Week 13

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!  We are truly grateful for your prayers and thoughts through out Daniel's journey!  Here is an update on Daniel's progress.  Daniel finished his last two therapy sessions on Thursday December 29.  His speech and physical therapists are giving evaluation reports to his neuroscience.  He will have a follow up the middle of January.  In the meantime he has been given a routine exercise program so he can continue to build stamina and speech therapy lessons to continue with at home.  Daniel is doing remarkably well.  He indicates that he enjoys his naps due to the fact he gets tired throughout the day.  Daniel has always stated since he woke up that his feet are cold.  They are still cold and when he takes a shower his feet feel like they are burning.  This is one of the topics we will be asking about with his neuroscience doctor.  Daniel now has his glasses for distance and although he says "I don't need these", his parents find it funny when he is watching TV or reading signs in the car while wearing his glasses.  We will make comments like "Oh you can see better can't you".  Daniel's tracheotomy hole is still healing.  It continues to ooze as it is not completely healed.  BIG NEWS, Daniel's neuroscience doctors has given him permission to ski with Dad.  Dad is grateful it has been a mild winter, cause I'm a nervous wreck.  However, we went skiing for the first time together Tuesday December 27.  He is absolutely not allowed to do any jumps, tricks and rails (or anything else).   Helmet is required.  Daniel and I had a great time together but you could tell Daniel was very fatigued.  Daniel has also gained five pounds from his original loss of 23 pounds.  He is very excited about this as he continues his physical exercise routines.

Week 10 1/2

Life in the Busick home has been a little hectic, hence the lack of blogs.  Daniel's grandma (my mother) passed away the end of November and funeral arrangements took priority, as a trip to New York was arranged for the services.  We would like to give you an update on Daniel's progress to go along with your continued thoughts and prayers for him.  Since Daniel's trach was removed he has had to have the scar tissue cut back as it continues to grow and ooze.  Daniel continues with speech and physical therapy everyday.  Last night Dad and Daniel worked on push ups, Daniel was able to do five.  He is weak but strives to build stamina and strength.  He is progressing well!  As he continues to heal we are discovering things he is still unsure of.  For example the other day he wasn't sure what eye glass frames were.    After a visit to the eye doctor we learned Daniel will need glasses.  These will be for distance when he is allowed/able to drive.  We are not sure if this is because of the accident.  Everyday brings something new and much more progress.
From Daniel's brain injury the doctors indicated two things we should watch for that will affect his personality, anger flare ups and lack of self motivation.  We have not seen slight if any anger issues in Daniel (thats good).  However Daniel has indicated he is finding it hard to get out of bed in the mornings.  He just wants to stay there as long as possible and doesn't have much desire to do anything.  We along with his speech and physical therapy are working on helping Daniel to get his self motivation back.   We are all watching the miracle.

Week 8

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!!  We have much to be thankful for this thanksgiving day.  Daniel finished up on Monday with his last therapy evaluation.  Wednesday was his last occupational therapy session for this year.  They will be focusing on speech and physical therapy.  Couple of things we have noticed in Daniels recovery is he seems to get frustrated (a little upset) in planning for activities that involve preparation.  He states "why do we have to do this?"  Then we notice he disappears into the living room or family room and is found in a chair reading a book.  It appears to be the same response with his speech therapy assignments.  He gets frustrated after a short period of time (10-15 minutes).   We are also noticing and working with Daniel along with speech therapy on objects.  We noticed at the dinner table when asked what a particular vegetable was, he couldn't remember.  It was broccoli.  Daniel is slowly getting stronger as he continues to exercise.  Physical therapy will be focusing on extended balance and endurance.  We are thankful for his continued improvements and for your continued prayers on his behalf.  He is doing wonderful!  We're all watching the miracle.

