Update #29

Today, Ryan had a one-on-one session with physical therapy. These sessions give the therapists time to see what Ryan can do without his loved-one's coaching. They also like to use these sessions to create trust between Ryan and the therapists. The physical therapist said he did really well.

Physical therapy was followed by a co-treat with occupational therapy and kinesiotherapy. They said that they had a good session with Ryan, but that physical therapy had worn him out.

Speech therapy came in today. They did some fun tongue exercises with Ryan. This will help later when they work with Ryan on forming words. They also held up two objects and asked Ryan to pick one of them. So, for example, they held up a butter knife and a pencil and asked him to point to the pencil. They did this 10 times with different objects and Ryan got all ten correct. After this, they held up three objects at a time and asked him to pick one of the three. He also got all of those correct.

They requested that he vocalize (make an "ah" sound) on command five times. He only vocalized three times. But, that's not bad. That was their goal.

They were so impressed with his progress that they jumped ahead in their testing. They held up a card with the phrase "close your eyes" written on it. They asked him to read the card and do what was written. He read the card and then closed his eyes. They also held up a card with the phrase "wave goodbye" on it and he did that.

Ryan has indicated (using one finger for "yes" and two for "no") that he is seeing blurry and has double vision. This is very common with his type of injury. He will often close one eye in an attempt to see better. The doctor is confident that in time, this will get better. They may have to patch one eye or the other temporarily to build strength.

They took him down for an MRI this afternoon. They let me go with him to hold his hand and keep him calm and still. Before he left for the day, Ryan's doctor poked his head in the room and said that he had looked at the MRI results. He confirmed what we already knew--that Ryan has a diffuse axonal injury. Feel free to click on the link and learn more about it. (Don't be put off by Wikipedia's dreary explanation. Ryan's injury is much milder than what they describe.) Basically, it just means that the injury to the brain is not focused in one area alone, but all over the brain. This is due to the high velocity impact. He basically has "whiplash" of the brain.

Only time will tell how much Ryan will recover. But, judging by his progress so far, I am confident that Ryan will have a spectacular recovery.

Keep on praying and thinking positive thoughts. And, if you get a chance, send a card and picture our way. You'll find the contact information to the facility under the "Contact Us" section on the left of this site. :)