Tuesday September 20, 2005

Tuesday September 20, 2005 Zack slept until 8:30 this morning since I got stuck in a traffic jamb on 64. He had to eat quickly, shower and get dressed before 9:00 when Kristi came for speech (Kathy is off again). When she sits down Zack asked her “Do you think I look good in this?” (He is wearing his Yankee hat). “My Mom won’t let me wear it”. She tells him he has to wear his helmet. He asked Kristi if she had worked with him before because he thought he remembered her. We have a U.of L. student with us today named Billy. Kristi asked Zack what he sleeps on and he answers a “pistol” then answered a bed. What do you shave with and he says a “computer” then later a razor. He is getting better but still is impulsive and comes up with the wrong word. You can tell he is thinking about his answer better than he use to. They move to object identification and she lays two objects on the table and asked him to point to the one she named. He got them all correct. P.T. with Amy and another student named Stacey joins us. I think before long all of the students will want to study Zack…he is a unique case. He is on the treadmill for 20 minutes, then on the stationary bike for 15 minutes. Zack insisted that he hadn’t had any breakfast so after P.T. it was off to the cafeteria for a banana. He talks baseball with Billy. Billie is a Christian, very sweet and overwhelmed with Zack’s progress and the support we have received. O.T. with Mary Beth and he plays the memory game on the computer. She increases the number of pictures to remember out of a group of 16 and he gets it every time. She made it faster and even more pictures to remember and he got them all. Zack wanted Billy to do it and when Billy missed one Zack really got a kick out of it. He did another computer game that involved telling time and he did well on this one too (although he couldn’t read the questions). He wanted to do something else so Mary Beth got him a football to throw to Billy. Then they got a hula-hoop and he had to throw the football through the hoop. Zack really responded to a guy being around and at first he wanted to show off. Billy
appreciates the need to have more male therapist. Billy came back to the room with Zack and saw his photo album and became emotional over the whole thing. He promised to come back and see Zack. At lunch we had visitors from the Southeast Christian High School Ministry. We talked about when Zack could come back to church and how we could wean him into the youth service. I am concerned that the music and crowd will be too much stimulation and he will want to leave. They said there was a balcony viewing area that he could start with and work his way back into the student body when he feels comfortable. I know they will do everything they can to make him feel part of the youth group again. Donna and I take Zack over to the Heart & Lung Building across the circle and up to the 7th floor outside balcony. I thought Zack would really enjoy the view but he was not impressed. As soon as we walked across the balcony he asked me if I wanted to go. Afternoon speech with Kristi and she gave him an object, the letters that spelled the object and he had to unscramble them. He could spell it but not properly identify it (aphasia). Then he had to write the word three times. She handed him a common object and asked him what do you do with it. Some of them he correctly used but others it was like he had never seen them before (more aphasia). P.T. with Amy and he tried to ride a mini snowboard but he didn’t like it. Path finding and they work on finding his room, room number, name and address. He is tired and not paying attention. O.T. with Mary Beth and she wants him to find the word “orange” hidden in a seek-and-find puzzle. There are several oranges hidden and he finds them all. Then she works with him on math, addition and subtraction and he did them all correctly. On the way back to the room Rita asked him what his best subject was in school and he said math. She asked him his worst subject and he says “Jacuzzi”. She says what’s hard about Jacuzzi and he answers, “saying it”. He immediately jumps in bed for a nap…he is so tired today. I get him up for dinner at 6:00 and we talk about the accident. I explain what happened and he asked, “How did I get stupid enough to do that”. We went for a walk and ended up in the gym where we played a couple of games of Chinese Checkers. It is good therapy for Zack but I think I like it more than he does. Back in the room when Kaitlyn and her Mom arrive. We are playing a word game with Zack and I discover that if I show Zack a written word half the time he can’t identify it but if I spell the word out loud (without him looking at it) he gets it every time. I can also ask him to spell different words and he does very well. It appears that all the information is there but his eyes are not yet communicating with his brain on what he is seeing. I will have to tell Kathy tomorrow to test him verbally first with words before going to the visual exercises. Dan and Andrew arrive and Zack decides it’s time for McDonalds. When we get our food Zack picks out the table. There are some Amish people eating near us in the bonnets and beards and I tell Zack not to stare at them. He answers, “It’s hard”. I ask him where he thinks they’re from and he says “somewhere messed up”. One of the Amish men seems just as interested in Zack in his helmet with his entourage. Brittany joins us at McDonalds and before long Zack tells us it’s time to go. Back in the room he decides to turn on some music and dance again. Tonight I can really see the rhythm coming back and before long he will be ready to go to a school dance. He has worn himself out today and is sleeping peacefully by 9:45. I will be able to leave early tonight and get some extra sleep. I keep imagining the first weekend that Zack comes home if he sleeps in a little, and I don’t set the alarm. Again I am at peace with our situation, no regret, just hopeful prayers. Our God has been generous in His answers so far and I know he is still looking down and whispering, “Just wait until tomorrow”. Keep praying that Zack will soon conquer the aphasia. Pray that when that battle is won that reading will come back to him naturally. Never forget how awesome is our God and he can do more than we could hope or imagine. His precious child will recover.