniel was unhooking the wheelchair and told Jess I was going to take his computer into have the viruses removed but I needed his ok. I asked him to give me a thumbs up if that was ok with him. I watched his hand and arm start to wiggle and all of a sudden he raised his arm and put his thumb straight into the air. I started to cry! He wants to use his computer and I am determined to find a way for him to do it. He wants to communicate.
We took Jess in to have the EEG monitor hooked up. He had 16 wires glued to his head for 48 hours. I don't think he liked it much. We had to monitor any strange spaced out look or heavy breathing and then hit a button. We also had to write down what time he was doing activities. I think we only hit the button 6 times and some were questionable. We want to rule out any seizure activity because that seems to be the first thing any medical professional asks us. Jess is not on any medication and that is a very unusual occurrence for someone with a brain injury. Until Jess can tell us what type of reaction he is having to a drug we just don't want to subject him to the side effects. We also got good news from Jamie. Jahara was accepted to the Boise State University preschool. So, while Jamie attends college Jahara will be in one of the best preschools in Boise. It was truly a good week!