Day 997 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Grayson’s “cycle” continues upward – great news! Unfortunately he seems to have contracted a summer cold and is suffering with the effects of that. Good news and bad news I suppose!

Danielle, his caregiver, certainly has him hopping. I noticed in her notes today that he is using his Thera-Band under her supervision to do leg strengthening exercises. How great is that! If she can get him to continue with it he may be in better shape for the start of ski season – late December for us. I am really impressed with Danielle so far, and I look forward to reading her notes every evening!

Pax!

Brant

Day 996 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Grayson is slowly coming out of his down cycle. He was a bit more alert and focused all day. As I speculated last night, it looks as if we may be on our way back up!

In her report today, Grayson’s new caregiver (Danielle) reported that Grayson spoke a very clear sentence in response to one of the therapeutic home program (THP) questions. “What do Las Vegas, Reno and Monte Carlo have in common?” Grayson responded very loud and very clear – “Cities where people gamble!” To end the day, Danielle brought out some Spanish flash cards. To quote from her report, “he did very well!” I suspect that she had no clue that he took 4 years of Spanish in High School and placed into Spanish II in college. Proof once again that his long term memory is intact.

Celebrating an apparent return to an up-cycle,

Pax!

Brant

Day 995 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Back-to-work Monday! Today was so full I didn’t have time to breathe! The amount of things that have piled up in the three weeks since I have been in the office will keep me busy for a while.

Grayson showed signs of turning up from his down cycle. While it is too early to be sure, there were signs of improvement. Silly things like saying, “Good night Dad” and “I love you too” when I put him to bed are signs that he is on his way back up. We haven’t heard those words for more than a week as he has had difficulty expressing anything lately.

Improvement signs are showing – let’s pray that they stick around for a while!

Pax!

Brant

Day 994 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today was a rare Sunday for us. We had been so overtaxed at work and in our personal lives that we decided to sleep in with the knowledge that a loving God would forgive us this once. Even though we missed the service this morning, my work in the technology world of my church continued! I spent an hour this evening reviewing data entry and making sure that all was well in the accounting area. Our church is a labor of love and that work continues!

Grayson continued in his down phase again today. I really have no good explanation as to why this phase has continued as long as it has. In the early days, these things seemed to run in 10ish day periods. Now the “clock” is out the window! I hope that this cycle ends soon and we get back to a more “competent” Grayson.

Blessings on your new week!

Pax!

Brant

Day 993 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today we spent a busy day working around the house. Regina and I tackled some major garage-organizing tasks as we prepared to donate some stored items to a needy college student relative! Along the way we made some improvements in organization and a purge of some items that had outlived their usefulness.

Grayson was there with us all day. At one point while I was on a ladder, Regina utilized Grayson to help her carry things around. He is strong and can be helpful as long as he is able to maintain focus, and as long as the tasks do not require recently acquired knowledge. Which brings me to my point for the day – We all understand learning from our perspective. Once we learn a skill, we can expect to be able to utilize that skill in the future. The same can be expected from our children. This is not the case for Grayson. Any skill that he manages to learn may need to be relearned again tomorrow. Further, if tomorrow is a bad day, he may not even be able to accomplish the same things as he was able to the day before.

You never know exactly what you are going to get when you wake Grayson up in the morning. It is sort of like the Christmas present under the tree waiting to be explored – every morning!

Pax!

Brant

Day 992 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

I arrived home from Seattle this evening and will remain home for the next 17 days. Grayson was glad to see me. He gave me a big hug and didn’t let go for a long time.

Tonight we went to dinner with Howie, Rita and Richard. Grayson was well behaved but he has been in a low place much of this past week. He had a tendency to try and leap up for no apparent reason before and during the meal, but I was generally able to get him back in his seat. In spite of the jumping-jack syndrome we had a wonderful dinner.

It’s great to be home for a while!

Pax!

Brant

Day 991 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends,

Tonight Grayson and I spent some time watching the Olympic games.

It is amazing to see such strength and accomplishment among these healthy, young people. They train so hard, for so long, and are so dedicated to reaching their goals. It takes everything they've got to find out just exactly what they are capable of.

Not everyone will reach the Olympics. Not everyone who does will earn a medal. Yesterday's records are broken and today's records will be broken tomorrow.

I couldn't help but look at Grayson and wonder what he is capable of. It's useless to make comparisons to other young men his age. It's equally futile to consider what his potential used to be or dwell on what he will never be able to do. The only thing that matters is what he is capable of today and work to stretch that capability every day.

The same thing is true for all of us. We can only start from where we are today, with what we have, for the time we have, and make the best of it. Some days we make a little progress; some days we slide backward; most days we struggle just to hold on to what progress we already gained.
 
You and I will never win an Olympic medal but I can say with certainty that there are far more valuable rewards to be gained. And the best part is – we are all qualified to participate. After all, life doesn't have to be a competition. Just live it and celebrate every day as if you and your family just set a personal best record.

Peace,

Regina