Chris and Bruce visit from Chicago. Josh's college buddies visit during Thanksgiving Break.

Nat, Josh,  and Chicago cousins, Chrissy and Bruce 

We all enjoyed having Chrissy and Bruce stay with us for the Thanksgiving holiday.   Chris and Bruce went to Sharp Rehab with Josh and observed his occupational, physical and speech therapies.  Bruce quizzed Josh on world landmarks like the Blarney Castle in Southern Ireland and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.  I have all kinds of flashcards and games to stimulate the brain.  Chris and Bruce are pretty good at world landmarks since they have travelled so much.  I was impressed! 

Bruce fixed up Josh's truck which was very nice of him!  He got the back driver's side window replaced from a mobile glass company that came to our house.  That was great.  He also painstakingly washed Josh's truck which was filthy dirty.  Thanks, Bruce!  You're a peach! 

Josh continues to drive me crazy with the "Where's Dad?" thing...  he just won't accept the fact that he's gone...  I think Josh has read the obituary a hundred times over and he still asks, "Where's Dad, Mom?"  I was reading in one of my brain books that sometimes when there is a traumatic event and then a subsequent brain injury that the traumatic event will be erased from the memory for a while until the brain heals itself.  For example, if a child was molested, then grows up and has a brain injury, the molestation is erased from the mind until the brain heals.  Who knows what's up with Josh?  Last night when Josh was asking about his father, I decided to show him a bunch of pictures of Jerry when he was little.  Josh was checking out the pictures and then said, "Mom, I miss Dad and really want to be with him."  Isn't that just pitifully sad???  I tried to lighten up the conversation and said, "Well, Josh, don't kill yourself!"  Josh then proceeds to laugh his ass off for two minutes straight.  He always seems to find humor in things.  It gets a bit embarrassing if we are out somewhere and Josh starts with that crazy laughing....   Yesterday all his buddies came over and they started looking at crazy clips from You Tube and Facebook .  Josh was laughing so hard tears were running down his eyes.  He was hysterical...  His buddies like to rile him up andget him to start with that crazy laughing....  One of Josh's buddies, Shane, says to me, "Paula, can we take Josh out?"  They don't understand that Josh is not the same Josh.  They keep saying, "He looks great!"  It's true....Josh does look great, but he still has a long way to go mentally....  For example, it would be nice if he knew  what he did ten minutes ago...  that's a start....   He continuously asks me, "Mom, when am I going back to college?"  I say, "Josh, do you think you're ready for college?"  He says, "Yeah!"  I say, "Okay, then, tell me what you did this morning..."  He says, "I don't know."  Then, he cracks up laughing for five minutes.  Real college material...  

Chrissy and I were trying to get Josh to figure out what his Facebook email address was and his password.  Josh did manage to remember his AOL email and password but we couldn't get into Facebook.  It's funny how Josh says he doesn't know this or that, but when you prompt him, he'll figure it out.  For example, with his AOL email, we typed in one of his screen names and although he said, he didn't remember his password, he typed it in spontaneously.  It was cool.  I will not tell you what his password is since it is rather graphic....  typical Josh...

Last night Josh was on the computer and sent an IM to one of his girlfriends asking her to have lunch with him.  He told her to call his cell phone.  I get a call this afternoon from Dana saying, "Oh hi Mrs. Mendell...Josh asked me to lunch and told me to call his cell phone...but it's no longer in service..."  Of course, Josh has no recollection of having sent an IM to Dana...  it's all so crazy! 

Today we golfed again at that small par three.  John, the pro, was telling Josh which club to use and Josh, of course, wanted to use the wedge since it was only a 90 yard hole...  Josh thinks he can do what he did before, but he obviously can't...  After arguing for a few minutes, John finally said, "Okay, Josh, use whatever club you want..."  Josh then proceeds to hit the ball 30 yards and cracks up laughing really loudly for a full two minutes...  I'm wondering when the laughter is going to change to frustration...  That's what all the experts are telling me.  I can't wait!

Thanksgiving dinner was yummy.   I cooked an organic turkey !  Josh was amazed that it was Thanksgiving.  He keeps asking if it is summer...  his sense of time is all messed up...  Hopefully soon, he'll stop asking what day it is and what month it is....

 

Josh's buddies visit during Thanksgiving break - Jason, Weston, Mikey, Shane and Dave.  Josh enjoyed seeing all his brothers!

