Whispering Hope Camp

Dylan attended camp up in Payson at Whispering Hope Campground from August 20 – 22 and according to the staff that accompanied him he had a blast! The campsite is beautiful (we looked at it online) and they have over 100 animals for therapy! The staff said he had such a good time, that they went swimming and horseback riding as well as doing many craft projects while they were there. They said Dylan had the most fun out of all the people that went. We were thrilled that he had a good time, he loves camping and being outside so that was a plus. He brought back some really great artwork too. Hopefully we’ll see the pics from the trip soon, they did say they have at least one of him riding the horse. 
When we got there this weekend, Dylan was doing really well, he has moved rooms and has a new room-mate again. He’s now on the opposite side of the hall than he was before. He’s got a roomie who doesn’t talk and is pretty quiet for the most part, his machines make a little noise, but we make much more than him on a normal basis so it’s all good. We ran into Dyl’s physical therapist on Sunday and she spoke with us for a few minutes and informed us that Dylan is doing AWESOME in therapy. He is walking, with a walker for balance, across the gym whenever he’s in therapy, his balance is really good and she said he’s a minimal assist on standing and sitting. When he’s standing in therapy they have taped a piece of paper to the wall and they let him draw/write on that paper, she said she held the pen and he grabbed it with his right hand and then wrote on the sheet of paper with his right hand too. When we were there this weekend we really worked quite a bit on his sitting on the bed and on the edge of the bed for balance purposes, he’s doing really well with that, he’s able to sit on his own for long periods of time. We played 4 or 5 songs on the Ipad before he wanted to lay down and relax. He’s very good with the wheelchair too. It’s not his own, but a borrowed one that has larger wheels so he can push himself. He’s able to guide himself across the dining room and he’s steering himself with the use of his foot too. It’s cool to see him mobile and not dependent upon us to get where he wants to go ;) He’s eating really well too. They still have him on the pureed foods at this time (because he had choked a few weeks ago on a piece of pineapple) but I think he’ll be ready for the mechanical softs really soon. His blood sugar levels are really stable too. He’s usually between 70 and 140 wooohooo, it’s been a long time since he’s been steadily in that range. He has a small bolus feed at 8pm, but he’s no longer on the overnight feed and he gets breakfast, lunch and dinner by mouth every day. We were able to take him out in the rain on Saturday for a little while, which was really nice, he loves the rain! It poured for about twenty minutes and then it cleared up, but he enjoyed sitting outside and watching the storm. He has made a few new friends that live at Hacienda too, he has the company of Alison and Jacob throughout the day and sees Tye pretty often too. The kids really seem to enjoy spending time together. It’s nice because they keep each other occupied when there’s no company there. We are really looking forward to this weekend, we get the long weekend with him. We have many plans on how to sneakily work him out. He doesn’t realize he’s getting the exercise because he thinks it’s a game ;)
Please continue the positive thoughts and prayers, Dylan’s progress has been amazing and we appreciate all the wonderful people who continue to pray for him and follow his progress. - Keri

Dylan can eat pizza!

We got to Phoenix a little early on Friday, Dylan was having a pizza party, his speech therapist said he was ready to eat pizza, he's been working on foods of different consistency for a while now and he's able

to eat the pizza! We were very lucky because we were able to surprise Dylan with a few of his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends, showing up to see him. He was very happy to see everyone!! While we were getting the party situated Dan texted me to go up to Dylan's room with him and when I got up there Dan and I were joking over Dylan's bedside and when Dan looked at Dylan and told him to tell me
"duh, mom" Dylan turned to me and said "duh". Needless to say we were both floored that he was talking and when I said "what?", he said "yeah" and "yes" to me! Kate came in right after that and said that he's been
talking since Thursday and she was trying to surprise us on Friday by having Dylan say he's ready to eat pizza. I wish you could have seen Dan's face when he realized that Dylan was speaking ;) the smile was
from ear-to-ear!!

When we brought him down for the pizza party he was all smiles and happy to see family and friends that he hadn't seen in a few weeks. Dylan was able to eat 2 pieces of pizza and they had him eat some broccoli too so that he had a little bit of veggies. He really enjoyed his pizza ;) Kate was happy with his progress on the eating, she said he did very well with chewing his food and she even gave him some diet soda and said
he did very well with that. A lot of people who are just starting to eat again have trouble with the thin carbonated fluids, but Dyl did well.

When he was finished eating we were all still sitting at the table and he was speaking everyone's name!! it was so special for him to be able to look at each person and say their name, you know he's totally
remembering everyone and that's GREAT!!! We were thrilled that so many people were able to share in such a huge milestone with us he was talking all night long with everyone he had so much fun, you could
just see him light up when he saw everyone there ;) Kate was thrilled that he was having such fun too, she told Dan that you could just see Dylan's face light up when he saw everyone there with him

We got some really great pictures from Friday night, we'll get them posted soon.

Saturday we were able to get quite a bit of video of Dylan speaking to some of his family and friends. He's pretty clear when he speaks and he has such a deep voice now it makes me smile because he used to have a
little boy voice. Dylan called his great-grandma today too. He was able to answer her questions and spoke to her for about 5 minutes on the phone he really seemed to enjoy that ;) I know she was surprised to hear his voice on the other end of the phone. Throughout the weekend he made a few calls and seemed to do very well with conversations! He was aswering all the questions he was asked with appropriate answers and he didn't take a long time to process what was being asked of him.

Sunday we took him out to the mall again. He really enjoyed that so much! We spent about 3 hours out this time, he usually only goes for an hour or so. He was picking out stores to go into and looking at different shirts and shoes in a few of "his" stores! We also went to the food court for lunch and Dylan was able to sit at the table in a regular chair while we ate lunch he really seemed to like people watching while we were there. We got some good pictures of that too!! He did really well with the length of time we were there. He was ready to go back to Hacienda after 3 hours and told us he was ready to go eat his dinner. He kept saying he was hungry and wanted to eat so we took him back and he was able to eat dinner a little bit early he really seemed to enjoy that too. They served him turkey, stuffing, peas and fruit. He did really well with chewing the foods and drinking his drinks. He's able to really take his time and make sure he's getting the food chewed enough to swallow it. She's working on mechanical softs now. That means he gets to eat things like chicken nuggets, French fries, cut up meats, regular green beans and some solid foods that are able to be cut into bite size pieces. I am going to try and contact the dietician for Hacienda here in the next week to see about getting the overnight feed eliminated. We found out on Saturday that he's now on the diabetic formula for the overnight feed, but we don't think he really needs to have the overnight at all, he'll eat larger meals by mouth if the doctor will allow it and then get all his carbs and proteins during the day and if we can eliminate the overnight feed, he's more mobile at night and is one step closer in his recovery process.

Such good things were happening this weekend! Dan and I, along with everyone else, have been waiting since the day he woke up from the coma to hear his voice again and it was just phenomenal to hear it. I can't
describe the feeling you get when you hear him say "I love you Dad and Mom" for the first time again, let's just say there were quite a few "happy" tears shed this weekend. - Keri

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Dylan says "I miss you" and "Hi"