Dear family and friends
Today was a busy day.
Regina went to the hospital to set dynamite under Grayson so that he wouldn't miss any more therapy by sleeping in. It took her a full hour to get him alert, but unlike the staff, she wouldn't take, "No" for an answer! He was showered, dressed, and ready to go when speech therapy arrived. He answered increasingly more complex questions for the therapist, and she was impressed with his progress. The coup de grace was when he was allowed to eat. Today he ate applesauce and drank thickened orange juice. What a treat!! Today we were trained, and we are now allowed to feed him a few select items to help him develop the swallow reflexes and to make sure that he does not aspirate his food. This evening Regina got him some vanilla custard. When I asked him what he was eating, he said, "Crème brulée!" You know, after all this time, that custard cup probably did have the taste of the finest food ever prepared. The fact that he called it crème brulée, tells me that he still has a lot of good things banging around in that head of his!
During physical therapy, Grayson was heading down the elevator with his therapist to some undetermined location. Regina took this moment to take her leave so she could join me on our field trip to the other rehab facility this afternoon. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what adventures they had.
This evening, Grayson's brother and a four of Grayson's other friends and former co-workers from USC's Bovard Auditorium paid a visit. He was again thrilled to have so much attention. Tonight he actually mumbled some understandable phrases in his conversation. My favorite was, "You guys have no idea what I'm saying." All of us laughed loudly, including Grayson, and we applauded his continued efforts to speak clearly.
As I mentioned earlier, we visited the other rehab facility today. It too is a fine facility with a good reputation and track record. It also has the distinct advantage of being "in network", offering an order of magnitude lower cost over the projected stay. We still have more questions to get answered, more prayers to offer, and more soul searching before we can choose, but we will need to make a decision within a few days.
Can you believe that it has been 9 weeks since the incident? Amazing progress has been made, and that wonderful progress has put us in our current facility dilemma. God has blessed us richly to allow us to enter into this conversation that we were never sure would come! It has been a while since I sent a picture, so tonight I give you one of Grayson and his brother taken at the hospital this past weekend.
Pax!
Brant
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