Tuesday September 6, 2005

Tuesday September 6, 2005 Zack was up and had eaten when I arrived at 7:30 A.M. He looked at me as I entered his room and said “Where have you been, I’ve been stuck in the house all day. Get me out of here”. He wanted a shower but I told him there was no one available to give him one. He said, “What about you?” I was surprised but complied (he told me to close my eyes) because he must have been desperate. I gave him a shave and trimmed his hair (it was growing out of his helmet. He checked himself out in the mirror and seemed pleased so it was time for a walk. By 8:00 A.M. we had covered the 4th floor and was heading down to the lobby. We talked about several things and then he told me “tell Matt Rivard I’m lucky to get back in the house”. I’m not quite sure what that means but it seemed important for Zack to tell me (Matt was the driver). I told Zack I wanted to get his mixed up words fixed and he said they can fix them right here. I think he understands that is part of the reason for his therapy every day. We head back to the room to wait for Donna to arrive. 9:00 speech with Kathy and Zack pulls out his snake-in-the-can. He is smiling real big as he asks her to open it so she knows something is up. She went ahead and opened it so Zack could have his fun. They worked on sentence completion and he still had some trouble with mixed up words. They went over the date and when his birthday was. He told her he would be 16 on Thursday and they teased him about being Sweet 16 and never been kissed. Then she had him look at boxes of 4 pictures and point to the one she named. This is hard because he doesn’t always perceive pictures and words the same way. He is still working on the file cabinet in his head. There was a half an hour before physical therapy so he walked around with his can but never found anyone to open it. He came back to his room and hid the can on top of his bed (I hope I remember to get it down later). Amy (P.T.) came up to the room and took Zack to the nurse’s station to pick up his schedule. Then they did path finding and he did pretty well. She asked him his name and he said, “Zack Logan”. She still questioned him and he tried and tried but he was stuck on Logan. This is part of the aphasia and perseverance (he gets stuck on a word and uses it for everything). She asked him “what is your last name”. He looked at Donna. “Jaha, Donna Jaha” he said. She asked him again what his last name was and he said, “Can I call my Mom?” Why? “Cause my Mom will know”. Most days he can tell you his first and last name as well as Scott’s, his siblings and mine. But sometimes he gets stuck on something and it messes him up.
O.T. with Mary Beth and she asked him to write his name. He writes Zack Carlback and said, “I messed up a little”. He apologizes but at least he knows that wasn’t his name. He knows today is the 6th and that his birthday is in a couple of days. She gives him word choices and asked him to point to the correct word. He identifies several words. They start working on money. Naming coins and which one is worth more. She asks him to give her .52 and he has trouble with it. He asked her, “How much is .52”? She writes it down. He got it right away. Each time if she said the amount he would struggle but if she wrote it down he got it right away. They did the same thing with subtraction using coins and writing it down. The Mary Beth used flash cards. She would give him two choices of answers to multiplication questions and he would pick the right one. She tried showing him commands on cards even though he has mixed up words. Didn’t wok today but it could tomorrow. Back to the room to wait for lunch. Zack is resting when lunch arrives. After he eats he insist that it is time to go to speech therapy even though we have an hour. Donna and I are talking and he gets irritated with us and says, “Change your focus to transferring me to my events!” Wow. Sometimes he has mixed up words and it makes him sound like a professor. Afternoon speech Kathy works on math by giving him multiple choice answers to choice from. Zack is very interested to see how he does 75%. In word association he get about 65% correct which is a big improvement over last week. She tested his memory by showing him picture and then giving him several commands. Then she put two other pictures with the 1st one and asked him which picture she had shown him. He knew it. She had him complete several sentences (75% correct) and then asked him to identify the card she showed him earlier. This time he couldn’t do it. In P.T. Amy gave him a letter to deliver (path finding) and clues to where to deliver it. If he could have read the signs he would have gotten it there but he forgot the persons name he was delivering it to. Then she had him do walking squats. In O.T. Mary Beth had him put clothespins on a clothesline with his right hand and take them off again. Mary Beth said his coordination is so much better but we need to work on strength. His right hand strength measurement is 51 and his left is 64 (we want 100 on both). He played Solitaire on the computer and did fantastic. When he returned to his room Rita asked him where he is going in 2 weeks. He says, “home…maybe even in 1 week”. Zack and I go for a walk before dinner. Then we eat and go for another walk. He is looking for something to do so I take him and several balls to the nurse’s station. We find Big John and play “hot potato” with three balls. Dan arrives and we add him as a player and another ball. It is great eye/hand coordination and Zack is as good as the rest of us. Zack’s friends start to arrive so we go back to his room to visit. They ask him if he wants to go back to school and he says yes. Then he tells them that he thinks he is kicked out of school right now but he would come back later. Before long he is ready to take another walk so all of us take off. He is strutting down the hall, with me and 6 teenagers following him. We go out to the courtyard and he sings and entertains us. We walk to the front of the building and he sits on the steps. He seems deep in thought and one of his friends asks him what he is thinking about. He says, “the Bible”. They ask him if he remembers any scripture verses and he quotes John 3:16 and then raps the 23 Psalm. Then we all sing Amazing Grace on the front steps of Frazier. His friends walk us back up to the room and say goodbye. He seems satisfied that he is staying behind with me and I think he just wants to get in bed. He gets ready for bed and I tell him he is silly. He said his friend’s love him silly. I guess they do. It was a great night. He was happy. He mixed up his words but when it was important we figured out what he was saying. When we couldn’t it didn’t bother him. I ask you to pray that God will help file those words in the right folder so we can close the drawer on this obstacle to recovery. Pray that everyday there are sure signs that he is improving. Pray for complete recovery!