The last month... Monday - September 25, 2017

WOW... the last month has been challenging, amazing, frightening, and incredible... many tears, many prayers, and many daily miracles.  God has been good to our family - and to Blair!  I cannot believe it's been a month.  Blair was brought into Hershey Medical center in a completely unresponsive state ... now he can walk (with help), talk (despite the tracheotomy tube), laugh (with coughing), hug, kiss, give orders, work hard at rehabilitating, and even look to his future!

I cannot express how grateful to God I am for his recovery and his future.  It may not look like he thought it was going to look (or any of us thought it would look) - but God knew this was going to happen; God knew what He had planned for Blair's life from before he was born.  Now, Blair is on a journey to discover that future... one day at a time... one choice at a time.

Monday Blair worked hard in physical therapy - he walked the hallway with the assistance of a walker and his sister (and the physical therapist).  It was tiring... but he did it!

He ate lunch (pureed food) in speech therapy; they didn't change the valve on his tracheotomy tube (we are hoping for tomorrow!) - but most importantly he is allowed to eat (only pureed food for now) with supervision.  I believe he is looking forward to eating food with texture - but for now - this will have to do.  He can have 3 meals a day with supervision (I cannot imagine what various items will look like after going through a blender - but the taste is what is important!).

He continues to use his iPhone and face-time with his sister and text/snap chat his friends.  When I arrived last evening he said he was about to text me to see where I was.  ha ha... he is keeping track of my schedule better than I am!  :)   Gotta love him!

He still has the eye patch that he is to alter every fifteen minutes and he has his mom's reading glasses to wear to see his phone better.

He had some visitor's last night - and they allowed him to have a family member and two friends in the room at one time.  It was nice to meet a few of his friends and listen to him reminisce with them about things that he remembers that were funny and silly. We all need friends and memories to keep us going when life gets hard.  Everyone is doing really well with the 2 friends visiting at a time - and I appreciate that.  Blair would love to have 20 people in his room - but he would get confused - and overwhelmed.  You wouldn't see it ... because he is so social... but it wouldn't be good for progress & he absolutely wants to keep making progress!  So THANKS for organizing and keeping to two at a time!!  Again - NO ONE is restricted - we just want to keep it calm and relaxing for him.

I do have to note that he is 'toileting' on his own.  He does have to transfer to a wheelchair, be pushed to the bathroom, and transfer to the toilet... so it's a little more work than a typical person experiences. If you visit and he's in the bathroom - no worries - he will come out shortly (or talk through the door). He is keeping a good sense of humor about the whole thing - which is great - because some other 'full time guests' (patients) of the rehab do NOT have such a sense of humor and the nurses put up with a lot.

Thank you for your prayers.  Blair appreciates them!  I appreciate them!  Our entire family could not make this journey alone.  God bless you!