Going back to school

Chase's home and hospital teacher called earlier today and also came over tonight. She said that everything they need is in place so he can go back to school tomorrow. He's very excited! Jeff and I are happy for him too but we're also nervous. The last time he was at school was when he was hit by a car. But mostly we just worry about him getting hurt. I know they'll look out for him and he'll probably be just fine. It feels like the first day of Kindergarten all over again. He will be going to school for 2 periods and also having home and hospital come once a week. This way he'll get credit fot this term. The school has been very good to work with us and accomodate Chase. I'm glad they have these programs.

It's funny that Chase is going to school tomorrow and Breanna & Justin are staying home sick (again). It's been the other way around for the past 2 months (8 weeks tomorrow). Hopefully they'll be on the mend and all 3 will be back in no time.

Well, that's it for today. Short and sweet. I'll try to post again soon to let everyone know how school went and therapy tomorrow too.

Love,
Michelle

Good Reports

I first need to apologize for not posting on here sooner. Life has been so crazy busy with trying to get back into work mode and juggle schedules, therapy, appointments and everything else. Chase's appointment with the Neuro-psychologist went well. She was very impressed with Chase and how far he has come since leaving the hospital. She didn't expect him to be doing so well. She had told him in the hospital that he likely would not be going back to school this year (until maybe next Fall). But she is agreeing with his speech therapist that he is ready to start going back half days. They want to ease him into it and not over-load him. They are working with the doctors and the school to get him back as soon as possible. He will have to have some special accomodations, extra time for things and rest breaks as needed. He'll also have someone available to help him get to class and anything else he might need. He will have the home and hospital teacher come again on Monday evening for more testing and hopefully to leave him some assignments too. He did well with it last time. :)

Therapy is also coming along. He is getting more mobility and better range of motion in his left arm. It keeps getting better each time. Physical therapy was tough on him. His back was hurting enough to need pain medication and heat afterwards. But by bed-time he was ok. Speech therapy also went well. He was given some "homework" to do by next Tuesday when he goes back. the therapist, Kim, gave him a report to type and some Spanish words to learn. So he's busy working on that. I think he enjoys having some type of school work to do again. He's really looking forward to going back to school.

This Wednesday he will see his spine doctor again. We're hoping that he might be able to give us some idea of how much longer Chase will need the neck brace. He doesn't wear the back brace much at all anymore. He likes not having to wear it. The break in his neck was much worse than the ones in his back though so it may still be awhile.

I continue to thank my Father in Heaven every day that I get to hug my son and tell him that I love him. I'm so very grateful to still have him here and to get to be witness to the miracle of his recovery and be part of it. My life, as I'm sure are others, is forever changed.

Love,
Michelle

Home and Hospital

Chase has his first session with home and hospital Monday evening. A teacher from Taylorsville High School was assigned to him. She came over and brought a packet with her for Chase to complete. He did some various problems and math. I think he did pretty well. She spent 2 hours here at our house and Chase finished the packet. When the teacher left (her name escapes me) she said that she was impressed with how well he did. She said he exceeded her expectations by far. She didn't think he would do as well as he did from the information she had about him with his brain injury and such. Chase mentioned that he wants to go back to school when the term starts (Monday the 30th). She said if she could clear it with the doctor and therapists as well as get things set up at the school he might be able to go back half days (2 periods). That just blows my mind to think of that happening (by then just 8 weeks after the accident) so soon. I guess we'll see what happens.

He had therapy today but I was not able to go as I had to be at work. Jeff was there for part of it. Chase said it went well but they worked him really hard in physical and occupational therapy. He said he was sweating by the time physical therapy was over and hurting when occupational therapy was over. But it's good for him. He did well in speech therapy and she is thinking he should be going back to school soon also. He's excited about that. He's anxious to try to go back to a semi-normal routine.

Tomorrow he is seeing the neuro-psychologist that evaluated him when he moved up to the 12th (rehab) floor. I'll be interested to see what she has to say. So more good things happening.

Love,
Michelle

Good Times

It's hard to believe that Chase has been home for 3 weeks. He's made tremendous progress in that amount of time. Actually he's made miraculous progress in 6½ weeks! It continues to amaze me how far he has come in such a short time. Thursday he went to therapy again. They are still working on getting better range of motion and flexibility in his left arm. It's still pretty limited but getting much better. Each week it gets better. We work with him daily at home on balance, strength and range of motion, not only in his arm but other areas as well. In physical therapy they worked with strength in his legs and with balance. He's doing pretty well there too. In Speech/Cognitive therapy she gave him problems to solve and letters to unscramble forming words. He would do pretty well and then after about 15 minutes his thought process would slow and he would take much longer to figure things out. So that would mean a break was needed. After a 5-10 minute break he could get back on task. It's interesting to me to watch all of this. I learn a lot each time we go.

Taylorsville High has assigned a teacher to Chase for Home and Hospital schooling. She will be coming out to our house to start him on that Monday evening. I think it will be good for him to start that and get him working toward going back to school. That's his goal. He wants to get back to his normal routine as much as possible. We'll see how things go over the next 2 weeks and go from there. Jeff talked to Chase's school counselor about him graduating with his class next year (yep, he's going to be a Senior). She said that we could do some Summer credits if needed and even if he ended up being a little short to graduate, he could still graduate with his class and finish up the credits during the Summer after. So that was great news!

I apologize for not posting on the blog as much as I used to but I just don't have as much to write about. And that's a very good thing! I will, however, continue to post as I know a lot of people still want to keep up with his progress and recovery. He's an amazing kid! I'm so proud of him and all the progress he's making. He is doing everything the doctors and therapists are asking him to do. That's what it takes!

