Monday August 1, 2005

Monday August 1, 2005 Zack had a great day today. His nurse today Jennifer told me that he disconnected his feeding tube 4 or 5 times during the night. He is messing with everything so we will be glad when his Trach is removed. Dr Skolnick ordered that the Trach be unplugged tonight and then plugged the next two nights. If he tolerates it well,
is able to cough and clear his throat they will remove his Trach (probably Thurs or Fri).
Dr Miller came to remove his IPC stitches. Now all we have to worry about is the wound
stitches (which is actually much worse and won’t be coming out for a while). At 9:30 we begin physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) in his room. They ask him if he wants to stand up and he says, “yes” very clearly. Once he is standing he tries to take a step. They have to stop him because you can’t walk until you are able to support your upper body. Zack still has a lot of problems holding his head up. His brain is telling him that center is down and to the left so that is where he looks. His therapist use one of the posters his friends made and they ask him where Andrew is. He points to Andrew. We also try the toothbrush and he attempts to brush his teeth by himself. Laura Bailey (one of the girls in the accident with him) comes to visit before lunch. He holds her hand, gives her his bear and when she was leaving he gave her the “what’s up” sign with his fingers. At 1:30 we have speech therapy and Zack gives us all sorts of surprises. The past two times speech was scheduled after he already had PT and OT and he was too tired to do anything. Today we had speech first and it made a big difference. He kept staring at himself in the mirror. His therapist was putting applesauce on his lips and he would lick it off. Then she tried a spoon and before we knew it Zack had the spoon and was feeding himself. He wasn’t real neat and only very small bites but he was doing it himself. At one point her phone kept ringing and when she got up to answer it Zack looked at her walking away and said “apple sauce”. It was marvelous. She gave him drinks of water and next he had the cup and was sipping it on his own. When she tried to help hold the cup he would move his hand away to do it himself. We went down to PT and OT in the gym. They really work with him on getting his head back to the center. This is there biggest challenge. After some strenuous work sitting up they laid him on his back. Again he threw up. We have to figure out why that is happening. They turn him over on his stomach and he has to support his upper body with his arms. At the same time Mary Beth is holding his head up and center. Then it’s time to play horsy. They put him on his hands and knees. This is a very hard position since he has to support his body weight evenly. He does a great job and we are all very proud of him. He worked hard and both his therapist were sweating. Zack used a towel to wipe his own sweat off his forehead. Both the speech therapist and PT/OT therapist have moved him into a “4” on the cognitive scale. Once he gets back to his room and in bed he is asleep. We had a couple of visitors but he wasn’t much company because he was so tired. I am going to head home early tonight and spend time with the rest of my family. I expect to find Scott sitting out on the deck where he spends most of his nights. He no longer watches TV and stays up much later. Instead of being in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 like before he sits out on the deck to 12:00 deep in thought and prayer. Pray for Scott that he will be able to handle all the extra pressure at home and find special time for Zack. Pray that Zack will continue to impress his therapist with his performance. Pray for the Rivards that they will find comfort in their faith as they support Matt. Remember the promise in Revelations 21:3 that the Lord will make “everything new” and see the journey that Zack is on now as a glimpse of what the future holds for all who believe!