Week 7 Part 2

Daniel's had an exciting week.  On Wednesday Daniel got his feeding tube (peg) removed.  YEAH! He said it was very painful when they took it out and it hurts every time he moves his stomach, sitting in a chair, standing back up, moving side to side, etc.  Thursday appointment day for the neurologist.  We have been waiting for this.  As he meet with the doctor and the doctor reviewed his records, and had Daniel tell him what happened with his brain trauma accident, the doctor was AMAZED at Daniel's recovery.  He did an evaluation on Daniel's current status and set him up for physical, occupational and speech therapy.  He indicated that speech (connecting the dots/recognition/word association) therapy would be the most needed but will be reviewed after the therapist evaluation of Daniel.   Friday he went to speech and physical therapy.  Monday he set up for occupational therapy.  After the evaluation from the neurologist therapy, schedules will be set up daily and weekly.  In speech therapy their focus for the upcoming week at home for Daniel is to manage his own schedule.  Time he gets up, appointments throughout the day, where he needs to be without parents and or others reminding him to get ready, to be on time from his schedule.  This is very important as Daniel retrains his brain on daily events.  In physical therapy their focus at home for Daniel is regular exercise, light to moderate weight lifting to build his muscles and stamina back up.

Week 7

We got the results for the blood work from last Tuesday's doctors visit.  All of his levels are in line.  Potassium levels are perfect, so no more potassium pills.  On Friday he went back to the doctor and took a balance test.  He passed with no concerns from the doctor.  The only recommendation that was made is that he doesn't walk backwards or turn quickly without being supervised.  He is walking and able to talk with full sentences.  He is still doing his two 10 min walks a day on the treadmill.  He is climbing stairs eight to ten times a day.  The things we are working on is occupational therapy mostly, he is doing good physically.  Things we are working on with him for occupation therapy is recognizing objects and saying what they are.  For example showing him a grapefruit, he didn't know what it was.  Asked him to get a hammer that was laying on the ground with a few other tools.  He picked up the hammer and said, "I think this is it."  So we are working on the thought process of what objects are.  This isn't with everything, some things he can tell you what they are with no problem.  He looks at a clock and you can see him trying to tell what time it is but just can't get it.   BUT he can read words like there's no tomorrow.  You show him the word grapefruit and he can read it.  Show him the word hammer, clock or any other word and he can read it.  He is reading an hour a day.  So occupational and speech therapy is helping him in the connecting process.  We are looking forward to our consolation on Thursday the 17th to start therapy.  Daniel has said that there are three things that bother him most of the time throughout the day.  Daniel stated, "My eyes seem always tired and it hurts moving them side to side", "Can't think as clearly and I'm not as strong as I used to be" and "Today was the first day I woke up without a dry mouth".  All part of the healing process.

Week 6

We have been extremely excited about having Daniel come home.  We need to update everyone on how he has been doing this week.  Tuesday was a doctors visit to get blood drawn, to see how his potassium levels are etc. Waiting for test results. Re-Hab consultation is set up for next Thursday, Nov. 17th. In the mean time we have been doing physical therapy and occupational therapy at home.  Occupational therapy has consisted of reading, identifying objects or items to their name, and putting puzzles together.  Physical therapy consists of walking on the treadmill for 10 min a day, walking up and down stairs, and push-ups.  The first day he was able to do half a push-up, the second day this week he did 2 push-ups, and the 3rd day he almost did 4.  Today we increased his walks on the treadmill to twice a day for 10 min each.  Daniels glucose levels have been getting back in line.  We look forward to early next week when he can get his gut feeding tube out.  It has caused a couple of sleepless nights due to discomfort. Daniel has indicated that he is tired and cold most of the time.  When he sits down on a hard chair he uses a pillow because it hurts his back.  The bottom of his heals have been hurting from walking.  All of this is part of the process of building his body back into normal routine.  Thank you for your continued prayers, we still have a ways to go.

Day 37: November 6, 2011

Daniel is so excited to be at home and in his own bed.  We will be setting up therapy this week to continue rehab.  We have talked with Daniel about the past month and he doesn't remember anything from when he was in ICU.  He doesn't remember everything from rehab either and somethings are just not very clear.   We look forward to his continued progress in the months ahead.