Tonight I let Josh go to Pick Up Stix with his buddies.  They really wanted to take him, so I let them...  I was actually glad to see Josh go off with his buddies, but I warned them not to get any crazy ideas...  They were cool and Josh returned home unscathed....  he had fun.  That was sweet of his buddies to take him, don't you think?

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We missed you, Mike, Angie and Tyler!  Hopefully we'll see you soon!! 

 

 

Josh is golfing!!

Why didn't I think of this before???  I enrolled Josh in the "Golf for the Physically Challenged" program at Sharp Rehab with PGA Pro John Klein.  Today was our first day and Josh did great!  We went to an executive course in San Diego called Four Points Sheraton and met several other guys who had brain injuries.  John, the Pro, took Josh under his wing and worked with his balance to get Josh comfortable with swinging the golf club.  First they went to the chipping and putting green and worked on the basics.  

I was extremely happy to learn that Josh does, indeed, have good balance.  Although I was instructed by the Sharp Rehab therapists to bring the gait belt for balance, I soon learned that Josh did not need a belt.  After working with John for a while, Josh was soon chipping and putting on his own.  After practicing for a while, off we went to play our first hole of golf.  Josh did great!!   He got a six on his first hole.  Not bad for a kid who has been in a coma for two months and who hasn't picked up a club in over 8 months.  GO JOSHY!!!!!  We will be coming every Saturday and working with John.  He is  a wonderful guy who is dedicated to helping the "physically challenged" get back in the swing of things.  Thanks, John, you are a class act!!!

It was wonderful to have Josh on the golf course concentrating so hard and listening so intently  to John.  It gave me a break from Josh's constant questioning....  "Mom, where's Dad?"  "Mom, when am I going back to school?"  "Mom, what day is it?"  "Mom, is it still summer?"  This constant questioning is very common with brain injuries.  It is called "perseveration".  After fifteen minutes of the same question, you're ready to reach for the gun.  Josh will be sleeping and will suddenly shout out - "Mom, what day is it????"  It is something else...   the wonderful world of the brain injured.....  

Last weekend we went to the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation meeting at Scripps in Encinitas and Josh won the raffle - a tee shirt with their logo.  After the meeting, Josh said, "I hate these people!"  It cracked me up.  He is so funny.  He truly drives me nuts, but he makes me laugh at the same time.  Whenever a survivor meets Josh and learns that his injury occurred on 3/28/07, they always say, "Wow, he's come a long way.  That is truly incredible!"  This makes me feel so good.  I feel like it has been an eternity!!!  I always let them know about the hyperbaric oxygen therapy and the fact that Josh has had close to 70 treatments!!!!   I know this helped Josh tremendously!   THANKS, MIKE!!

Our biggest challenge is Josh's short term memory.  He will watch an entire Charger game, scream and yell and understand all the plays....then when it's over, it's gone from his mind.  He'll cruise the channels looking for the game when he just watched the entire game from start to finish!!!!  Isn't that amazing???

Josh is on his fifth day of medicine for Alzheimer's.  We are trying it to see if it makes a difference....  Let's hope so.  I understand that Namenda, the drug that Josh is on, has no negative side effects so we are trying it.   I did just learn from a brain injury consultant that there is a natural antioxidant that is supposed to work on short term memory and that is called pycnogenol.  It is a vegetarian sourced antioxidant from the French maritime pine bark.  I will start Josh on this antioxidant on Monday after consulting with Dr. Stenehjem.  I have a brain injury consultant who likes me - Pedro Leon.  He is an extremely knowledgable guy.  He says he'll give me all the free advice I want if I take him to lunch once in a while .... not a bad offer.  I took him to a late Friday afternoon lunch at Los Cabos and we wined and dined and talked for three hours about brain injuries.  He has clients all over the globe....

I have also enrolled Josh in a weight training class on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Sharp Rehab gym.  I hired a guy to work out with Josh - a guy named Christopher who was recommended to me by a girlfriend.  He is pretty cool.  He is a tall guy who used to play pro basketball for some Australian team.  He has dual citizenship and is very interesting and kind. 

I am particularly excited about Josh golfing again!!  We look forward to going next week!  Chris and Bruce are coming for the Thanksgiving holiday.  It will be wonderful to  see them again.  CONGRATULATIONS TO ANGIE for getting her surgery overwith!!!  LOVE TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS BLOG!    HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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Josh is extremely happy these days!

