Dylan's at the Hacienda

Hello everyone :) there has been such a lot happening for Dylan. He was transferred from Healthsouth last Thursday up to Phoenix. He is now at Hacienda health care in Phoenix. He has improved vastly! Hacienda has 4 nursing colleges that intern there, so there is constantly someone in the hallway to catch if you have any questions. Hacienda has a safety check policy too where someone from the staff has to come into each room every fifteen minutes to check on the kids in the room. They are very consistent in this :) Dylan has a 10 month old roommate, he and Trenton are buddies already! We all know how great Dylan is with babies! :) The atmosphere is so different too. When Dylan was at Healthsouth he was very tense and suffering from muscle spasms multiple times a day, he was crying quite a bit from the pain of the spasms and wasn't getting the proper rest at night. We have seen that the time at Hacienda is doing wonders for Dylan. He hardly every cries, in the 4 days I was there last week Dylan only whimpered once the whole time! They shower the kids daily, they get dressed in normal clothes and they get their teeth brushed every day. He's really enjoying the flavor of the toothpaste and pretty much anything with flavor, he likes the nystatin (he gets that for the Thrush on his tongue), the drops of lemon juice and the chocolate pudding :) He is taken to a day room daily for time to spend with other kids and watch cartoons or participate in activities. He gets therapy six days a week and they have already tried letting him taste chocolate pudding, he really enjoyed that! He was swallowing with no difficulty!! He is also doing tracking exercises and making choices between two items on a daily basis. The physical therapist was going to try and put Dyl in a sit/stand machine, which is similar to a chair that lifts you up on your feet so you can stand with a little help, they were going to try and do that this week! It is only week 1 and he's already doing so much more already!!! Yay Dylan!!! :o) The occupational therapist called us yesterday and indicated that she was confused as to why Dylan had arm braces. She stated that his arms were so relaxed that she was not sure why he had to be in the braces at all. Such good news because he was so tense at Healthsouth that his right arm was bent so that his fist was under his chin and we couldn't get his arm straight without really working it hard, his left arm was extended straight down and unable to bend it without really working it. Now he's got both arms relaxed to a "normal" state :) They still use the braces for his hands, they seem to be working great to keep his hands from making fists and he is more relaxed there as well. We saw his fingers moving last Saturday, he was flexing them quite a bit and that is new!!! On Saturday last week when we were in the day room Dylan was sitting in a recliner watching cartoons with the other kids, suddenly he moved his right arm up to the middle of his chest then bent his head down and put his thumb up to his mouth and opened his mouth as if he was eating!!! That's the first time we've seen that!! Five minutes later they gave Dyl his lunch, so he seems to know his schedule and seems to be communicating that he was ready to eat :)

Dan and I are very excited with his new treatment and the facility! They are AWESOME!!! He has improved drastically in just one week!! - Keri