Josh is now suffering from a condition called orthostatic hypotension.  This condition is a total and complete drag because it sometimes causes Josh to pass out.  Orthostatic hypotension causes a person's blood pressure to suddenly fall when standing up or stretching.  Medically it is a drop in the systolic blood pressure of at least 20 mms and a drop in the diastolic blood pressure of at least 10 mms when a person assumes the standing position.  Josh used to have a very high metabolism.  He would go to the gym with Don and work out like mad.  He'd get on one of the machines and burn 500-600 calories.  Now it is as if Josh is in slow motion.  He acts as if he is running out of batteries.  He is slow and lethargic.  A few times like today he has passed out and ended up in the Emergency Room of Scripps Hospital.  It is just horrible.  When Josh passes out, it is in the morning.  When this happens, I call 911. The paramedics come to the house, hook Josh up to an IV and take him to the ER.  I follow along in the car, panic-stricken and scared to death thinking "Why is this happening?  We were doing so well and now this?!"  

Here is Josh in the ER smiling away in spite of his condition.

Today I decided to research the causes of orthostatic hypotension and try to figure out what could possibly cause Josh to go from one extreme to another.  Why was he full of energy many months ago?  Why is he now lethargic and slow?  Well, a possible cause of orthostatic hypotension is the long term use of Lexapro, an anti-depressant.  Josh has been taking Lexapro every evening since he had the brain injury.  That's six years of accumulated Lexapro in his system.   The doctors explained that Lexapro could be calming to Josh and help lessen his libido.  These are good things as you don't want an aggressive, brain injured 20-something-year-old craving sex and acting inappropriately.  HOWEVER, you don't want your kid passing out either.  So, what do you do?  The cardiologists prescribe Midodrine which increases your heart rate.  Josh takes 5 mgs of Midodrine three times a day -- at 9 a.m., at noon and at 5 p.m.  So, now Josh is on two meds - one to calm him down, decrease his libido and cause orthostatic hypotension and one med to increase his blood pressure due to the side effect of the Lexapro which most likely caused the orthostatic hypotension.  It's kind of crazy.  I have decided to give Josh a smaller dose of the Lexapro (2.5 mgs which Dr. Stenehgem suggested) and continue with the Midodrine for a while, but to closely monitor Josh's blood pressure.  Midodrine can cause high blood pressure which is not a good thing.  

On a good note, Josh is very calm now and very appropriate.  He used to have no filter which is very common with brain injuries.  For example, a year or so ago, if Josh saw a very beautiful girl, he would walk up to her and give her a hug.  This is unfiltered behavior and can be offensive.  Josh does not do that any more.  He is reserved.  A year or so ago, if Josh saw someone that looked Hispanic, he would immediately start speaking in Spanish to that person, "Hola, como esta?", he would say.  This would, at times, offend the person.  Josh does not act like that anymore. When I bring Josh with me to the office, he will watch a movie on his PSP or play Lumosity on the computer or go on Facebook.  He is quiet and sticks to the task, sometimes for hours intently concentrating on whatever it is he is doing, totally oblivious to his surroundings.  A year or so ago, Josh would talk to every customer that came into Reliable Pipe.  He would blurt out, "What's your name?"  Those days are gone.  We now have the new and improved, reserved Josh.  I guess that is progress.  It is certainly easier to manage Josh when we go places.  It is easy for Josh's caregivers.  They like hanging out with Josh because he is easy and appropriate.  It is just so strange how brain injuries work.  

Josh is now 26 years old.

12/26/12

Happy 26th Birthday, Josh!

You have come a long way!  

dentedego - Paula and Josh- A Mothers Devotion and Loyalty

Josh and I at Candela's downtown at happy hour.

Yum.

dentedego - Paula and Josh- A Mothers Devotion and Loyalty

Check out this video that Brad put together from DentedEgo. Also, check out dentedego.com. It's a social network about people helping one another in need, regardless of what that need is.

It's been ages since I have updated Josh's blog. So much has happened. It's been over a year since the last update. The wheels are definitely turning in Josh's brain. It is good for him, but more challenging for me. As you can see from this picture of Josh, he can definitely multitask. He is playing Play Station Portable and is on facebook at the same time.

