Day 216 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

We had a nice visit with Grayson today. We took him to lunch and then ran some errands around town. While at Sport Chalet, we ran into his occupational therapist and had a wonderful chat. As any parent would understand, it is truly special to know how much people genuinely care about and like your children. Everyone we have met at CNS really seems to care about Grayson and we are grateful beyond words.

After our errands, we had what is becoming our weekly tradition – an ice cream treat! While I may need to put another 2 hours in on the treadmill this week, Regina and I enjoy this special little time with Grayson. At Cold Stone (one of about three ice creameries we frequent) we get to watch the fountain, the birds and lots of joyful and playful children. It is a nice venue to sit on a summer afternoon and Grayson seemed quite content to sit and enjoy.

After ice cream we returned to the residence for some pool time. The cool soak is always welcome in the Bakersfield summer heat, although the really hot weather has not yet arrived. Today it only got up to the high 80's – positively balmy!

After leaving the pool and getting dressed, Grayson did his therapeutic home program (THP). Today one of the exercises was for Grayson to tell the cause of an event. For example, if the event was, "You overslept" the cause might be that you forgot to set the alarm clock. One of the questions Grayson was asked was, "A fire is started", to which Grayson responded, "Boy Scouts"!

Grayson was scheduled to go to a play this evening, so we left him getting ready to sit down for dinner, and we departed for home. When I checked in later this evening, he had some "issues" and the staff decided that the play was a bad idea, especially given that the curtain and Grayson's normal bedtime coincided. It was the right choice.

One of the nice things about spending some time with him in person is that we get to give our perspective on how he appears to be doing. I would describe Grayson today as having more energy, slightly more verbal, much more alert and fewer periods of getting "stuck". I would also say that he was wound a bit tight and was jumpy all day. He had a robust appetite at lunch and dinner was also a plate-cleaning experience. In general it seemed to us that he was more mentally active. He has also had several incidents of problem behavior in the past two weeks. Perhaps all of this is interrelated and maybe, just maybe, we are seeing some new growth or recovery. We sure hope and pray that this is so!

Pax!

Brant