Home Sweet Home

It has been a great week, very good for Josh. He has been so happy spending time with family and friends. It was great to spend the week with my mom at her house. Josh spent time swapping hospital stories with my step dad, it was good for him to talk with someone who understands what he is going through. As great of a week as it was we were both so happy to get back home. We have one more day to enjoy before the week of appointments starts back up. It has been nice to have a break, but Josh has actually been more sore than when he is doing his therapies. I think moving around less made it harder for him. He was telling me on the way home today that he gets what the neuro doc was saying about wanting to make sure that he is ready when he goes back to work. He went out in the shop before we left and tried to do some airbrushing and it was harder for him than he thought it would be. I don't think he understood until he tried it out for himself. He will get there he just needs time for his brain to heal. I can see improvements regularly, but I can really see how it affects him when he is tired, just by how he talks and what he says. He is doing really well with his wound, I can't wait to go back to the wound clinic this week, I hope I have been doing a good job taking care of it. I feel like it is getting smaller but I am not sure, they will measure it to see. It will be so nice when it is all healed up, less appointments and less me having to jab him with the little stick thing. Moving forward every day!
I want to thank everyone who has made this a great holiday season for us. I am so looking forward to a new year. It has been a difficult year with Asher having his appendix rupture and his surgery and hospital stay and then with Josh's ordeal. I am blessed that they are both still here, I thank God that they are. I wish everyone a Happy New Year, much love, Denise

Visiting

It was so good to see everyone who was able to stop by last night to see Josh, it was super good for Josh. He really has improved so much that just by looking at him it is hard to tell that he had anything wrong. If you see him move around or walk at all you can tell he is still recovering. He was really happy to see everyone and it lifted his spirits so much. This trip has been really good for him. I haven't posted any pictures because some of them are not very pretty, but I think it would be good to share a few of them that show the different stages he has gone through. I won't share some of them just because some people really would not like to see them, but they have been good for Josh to see. He needed to see how far he has come and how well he is doing, I still have to remind him now and then. I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday and I pray that all who are sick will get well soon, love to all, Denise

Day 2~ Swollen

Lots of tubes~ swollen belly

Still very swollen and on tons of meds

Less swollen and he still has nice hair!

First time off the vent, getting his hair washed.
Talking but very drugged and silly.

Not breathing so well, just before the vent was put back in.

First time sitting up~ pretty loopy~ still in ICU

No vent~first hair cut~still in ICU and heavily medicated

Ride to SLC~ barley remembers~first day out of ICU after 4 weeks and one day.

LDS Hospital~ starting to remember more.

LDS Hospital~ starting therapy

I am missing pictures of therapy in the hospital here in St George, but
here is his out patient therapy~walking yay!

Thanks so much to all of his care takers, they have all be amazing!

Christmas eve

This week has been busy, I am so happy to have it come to an end. It feels like we are on vacation! No appointments until next year, yay!!! This week one of our many appointments was with Dr. Kockler who did the neuro testing right after Josh was released from the hospital. Lets just say that Josh was very unhappy when the doc said that it would be awhile before he would be able to go back to work. He pretty much threw a fit, and it the end the doc said that he would see how he was doing at the end of January and consider letting him start back on a very modified schedule. The doc did say that he thought it was time to let Josh take the driving evaluation and if he passes he can get his privileges back, that made him very happy. The doctor said that he believes that Josh will recover quite well from his TBI (traumatic brain injury) it will just take time, the brain heals much slower than the body. To be honest I don't know where he would fit work in with the schedule of appointments he has right now. Some days he has 4 different appointments and by the time he gets home he takes about a 3 hour nap. The fatigue is somewhat related to the TBI, but even I am tired from going all of the time. I think he needs to just take it week by week, he still has a long road ahead of him. He gets frustrated looking at his progress on a daily bases, but I told him to look back at just a month ago, he has come so far in such a short time. Even week to week he improves a lot, he picked up Asher for the first time this week and he has been out to his shop by himself, doctor approved even! That was one thing the neuro doc said as well, he is approved to use the power tools! One thing at a time......

