Jaxon got admitted to the inpatient therapy floor last Friday night. Since then he's been getting a boot camp type schedule involving PT, OT and Speech Therapy. Week days consist of three hours of therapy in the morning, 1.5 hours of therapy in the afternoon. He only has two hours for his nap and lunch, which we've learned quickly isn't enough, he gets tired easily, but managing his new rigorous schedule well. Weekends and Holidays are a little lighter schedule, but he's working 7 days a week.
Jaxon is fighting every day to get the left side strength back. We're starting to see improvments here, but what we're amazed by is his congnitive ability. In that respect, he's already surpassed his baseline. For those of you who know Jaxon, he doesn't have much of a vocabulary yet, other than No and an occasional Hi and Bye. This week in speech, he impressed his therapist with a Moo, Neh and Rawr when pointing at the correct animals. He's doing more mimicking, he now enjoys a plethora of high fives, fist bumps and will blow anyone a kiss on command. It's truly remarkable to see the strides he's making every day.
When we were on the Neuro floor, we were in a huge single room with a good view. In-Patient therapy isn't so glamourous... we are in a smaller room and all rooms are shared with another patient. His roomate is a 14 year old girl from Philly who suffered a tramatic brain injury. Gigi was on her way to school in September where she got in to a car accident, her parents have been by her side in the hospital ever since. Gigi has been able to wave and give us thumbs up throughout the days, but she's still on a feeding tube and learning to get her strength and speech back every day, just like Jaxon. It's tough to see 15-20 kids everyday in therapy, but this floor is filled with fighters.
I won't sugar coat it, the shared room isn't easy. There's only one bathroom and the beds are seperated by a thin curtain. That said, I don't think Jaxon cares, mom and dad are settling in ok. Another surpise we received this week was our tentative discharge date... "I'm sorry, did you say December 29th?!" Initially, this was hard to stomach for us, but the more progress we can make for Jaxon right now, the better outcome he'll have long term. We've had a good balance of visitors including Jaxon's aunts, uncles, and grand parents. They will monitor Jaxon's progress every day and discuss our discharge date with the whole team on a weekly basis, it can change depending on Jaxon's progress. For now, it's day by day, one step at a time.
Thankful we're past surgery with no major complications. Thankful that Jaxon wakes up every day with a smile. Thankful for all our visitors helping us with Jaxon's progress. Thankful for Jaxon's medical and therapy teams.
Happy Thanksgiving all, much love from Philly!!
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