Saturday September 3, 2005

Saturday August 3, 2005 Zack was up early and ate breakfast. By 7:30 he wanted to go somewhere so he walked the halls, over and over again. He saw the eyewash station that Dylan activated on one of his visits (and flooded the floor). Then each time he walked passed it he says, “Dylan did it”. He reads the room numbers as he passes each one and only needs a little help. In the conference room he plays the piano and laughs the whole time. Kyle and Logan are with me this morning and Rita (Scott’s Mom) asks Zack to sing, “My God is an awesome God”. He decides to make it into a rap song and adds dance moves. He was showing off for his sisters, he thought he was great and it was very funny. We go to the conference room and he plays UNO with the girls while we wait for therapy. At 10:30 we head down to speech with Katie (weekend therapist). She works with him on sentence completion and he gets more than half correct. When he messes up he says, “My bad”. He completed sentences like: we walked around the park,
for her birthday he bought her a tank, and it is illegal to drive. She had him identify misc. objects and he needed a lot of help. On the Yes/No questions (Is your father your male parent? Do you put your socks on before your shoes?) and he did very well. Then she has him follow commands (ring the bell, put the key in the cup, make a fist and pick up the cup) and he did excellent. We finished with speech and went up to the room to wait for lunch. He ate all of his lunch and wanted to go somewhere. First we walk the halls and he holds Logan’s hand. Then the girls and I take him to McDonalds and he ate again. At this rate I think we will reach our goal of gaining 10 more pounds before we go home. At 2:00 Mrs. Funderberg arrives and we head to the conference room for personal therapy. She works with him on word/picture identification and he has some difficulty but Mrs. Funderberg is very patient. She also brought him beads to string so he could work on fine motor skills. He makes a bracelet and gives it to Kelsey Slade who was visiting. We go back to the room and he lies down in bed. He decides he would like to work some more with Mrs. Funderberg so she reviews the alphabet and letter combinations sounds. He does better than I expected. Rita comes to pick up the girls and Zack finally takes a nap. After dinner his friends arrive. He makes up rap songs with Rick Thompson (home from Western for the holiday weekend) and they all play a game called collaboration. He really enjoys chilling with his friends and when one of their cell phones ring they always let him answer. The caller is usually surprised to hear Zack and he makes the most of it. Even though he has conversations with them, the aphasia (language disorder) is still there. He throws in words out of context but they think he is just trying to be funny. Sometimes he realizes he is using the wrong word and laughs. Other times he truly thinks the words he is using are correct. His friends are patient and loyal. He always wants to go somewhere so we make another trip to McDonalds. In the elevator Lauren tells him she has a flat tire and can’t drive her car. Zack laughs and calls her a loser (so typical teenager). At McDonalds we decide to eat outside on the patio. At the other end of the patio there are people smoking and I ask his friends if they can smell it. They ask if we should move inside. Then I ask Zack if he can smell it and he says, “No, you need to calm down”. It was something he use to say to me before the accident whenever I would get stressed out. He is aware that I am concerned about people smoking around him (2nd hand smoke causes seizures in people with brain injuries) and I think it embarrasses him. He better get use to it because I will be hovering over him for the next two years. I hope his friends have been paying attention these last two months. They need to remember what Zack has been through and be as diligent with following the rules around Zack as I am. They know that Zack will not be going anywhere with them for a long time without me, but one day he will and I need them to protect him. We take a picture at McDonalds so it will become part of Zack’s history here. They walk us back to Frazier and Zack says goodbye to them on the sidewalk out front. As they head to their cars, we head to his room. I’m somewhat sad that they are leaving and Zack can’t go with them because I know that is where he would want to be. He is a teenager and I’m sure spending a Saturday night in his room with his Mom is not his idea of fun. He hops in bed as soon as we get back and he is asleep in no time. I imagine that now God is whispering to him (like he has whispered to me many times in the last 2 months) “Just wait till tomorrow”. I happen to glance at the scripture calendar that Rita has left for me. How perfect that today’s reference is Proverbs 27:17: “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friends”. Zack’s friends are good therapy for him but Zack is also a good witness for them. They see him struggle and persevere. They recognize his determination and appreciate his sense of humor. They are lucky to have each other…Zack and his friends. We are lucky to have him too. This tragedy has brought us closer to God. We have had to trust in Him because we are too weak to handle this without Him. He sends us encouragement and hope in the messages from friends and strangers. If you are not reading others comments posted here, you are missing out on sweet greetings from heaven. Thank you for continuing to pray for us. Thank you for your confidence that Zack will recovery…God hears you. He will honor your prayers and our faithfulness. Our God is an awesome God. Give Him the Glory!