WE SURVIVED THE HOLIDAYS...JOSH TURNS 21 DAY AFTER XMAS...

Natalie made arrangements to have Josh's buddies come over for his birthday.  She is a sweetheart and Josh is a lucky boy. 

The guys and gals hung out and played Xbox, ate pizza and cupcakes -- just like when they were little...  All of his buddies are home from college.  All Josh said most of the day  was "Wow, I'm 21...I can drink alcohol..."  I'm trying to drive home that he can't drink because of his brain injury.  I have everything written down in his memory book.  Josh spends a great deal of the day reading his memory book.  Eventually I think and hope things will "sink in" and he'll understand what happened.  Every once in a while he'll say, "What happened to me?"  This is a good thing because he's at least realizing that something happened...

Xmas Eve with Natalie and Kendall at Gary and Vonnie's house, friends of the family.  Don't worry...Josh isn't drinking.  We were!! 

Xmas Eve we spent at Gary and Vonnie's house.  We had a wonderful time !  Gary and Vonnie are both incredible cooks and entertainers.  Their house was festive and everyone enjoyed themselves. 

Here's Josh with Lizzy and Rogers.  They had a holiday open house on the 23rd.  They are laughing because I told them to get in the picture with their newly adopted son...

Here's beautiful Bella, Gary and Vonnie's doggy.  She is sweet, unlike my wild animals...

So....we survived the holidays.  We actually had a great holiday.  Christmas Day, we had company -- my girlfriends Molly, Mary, Christina and Josh's trainer, Christopher came over.  We ate and drank and carried on.  Then, we went house hopping - first to Carolyn and Buck's house in Whispering Palms, then to Ellen's for a traditional turkey dinner.  It was fun.  

Before the holidays I had Josh professionally assessed by two teachers from Torrey Pines High School.  They did standardized testing on Josh for two hours to see how he is functioning academically.  I will get the results after the first of the year.  I think he did well.  Josh is such a team player and is eager to please.   After  I get the test results, I will have Josh tutored every day for several hours in the afternoon to keep him mentally stimulated and moving forward.  I hired a behavioral consultant to help me out with this. 

Josh is still an outpatient at Sharp Rehab having physical, occupational and speech therapy.  Christopher works with Josh twice a week at the gym.  He also takes him to the club to work on his "short" game.  I hired a new guy caregiver, Don, to hang out with Josh.  They watch football, play Monopoly, Xbox and pool. 

I have decided that I need to be away from Josh more.  In fact, the more, the merrier.  He is driving me crazy with the "Where's Dad?" thing.  I thought I'd be able to get answers from  Dr. Gardner, but no such luck.  This perseveration thing is maddening and weird. 

Josh's short term memory is improving a tiny bit.  He can remember names now and then and will sometimes really surprise you.  I am really looking forward to getting him in a structured program at home with the tutoring.  As far as the executive functioning thing, Josh is getting a little better.  We went to my girlfriend Devora's house yesterday because her Dad passed away suddenly.  Josh was very appropriate and said he was sorry.  That's a good thing.  At least, he didn't laugh in her face.  But, then this morning when I was telling Josh about the Bhutto assassination in Pakistan, he started laughing hysterically....    

So, that's the news in a nutshell!  Hope everyone had a great Christmas and holiday season!  We miss everyone!  Thanks for thinking of us!!!  Happy New Year!  Here's to a great 2008!!   THANK GOD FOR XBOX!!  Mike, Angie and Tyler, thanks for that guitar game, it is a big hit!  All the kids come over and play it.  Josh still loves the John Madden NFL game, but he'll sit and watch all of Natalie's buddies play the guitar.  It's a fun game.  I am still trying to get the hang of it.  I bet Tyler is good!   xoxo 

 

 

JOSH IS TALKING ABOUT HIS 21ST BIRTHDAY AND IS COUNTING THE DAYS...

I was waiting for something wonderfully monumental to happen before updating the blog, but no such luck.... Josh continues to perseverate about his father...it's getting crazy...  it's very similar to Chinese torture...  you wake up in the morning and think you can handle it, then the constant droning really starts to wear on you... "Where's Dad? Where's Dad? What happened?  Where is he?"  Soon I may be in stripes and someone else is going to have to take my place...