Josh's metabolism is now very speedy. He is pretty fit -- works out at the gym with his caregivers, Don and Rob. He continues to go to the ABI Program with his teacher, Zack. Zack also does brain-training with Josh every day, does yoga and stretching, takes walks at the beautiful parks in San Diego, takes Josh to his weekly swim lesson and his weekly Spanish lesson with Fernando, one of Josh's fellow ABI students. Josh's schedule is diverse and he is very lucky to have such great guys working with him. Oh yeah, we can't forget Mike Jones, Josh's tutor who helps Josh with his speech, reading, writing and "community skills".

Josh is now full of energy. Everything you hear about being exhausted after a brain injury does not apply to Josh. Josh will stay up all night if you let him. He will play Madden for hours, but is now doing a host of different things. For example, he got into sorting things and "organizing". One day he took every video and DVD out of it's case and starting putting them in different piles. He started throwing away numerous movies including Natalie's latest Christmas gift -- the entire last season of Glee. We, of course, told him this was not acceptable and that he couldn't throw out these DVDs simply because he didn't want them. We also told him that the cases protect the DVDs from getting all scratched up. After I put them all back in their cases, Josh took them all out again. We went back and forth with this. Finally, I just gave up and told him, "Don't throw any videos away, just put them in a separate pile and we'll deal with it later..." Josh also got into this thing where he was going through all his old school papers, notebooks, football and baseball cards and started putting things in trash bags. He'd say, "Throw all this away." At first I was upset, but then I decided that Josh was right about a lot of things. We did have too much junk from years past. So, I started sorting things out with him and we ended up throwing out tons of old school papers -- reports that he had written, old homework assignments, you name it.... We cleaned his room. It's easy to just throw everything in a drawer in the desk and forget about it. The good news is we got rid of a lot of junk and Josh's room is clean.

Josh's teachers at the ABI Program thought that Josh's sorting and organizing was a big breakthrough and was a good thing. Something in his brain was definitely waking up and causing him to "organize" things. I was thinking, "Is this obsessive, compulsive behavior?" It seemed obsessive at the time. Now it's over and we're on to the next thing whatever that may be. You never know what the future holds.... Just when I thought Josh was fairly predictable, he changed. I just don't want him to get into the hundreds of boxed football and baseball cards that are in his closet. When Josh was in grade school he would collect and organize those cards for hours. I think he has several complete collections and they are worth money. It would be a drag to wake up one morning and find Josh in a heap of cards sorting like a madman...

Josh went through a phase where he was getting up at 5:30 a.m. every morning. This really was a drag for me since I used to love to wake up early, make coffee, read in bed and chill for a while before the day got crazy and hectic. I was thinking, "I can't get a break... this is a drag..." This went on for several months. Now Josh is sleeping in until 7:15 or so. It's crazy when I think about how he used to sleep until noon or one o'clock. Now he's waking up with the birds.

Josh is still very difficult to understand which is frustrating for me since I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on speech therapists. It seems that the more his brain wakes up, the faster he talks. He slurs all his words together. He just came into the computer room, looked over my shoulder as I was typing this and said, "F U".

Josh is still very happy, very much of a team player, is extremely social and wants to talk to everyone including strangers. If we go to dinner, he wants to participate in everyone's conversation. The other night we were at the Fish Market and a couple of guys were watching the basketball game and talking about Michael Jordan. Josh then got up, went over to their table and said something totally indecipherable. Most people are good natured about this type of thing, but sometimes people really get freaked out and don't know what to say. It's like Josh has no filter and just reacts to a situation. This is called lack of executive function in the brain injury world. I am trying to work with Josh on this. It's tough. Josh will sometimes just scream like a crazy person. The screaming only lasts a few seconds and then he says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry...." At least he knows that screaming is inappropriate.

