Look Ma, No Hands!

Jake continues to amaze me. He had a mentally exhausting day today...as we get closer to going home, there are a ton of tests that need to be done to evaluate him for his discharge summary. This morning in speech therapy he had some writing tests, then right after that he had more written tests in OT to check his left side neglect issues (due to the right side brain injury, he doesn't always see things to his left unless he's reminded to look in that direction). He then finished up his PT session, went to school group, and next onto some pretty comprehensive neuro-cognitive testing by the Psychologist. After a quick lunch he had therapy on the bike, a short break before his final speech and OT/PT sessions of the day. To say he was wiped out by his last OT/PT session is a major understatement. 

So here's where the amazing part comes in....after going through a fairly light OT/PT session due to his fatigue, he was walking back to the mat with his therapist and he just let go of her arm and started walking by himself. When they got back to the mat and sat for a minute he wanted to go some more, so they made a lap around the gym. When it was time to head back to his room, she went to get his wheelchair from across the gym and to bring it to him and he says "No, I want to walk to my wheelchair by myself." The kid was exhausted but wanted to keep working since he was walking on his own. He was so proud when he got there, it literally made me cry. To think less than a month ago, just standing was extremely hard, two weeks ago he stood by himself for the first time and now he is starting to walk unassisted. Total tears of joy.  http://youtu.be/hcsfAwzlZSQ

Earlier in the week, we met with the neurosurgeon (the same one that did the initial surgery) who will replace his missing skull piece on Friday. Jake will go into surgery at 7:30 a.m. and we're told it can take 2 - 2 1/2 hours. He will make an incision along the existing scar, peel back the scalp, attach the bone with titanium straps and screws to hold it in place, and then put his scalp back in place and stitch it up. 

The plan is for Jake to take the rest of Friday and Saturday morning to recover, and then be back in therapy by Saturday afternoon…pretty amazing. Surprisingly, this is not considered to be a major procedure although, as always, there are risks involved...the two primary ones being infection and the possibility that the bone doesn't fuse properly and his body could reject it over time. 

Specific Prayer Requests:

1. Please give thanks for the incredible drive and determination Jake has and the progress he is making.
2. A smooth and successful surgery on Friday with no complications or infection.

Harleys, Dogs and Rush

On Saturday, the Rocky Mountain Harley Davidson Motorcycle Club came to the hospital and served BBQ for a couple hours and Jake got to have his picture taken on a bike. They also had someone dressed up as Santa (Christmas in July?) and gave small presents to each of the kids. Jake was pretty excited to be able to sit on the bike...I just hope it's not a sign of things to come down the road when he's older!

Jake also got a very special visit from our dog Molly yesterday. She's been staying with my mom and dad ever since Jake went into the hospital. Every time he gets a visit from one of the therapy dogs, he starts missing our dog, so with the weather so nice and cool yesterday, it was the perfect day for a visit. While she is incredibly sweet, we were joking about what a terrible therapy dog she'd been since she is a bit on the energetic side! (That's my dad in the picture of Jake and Molly.)

Todd and I wanted to thank everyone who has reached out to Rush on Jake's behalf, it appears to have paid off! Todd got a call today from their band manager in Ontario. She said she had received Todd's initial email and then several others and was touched by Jake's story. While the band can't make a visit to the hospital, Todd is meeting up with their road manager on Saturday morning to get a package for Jake. We'll be sure to share what they send over. We aren't saying anything to Jake until we have it in hand, but we're so excited to have received a response!

Jake's stability with the walker is getting so much better. We finally measured the distance from his room to the therapy room and it's 393 feet, so a bit longer than a football field. He walkered down this morning and it took him about 20 minutes. This afternoon he did it in 8 minutes, 2 seconds! He's discovered the less he talks, the better he walks, so he's saving all of his stories for when he gets to therapy.

