Monday September 26, 2005

Monday September 26, 2005 Zack is lying in bed awake when I arrive. He has removed his heart monitor because he said it was enough time. We have to go to the nurse’s station and tell them and hope that he doesn’t have to start over tomorrow. He eats breakfast, showers and gets dressed. My friend Teri arrives and we take a walk. Zack leads us to the front door and back to his room with no help-perfect. 9:00 speech with Kristi (Kathy off again) and she reviews object identification through pictures. He does very well on sentence completion. They work on reading and telling time. The aphasia is very apparent. 9:30 P.T. with Amy and they work on balance on the beam…forward, backwards, sideways, closes his eyes and stands on one foot on the balance beam and then walk sideways and balances while throwing a ball back and forth with Amy! He does great at all of them (no balance problems). Back in the room he has a little time to waste so he watches “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and cheers for the lady to win before falling asleep. 10:45 O.T. with Mary Beth and they work on writing. He prints his name and date and then his name in cursive. He is very neat. She has him write sentences. He had to correct his errors but did very well. They work on math and time. He has to match up the written time with a clock and makes only a few word mistakes. Back in his room he quickly jumps in bed and goes right to sleep. I wake him for lunch and as soon as he is finished he wants to take another shower. 1:30 Speech with Kristi and again she works on object identification but this time he has to correct his errors. She has him practice handwriting by taking three letters and putting them in order to make words, then write each word 4 times. Zack seems to enjoy Kristi, she has him laughing a lot. After speech there is time to get in one game of “Golf” and of course Zack wins (we don’t cut him any slack either). 2:30 our afternoon P.T. with Amy and she puts him on the treadmill for 30 minutes and he walks 1.6 miles. He does it easily but he is sweating. He is reminded that he used to run every day around the parkway of Lake Forest. 4:00 O.T. with Mary Beth and he works out with hand weights. They are still working on building up the strength in his arms and he does much better than before. Then it is push-ups off the bed and working with weights to strengthen his hands and wrist. After O.T. he is ready for a nap until dinner. He eats so quietly and when I lean down to give him a kiss on the cheek he says thank you. I am across the room when I tell him he should use his dinner roll to soak up the gravy. He doesn’t recognize the roll beside his plate. He looks right at it as if it isn’t there and I finally get up and show it to him. When I pick it up he laughs and says, “Oh that roll”. At times the aphasia is so strong it is almost like he speaks another language or that some objects are invisible. After dinner we go for a walk and end up in the gym for several games of Chinese Checkers (I have to find something to play that I can beat him at). When we get back to the room Elizabeth is there for Art Therapy. Instead we talk her into playing cards and teach her how to play “Golf”. She ends up winning but is impressed with Zack’s ability to strategize and how the game helps with his math skills. Before we are finished Andrew and his brother Chris arrive. They want to go to McDonalds, which is fine with Zack. As we walk there Andrew and Zack talk about school. Zack doesn’t always remember who the people are they discuss but he is interested any way. They head home and we head back to his room to find Taylor and her Mom waiting for us. Time for another round of cards. It is really good therapy for Zack and, in case you haven’t noticed, I love to play. Of course Zack beats us all again and we walk them to the front door. Taylor tells him how exciting it will be when he comes home. Only 5 more days and he will either be home or waiting to go to Dallas. Zack is tired and it doesn’t take long once he is back in his room to get in bed. Scott is calling wanting me to get home early tonight so he will be awake when I get there. We don’t get to talk to each other in person and there is a lot of planning to do. God is our redeemer and restorer. He can redeem the past and restore what was lost. We must trust Him to do those things. We can never move out of the present, into the future of what God has in store for us, if we cling to our lives of the past. Please pray that Zack’s future is brighter than his past. Pray to end his aphasia and for complete recovery.