Realizing that I desperately need professional guidance to get me through this mess, I made an appointment with one of the best neuro-psychiatrists in the country.  He happens to have an office in Solana Beach which is great.  Dr. Daniel Gardner has a big laundry list after his name, distinguished fellow, diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, this and that....  For all of you who have faith, please pray for us.   For some reason I can't seem to pray so others feel free to beg, plead and ask for good things...  every once in a while I do say, "Oh dear God, please help me not kill Josh...." 

Josh is now counting the days until he is 21.  Today he'll wake up and with garbled speech he'll say, "Only 17 days until I turn 21..."  I was looking over his shoulder when he was on the computer the other day and he was instant messaging someone and said, "I'll soon be able to drink alcohol in public..."  I tell Josh he can't drink any alcohol with a brain injury.  He, of course, replies, "What brain injury?"   I show him my rendition of that fateful day of March 28, 2007...  "You were partying your ass off at U of A, Josh, drinking tons of beer and doing all kinds of drugs, like crappy bootleg xanax that you bought in Mexico and cheap cocaine, when you passed out, asparated... you were rushed to the hospital where you spent 30 days in ICU fighting for your life on all kinds of life support....  You almost died, Josh! .... "  Josh will say, "Oh, wow.."  Josh understands everything he reads and will ask all kinds of questions.  It's just that nothing seems to "stick".   Hopefully, with time, it will.

Let's see...do I have any good news?  Josh's short term memory has probably improved by a few minutes.  We are still going to out-patient therapies at Sharp Rehab and last week Josh remembered the entire car ride (about 20 minutes) that we were going to Sharp Rehab!  That's a start.  If you ask him what he does at Sharp, he'll tell you he has physical, occupational and speech therapies.  He'll occasionally remember the names of his therapists.  Josh knows that it is December.  He is still obsessed with time and dates... not uncommon for a brain injury. 

Josh continues to go to weight training at the Sharp Rehab gym with Christopher, on Mondays and Thursdays.  Christopher is a guy I hired to work out with Josh.  He's a cool guy, lived in the Land Down Under for a while and has dual citizenship.  He's was a pro-basketball player in Australia and has written a book called "Swimming to Angola...and other tips for surviving the Third World".  He's traveled all over the world and is a fun, adventurous nomad of a guy!   

I have an appointment with a behavioral consultant who works with autistic children.  Hopefully this guy can hook Josh up with various tutors to keep him mentally stimulated.  Josh's behavior is actually not that bad, although at times he'll act inappropriate and start laughing his ass off in public over something that is not funny at all, like an old lady falling or a car crash...   it's that executive function thing ...

Last night Josh's caregiver did not show up, so my girlfriend, Ellen and I took Josh to Scalini's.  We had a great time.  We sat at the piano bar for about an hour after dinner and sang.  Josh even danced...  I have come to the conclusion that Josh does great with lots of people around.   Josh met one of the waiter's daughters and asked her five times in the course of ten minutes what her name was...  He's like Tom in "Fifty First Dates"...

On a good note, Josh can beat the Xbox 360 John Madden 2008 football game which is no easy task.  He'll carefully line up the positioning for the field goal kicker and can kick a field goal right down the middle... he's good.  He'll be downstairs playing Xbox and I'll hear him scream out, "Mom, where's Dad?"  He's good at multi-tasking....  

 We're going to miss NYC and Chicago this year.  Happy birthday to NAHA!  I can't remember how old NAHA is, is it 7 already?  Happy holidays to everyone!  We're trying to get in the spirit.  It's been a tough year for our families between Josh's brain injury and Angie's surgery...  2008 will be better for all of us!  Love to everyone!  Thanks for reading Josh's blog!

Oh yeah, my sweet Natalie is doing great.  She's busy applying to colleges, being class president and running around like crazy... She even has a JOB!!  She's a hostess at the Paradise Grille in Del Mar.  Josh says she's "the hostess with the mostess.."