Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

Christa had to leave us this morning, so we went over early to see David, so she could say goodbye. Patty took her to the San Jose airport while I hung out with David through his therapies.

Se, his physical therapist, stretched his legs out and then had him lift his left leg (bad one) from a lying position, and I was amazed at how high he was raising it. She made him repeat it 15 times, and on the last one she made him hold it for a period of time. He did really well. I was exited because I felt like if he had the strength to do that then he would definitely be able to walk on his own. Then she had him repeat a standing and sitting type of exercise that really worked out his ‘quads’ and will help him to stand up by himself. It was a pretty hard work out, but David was focused and pushed himself until the end. I have to hand it to Se; she is very encouraging, sweet, nice, understanding, and a tough ‘coach’.

I’m of course concerned about David’s left arm and hand, which show almost no movement. Bill, our caseworker, told me that they had a guy with similar symptoms to David’s, and now he has full use of his ‘bad’ arm. Sometimes you just need to hear stories like that to give you faith. I know that our God is bigger than David’s arm problems. He made David’s arm so he can surely heal it.

Our friends Maggie (I think she is Patty’s twin from a former life) and April, and her daughter, (and David’s friend), Katie, arrived tonight. We ate with David (kinda) and visited afterwards. We watched the video that David’s Air Force co-workers made again, and each time we learn new things about his ‘Turkey’ friends. David was sleepy, but we had fun, and we (not David) continued our fun at the Fisher House, as we played games until all hours of the night.

We learned from the ‘vision’ people that David’s field of vision is improving, and that we need to encourage him to turn his head from left to right to really see everything. His mind wants to ignore the left side especially, so we need to train it to “pay attention”.

Doctor Scott met with us informally over dinner (with our friends) and informed us that another drug was being removed from David’s ‘arsenal’ of drugs. In a day or two its effects should be out of his system, and we might notice some difference in his alertness. Hopefully it will be a positive step. That leaves only one drug that ‘sedates’, but it is not very powerful.

As always, we love your concern and prayers.

Steve