Monday September 12, 2005

Monday September 12, 2005 Zack was waiting for me to get him up. He ate breakfast pretty quick and then wanted to take a walk. We went to the lobby and I told him he had to find his way back to his room by himself, he got confused at the elevators and asked me to save him. We got back to the room and he kept insisting that we had somewhere to go. He didn’t remember that Kathy comes to his room for Speech in the morning. He got mad at me because I wouldn’t take him to his appointment. Finally 9:00 arrives but Kathy is out this morning and we work with Kristi. Now that his appointment is here he is polite and not frustrated. She asked him to complete yes/no questions (is a ruler straight). He misses most of them because he is preoccupied. Then he does sentence completion (a cup of _________) and he misses a lot of those. He doesn’t seem to take it seriously and kept laughing at his own answers. He won’t pay attention (I think he is still mad at me). She moves to object/word match (reading) and although these should have been harder he gets most of them right. She hid two items and he found them both right away but he identified the penny as a concubine. Kristi had to laugh. We have to try not to laugh because then he gets really silly and just wants to entertain us. Amy took him to the 1st floor gym for P.T. He rod the wind bike for 12 minutes and last week he barely tolerate 10. She works on path finding and he does O.K. getting to the elevators but then gets confused. Amy asked him his last name and he said “thong” and laughed. Now it is hard to tell when he is joking around or truly doesn’t know the answer. O.T. with Mary Beth and as Zack walks to the gym he is bobbing his head like he is listening to music. She asked him to first and last name in cursive. He got it all right except he said he didn’t know how to make a cursive “Z” (I don’t think I do either). He played solitaire on the computer and did very well. He took deep sighs because he is concentrating so hard. This helps with problem solving, paying attention, color and numbers. She worked his right wrist with some simple exercises. It is very weak so she wants us to continue it in our room. Back in his room he take a short nap, eats lunch and then gets back in bed.
1:30 Speech with Kathy (she is back now) She worked with him on object identification. When she asked what you did with a book, he answered, “read novel”. On the clock he said, “curfew”. On sentence completion she asked him, when you want to see yourself you look into the _______. He answered Bible. She doesn’t count that as a correct answer but I think it’s the perfect answer. She asked him if he had a pet at home and he answered, “a Christian pet”. I think our dog is sweet but I don’t know if I would call him a Christian. After speech he wanted to go to bed. That is our battle now…keeping him occupied and away from the bed. Afternoon session in the gym with Amy and she works with weight resistance on the pulley rope. This will strengthen his arms and shoulders. Then she puts him back on the treadmill. 4:00 O.T. with Mary Beth and they played Black Jack. He amazes Mary Beth that he can shuffle. He deals and plays correctly. He knows when he wins or loses and doesn’t like losing. He tosses the medicine ball and lifts it over his head 20 times. Mary Beth says they will be discussing a discharge date on Thursday but if it were up to her and Mary Beth they would keep Zack here for 2 or 3 more weeks (despite insurance requirements). Back ion the room Zack takes a short nap until three of his friends come. He tells them he is going home tonight. Rita asked him how he was getting home and he said, “probably with this girl” and points to Lauren. He said right now he could go home with a stranger. He goes out to the courtyard and plays Velcro ball. The exercise and sun make him hot (us too) so he decides to go back inside. He hops in bed and plays Nintendo with Rob (Zack wins). It’s time for them to leave so Zack gets back in bed to finish his nap. When he wakes up its time for dinner. As he is finishing Dan and his Mom arrive. Since Zack won’t eat his desert I feed chocolate cake to Dan. He loves it when I put whip cream on his nose. They decide to leave when the girls start arriving. Before long we have a good game of Hot Potato going. In the beginning it is with 4 balls/4 people but then we add another person and another ball. Once the girls get use to it they can keep up with Zack (I got a picture that I hope to put on the site). Zack decides it’s time to take a walk and we head back out to the courtyard. The girls are excited about breaking their Hot Potato record so the balls go out with us. They get set up and the 5 of them pass it quickly around 51 times without anyone dropping a ball. They are the Hot Potato Champs worth mentioning: Kelsey Slade, Laura Powell, Kara Evans, Brooky Willoughby and their team captain, our man Zack. Tiffany walks up and joins in and they turn it into a game of 6 and one of the balls has to be a roll of tape that Tiffany has. They don’t do as well with 6 but it is still impressive and great therapy for Zack. He decides it’s time to quit and take a walk. As we stroll the halls he ask me, “What’s the schedule for this period?” I tell him we have no schedule right now so he ask, “Do we have any more classes?” I tell him no more therapy tonight and the girls agree that this is recess. We take a long walk outside and head up to his room when the girls have to leave. Tiffany stays behind to play Zack in Nintendo while he lies in bed. She is trying to help me keep him from going to sleep until 9:00 when he will get his shower. I know Zack really wants to leave here and go home but I am not sure either of us is ready. It will be harder for him, dealing with his siblings every day, and a lot more responsibility for us. Please pray that God will make us ready when that day comes. Please pray that Zack will be patient with Dylan, Kyle and Logan and his parents as we fumble to get things right. Pray for his recovery and our peace of mind.