One Amazing Kid

Thank you for all the suggestions and efforts being made to contact the band. The hospital is also working on trying to see if the band will do anything, so I'll keep you posted. The main issue is the insurance company will not approve an out-trip to a rock concert. It's just not an environment that is conducive to a healing brain and bottom line, it's not worth the risk to his recovery.

I have to say that Jake has truly amazed me today. He had told everyone he's encountered this morning about not being able to go to the concert but follows it up with "We are hoping they'll tour again next year and my mom and dad said we'll fly somewhere if they don't come to Denver and that would be really cool." He really has an amazing attitude, so proud of him.

Now he Knows

Being the bearer of bad news to your son really stinks.

Todd and I told Jake today that he isn't going to be able to go to the Rush concert and he took it really hard. He was so disappointed, it was heartbreaking to watch. Our biggest goal for the conversation was for him not to think it's because he hasn't been working hard enough in therapy, and I think we accomplished that. We explained to him that going to a concert wouldn't be very safe since his brain is still healing and it's too loud with too many lights and too many people. We also told him how hard we, the doctors, and therapists tried to figure out a way for it to happen, but it just can't. There were lots of tears and he felt bad that Todd wouldn't be going either because of him. We tried to lessen the blow by telling him he is getting his bone flap (the piece of skull that was removed) back in next Friday, which he's been wanting for a long time. He was also sent a really cool picture of the Rush drummer on stage in Phoenix that was taken by a friend of one of the hospital staff. Some friends also brought him a vintage Rush concert t-shirt from 1984 and two old LP's. It was pretty funny explaining that this was how we used to listen to music!

It was obviously on his mind the rest of the day because thoughts would randomly come out: "I've been looking forward to going for a long time" , "I've been asking people at the hospital if I was going to be able to go and they said they hoped so" , "I told everyone I was going and now I lied."

While Todd and I were talking to Jake, Luke pulled his dad aside and asked him if he thought Rush could maybe come see Jake since Jake couldn't go to the concert. Todd told him it was a great idea, but Rush is pretty busy and probably couldn't make it. Luke then quietly logged onto YouTube and wrote a comment on one of Rush's video's asking them to please come see his brother in the hospital. Later he said he should have added "I'm begging you to come see him".  He is so sweet and hated to see Jake hurting as much as we did.

We ended up salvaging the evening by playing stupid ring tones on Todd's phone which is always good for laughs among the boys, and having dinner together. I had made stovetop popcorn which is one of Jake's favorites, so we snacked on that and played games afterwards. Jake won several rounds of Uno and Apples to Apples. I'm so glad we told him a little earlier in the afternoon so we could end the day on a positive note.

I'm just glad this day is over so we can focus on his continued recovery and his surgery to replace his bone flap without this black cloud hanging over our heads.

Drumming

One of Jake's biggest goals was achieved this week, he has started drumming with both hands! It was so cool to watch him drum for the first time on Monday, this is something he's talked about for weeks. His left bicep is not recovering as quickly, so the natural up and down rhythm  from the elbow isn't quite there. Right now the strongest muscles in his upper left side are his shoulder and deltoids, so all movement starts from there and can be a little awkward. I took some video on Monday and again today and you can already see some improvement. The lady in the video is Ellen, his favorite OT. Her husband is a drummer so she totally gets how important this is to Jake and can talk the lingo with him. We were very lucky Jake was assigned to her, I personally think it was divine intervention. :-) http://youtu.be/Um2bZNuH-dU

Another major benefit of the improved left arm strength is I got a two arm standing hug from him for the first time in over two months. Jake is one of those kids who comes up and just gives you a hug for no reason, and I didn't realize how much I had missed it until I got one today. He's been giving lots of one-arm hugs ever since he was taken off the sedation drugs, but I have to say, I really like the full hugs better.

