Dylan's doing sooo great right now. The doctors and nurses are ecstatic with his progress! His blood sugar levels seem to be on track, finally, we had to adjust his night time insulin a couple of times, and it’s still a work in progress, but he seems to be on the right track now. He is also eating larger portions of food at mealtimes, which I know he enjoys, and it also gives him some much needed energy to push through the day! He’s doing physical therapy five days a week and is now walking with the aid of a walker! He is able to walk circuits around the large gym with the walker now ;) So awesome to see him do that!!! We also have him doing school through the East South Mountain High School district, he’s enrolled as a freshman there and is going to be doing classes at Hacienda so he can continue with his physical therapy regiment. We are soooo jazzed that he’s enrolled in school though, it will alleviate some of the boredom and loneliness that he’s feeling during the week when he doesn’t have so many visitors.
We have really been diligently working on his speech exercises so that he’s more pronounced in his words and its becoming easier to understand what he’s saying! He’s also initiating more conversations on his own now, he seems happier on the whole as well, they have quit giving him the situation anti-depressant medication he was previously on. The doctor says that Dyl is doing very well without it, he spends quite a bit of his day down at the nurses station talking to the nurses and people that come in and out of the unit.
We are also making it a point to take Dyl on outings outside the Hacienda facility. We have taken a trip to the museum, a few (million) trips to the mall, trips to Target and WalMart and just car rides when he wants to go out but we don’t really have anyplace to go. He really enjoys riding in the car and jamming out to “his” music. We are working on many outings now that it’s getting cooler outside and Dylan really enjoys spending time outdoors. We are excited to do some zoo trips and many other outdoor things.
He is all geared up for Trunk or Treat on Halloween at Hacienda…he’s going as a pimp. He chose his costume and is very excited, the residents get to dress up and go outside for the event. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun!


We are also working on getting Dyl’s AFO’s (the braces he wears on his feet for walking) adjusted as he is now needing them shaved down quite a bit, his left foot should be completely level with the floor and his right foot has only one platform needed!!! It’s great news since we were so worried about the drop foot that he was starting to get. His ingrown toenail is doing great too. The podiatrist took off the whole nail a couple of weeks ago and it is healing very nicely.
Dylan is doing great with all his endeavors, every weekend when we go see him there is so much improvement!! He’s making us so proud!!! It’s hard to remember all that he has done over the last few weeks since there has been so much, but he’s definitely improving on a daily basis.
This weekend Dan and I had him walking, without the aid of a walker (we each held one of his arms) all the way down the hall and into the day room!!! Needless to say the staff was amazed that he could do that, they hadn’t seen him walk that far before and he wasn’t tired, we could have walked up and down the hall more but it was time to eat dinner ;)


Please continue to keep Dyl in your thoughts and prayers!! Thank you for all the support!!!


~Keri