Catchin Up

I slept at the hospital last night. It's hard to sleep here. They moved Garren to a different room a couple of days ago, and now we are not right behind the nurses' station. It's quieter now, but we also see less of the nursing staff. Which means when Garren's oxygen alarm beeps in the middle of the night, we end up being the ones to get up and take care of Garren, since the nurses can't hear it. I think I got up 4 times last night.

Garren is doing amazing. He sleeps very well. He doesn't even hear the alarm, or anything else. His therapies are going great! He has walked up to 150 feet at one time using the walker and some help with balance. His hips and core are getting stronger. His steps are getting straighter. His left shoulder is weaker, and he tends to drop it forward when he is concentrating on something else. They are working on strengthening that shoulder, and we can already see a difference.

Yesterday Garren was able to get himself from his bed into his wheelchair with very little assistance. He sat up, scooted over to the edge of the bed, reached over for the arm of the chair, and slid off the bed into the chair. Simply amazing.

Tomorrow at 8:30am Garren goes for another swallow test. Things are looking very positive. If he passes the test, they will begin vital stim. Garren is very excited about the test!

Yesterday we spend 3 hours with a team of people form Union County Schools. They were working on his IEP - which is basically the plan to make sure Garren has what he needs to go back to school in the fall. All the tests and evaluations that Garren went through a month or so ago were presented in the meeting. It was like reading a history book. They described what Garren was like a month ago, but it certainly isn't what he is like now. Everyone understands that when school starts in August, Garren's needs will have completely changed.

Garren is communicating much more with his voice now. We use the alphabet card much less than before. He's still full of wise cracks. It's fun to be able to have a conversation, though slow at times.

Well, I leave for Haiti in the morning. It's always hard to be away from the family, but being away now will be even harder. I won't see Garren for 5 days, so the changes will be amazing. Thanks for continuing to pray for Garren, and for our family.