A few months ago Josh started complaining that his heart "felt funny". One day as we were driving to work, Josh said, "Take me to the hospital. My heart feels funny." I said, "What do you mean your heart feels funny? What does it feel like? Are you in pain?" Josh said, "I have discomfort." I was thinking to myself, "Well, we have an appointment with Dr. Stenehgem at Sharp Rehab at 11:00. Why don't we just wait until then." I asked Josh if he felt it was an emergency and he said, "No, not really." So we went to work. I gave Josh an aspirin when we got to work. He then had a big breakfast from Lolita's and was laughing and joking with everyone. I figured everything was fine. We went to see Dr. Stenehgem at 11:00. I told him what Josh was saying about his heart and he suggested an EKG. The following morning, I took Josh to see Dr. Cortes, our family practitioner, and Josh had an EKG. Everything was fine. The next day Josh started complaining about his heart again. He said, "Take me to the hospital. I am in discomfort. It's my heart..." Josh was pacing. I decided to take him to the emergency room at Scripps. We went to the hospital, stayed there until the wee hours of the morning and after several tests the doctor said, "Josh is fine. We can't find anything." We went home and went to bed. Josh will periodically say, "My heart hurts. My heart feels funny." I have come to the conclusion that he is doing this to get my undivided attention. If I am talking with my girlfriends at a restaurant, Josh will say, "Mom it's my heart." Now, I have learned to say,

"Josh, you're fine. You're just a little anxious." Thankfully, Josh has not complained about his heart lately.

In spite of the fact that Josh is getting more challenging, he is also getting more manageable in many ways. I took him to the theater for the first time a few weeks ago and he did very well. We went to see Guys and Dolls at the Lamb's Theater in Coronado. Josh greeted everyone he saw but once the play started, Josh stayed focused and really enjoyed the show.

I think things are getting better. I have a permanent companion! Lucky me.

Thanks for reading Josh's blog.

Josh is reading an old post on the blog so it's time for an update!

Josh and Me at Torrey Pines Lodge having breakfast.

Mike, Angie and Tyler came to visit this summer. It was fun!

From left to right, Mike, Josh, Angie, Natalie and Tyler.

Don and Josh at Barona Casino where Josh made some money playing

Texas Hold 'Em.

This is what Josh did to his leg when he drove a golf cart!

It was horrible! This picture was taken at Scripps Hospital.

I think I better update Josh's blog before the year is over. Time is flying and before you know it Christmas will be here. I haven't updated Josh's blog in months. I am totally and completely burnt out on Josh's brain injury. I just walked in the computer room a few minutes ago and Josh had just googled, "When does Josh Mendell go back to Arizona?" Josh was reading an old blog post from 2008.... here we are two years later and it's the same old stuff. Josh keeps asking about college. Everyday he sends me a message on Facebook, "Send me back to Zona!" It's very nerve-racking and crazy... He apparently has some very vivid memories of his college days at U of A and thinks about it every now and then. I refer him to a tab in his planner which explains what happened to him and why he's not at college. I'll tell him, "Your brain needs to heal." Josh will scream, "My brain has healed!" Sometimes I'll say, "Don't you think you need a memory in order to return to college?" This is really not a good thing to say because sometimes he'll get angry. Sometimes I'll say, "Your brain is getting better, but you're not totally better." I guess the best thing to say is "Read your planner." It's better than trying to explain every time he asks...

Josh is now perseverating big time on his driver's license. He constantly asks, "Where's my driver's license?" So now we have a license tab in the back of his planner which explains why he doesn't have a driver's license. So when Josh asks this question, I say, "Read your planner." The planner explains about his DUI and the fact that the cop took his driver's license. It also explains that two days after his DUI he ended up in a coma from an overdose. He reads the planner, then goes downstairs and plays XBOX. Every so often, he'll yell, "Mom, where's my license?" It's very frustrating...

Speaking of driving, Don M., one of Josh's trainers and caregivers, let Josh drive a golf cart at the club, and Josh ended up with severe lacerations on his left leg. Instead of putting on the brakes, he stuck his leg outside of the golf cart and badly skinned his shin. It was horrible and extremely poor judgment on Don's part. I was livid. I took Josh to the hospital where they cleaned it up, put wound gel on it and covered it. He had an open wound for almost a month. I took him back to the hyperbaric oxygen clinic and he had several sessions. That's behind us now. After the injury, Josh would look at his leg and ask "What happened to my leg?" I had to make another tab in the planner called LEG and write a detailed explanation of what happened. I would tell Josh to refer to his planner whenever he asked the question. This was maddening...