Jake has been sleeping a good solid 10-11 hours a night for the past week and is now finally off one of his "heavy hitter" sleep meds, so he's down to melatonin and one other very small dose of a mild sedative. We are hoping to get rid of that one in a few days. It's amazing how much more alert and talkative he's become after dropping the one medication, and his voice is stronger and the inflection is improving. We are so thankful he is getting much closer to normal sleep cycles on his own.

One of the therapists told us that it's not uncommon for a child to progress consistently but somewhat slowly in the early stages of rehab, and then all of a sudden they reach a point where the improvement skyrockets. We're hoping that this is the case with Jake and that during the next few weeks the improvements will be phenomenal. But, as always, we're trying not to look too far ahead and just take it one day at a time.

Specific Prayer Requests for Jake

1. Continued recovery of his left bicep to help ease arm movements.
2. Todd and I are going to tell Jake on Saturday that he is not going to be able to make the Rush concert on Aug 2nd. It was going to be his first concert and something he and Todd have been looking forward to for months. We haven't wanted to take away a major motivator and something he's been so excited about, but unfortunately it's now time. Please pray for us to find the right words to help lessen the disappointment, and for Jake to understand why this has to happen and not lose his motivation to keep working hard.

Walking

Jake's physical therapists have really turned up the emphasis on walking the past few days. In order for him to go home, he needs to be independently mobile. They've had him practicing going up and down stairs, walking with a walker and walking with just someone behind him offering support under his arms. Today at the end of the therapy, they had him walk down a very long hallway. I'm terrible with distances, but it was about as far as two aisles in the grocery store. I had posted some video last week of his walking and have some more today. It's amazing to see the difference, he's working so hard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSX2jsgskSA

One of the things the therapists are struggling with is whether or not to put him in a leg brace. The muscles that need to activate the ankle are on the left side of the shin. It is slowly waking up and they can't decide if they want to give it more time to come back or put the brace on. The brace keeps the foot at a 90 degree angle so it's ready to go when he steps and could make walking a little easier. But they don't want his leg to become too dependent on the brace and slow down the natural muscle recovery. They'll continue to work with and without it this week before they decide for sure.

While he is working really hard and progressing every day, he still has a ways to go before they feel he is ready to go home. The rehab team bumped his discharge date back today from Aug 7th to Aug 14th. As much as Jake wants to go home, Todd and I want to give him the best possible foundation for outpatient therapy we possibly can and if it means a little more time in the hospital, we'll do it. We didn't communicate the Aug 7th date to Jake and won't give him the new date either. It could easily change again in either direction and we don't want him to get disappointed. We'll just keep adding X's to his "Road to Home" chart and continue working towards going home.

Specific Prayer Requests for Jake:
1. Continued strength and healing of the left leg muscles to aid in walking
2. Stamina to get through all his therapy without getting fatigued

Lazy Sunday

Jake thoroughly enjoyed his day off today. For some reason he chose not to sleep in and woke up at 5, but his Dad was awake too, so they just started their day a bit early. He and Todd had an early breakfast, sat outside for awhile and took a nice long walk.  

As I've mentioned, he has been missing all the normal summer fun and while there are a lot of things we can't bring to him, we thought of one we could. Water balloons. The boys had a great time, including Dad, who was the target of choice. It was so nice to see all of them forgot about things for a little bit and just have fun. Jake and Luke were conspiring about how to best get Dad and after many missed balloons, Luke just took the giant sprayer and attacked. Todd got him back but I think he ended up being the most wet. :-) We also got to enjoy some great music as part of the Sunday concerts at the hospital and this one was out on the patio. Really great afternoon.

Jake got to spend some time with visitors today which he always likes. He really enjoys showing his latest skill/advancement to anyone who is here. He gets the cutest grin when standing for someone for the first time. His left grip is getting really strong and he is getting more and more stable with his assisted walking. His therapists have some big goals for him and we are excited to see what this week brings!

