Josh takes on the stairs today!

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Josh takes on the stairs today with PT, Erin.  He also did 20 squats and walked across the room with help.  He does well with Erin and is always cooperative with her.

Today they recast Josh's left arm.  They are slowing extending it downward so he will have more mobility.  They leave the cast on for several days in one position and then recast to another position until they are satisfied that the arm has the mobility it needs. 

Josh did well with his therapies this morning.  Then on the way to hbot he looks at me and says, "Mom, we have to call Dad and tell him what happened..."  Oh man, I am thinking....how do you handle this one...  I don't want to upset Josh but at the same time I don't want to lie to him.  Here's that confabulation thing again.  I just tell him the cell phone needs to be recharged.  He insists for a while that we call and then finally drops the subject.  

When we arrive at hbot, Bob Sands is there and he is thrilled to see Josh.  Dr. Tuomi is also there and he can't believe it when he sees Josh.  Last time Dr. Tuomi saw Josh he was in a coma.  All the guys are telling Josh how great he looks and then Bob presents Josh with an Australian flag which Australia won in the America's Cup (or something like that...).  It's a flag with a kangaroo with boxing gloves.  Josh thinks this is the greatest and is very gracious toward Bob thanking him and telling him how he really appreciates this....  

Josh goes into the chamber and is fine for a while.  I am sitting with Dr. Tuomi and all of a sudden we hear, "Open the door....get me out of here...."  Josh is screaming at the top of his lungs.  I go over to the chamber, press the speaker button and tell Josh to calm down, that he is getting an O2 treatment and needs to stay in there for a while.  Josh insists on opening the door.  We finally calm him down for a while but eventually have to cut his treatment short since he is being so unreasonable.   Josh then tells me, "Mom, give Ivan (the hbot tech) 20 bucks for opening the door...."  Everyone laughs.

I asked Dr. Tuomi how to handle Josh's confabulation incidents and he said to be as "factual" as possible unless Josh is acting totally off the wall.  For example, when Josh asked me to call his Dad,  I could have asked him what year we were in and then explained that Dad was sick in 1997.  Perhaps a statement like that could  make the right connection and Josh would recall what happened.  

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  How about a monumental breakthrough and an unprecedented miraculous recovery, Josh!  I am sick of this marathon...