It is still very hard for me to see Josh's progress, but his teachers at the ABI Program constantly tell Zack (Josh's caregiver and teacher who drives him every day to ABI) that Josh is improving. In fact, Josh is now attending the ABI Program in the afternoons as well as the mornings. The afternoon sessions are held at a cultural center downtown and are more like college classes meaning that you can pick which class you want to attend that day, such as reading comprehension, analytical reasoning and speech. This is a good thing. Josh's speech continues to be a problem and I have enrolled him in weekly sessions with Herb Hein at the Hein Speech Center. It is expensive, but hopefully will pay off over time. Herb is very animated and fun. Josh is enjoying the sessions and hopefully the constant cueing will pay off. We are constantly telling Josh, "Speak one syllable at a time...slowly." We also had a session with one of Josh's ABI teachers, Julie, who came to the house and taught us some of the exercises for the Beckman Oral Motor Assessment & Intervention method. This method actually calls for the speech teacher (or someone) to physically manipulate some of the muscles around the mouth. For example, the upper lip stretch requires that you put your index figure sideways on the upper lip and massage side to side. There are a series of exercises which we are supposed to do, but this requires that you put on rubber gloves and physically do the manipulations to the muscles. I can honestly say that I do not do this religiously with Josh. In fact, every day I say I am going to do the exercises with Josh, but then I don't. The exercises really don't take that much time, so I should definitely do them. I am just burnt out and sick of the whole thing!

I also have hired Pedro Leon, a physical therapist and brain injury consultant, to help with Josh's physical exercises. He has gone to the gym with Don on several occasions and instructed him on what he should be doing with Josh to maximize his balance and even out his left side which sustained more damage than the right side. Pedro wrote out a specific routine which Don now does with Josh when they go to the gym. Hopefully, this will help.

My nephew, Zach, came to stay with us for a few weeks this summer and was dying to go to a casino since he was 18 and could legally gamble at the Indian casinos. We went to Barona one evening. Natalie, Zach and I bopped around the casino and played slots while Josh and Don went to the poker room. Josh was walking as fast as he could. He was so thrilled to be in the casino. He knew just where to go and what to do. He ended up making some money playing Texas Hold 'Em. At first, he was down $52, but then ended up with $120. When Natalie, Zack and I went to check on him, there he was sitting with stacks of $1 chips in front of him. It looked like a lot of money, but all the chips were $1 chips. It's pretty amazing that Josh's short term memory works just fine when he's in a poker game. He was all smiles and remembered that he won for about two hours. That was fun.

That's all the news for now, folks. Thanks for keeping up with Josh's progress. Hopefully next time I update the blog I'll have some amazing breakthroughs to report.

It's been five months since I published a post on Josh's blog. Here's an update

We survived another Christmas and even managed to send out Happy Holiday greetings to our friends and family. The first half of the alphabet received a Happy Holidays greeting card and the second half of the alphabet received a Happy New Year's card. I didn't send out New Year's cards until almost the end of January. Oh well, I am behind in my life and am feeling pretty tired and overwhelmed lately. This, too, will pass as they say. I am actually very fortunate and have a great deal to be thankful for. I could be in a homeless tent with no family and friends in sight... My business is literally 15 yards from the Alpha Project Homeless tent which is set up each year for several months. I see people that are down and out every day and I think to myself, "Wow, how did it come to this?" The City of San Diego has slashed the hours of the police who are part of the Homeless Task Force which is really a shame. These are truly the only cops that I like since they act more like social workers and actually have files on most of the people in the streets. They do a lot of good in getting the homeless the help which they need. Times are really tough right now and we're seeing more and more people that are homeless that don't look the part at all...

Oh yeah, this blog is about Josh. I haven't updated the blog in five months. That's a long time. I think I have a lot to tell. I actually think Josh has improved a bit. Josh still wakes up every morning a happy camper. He whistles for the dogs and calls them in his high pitched voice, "Ruffy, Daisy!" He's sweet. Then he'll immediately go downstairs to fire up the XBOX and will scream every now and then that he's in the Super Bowl. He'll manipulate the game so the other team, most likely, the Raiders, cannot score at all. Nothing. Not even a field goal. Then, he'll yell, "Mom! Mom!" I'll go downstairs and he'll proudly show me the score with a huge smile on his face....something like 120 to 0. I'll say, "Congratulations! You're amazing." Then, I tell Josh he has to get ready for the ABI Program. He is still going four days a week. He is participating in class discussions and is somewhat of a ring leader now which is great. He still has terrible dsyarthria (slurring of the speech), but he'll keep talking until you understand what he's saying. He is very social and is still a team player. He just does not realize cognitively the seriousness of his injury which I think is probably a good thing in many ways. The psychologist used to tell me, "Just wait. Josh will eventually get extremely depressed over his condition..." This has not happened. I have stopped seeing Dr. B because I felt after seeing her for almost 2 years that I was not getting any useful information. Besides her office was piled so high with yellow legal pads that it made me nervous to sit in a rocking chair next to her and talk. One day I said to her, "You could probably just throw away that towering pile of notes and never miss a thing..." She just kind of smiled back. Not only did she have piles and piles of papers every where, she had half empty water bottles all over the place and bags of almonds and tins of mints every where. The waiting room was always full of patients and she spread herself so thin, it was not conducive to healing. Enough about her. Back to Joshy.