Earning a Day Off

Jake has been working so hard in therapy that he earned himself a day off on Sunday! This is only the second full day off he's had in the past four weeks (the other was July 4th). He pushes himself so hard, even when he's exhausted. The past few days they've had him standing for over 20 minutes per session, doing squats to pick things up and the support he needs from the therapists is less and less. He really is getting stronger every day.  He also loves to show anyone new who comes to the hospital how well he can stand by himself too. It's so cool to see how proud he is of this major accomplishment.

Jake has met several other kids on the floor either because they room near us or are in his school group. Two have been discharged this week and two more are going home next week. I was worried that them leaving was going to be hard on him because of the "why do they get to go home and I don't" syndrome. But surprisingly, I think it gives him hope he'll actually get to go home one of these days. Three of the four were on the rehab floor before us and had a lot to overcome. He has seen them improving over the weeks, just like he is, and they are now well enough to leave. In so many ways, we are extremely thankful that he's already come along as far as he has. We see a lot of kids here on the floor who are in far worse shape or have had injuries/accidents that will leave them permanently disabled. It's truly heartbreaking. There are three boys 4, 7, and 11 who due to accidents are now paraplegics. It makes Jake struggling to learn to walk again feel like a blessing. He still has a long way to go, but I truly believe he will regain full function with time.

This was his first week attending school group. It's a group of 5-6 kids that meet for 45 minutes twice a week. The idea behind it is to get them ready to deal with "school-like" situations and interacting with other kids. They spend so much time in the hospital around adults, it's important to socialize with their peers. They spent time recognizing what they were feeling and what others are feeling based on their facial expressions. They then used instruments to demonstrate on a scale of 1-5 how strongly they were feeling or how strongly the emotion was being demonstrated. A lot of times with brain injuries, kids can have a hard time recognizing emotions in themselves and others. They also get easily distracted and then have a hard time returning to the task at hand. The psychologist who leads the group said he did really well and was pleased with what she observed.

Thank you for continuing to pray for Jake's recovery and healing. His progress really is amazing and it's so exciting to look back at the end of each week and see how much he's accomplished.

Surprise

I got to the hospital a little later than normal today, Todd and Luke were already here so the four of us got to sit and have dinner outside. When we went up to the room I was told to wait in the hall, they had a surprise for me. When I came in, this is what I saw: http://youtu.be/lv_kpuU6UYw 

Todd actually took this video earlier in the day, I was too busy picking my jaw up off the floor and wiping away happy tears to record it.

 

He has been working so hard on standing in therapy the last few days. He stood for so long yesterday, with support from his therapist, that both his legs were shaking when he was done. They have him stand with his right leg slightly bent and on a box about 6 inches off the ground so more of his body weight is on his left leg. Well it must have paid off because today in therapy he decided to see if he could stand and he did. Shocked the therapists too. :-)

Jake also got some emotional therapy today from the psychologist who's been working with us. As I've mentioned before he has periods where he gets really upset about being here, not having a normal summer, etc. We decided to have the Dr. meet with him one-on-one to see if she could be of any help. All of the emotions he's going through are very normal, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch him struggle. After talking with her when they were done, she said the hardest things on him are he wants to be with his whole family and he wants to be at home. We realized this 24 hour rotation we're doing is tough for him because only one of us is here the majority of the time, that's also really hard on Luke. The interesting thing was, other than the actual moments of time he's feeling sad and frustrated, he's not sad. It's almost like he just needs to get the emotions out and then he's ok. I would have thought he felt generally sad and bummed the majority of the time, so that was good to hear.

Full Night of Sleep...Achieved!

For the first time in almost 4 weeks, Jake slept all through the night without waking up! We've been getting closer all weekend with very short wake-ups and going back to sleep within 15-20 minutes. Of course he still said he was tired this morning. :-) I'm sure it will take several days for him to feel more rested but we were so happy this might actually be resolved. Todd and I are now finding that we are starting to get just about as much sleep at the hospital as we would if we were home, which is a huge relief for us. Sleeping in short spurts off and on during the night for the first three weeks Jake was in rehab was very exhausting.

