Dylan's shopping at Mill's Mall!

Dylan did a great job this week!
 
We bought him an Ipad to help with his speech therapy. The therapist said that it would really be a great tool to assist in his recovery. She’s very excited to see what he can do with it. We can download apps for reading books, doing math, learning new languages, playing games, listening to music and much more! She is going to use it with him five days a week during her therapy sessions.

He got to take a ride in the car this weekend. We had received a note from the doctor a couple of weeks ago allowing us to take Dyl on a short (2 hour) trip out of the facility, but he hadn’t really been up to it until this weekend. On Saturday we loaded everyone into the Denali and took him out for about a half hour. We drove around the surrounding area. He got to rock out to his favorite Bon Jovi songs and he got to see the Arizona Grand Hotel’s huge fountain. It was sooo cool to see him in the car. You would never know there was anything wrong with him to see him in the car. We originally had him in his “normal” seat then we thought we’d put him in the front seat and he really enjoyed being able to see everything from up there.
 
Then on Sunday we took him to the mall!!! Oh, if you could have seen him just taking in that experience! He was looking at everything and just enjoying being in a new place. We got to take him into a couple of his favorite stores. He loves Zumiez and Tilly’s and we were the first customers in both stores when they opened. Dyl got to pick out a couple of shirts and we were able to just look around for a little while before we had to get him back to the facility so he could eat lunch.
 
Dylan is now eating three meals a day by mouth, they are working on getting his food upgraded from pureed to soft solids, then he can enjoy chicken nuggets, French fries and pizza rolls! I know he’ll LOVE that when it happens. Don’t get me wrong, he loves eating the food they are serving now, but that will be like normal for him he’s going to be having a mini pizza party soon, the speech therapist said he’s almost ready to eat his favorite food and she’s really looking forward to him having that chance.
 
This weekend Dylan was saying uh-uh (no) very clearly and Dan heard him say uh-huh (yes) quite clearly too, it seems like he’s doing really well with forming words too. I saw him try and say “love” and he had the motion of the mouth and tongue right he just couldn’t get the sound to come out. He’s so close and his doctor is very positive that he’s going to be speaking soon.
   
Dylan’s sugar levels are starting to equalize a bit more now too. They have adjusted his eating regiment and we are working on trying to get it to where he eats only during the day and isn’t on the overnight tube feeding. I’m going to call his endocrinologist this week and speak to him about taking Dyl totally off the overnight feed and giving him more carbs during the day. They are giving him such a small amount of carbs right now, he used to eat 70 carbs for each meal and now they are only giving him 35 each meal, I know he would eat the extra food and they could even give him snacks during the day if they needed to. I’m hoping we can get that done soon. I think it would be another big step in his recovery.
 
Please continue to keep Dylan in your thoughts and prayers, he’s doing so good. His spirits are really high and he’s laughing more and more every day! The nurses say he’s hardly ever sad anymore, which is so great to hear!! He used to cry because he was lonely, but he has a new rommmate and they are closer in age than his last roommate was. He also gets to spend time down at the nurses station and they let him go to the cafeteria to eat his meals so it gets him out of the upstairs unit a bit more, which he really enjoys. - Keri

Dylan riding in the car

Dylan sends a text message!

