Family Fills in the Gaps

2/11/12 Pledge of Allegiance....one night his sister opened his constricted hand and placed it on his chest and jokingly said the pledge of allegiance, only to see AJ reciting it along with his sister. He is showing signs of cognition.

2/11/12 Pledge of Alligence

3/12/12 Eating....despite the failed barium swallow test, we continue the tongue exercises with ice cream. We sneak off to the Angel House, which is a one bedroom apt reserved for people like me who come from out of town to visit their loved ones. In the Angel House we have privacy and room to spend special time together; like in a regular home environment. His grandpa cuts his hair and I feed him ice cream, but not the crust. He wants the entire ice cream, but first we have to do tongue exercises to strengthen his throat muscles to get a stronger swallow.

3/12/12 tongue exercises to strengthen his swallow

Watching movies.....He loves a funny movie. We can catch him using his vocal chords when he laughs....so it is our job to make him laugh to help strengthen his vocal chords. We all gather around in his room in geri chairs and put on a funny movie.

movie night with his sisters

3/2/12 Therapy in bed...AJ's right arm extends up and his left arm extends down with limited movement in his left arm which is unfortunate because he is left handed. The idea behind allowing him to hold both his right and left hand is to make a connection with his brain to move both arms and hands up and relax to go down.

3/16/12 Shopping at Ross....AJ loved shopping at Ross before the accident, so I wanted to give him some kind of normalcy in his life....so we went shopping at Ross. I told him I know you can pick out your clothes, blink, smile, point with your head, whatever, and he did. He picked out his own clothes.

First, I held up a collard shirt that I was sure was not his style and he smiled. I said, "Your smiling, do you like this shirt and want it?" he stared at the shirt for a while and his head went from side to side and then lipped the word "no."  I then held up a black shirt with skeletons on it, and asked him if he wanted this shirt, to test him to see if he really understood the concept of picking out his own shirt. He hesitated and seemed embarrassed to let me know that he wanted this shirt and that he liked it...he paused, then his head went from side to side and he lipped the word "yes"....it was on, shopping had commenced.....then his friend, who is like a sister to him showed up with her kids. He hadn't met the baby yet, but he recognized them....and he cried, really cried for the first time. It was a wonderful day out shopping with old friends

3/16/12 transported to Ross

Met up with his friends at Ross

It was a good day!