Day 113 – Grayson’s Condition

Dear family and friends

Today Regina and I had our 2^nd conference with Grayson's therapists. This time we held the conference "virtually", instead of travelling to be there in person. I'll share a bit from that conference over the next few days so that you might take a step back with us and see how he is doing overall.

In the area of physical therapy, Grayson has made considerable progress in most areas – endurance, stairs, dynamic gait, balance and rapid alternating movements. He has also has improved in the area of visual motor response, although it is still way too slow to be considered safe for navigating in the community. He is not even close to the range required for driving. His grip and pinch strength is only minimally improved, and that impacts his ability to hold a cup of liquid, open jars or turn a key.

In the area of Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Grayson's scores overall have dropped. The drop is primarily due to a reduction in the initiation of activity, and behavior. In the last week, he was placed back on one of the discontinued meds, and there has been some improvement, especially in the area of behavior.

Grayson continues to have difficulty "sequencing" – accomplishing the steps required to complete a task in the correct order. As an example, when asked to wash his hands, Grayson will go to the sink, grab a towel and dry his hands, put soap on them, turn on the water to rinse them then leave the sink with dripping hands.

Grayson has lost a little more weight, but he is still well within normal range for his height. Considering he is down 50 pounds since the incident, it tells just how much he needed to lose to be at a healthy weight! Part of the weight loss can probably be explained by the loss of his sense of taste and smell. His appetite just isn't what it used to be. I was amazed this weekend when he left half a cup of ice cream on the table, and said he didn't want anymore.

That's enough for today. I'll give you some more information from our conference tomorrow. Grayson is still improving overall, but as his psychotherapist stated, "It is 3 steps forward and 2 steps backward." There is still a net gain, but one that is frustratingly slow!

Pax!

Brant