It's little things that I see that I make a mental note of and say to myself, "Yeah, I think Josh is getting better or at least more aware of what is happening around him." For example, Josh used to (and often still does) read every sign he saw while I was driving. He'd say, "Wells Fargo now open", "Chevy's Tex Mex", "Denny's open 24 hours", etc. Now he'll see a new restaurant and say, "We should try that place." Yesterday when we were driving through Little Italy, Josh asked if we could stop and eat at a new place.

The other day at dinner, Josh asked the waiter what the difference was between the shrimp tempura roll and some other roll. I was pretty impressed. I know this may sound like nothing to you guys, but it is a breakthrough. Josh is getting more cognitive.

A few days ago, Josh was multi-tasking. He was playing Play Station Portable and was on Facebook at the same time. He had the PSP in one hand and was typing with the other. He had never done that before. Speaking of Facebook, Josh is so cute, one day he wrote on his wall, "What day is it?" Somebody sent him a link to the day and time which I thought was cute. One day he wrote on my wall, "Mom, when am I going back to college?" Another time he wrote, "Mom, I love you." He wrote in his profile a single sentence -- "I love myself." He's funny. He constantly checks on Brittany's Facebook to see what she is doing and where she is. He still asks, "Am I still going out with Brittany?" He constantly tries to call her old cell number which now belongs to someone else. I think Josh told whoever answered the phone what our phone number was because the phone rang one night, I answered it and this guy says to me, "Someone from your house is calling and talking to my wife and he is speaking a 'foreign' language and it is annoying...." I explained to the guy that it was my son who had a brain injury and was dialing up his old girlfriend's cell phone number. The guy was understanding... Apparently, they just had a baby and it was annoying to constantly hear from Josh. Josh remembers everything from the past concerning numbers. He remembers every gate code we have ever had. Sometimes when we are walking home from dinner, he'll start pressing all these old combinations to get the gate to open. It's amazing that he remembers the combinations. Josh also remembers every maid that we have ever had. Sometimes before he goes to bed, he'll say, "Where's Elva?" or "Where's Matilda?" These gals have been gone for years.

Josh is now perseverating on a host of different topics. It used to be, "Where's Dad?" twenty four hours a day. I would say Josh's favorite topic to be stuck on is my age. He is absolutely amazed at my age. He'll say, "How old are you?" I tell him 56 and he says, "Oh, wow!!!" The other night my girlfriend, Ellen was having dinner with us and Josh whispers in my ear, "Who is older you or Ellen?" He has that smirk on his face. He just gets the biggest kick out of this age thing. He asks Mike Jones, Zack, and Don Mooney every day how old they are. He sometimes says, "Mom, how old am I? 23? 24?" Besides the age thing, Josh is now perseverating big time on the Super Bowl. He asks ten times a day or more, "Who's in the Super Bowl?" He also asks who the Chargers lost to in the playoffs. Josh cannot store what you tell him or what he sees or what he does for longer than a few minutes. He cannot transfer the event to the long-term memory part of his brain. The synapses do not connect. The event just dissipates and is gone from his mind. Every once in a great while, he will remember something that occurred a day or so ago.

Josh is doing hyperbaric oxygen therapy again. He has had four treatments in two weeks. Two back to back sessions and now he's going once a week. The treatments will keep him healthy and hopefully help with his balance.

That's it for now! Thanks for reading Josh's blog! Family and friends, please stop by any time. We had a great xmas holiday with our cousins, Chrissy and Bruce, pictured above in front of the Hotel Del Xmas tree!

