Parker's Promise

We had a delightful Christmas home with Parker.  What a blessing to be home and together as a family.  We put Parker in his high chair where he was up and could see all of the festivities.  The kids were so cute and thoughtful.  After they had opened all of the surprises in their stockings, almost as one they went over to Parker's stocking and brought all of his toys and stocking gifts over to him in his high chair and gave him his gifts.  He was happy as a clam to watch and chew on all of his delightful vibrating toys.

I have been a little discouraged with how much he regressed with the g-tube surgery.  It was 3 weeks ago. I am finally starting to feel better, though. This past week he is starting to get back to where he was before the surgery and the past few days he has started to recover new ground in some areas.  Today in church he kept dropping a toy over the bench for the kind person in front of us to pick up.  I realized "It's a game!!! He has finally gotten to the stage of dropping toys on purpose for a game!!!" It is amazing the things you are grateful for and don't take for granted the second time around.

Today I was working on him with rolling on the ground. I take his ankles and flip him to his belly to see what he does and today he totally got his left arm out from being pinned.  We are still working on that right hand.  He is moving it more, but just does not have the strength in it yet.  He can now feed himself with his left and pick up pieces of bread, cheerios and M&Ms in his left fingers and put them in his mouth.  That is huge!

We think his vision is improving as well.  You can't necessarily see it from the pictures I've posted, but his eyes have not been going in the same direction since his accident and the swelling.  They are starting to come together more and more now and his vision is really improving.  He used to not "look" at all and would reach for things only by feeling them and following our arm to get to our hand.  Now if I hold something out in front of him he will reach out and grab it without feeling for it.  He will hold our gaze for longer and just "look" soooooo much better.  We have an appointment to follow up with ophthalmology in a couple of months. His eyes should be fine, it is just the processing in the brain that needs to reconnect.

Please continue to pray that his right side will improve.  It is very slowly improving, but slowly.  It is very much a few steps forward and a few steps back.  Some days he will put weight on it, then the next he won't.  The very first game I played with his left hand in the PICU was to tickle his tummy and say "Come get me" and he would move his left hand to come find my hand by feel.  He became a total pro at that and his dexterity in his left has improved so much.  This week I pinned his left arm and played that game with his right and for the first time he moved his right hand towards me, although he couldn't make it all the way to grab my hand, he got so close.  That is HUGE!!!  Also, normally I have to pry his right hand open to put a toy in it before he clenches is again.  Today I put a toy in his right and he grasped it himself.  These are tiny things, but so huge. Please pray that his right  side will continue to awaken and improve.

We meet with the Neurosurgery team in a week to schedule when to put the bone back in.  His head swelled so much with the g-tube surgery I completely understand why they have to have it sunken in as much as possible.  Please pray the swelling will go completely down soon and that there will be no complications with the bone flap surgery.  Please.

It is such a blessing that they were able to get his therapy evaluations done so quickly.  His therapies are already approved and scheduled-even with the holdiays.  Time is of the essence.  He has a window of time to improve as much as possible- which is also why I have been so worried about the regression from the surgery.  After talking to his rehab NP this week I realize that window is bigger than I thought, but it is still sooooooo important he can make those new connections in his brain as much and quickly as possible. Yesterday we went down to Old Town and the Mormon Battalion.  We were talking to one of the missionaries there and she said that she was in a car accident when she was 5.  She had a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury).  She was in a coma for a few months and then inpatient therapy for 5 more months and now she is doing great.  I am so encouraged by the people I meet that have sustained a TBI and have recovered so fully.  We have a long way to go, but he is on a great trajectory.  Please keep him in your prayers.  It means so much.