Thursday July 16

Over the next few days, John will continue to go to therapy sessions and meeting with specialists who know how to deal with specific aspects of his injuries. He has a team of specialists who do rounds each day and one to two times per week they do family rounds which allow family members to ask any and all questions which might have arisen throughout the previous days. There are nurses and technicians on John's floor at all times who help with medication administration, make sure he eats in the event that one of us is not present, and transferring him from bed to his wheelchair and back or help clean him in between showers. John gets a shower every other day (odd numbered days) and the first time this happened he was absolutely delighted. A sponge bath works in critical situations but there is nothing better than having a shower and getting fully clean. We took the liberty early on of bringing in some fantastic smelling soaps, a really good razor and his vanity does look a bit like Bed Bath and Beyond and I'm pretty sure he is the best smelling patient TIRR has ever seen!


NOTE: Read this entire section before looking at photos!!!
Holly and I were at TIRR on Sunday and took a couple of photos of us with John outside. I took some photos of them and asked him to smile and he was such a ham for the camera and it reminded me of a photo I received from his friends, Eddie and Sonja Hopkin. They had sent a photo early on of John making a crazy face. I held this photo until now and it seems perfectly appropriate as you look at these photos and realize John continues to do the same now! I thought the similarities were too obvious to not pass along. I must stress that the first two were taken many months ago!



Holly took a couple of me and John as well and I didn't say anything...we just took a picture together which looks oh so similar to my graduation photo (posted earlier in the blog) without my goofy hat! It is obvious to me that John will always do everything possible to make others laugh and be happy.



As i mentioned earlier in the blog, John has began wanting to feed himself so I felt obliged to include two photos which I took while sitting with him at lunch. I should mention that although I placed the towel across his shirt because he had therapy immediately after lunch, he did not spill one drop! I should also mention that I had selected his meal for this and several subsequent days and although it doesn't look like much, his food smells and tastes great (tried it myself!). It is hard picking meals for someone else but I just picked what I might like and hoped for the best and Holly and Paulette do the same. The menu usually provides for two entree selections of which you pick one, and sometimes it's tough to decide but pretty soon, we will be able to ask him what he wants to eat. So far, regardless of what we have picked, he has failed to finish his entire meal.


I will continue to provide as much information and as many photographs as TIRR will allow. Holly started back to work today so her time with John will be more limited but she remains close in proximity to TIRR as does his mom. His current schedule is grueling and John is wanting to challenge himself at each step. We continue to watch in amazement at his trials and tribulations but remain amazed at his daily successes.