Day 183 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends,

Grayson cheerfully greeted me with his usual "Hey, Mom" when I called this evening.

He couldn't remember what he had done all day at the clinic nor what he had been doing when I called. I asked him to look around the room to get a clue what he had been doing. He remembered he had finished eating "lunch". It was dinner actually but close enough for a successful memory path. While he couldn't remember what he ate, with encouragement he turned to the RA and asked what dinner consisted of and relayed it to me. He and one of the roommates collaborated again on dinner preparation. Grayson was responsible for cooking the steaks. He selected the seasoning and chose bread crumbs and garlic salt.

Following dinner they went for a walk with the RA and took out the trash. They got along fine all evening with no behavioral issues. This is an important improvement for many reasons. There are now three roommates in the apartment and there are occasions when there are only two RAs in the apartment. Tonight was one of those times. Obviously the goal is to decrease the need for one on one supervision – a sobering factor as we look toward reintegrating Grayson into a "new normal" life.

Grayson completed his home therapy program (THP) tonight including answering the following questions:

Time – he checked the clock accurately

Date – stumbled, then with cueing looked at the calendar for the date

Address – still only remembers the street name not the number

Phone – remembered the area code and the last four digits (still can't remember the prefix)

The remainder of the THP included lists of three words or numbers and Grayson had to put them in logical order. He completed most of these fairly well. The other section consisted of a list of about six words and he was asked to re-arrange them into a meaningful sentence. Several times he simply (although accurately) repeated the list right back in the same order. After about 10 times he managed to focus and process adequately to construct a logical sentence. Sticking with this kind of exercise is by far the hardest part for Grayson at this point.

Before we hung up, I asked Grayson what he was going to do after we hung up. I thought he would say watch TV or go to bed. His response was, "Wait for you to arrive". He thought it was Friday and that we were coming to visit. Talk about giving me motivation to drive to Bakersfield every weekend!!

Tomorrow I go to the DMV to renew my driver license for the first time in 14 years. I've had automatic renewals for all those years. I am now 30 pounds heavier, have gray hair and really do not look forward to giving up my much younger looking picture.

14 years ago Grayson was turning 11. He was an avid reader, filled with energy, curiosity and promise. He was finishing fourth grade and was a Webelos Scout looking forward to summer camp.

There are no automatic renewals in life.

Grace and peace (and many more renewals) to each of you.

Regina