Dear family and friends
Recently Grayson dropped and broke his electric razor. Since he shaves once or twice a week, we didn't think that anything was unusual with his "furry" face this weekend. Now we know why he was not clean-shaven for church on Sunday! Tonight, he and his residential assistant (RA) went to Wal-Mart to buy a replacement. They found a good deal, and made the purchase. No excuses for not being clean-shaven in church this week!
Other than the shopping excitement, Grayson had a couch-potato evening. He was low energy, required multiple reminders to help with chores, cook dinner and do his therapeutic home program (THP). His RA said that it was a down day.
In my final installment of the patient conference from last Tuesday, I'll share a bit about the home program. Grayson's independent living scale (ILS) has improved from 63.9 to 75.3. This is a significant gain and very encouraging. To calibrate you, an ILS score of 96 and above is what would be considered as able to live without supervision. Grayson likes choices, and not being told what to do. His sequencing (doing things in the correct order) is improving, and his behavior continues to improve. All in all, this was a very encouraging patient conference, and there is data to back up the continued improvement that we are seeing.
It has been a long time since I have stopped and recognized all of you – our prayer angels – daily delivering messages of hope, good wishes and reminders of God's love. You give us the strength to go on, and your hugs, both real and virtual, give us strength. Please accept our love and our thanks.
Pax!
Brant
Hi Brant and Regina:
ReplyDeleteAfter my calamity, I remember working hard on therapy, making good progress with good reports, staying with it, and doing my best. That was all "progress"...but holding on to that "progress" took continued, cognative and focused effort. Some times I just got real tired of it all. My PT asked me if I knew about the Thessalonians...it sounded like a Sunday School Question, and I knew that they had gone through a terrible time. But he asked me why they were famous...I couldn't answer. He said, "They had JOY in their calamity". I had worked hard, I had progressed, but I didn't have joy in my calamity...I just had a calamity. The Lord worked me over pretty hard that night...the next day I told my PT that I was going to be a good Thessalonian from then on. He winked and said "good"...and I have been. I'm going to pray for Grayson that he can hold on to his progress, that he will "bank it", and have real good traction, and that he would find joy in the calamity...something only the Lord can bring about.
In Him,
Doug
Your family gives US strength. You are all very inspiring. It's wonderful to read about Grayson's improvements!
ReplyDeleteCathy Gredell