I wanted to apologize for not posting last night. Jake has been really missing home and homemade food. We've been bringing in some of his favorites to make it a little easier for him (my Mom and Dad brought him hibachi soup and fried rice from Mt. Fuji over the weekend, Todd's parents brought him Chick-fil-A last week), but yesterday he asked for my chocolate chip cookies. So last night instead of blogging I made him Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter + Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies, less the Nutella. (That would have required two hours of refrigeration I didn't have.) I then spent some time with Luke before going to bed. So cookies + one-on-one with Luke = no blog. While Jake is improving every day, there isn't always something specific to post about. So as not to be repetitive, I’m going to start posting every other day unless there is some significant development to report on.


Jake had a really great day of therapy today. He has a team of four regular therapists, these two hadn't seen him since last Wednesday and couldn't believe the movement and strength he's gained in both his left arm and leg. He's getting enough left arm strength that they decided to have him try and walk with a walker which he wasn't very happy about. He was pretty upset at the prospect of using a walker and said to me, "Mom, I don't want a walker, I'm not an old person." We explained to him that it was only for a little while and would allow him to walk around when he wanted instead of needing the therapists to walk with him. That seemed to help and he gave it a shot, he did a really good job. I included some video of him walking last Tuesday and today to show the improvement. At the end are some exercises he does when lying in bed with putty, it really shows how strong his left grip is getting. http://youtu.be/wn5wuQyS6Uo.

The Road to Home

I mentioned the other day what a hard time Jake was having recognizing his progress and a couple of people suggested I show him some of the video's from when he first started therapy. Yesterday morning we sat down and watched them. Many of them I hadn't shared on the blog but had recorded just for us. I also showed him the picture from when he was first in the ICU and hooked up to IV's, a breathing tube, and was swollen from the surgery. We talked for quite awhile about what he couldn't do then and what he can do now. I'm not sure it sunk in 100%, especially when I pointed out in a video that the therapists were helping him hold his head up, and he said "They didn't need to do that, I could have done it on my own." However, we didn't have any "I'm not making progress" conversations today, so maybe it registered a little.

Jake was talking about wanting to go home the other day when my Dad was here, and

when he came to visit a couple of days later, he brought this poster. I love this idea more than checking days off a calendar because our discharge date can change. It reinforces to Jake that even though he doesn’t like the therapy, that’s what’s going to get him in shape to go home, and each time he has therapy he puts an “X” and it shows that he’s a little further down the road and a little closer to being home. We just need to be careful his "X's" stay close enough together and we don't run out of room before it's time to actually go home!

It really is incredible to see how much progress he's making every day. Here is a short montage of some of what he did today.  http://youtu.be/DJ5XPmdZOJU  They have this really cool swing and he was able to hold onto the rope with his left hand and was helping push with his left leg. They also had him go side to side. They do a lot of opposite movements to work both sides of the muscle, extending and contracting, pushing and pulling (like he and Luke are doing with the big orange ball), etc. Luke in his normal fashion was quite animated. :-)

Family Time

We had such a great night tonight! For the first time in over six weeks, we all sat down and had dinner at the same time, ate the same thing, then had our game night that we often do at home. We've attempted this several other times, but schedules, sleep, diet, etc. didn't allow it to happen. It was so wonderful to hang out together all evening and watch the boys laugh so hard they almost couldn't breathe. With the 24 hour rotation Todd and I have been keeping, it's rare we spend more than an hour a day together during the week and that's usually a quick brain dump of what happened at the hospital/home while the other one wasn't there. Todd and Luke are staying at a sleep room here at the hospital so we'll have breakfast together, Luke will come to OT/PT and then we'll get back to our rotation. I really miss our family time, it was just what we all needed.