We are doing very good! We got home last night after spending the last nine days in Phoenix with Dylan. It was such a good visit and we got to see so many things that we don’t normally get to on the weekend . I have so many things to pass on.
When we got to Phoenix on Friday night last week, Dyl was still awake and was very happy to see us, he’s now showing emotion when he’s feeling something, so we got a huge smile and laugh when he saw us! He was awake for about an hour after we got there and while we were visiting with him he was playing with Dan’s phone and he texted my phone and sent me this message: “I love you”, I couldn’t believe that he was doing that! He’s aware of how so many things work and he was able to type the message on his own, Dan just had to hold the phone steady for him!!
Dylan has progressed to eating his lunches by mouth, pureed foods only, and he’s totally enjoying that experience! He gets very happy when lunch time comes, he gets to go down to the dining room and eat with all the residents and guests, which is very good for him to socialize. He is watched very carefully to make sure he’s getting small bites of food and drinking his milk or water between them to clear his throat. He’s doing really well with that! He is able to use his left hand very well to eat and drink and we are working on getting his right hand going too. He was using his right hand by the middle of the week and doing good with that! They have him using a spongy handle cover on the spoon when he uses his right hand, it helps him grasp the spoon better. He is able to eat just about any food that is low in sugars and carbs when they do lunch . He really liked his chicken parmesan the other day. They have him on thickened liquids which help with the swallowing, and they have many flavors for him to drink, he really likes the apple juice and the milk!
Dylan is also using his voice on a consistent basis! When he answers a question he is now using his voice at the same time, so if he is nodding yes, he’s also trying to say yes at the same time. He’s doing really good with that! He likes to talk to us when we are there. He is very vocal and we think that soon he’s going to be talking. He is moving his mouth in the shape of letters and words when he is making the noises too, which is very encouraging and his doctor thinks that he will be talking very quickly.
He’s using his math skills and reading and writing skills on a daily basis, we ask him to count or add and subtract throughout our visits to make sure he’s consistently using those skills and he’s very good at that ;) he is able to answer our questions and read the dry erase board and complete the answers to our questions. When he is trying to roll in the bed he’s able to do that on his own now, he knows to grab the side rail of the bed on the side he wants to turn to and then he picks his back up off the bed and shifts his hips and legs in the same direction and is able to get on his side all by himself! He hadn’t been able to do that before he is also now able to stand up from the side of the bed with a minimal assist from someone. He puts both feet over the side of the bed then shifts his body and uses the side rail and pushes from a laying down position into a sitting position and gets balanced on the side of the bed and then is able to bear his weight to push into a standing position then when you help him stand he’s able to move his feet to step to a chair or into his wheelchair which is soooo awesome!! He’s definitely more mobile!
He is working on strengthening exercises for both his arms, his legs, his abs and his balance on a daily basis with the occupational therapist, and she’s very good with him. He is able to use his right arm quite a bit more than he could before, he actually had his arms above his head yesterday and was able to keep them up there while he was sitting up he is doing weights with both arms and does ten reps with each arm, he does a 1 pound weight in the right hand and a 2 pound weight in the left hand. He’s really good at doing the reps, especially if someone is doing them at the same time he is. He’s also using a hula hoop with shower curtain rings linked on it to exercise his shoulder and arm muscles. While the therapist holds the hula hoop in the air he has to reach from one side and drag the shower curtain ring from that side to the other side without letting go of the ring. He’s doing real good at that, his first try was on Friday and he was doing a very good job. Dylan and I played checkers this weekend too, he remembered how to play and knew what moves he wanted to make and did real good, he beat me when we were playing and knew all the rules of the game. I was really happy to see that, I wasn’t sure if he’d remember how to play, but he did!!
Dylan’s occupational therapist has him do a daily routine, he has to get out of bed and into his shower chair where she has him shower and shampoo himself and then she has him help get dressed and then he has to put on his own deodorant and he has to fix his hair and brush his teeth, she says he’s doing really good at getting the morning routine down pat. He’s assisting her more than he ever has before! He really seems to like being able to do for himself!! She also has him building a model with her during their therapy sessions, he has painted it and is getting ready to assemble it soon, when they are done she says she has another one they can do together.
While we were there this past week, Dylan was able to do leg lifts while sitting in his wheelchair, we had him doing five to ten reps on each leg at different times of the day just to keep his body moving. The physical therapist has him using a lite gait machine…it suspends him so that his feet touch the ground but the machine takes most of his weight and then he is able to walk while the machine assists him. He was doing really good with that on Thursday! He took about five steps in one direction and then they turned him around and he took five steps back to where he started!!! 
We were able to take Dylan down to the Angel House and he really seemed to enjoy being in there. He was very relaxed and we stayed there for about a half hour.
The doctor said that Dan and I can take Dylan off the property for a short (2 hour) outing when we are there, he said its very good for Dylan to go off the property every once in a while, it boosts his morale now we just need to find some things that he would enjoy seeing there that are no longer than a 2 hour outing it will be very cool to get him off the property.
Dylan is able to sit in a regular chair now for his meals he spent a good two hours in the regular chair on both the days that we did it, he was very relaxed and comfortable in it. It’s nice that he’s able to sit in the chair versus his wheelchair or his bed.
He’s doing really good, the human resources director said that Dylan is a good candidate for Barrows institute when he is totally finished rehabilitating at Hacienda. The neurospsychologist said that she is recommending that he go there when he has completed all he can at Hacienda and then they would work with him at Barrows and then release him home such great news!!!
Please continue to keep Dyl in your thoughts and prayers, he’s doing an AWESOME job!!! - Keri

Dylan savoring H2O

Dylan and his walking machine

Dylan sitting up/making model

dyl @ the angel house, uncle garry drives me crazy : )

Dylan feeding self his 1st pureed meal!!!!

dylan's kickin' keri's booty @ checkers!!