Friday July 3

At Triumph, John has a variety of physicians and therapists working with him. Today, the speech therapists were in to see him and used a technique that was so brilliant in it's simplicity! They had flash cards with pictures of a variety of items and held them up and John would say what they were. This was an incredible moment because it strengthened what we already knew which is that John is able to see these items and verbalize what they are. Also, Holly was reading a greeting card to him and she would read a line and stop and he would fill in a word or two here and there which was really exciting to see. They left the flashcards in the room and Holly has been working with him using them throughout the day.

John had dialysis today. This kidney issue is one that we have been dealing with since the beginning of John's hospitalization. They don't seem to get worse but they also do not seem to improve markedly. We continue to hope along with his other achievements and advancements that his kidneys will heal and begin to function normally once again. The good news is that they seem to be heading in the right direction and for the first time, his BUN (or blood urea nitrogen) level was normal. The longer this level stays normal or close to normal, the less he will need dialysis and the hope is that at some point he won't need dialysis at all.