Old fun pictures

Xmas 2008

Sarah and Me in Washington DC

Washington DC

December 2008

Last year - Russ, Jill and Josh at the Brig in Coronado

The Lopez girls came to visit a few months ago.

Martha and her daughters, Alana, Gina, Sabrina and grandgirls!

JOSH RETURNS TO WEST CITY CAMPUS ABI PROGRAM

Josh and his teacher, Julie

who is a speech pathologist at the ABI Program

(Acquired Brain Injury) at West City Campus

Julie tells Josh that his goal is to be understood by others. They do various speech exercises in class to accomplish this goal. Josh has dysarthria which is the inability to articulate words distinctly due to his brain injury. Hopefully with time Josh's speech will improve. It is interesting that when Josh first came out of the coma, his speech seemed clearer than it is now. Then as more time passed and his brain continued to heal, his speech became more slurred. This is because his brain is thinking faster now and Josh is speaking faster. He does not leave spaces in between his words.

Josh and his teacher, Zack

Zack drives Josh to all his therapies, works out with Josh daily and is a great buddy!







Due to massive budget cuts by the state of California, the ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) program was furloughed for nearly two months. The good news is that the program is starting up again on Tuesday and Josh will start attending once again. The State of California is in a major fiscal crisis. They have cut programs left and right, have closed post offices and DMVs (Department of Motor Vehicles) and have laid off thousands of state workers. State funded programs for the disabled have been hit extremely hard. Luckily, the ABI was not totally cut from the budget, but was furloughed for nearly two months. I did manage to keep in touch with Josh's teachers, Joanne and Julie, during the summer and am happy and thankful that they will be returning come Tuesday, September 8. I need to take a picture of Josh with Joanne, his other ABI teacher and post it on the blog. Joanne has a background in psychology. She is animated, dedicated to her students and fun.

Josh will be attending three days a week or more. The good thing about the ABI program is its flexibility. You can attend as little or as much as you want. It is there for you every single day.

I have been letting Josh sleep late every morning. I tell myself that I must honor the healing power of sleep, believe in the plasticity of the brain and its ability to recover. Come Tuesday, I will have to wake Josh up early and get him to the ABI program on time. The good news is Josh wakes up happy with a big smile on his face. He is a team player and is totally sweet.

Josh still takes swimming lessons with Tim every Tuesday and is making progress. Tim is wonderful and kind -- a very patient man with a big heart. Next time I observe Josh's swim lesson, I want to see him do the butterfly stroke across the pool. That would be nice. Sometimes when I observe Josh in the pool, he just looks all around and does not focus on what Tim is saying. He wants to greet everyone he sees. He waves to everyone and knows all of the staff at Noonan Family Swim by name. It's cute, but maddening. I say, "Josh, focus on what Tim is saying..." I get frustrated. I want results. I want Josh to be BETTER.

I have been experimenting with Josh's meds. He now takes 10 mg. of Lexapro every other day. It seems to be working for him from a cognitive standpoint. He was taking Cymbalta and Lexapro, but was too spacey and lethargic. Mike Jones, his tutor, commented on how slow and lethargic Josh was in the afternoons. He was just spacing out and moving extremely slowly. It would take him forever to get dressed. I couldn't deal with it so I started to experiment with his dosages. Everything seems to be a crap shoot with brain injuries. You have to be your own advocate and take things in your own hands. You try this and you try that.

I am trying to limit Josh's XBOX playing since he will literally melt into the couch and play for hours. He loves the new 2010 John Madden game. They have female commentators and new graphics. I must admit, we take the PSP (Play Station Portable) to dinner and when I take Josh to Reliable. It keeps him occupied and he absolutely loves it.

Some people with brain injuries can't do anything. They have no interests or are totally incapable. I think of this young football player, Scott, who is in a wheelchair, can't walk, can't talk, but understands what you tell him. He got totally nailed on the football field, had some kind of bleed, then went back in the game and got slammed. It is sooooo sad. We met him at HBOT. He has had hundreds of treatments, but is not making the progress Josh made. His poor mother is so worn out. When I think of Scott, I am so thankful.

I am thinking of starting up again with the hyperbaric oxygen treatments. The treatments really help with mobility, circulation and inflammation. The drawback for Josh is the over stimulation. I could use a treatment myself and it would be fun to see Bob Sands and his staff. Bob is the most optimistic guy in the world. He's fun, definitely a breath of fresh air.

