3/13 - Sam's Journey - Day 92

I'm not going to write a lot since my last post was pretty lengthy. Since the trach has been out, the last two weeks have been great for Sam. Because we were on Spring Break this week, I got to spend time with him during his rehab sessions, and I saw him make some really good progress. In the last few days alone, he has made some significant leaps forward, and I wanted to highlight a few of them for you.

-The therapists have been working on finding a way for him to communicate more effectively beyond yes and no, and the limited sign language they've taught him. This week, they gave him some paper and a pen to see what he could do. He has some minor issues with fine motor skills, left side attention deficit, and perseverating on (repeating) some letters. Despite that, he has now written sentences up to 11 words long. He's also writing some pretty intricate stuff.  Although sometimes he has to rewrite things because it's illegible, he has been able to communicate clearly. He has asked to listen to specific music (yes, he can still spell Magnificat correctly,) requested food (burgers, if you were wondering) and expressed some pretty significant emotions. What has become abundantly clear through the new writing system, is regardless of whatever parts of his brain may have been damaged in the accident or removed during treatment, he is as sharp as he was prior to December 12th. As far as we can tell at this point, his memory and his knowledge base are solid. Before all of this, he had a really sharp wit, and that has not changed one bit. As an example, I was having trouble reading something he'd written. I said, "Sam, you have to write bigger." So he wrote this:

-Yesterday in OT, he opened and closed his mouth on command for the first time since this all happened. Because that's tied so closely to speaking and eating, I was over the moon when he did that. When Jim went in last night, he texted me to tell him that he got him to make sound! He could only do it a couple of times, but it was a start. Today when I was with him, he was able to make sound more often than he couldn't. When he tries to speak and 'misses', he makes the "H" sound. I had him touch his throat so he could feel the vibrations when he did make sound, and that seems to be helping. Whenever he was successful in making a sound, we both got so excited and did a fist bump. I was downright giddy on the way home. (And believe me, it's not because we're going back to school tomorrow.) It was a very good day. 

-Finally, Sam had some visitors this weekend. It was so good for him to interact with other people, and I'm grateful for the time they shared with him. A couple of friends brought him a hat which he absolutely adores and wears all the time. It's great at covering the wonky hairstyle after all he's been through. He's even created a little salute with it.

The thought I'll leave you with is this: My gut has been pretty accurate throughout this whole process, and it's telling me this is going to be a really huge week for Sam with some amazing leaps forward. I'll let you know next week if it was right! (So much for not writing a lot--my apologies!)

Thanks for your continued prayers! We have some friends going through some tough situations with family health issues. If you could include them when you're remembering them, we'd really appreciate it.

Finally, here's a picture of Sam with his buddies.