Todd and I were talking tonight about how much faster this past three weeks has gone vs. the three weeks he was in ICU. Being in the ICU we spent our time praying and hoping he wouldn't develop any complications, constantly watching the monitors, stressing anytime his brain pressure spiked and basically waiting for him to wake up and see if the Jake we knew was still with us. It was emotionally draining. While all of that was happening, we didn't allow ourselves to go to the place where the true reality was that we could have easily lost him when the aneurysm initially burst or during surgery, or that he could have suffered additional brain damage from any number of complications. We could be in a very different place today and feel very blessed and thankful to be where we are.

Being in rehab has had a different set of challenges, the biggest now being his awareness of what's going on and not being happy about it. During the past three weeks he's made tremendous progress...  he has been weened off all the sedation drugs, is no longer agitated, the fixations have past, he's eating and sleep is getting better. We still don't know how much of his left side he'll recover or if he'll have issues down the road, but he's working hard, improving every day and that's all we can ask for. Thank you for all your continued prayers for his recovery.

"No one knows what it's like for me"

It's so hard to see Jake get frustrated with his progress. He had a total meltdown this evening and all I wanted to do was take away his pain and I couldn't. He doesn't see the progress that he's making day to day, he just wants to walk by himself and drum with both hands and doesn't understand why his body isn't cooperating. He so desperately wants to be at home and is sick of being here. He wants to enjoy his summer and not be going through therapy. And he's right, no one knows what it's like for him. It's a lot for a 10 year old to go through and I can't scoop him up, take him home and make it all go away. Hard for Mom too.

While he can't see it, he is doing better. He is rock solid at sitting, and his breaks during therapy are now in the sitting position instead of laying down. He is needing less and less support while standing and is getting more control with the left hand. He plays this game Kerplunk a lot in therapy and they have him do it while standing in front of  table with a half circle cut out of it. Straws are poked through all these holes, then you drop marbles in on top and try to pull the straws out without the marbles falling. I think the first time he played it was early last week, about a week into rehab. He was shaking so badly because his legs were so weak and it hurt to be leaning on his left arm. Today, he just stood there calmly dropping the marbles in, then slowing pulling all the straws out. Pretty big difference to see his increased stability. They also had him picking up and crumpling pieces of tissue paper with his left hand. It was really hard for him but he did it. At the end, he was building patterns with blocks to match what was on a card, and the therapist says "Make sure that everything is in the right place," and he says back to her "Is that my clue that I did something wrong?" I thought that was pretty funny.

I think (fingers crossed) we've got his sleep figured out. He slept for 11 hours last night with only one, one hour interruption. Best night yet!

I wanted to take a quick second to clarify something on the shirts. I had a couple of questions about if we were selling them as a fundraiser. At this point we aren't making any money on them, we are just passing on the cost in case people wanted one. We may consider a fundraiser in the future, I'll keep you posted.

Specific Prayer Requests:
1. Peace and understanding for Jake so this process is not so hard on him.
2. Continued strength healing of his left side, especially the left ankle and left wrist.

Therapy Update

Jake is definitely healing in his own time and in his own way. Generally muscles come back biggest to smallest and legs before arms, while nerve recovery works its way down the limbs. He has been having some amazing left hand movement and is starting to use some gross motor skills to pick things up and his grip literally gets stronger every day. But oddly, he has not as much arm rotation from the elbow down to the wrist.

He made some really good progress today with his hamstring and is able to push the leg out, pull it back in and can lay on his stomach and bend his leg to touch his behind. He can also (with assistance) stand to get out of bed and pivot to get in his wheelchair. But so far there has been very little movement at the left ankle. Getting the ankle engaged is obviously key for walking. They currently have him walking but it's with considerable support from two therapists, one to support his trunk and one to help move his legs. His core and back strength have really improved as well and he is sitting for much longer periods and is very stable.

Jake's sleep is also making slow improvements. Last night we got two bigger chunks of sleep instead of one big one and several 1-2 hour chunks. I'm hoping we are on the verge of a good solid 8 hours.


