Day 25: IT'S FINALLY 2012!!! - April 7, 2012

Scott had such a great start to his day today! He woke up, and was a little confused, as he typically is when he is sleeping or tired. Here is the conversation:

Scott: "I've gotta' be careful not to pull my heart monitor out."
Mom: " You don't have a heart monitor anymore. All you have left is a trach, and it will be removed on Monday or Tuesday."
Scott: "And today is Saturday."
Mom: "What year is it?"
Scott: "2012"

Wahoo! Today is the first day that he knew what year it was, or even got close! And he knew what day it was immediately upon awakening, without prompting or cueing! Exciting! His voice is also really starting to sound like his normal voice again, too! I love that! Anything that is the original Scott version, I get excited about! The therapists have laughed today that Scott has proven them wrong on a few things today.... For instance, in speech therapy today, Scott was asked to name a tree that began with an "M". Scott responded with, "Mandrake". The therapist thought it was a nonsense/inappropriate answer. She looked at me quizzically, and I responded that I had never heard of it, but ...with Scott, you never know. He knows a lot of random unusual words and things...ask anyone who has played Scattergories with him.... So she looked it up on the computer...sure enough a large picture of a tree showed up when she typed in the word "mandrake" into the search engine. He did that a couple of times with her...one was a German word, though. We wouldn't expect her to know that one.

He also proved PT and OT wrong on 3 occasions today. We are seeing his confidence in responding return. One speech exercise he was asked to do was to list at least 10 things under each category. When he got to the sports category, he actually struggled coming up with ideas. We were surprised that he struggled on this category, but did much better on the other categories. (Word retrieval is still tough for him, but...it is improving) Then, we all laughed when we realized that he was listing his responses in alphabetical order. He had not been asked to.... It simply made his task harder, which was okay but not necessary. But it was also interesting that he was figuring out a system to help him with recall. It is such an interesting process to watch his brain heal and grow strong again. He still speaks with wildly unrelatable comments, but he also had his moments of brilliance.

Today, even, I was trying to find the lever for raising his tray table. Scott found the lever before I did and proceeded to instruct me in the proper way to raise the table. He also mentioned other options... I.e., You could lower my bed... He is really beginning to cooperate in conversations and problem-solving now. Scott is now self-propelling his wheelchair without steering assist....and is wheeling himself to all therapies without directional assistance. He is remembering his way through the maze...even with a room change today. We are now in room 21, visitors.... Scott and Mom did a Sudoku puzzle together today (he did surprising well, showing some high level problem solving skills. His processing was a bit slower, but he retained appropriate problem-solving strategies)... We also had fun doing a bunch of extra therapy stuff.... therapy is light on the weekends, so I filled in the gaps. Brother Ryan helped. He had a good physical therapy session this am with the staff therapist, as well. It was a good therapy day.

 Well... Ryan leaves tonight. So sad! ...but we are so glad that he was able to come!
 Love to all! Talk to you tomorrow!

Patti