Josh is always laughing.  He is so happy these days.  He wakes up happy.  He's happy all day long -- he goes along with whatever I say.  I say, "Josh, go brush your teeth."  He says, "Okay, Mom."   I say, "Josh, go get dressed and get ready for therapy."  He says, "Okay, Mom,"  I say, "Josh, drink this glass of water to flush out your system."  He says, "Okay, Mom."   He is just the most pleasant kid you can imagine.  He's such a team player.   He participates willingly in all of his therapies.  It's interesting...  Pedro Leon, the physical therapist consultant that I am thinking of hiring, says, "Just wait...this will change..."

We continue to write in Josh's memory book every day telling him what day it is and what his schedule is for the day.  Josh still continuously throughout the day asks about Jerry.  "Where's Dad, Mom?"  "Did he really die?"  "Why?"   I even drove Josh to the cemetery, dragged Josh up the steep hill where Jerry's gravesite is  and showed it to Josh.  Josh looks at it and says, "Oh, wow!"  Josh remembered having gone to the cemetery and seeing the gravesite for about half an hour!!  This was a big deal for Josh since his short term memory is normally less than a minute.  Later on that afternoon Josh had no recollection of going to the cemetery.  He would read what I wrote in his memory book and say, "We didn't go to the cemetery today."  It's crazy... 

Josh's new thing is reading his high school yearbook.  He now asks me, "Why aren't I going to college?  When am I going back?"  This is a good thing, isn't it?   It is so strange....sometimes Josh thinks he's still a senior at Torrey Pines and Natalie is 13...  Other times he is "with it".  He knows he is 20 and knows Natalie is 17.  But when Natalie takes off and gets in the car to drive, Josh can't believe she has her license.  "Mom, Natalie is driving and she doesn't have her license!".....   I think with time things will fall into place.

Josh is on no meds at all.  Contrary to what the doctors say about brain injuries, Josh never sleeps in the day.  He never takes naps and will stay up all night if you lethim.  Josh is constantly asking about time.  He'll be sitting on the john and he'll scream out, "Mom, what day is it?  What month is it?  Am I going to school today?"   It's wild.

Josh's speech is still slurred.  He runs all the words together.  Next week we are having more speech therapies than physical and occupational therapies combined.  I told the scheduler at Sharp that Josh needs speech therapy more than anything else.  It is frustrating when he talks and no one can understand him.  He continues to laugh his butt off.   When I tell him, "Josh, I can't understand a word you're saying!"  He just laughs...  I tell him to speak slowly....one word at a time...  

I enrolled Josh in this program called Cognition Ignition which is a cognitive remediation program successfully used in 70 countries as a tool for the enhancement of learning potential.  This guy, David Witkowski, swears he can get Josh's short term memory back.  Josh had one session and I really liked the guy.  He is animated and uses all kinds of different techniques.  The first thing he did was give Josh a series of pictures with dots all over the pages and asked Josh to find squares and triangles.  He said, "Josh, first connect the dots and make a square, then connect the dots and make a triangle."  The dots were not numbered.  Josh breezed through the exercises.  I guess the idea is to remember what to do first.  The exercises get progressively harder...  Then he would give Josh all these cards with pictures on them and ask him to make pairings, such as a knife and a loaf of bread, a saw and a piece of wood.  Josh breezed through this exercise as well.  As the hour came to a close, Josh was getting fatiqued and was messing up....   The method used is called Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment.  Everything is comprised of paper and pencil tasks aimed at specific cognitive goals.   I figure this method has to have some validity since it has been translated into 29 languages.  Who knows?  The guy had a big ad in the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation newsletter.  I'll try it.  Josh doesn't seem to mind.  The guy asked him if he had a good time after the session and Josh said, "Yeah, I did."....   

We're continuing with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.  We have two sessions next week.  We're trying everything! 

Hopefully next time you see Josh you'll be amazed as his improvement! 

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys about the wildfires!  How horrible was that???  We survived the fires unscathed, but we did have to evacuate.  I knew we were in big trouble Monday morning when smoke and soot were coming our way.  There was lots of soot which came into the house through the door and window cracks.  The air quality sucked.  We immediately got our stuff together and checked into the Beach Terrace Inn in Carlsbad on the water where the sky was blue and the air was clear.  I grabbed my wedding album, my mom's wedding album, some pictures of the kids and family, my insurance policy and estate file, a suitcase full of piano music and off we went.  Josh did amazingly well.  We stayed in the hotel three nights.  I was thinking, "Gosh, on top of all the crap we're going through with Josh, our house might burn down....I guess that's par for the course...."   We were lucky!