Great strides

Remember the disastrous trip to Panera with the Occupational Therapist at Mt. Vernon?  Mike overloaded with sensory stimulation and “freaked out” in the words of his OT, and ended up putting her in a head lock.  No harm intended.  He was lost in a world that he was not ready to reenter and was grabbing for security.  His OT got a good laugh after the fact, but it was a good measure for testing over all.   As a continuation of his therapy, an occasional trip in the car is suggested as well as introductions to public spaces to build up tolerance to visual and auditory stimuli.  Yesterday (one week home) Mike, Bobby, Nate and I went to IHOP for breakfast at Mike’s request.  He did so well.  He wasn’t overly stimulated, there were no head locks, no freaking out, it was like being at IHOP with Mike.  We are so proud of the progress he has made and as he compared the two trips, he was so proud of himself.

Although memory is still a huge deficit, when his mind is able to capture the picture, the feeling, the smell of the moment, he remembers.  Mike remembers almost all the details of that trip to Panera.  This morning he remembered that yesterday was Friday, January 12th.  No, it was the 11th but throughout the day yesterday, he defaulted to Friday the 12th so when he pulled up that memory, he remembered what was sound in his mind, the 12th.  He also remembered that he and I went to IHOP…sorry Bobby and Nate; I guess you guys didn’t quite make the cut.

Mike visited with Jimmy, Matt, Nate and Jessie yesterday and as we were scrolling through the website, we read Nate’s entry when he was in the room with Mike at Mt. Vernon.  Nate told Mike that he was writing on the blog and asked if there was anything he would like to say.  Mike answered “Yes.  I have just one thing to say – Keep Hope Alive”.   There is nothing but hope, my man.  It is more alive than ever.

LIVESTRONG Michael.

xxoo