Today has been spent watching movies in our pj's and just hanging out, so very nice. The Smurf's movie was actually cute, for a watch with the kids kind of movie. They are watching Harry Potter now and I have not seen the one before so I will wait. Josh had no desire to see it so he went out to the shop and even Asher said "no Harry Potter", but that is ok it's almost nap time. I can't wait for our family party tonight and for Christmas in the morning. It will be different to go to church before opening presents, but I am excited for the hour we will spend with our ward family learning about Christ and feeling his spirit on Christmas. Brayd will be speaking in our meeting tomorrow, I love to hear from any of our youth and especially when it's one of my own. He is much braver than me thank goodness. I hope that we can all feel the love that Christ has for us as we celebrate him tomorrow. I am so very thankful for the blessings he has brought to my life this year. I could not have made it without the strength he has given me, and the angels he has surrounded my family with, thank you so much everyone and a very Merry Christmas to all, may God bless each and everyone, Love Denise

Healing

Josh is done with the wound vac for good, he is super happy about that. His wound is healing slowly, but it is healing. He now only has to go into the wound clinic twice a week, I have to change the dressing every day that we don't go. I really hope it heals soon, they said it could be another 3 weeks. One less appointment is good. Yesterday he had 4 appointments, he was really worn out after. PT, OT, ST and wound care, it was a long day. The rest of our week is busy with more appointments, but next week we get to have a break while we are in Salt Lake. It will be nice to be able to slow down a bit. I will have to keep him busy though we don't want him falling behind. His therapist recommended he try hop scotch, to bad that is an out door activity, maybe when we get back. I am afraid we are going to freeze in Salt Lake, mostly Josh he is always cold now. It will be nice to visit everyone we don't get to see very often.

Josh told me last night that he is worried he won't be the same, I told him he won't be the same, but the changes will be ok. He has been through a lot and it has changed him. I think he will be close to what he was physically, it is just going to take time. He is worried about his left side, I had to remind him that he didn't even move his arm for the first 5 weeks and that it is doing much better than the doctor thought it would be doing at this point. I can see an improvement every week, he can do just a little more than he could before. He is not very patient and he gets down a little because he wants to be better than he is. He has been having a lot of pain in his left shoulder the last week or so as they work it out in PT. I really hope this is short term as it is healing. He was down yesterday so I got him a peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks, I don't like going there cause they are so expensive but he needed cheering up and he loves them. I wish there was more I could do to help him. He will enjoy seeing his friends and family over the holidays, I just hope the drive doesn't wear him out to much, his tail bone gets very sore when he sits long.

Over the weekend we took Josh to see Footloose. It came out just after his accident and he had said that he wanted to see it, so we waited until he could go. It sounds silly but it was something that we just couldn't do without him. Thanks Mower friends for waiting with me! We were lucky to catch it at the dollar show, I thought we had missed it. As I sat there with him I was reminded of all that we had been through to make it this far. We are blessed, love to all who have helped us get here, Denise

Secrets

It's that time of year isn't it? When it's ok to keep secrets? Well today I kept one as long as I could, and it was for a really good reason. You see right before Josh left the ICU he had to have an MRI, he didn't know what was going on, he was awake but in a bit of a dream like state. He said he felt like they were putting him in a hole in the wall and they kept chiseling at it to make him fit. It took me awhile to figure out he was talking about the MRI, he was still a little out of it when he first started talking about it. So when the neurologist ordered another one for his brain, he was not very happy. I scheduled it when he wasn't with me and I just kept it to myself knowing how he felt about it. So today we went to his work Christmas lunch which was really nice, I felt a little bad because I was the only non-employee there. Anyway he had some really nice visits with some friends and in the meantime I was watching the clock and had to tell him once it got to be about twenty minutes until his appointment. It was probably good I waited, he wasn't happy and he made some fuss about it. I even heard him down the hall after they took him back telling the girl that they shoved him in a hole in the wall the last time! Silly, they really are not that bad, if you are not already traumatized.
Things have been going well, he is still without the wound vac and we will find out in the morning if he can keep it off. We are busy as ever with appointments, most of the time he gets home and crawls right in bed. He is working hard and improving, he is always sore from therapy which is good, it means it is working. We finally got the Christmas tree up, and some decorations out thanks to the kids. I dug it out for them, but they have been happy to help decorate. It is hard to find the time to get done all I want and need to do each day. I am looking forward to having a break after Christmas, for one week we will get to slow down and enjoy friends and family. I am truly grateful for all that I have and for the help and love that we have received. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this year, love to all, Denise