Over the past week, we have had a couple of meetings with the medical staff to discuss Jake’s tentative release date from the hospital. The primary criteria will be that he is able to safely function both physically and mentally around the house. Things such as maneuvering around the house, taking care of his own personal needs, reacting to situations appropriately (not touching a hot stove, turning water off when done), etc. They initially set the date as July 31st, but today moved it out to Aug 7th because they felt that an additional week would make a big difference. Again, this date is “tentative” and will continue to be adjusted as necessary. To be honest, the Aug 7th date seems to us to be very optimistic based on Jake’s current very limited mobility. It’s hard to imagine that in just a little over four weeks, he’ll be able to safely function in a home environment. However, this is much shorter than the 8-12 weeks were initially given. But, like we’ve been doing ever since the beginning, we’ll just take it one day at a time.  We haven’t mentioned anything to Jake about a release date because nothing is certain yet and we don’t want to set an expectation that turns out to be unattainable.

I also wanted to mention something about the Team Jake shirts I posted a few ago. I've heard that some of you would like to order one, so please email me directly and I'll get you the pricing and sizing info. We'll be placing another order on Monday, July 15th. My email is dkmorg@gmail.com.

Specific Prayer Requests:
1. Continued improvement in Jake's sleep.
2. Waking up and engagement of the left ankle and lower left arm.

Blessed

I am feeling very blessed today by all the support we've received from the first day this happened. I wanted to take a minute to express my heartfelt thanks...I wish I could personally reach out and thank each and every one of you in person.

Thank you....

• to our family who has been there for us in ways I hadn't imagined possible. 
• to everyone who has prayed for our family. Seeing how Jake has healed and progressed, I have become an even stronger believer in the power of prayer.
• to the school and staff for their unyielding support.
• to everyone who has brought us dinner or snacks for the hospital.
• for the thoughtful gifts for one or both of the boys.
• for all the texts, emails, phone calls, cards, notes on the blog and facebook and words of encouragement.
• for all the offers to have Luke come over to play.
• to our employers for their flexibility and support.
• for mowing our lawn.
• for having our house cleaned.
• to all of you that donated money either through the school or though the fundraiser Ryan set up. This money will help greatly with insurance deductibles, lost wages due to the amount of time we've spent at the hospital and unexpected additional expenses we'll encounter during Jake's road to recovery. 
• for the amazing group of therapists and staff that work at Children's.
• for the nurses that go above and beyond.

We are truly humbled and words can’t describe how much it means to us to know there are so many caring and generous people out there. 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support as Jake continues his journey to recovery.

Team Jake

My brother Ryan (along with his friend Alex's Photoshop skills) designed a logo for a t-shirt for Jake. The shirts came yesterday and he was so excited to bring them in to the hospital today. He got one for each of us. He put a lot of thought into the design and they turned out really cool.

Here is the note he gave Jake with the shirt:
Your favorite band is Rush so I incorporated their “Starman" logo from the back cover of 2112 album.  I used this logo because the man symbolizes YOU and the star symbolizes the sky. For me, the man holding the star symbolizes the popular phrase the “sky’s the limit.”  In other words, it means your potential is limitless. Just as the sky seems never ending and infinite, this phrase basically means that there is no limit for you and what you’ll achieve in your life.
You were born and raised in Colorado so I wanted to be sure to include that as part of the logo, too.

Thanks Ryan, we love them! 

Jake got to do a little bit of drumming today too. My other brother, Eric, brought him a digital drum set. It's like one of those portable keyboards but drums. It has a setting for hand drums and he was having a pretty good time playing a few beats. A little while later, for the first time since this all happened, I saw him tapping a beat on his leg with his right hand. He used to constantly be drumming with his hands on every flat surface he could find and it was nice to see that familiar act again. His left hand movement continues to improve every day, so we know he'll be drumming again with both hands in no time.