Josh still asks the infamous question, "When am I going back to college?" The other day, Mike Jones asked Josh to use the word "confident" in a sentence and Josh said, "I am confident that I will return to college." A year ago if Mike asked Josh the same question, Josh would say something like, "The word confident is in the dictionary."

I decided to update this blog today after seeing the movie, "Julie and Julia". Amy Adams who played Julie in the movie kept a blog about her cooking adventures. She gave herself one year to cook over 400 recipes of Julia Childs. It was very entertaining and Meryl Streep did a phenomenal job of being Julia. The movie also made me want to start cooking, so perhaps tomorrow I will start...

Love to everyone ! Natalie and I are looking forward to seeing everyone in Chicago for Auntie Helen and Uncle Mark's 60th anniversary!

Oh yeah, Natalie is back in Boulder and loving it. She has a brand new apartment (literally just built). We had fun furnishing it! She can walk to campus.

It's been a while....

It's been a while since I have updated the blog. I was waiting for some new and exciting news to share with everyone about Josh's progress. Well, it's not exactly a monumental breakthrough, but it is PROGRESS -- Josh has started the ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) Program at West City Campus in Point Loma and is actually attending classes daily from 9 to noon. He's in a real classroom with great instructors who are totally and completely dedicated to the brain injured -- trues heroes. The ABI program provides guidance to those with brain injuries in areas of self-awareness, social skills, cognitive skills training in areas of memory, problem-solving, organization and time management.

Josh has been so sheltered since the brain injury. All of his therapies have been one on one. It's time to branch out and be in a social setting like a college!!! I was a complete train wreck the first day Josh attended, but Zack was with him and Josh did amazingly well! The first day everyone introduced themselves to Josh and explained what had happened to them -- one by one each person told their pitifully, sad, heart-wrenching story. They would say something like, "Hi Josh, my name is Susan and I was in a terrible car wreck... Hi Josh, is that your name? I have trouble remembering names...forgive me... I had an aneurysm... Hi Josh, welcome to the class, my name is Peter and I had an overdose... Hi Josh, I had a stroke... Hi Josh, my brain was hurt at work... " Josh was silent and totally appropriate. He listened. He did not laugh when someone slurred their speech. He was taking it all in... I, on the other hand, was holding my breath so I wouldn't burst into tears at any moment. It was so hard to listen to their stories. The worst story of all was told by a gentleman who was strapped in his wheelchair with nearly unintelligible, slurred speech... he explained that he went in for surgery and "the doctor made a boo boo." He went to the hospital for some kind of ear operation and ended up with a horrible stroke, which messed up his equilibrium and the right side of his body including his eye... I nearly lost it when I heard his story. How sad and unfair!!

The great thing about the ABI program is that the program allows the instructors to tailor their lessons to the individual challenges of each student. It is small and personal. The students are encouraged to mingle and interact with one another. During the break, Josh went over to a bunch of guys who were playing dominoes and joined in. Zack called me at work to tell me that Josh showed the class how to log onto Facebook. He remembered his new password, logged on and the class applauded him!

Mike Jones, Josh's tutor, had been gearing Josh up for his big debut at the ABI Program. He discussed the program with Josh everyday for about a week prior to him starting the program. He helped Josh with all the paperwork and wrote the dates and times Josh would be attending in his planner. Mike is awesome. That's Mike in the picture at the start of this blog entry.

Natalie is home from college. She had a great first year at Boulder and will be living in an apartment when she returns in the fall. Natalie and I are going to Maui June 3rd and can't wait! I think Josh will soon be traveling with us. I don't want to do a 6 hour flight to start off -- maybe a trip to Chicago. Family, friends, please come visit us! We miss you all !

I have one other thing to tell you all - Josh came with me to a "Gambling Gourmet" party - a bunch of my girlfriends get together once a month at somebody's house and we eat, drink, laugh a great deal and play cards! Well, guess who won all the money -- yeah, you guessed it -- JOSH!! He was a riot. He remembered all the wild cards in each game that we played and kept trying to up the ante. In one game, I kept telling Josh to fold... he held on and his last card was the 5 of hearts for a FULL HOUSE! He took all the money and said, "Mom, let's go. Thank you, Ladies, it's been a pleasure!"