Trial

On Friday at the wound clinic Josh talked them into letting him have a break from the wound vac. He still has a hole but it is not to deep anymore and it was not draining to much, so they said they will give it a week and see how he is doing. He is happy to be free from the wound vac. With the wound vac off he has to have his dressing changed every day. So they taught me how to change it......not the funnest thing I have ever done. I have to poke some mesalt, a thin strip of material down in the hole. Kinda creepy, still we hope to keep the wound vac off. Josh had a good weekend, we were busy with Christmas parties and he had a good time. He talked so much on Friday night that his voice was hoarse the next morning. He got pretty worn out and by Sunday afternoon he spent most of it sleeping.

Today starts another round of appointments, he has 3 today. He will start his speech therapy tomorrow, which will help with the brain injury. They call it speech therapy but they spend time working with his brain. It is a full time job keeping up with his appointments, it will be nice to have a break the week after Christmas. We will be going to Salt Lake to see family for the holidays. Josh's sister Kasey has reserved the church on that Tuesday for family and friends to come see him. I will post the details as soon as I get them. This month is flying by, we have yet to put up the tree, maybe tonight. Christmas will be here before we know it! Well Josh will be done with OT here in a minute and then we will have a break for lunch before our next appointment so I better start looking through our coupons for lunch. I hope that everyone is enjoying this special time of year, love to all, Denise

Dr.'s Remarks

Josh had follow up appointments today with two different doctors. First was with the neurologist, he was pleased with the way Josh's arm is healing. He said that it will take some time for the nerves in his arm to grow all of the way back, they grow at a rate of one inch per month. He also wants Josh to have an MRI of his head and c-spine to find out more about his brain injury and his neck. He will go back to see him in a month. He also saw the surgeon Dr Miller, he was very happy with the way Josh is recovering. We talked about some things to watch for in the future and he released him from his care. In between those appointments he had PT and they had him doing things I bet he didn't know he could do. They had him working on his strength on his whole left side. They put straps around his waist and had him bounce on a little trampoline, he had to hop back and forth, they had him jog down the hall and he even skipped. He can't get his feet to far off the ground yet but he got the motions. He is very sore tonight. In between all of that we went to the DMV to get his free parking window hanger, it doesn't seem right to call it a handicap for him, but only for a little while. It comes in handy at the PT building, I think they have more handicap parking than they do regular parking!

It has been a very busy week, the only thing we have left as far as appointments is a wound care in the morning. Over the weekend we have two Christmas parties, it will be good for Josh to be around people. I hope we are all able to catch some Christmas spirit. I was able to move my shelves out of Josh's shop tonight. Thanks to my Dad for helping me get my garage painted and for bringing paint, paper, tape and Shirley to help . It looks so nice, I almost don't want to put anything back in it! I hope now that Josh will have the space he needs to get his drums set up and be able to start playing. It will be a good project for Brayd to help him with. Josh's mood has been good today, he has been positive, I think hearing the doctors tell him good things helped a lot. I know he thinks about the long term affects and where he will be when he is healed as much as he is going to be. It has been said many times that it will be a year before he gets to that point. In the meantime he will work hard to get to that point. Thanks to everyone who has helped him on his journey so far, much love, Denise