Thanks again to everyone for the prayers, love and support!

Love,
Michelle

Six weeks ago today

Chase's accident was 6 weeks ago today. It's hard to believe how far he's come in that amount of time. It's only been 6 weeks but it sure feels a lot longer than that to me. It feels more like 6 months! He is a remarkable kid that's for sure. I marvel every day at the progress he has made in such a short amount of time. His therapists feel the same way. I honestly do attribute much of this to the blessings and prayer he has had in his behalf. Justin told him that he has a definite purpose here and he thinks it's to do something great. I would have to agree. I do believe that God spared him for a reason. I'm so thankful for that.

It looks like Chase will be starting the home and hospital schooling at home this week. We're very excited about that. I know he's anxious to get back to school and for things to be more normal. This is a great step in the right direction. I was unable to go to his therapy yesterday but Jeff was able to be there. He said he did very well and they worked his arm a lot. They work on mobility and stretching (range of motion) in Occupational therapy. Then they worked more on that and strength in physical therapy. Jeff worked it pretty well today too. But it's good. He needs to get that mobility back in his arm. It hurts him to do the therapy but it kind of has to. That's how we know he's making progress. He just pushes through it though. Our neighbor, Matt, says he has a few names for the therapists like Physical Terrorists. Chase loved that one! It made him laugh. So we joke about it now. We won't tell his therapists about it. :)

Well, that's about it for today. Stay tuned until next time. Thanks everyone!

Love,
Michelle

Missing my boy!

Chase is at his father's house so I am missing him! He went with his brother, Justin, yesterday and will be home tomorrow night. Friday Jeff's parents came for the weekend so they were able to spend some time with the boys then. It was good for them to see Chase more himself and up and about a bit. He enjoyed having them here too. He had kind of a rough time Friday evening for awhile. He broke down a little as did his girlfriend. But after she left Jeff talked with him for a little while and then I went in to talk too. We just keep reminding him of the miracle that he is. We remind him that he's here, he's alive and recovering, he's not going to have much in the way of lasting problems from this (those will be minimal if any). I think he's knows this but it's hard because he wants to be back to normal now. He is working hard to get better though. He's doing what the doctors tell him to do and that's good. He works hard at therapy at home as well as at the rehabilation center. I'm very proud of him and try to remember to tell him that. He gets encouragement from Justin and Breanna also. They try to do what they can to help too. We all love him so much and tell him often. The picture that's on this post is of Chase at home taking a nap with our cat and Jeff (ignore the messy room).

Thanks for still following my blog and still praying for Chase. He's doing well but the prayers and such are still much in need.

Love,
Michelle

Two weeks at home

Well it's been 2 weeks ago today that we brought Chase home. He's made a lot of progress in that amount of time. He doesn't have to wear his TLSO brace for his back during the day anymore. He can walk around pretty well on his own for the most part except for stairs and when he first gets up (due to being a little light-headed). His therapy is going very well. We're in the process of getting the "home and hospital" set up for his schooling to work on getting him back on track there as well. So considering the accident was just over 5 weeks ago and we were told he shouldn't have survived, he's recovering extremely well. It's truly a miraculous thing.

Therapy went well today. He had occupational therapy first where they worked more with getting mobility and strength back in his arm. We've also been working on that at home a couple times a day. He's got a way to go but is coming along and making progress. Speech therapy was working with organizing, focusing, paying attention to detail and things like that. They're still working with the school to get things moving along to eventually get him back to school. In Physical therapy they worked with strengthing his back and also had him walk on the treadmill for 23 minutes. So he's definitely progressing.

Next week I'll be going back to work but not full-time. I'll work when I can and be off when I need to be to take care of Chase. The people I work for are so wonderful to help me and work with me during this time. I'm very blessed to work for a good company and with such wonderful people. Justin and Breanna are settled back into their routine and doing well also.

Last night some boys that are in our church and their leader came by the house and visited with Chase. I think they boys enjoyed the visit and I know Chase did. We enjoyed having them here as well. It was a good positive atmosphere.

I apologize for not posting on here for a few days but honestly didn't have much to post about. I guess that's a good thing. Just remember that fewer posts is the same as "no news is good news". Keep checking in though as we continue with Chase's recovery and progress.

Love,
Michelle

What a day!

Chase had a good but long day today. We left home this morning at about 9:40 AM. He had an appointment with Dr. Butterfield (his orthopedic surgeon) at 10:15. We were there until noon. He had some x-rays done of his leg and arm to see how things were healing. The doctor said that things are looking good but that we need to work on mobility and stretching the muscles out more. We've been working on it but Chase said he'd work harder. He'll follow up with Dr. Butterfield in 6 weeks to see how it's going.

After that appointment we had some lunch and then it was off to see Dr. Warner (his spine doctor, also in orthopedics) at 1:15. He had some x-rays done as well. We got good news on his back. He doesn't have to wear his TLSO brace on his back all the time anymore. So that is awesome! He still has to be very careful though not to do any lifting or bending and twisting his back. He will have to continue to wear the neck collar all the time for now. He'll be going back to see him in 3 weeks.

From that doctor appointment we went straight to therapy from 2:00 to 5:00. He had occupational therapy first where they really worked with range of motion and stretching out his arm. Then he had speech therapy where she talked about making sure he takes 5 minutes "rests" each hour from about 10:00 to 3:00. We also discussed staying on task. Then he had physical therapy to finish off the day. They worked on strength in his legs and balance. By the time we got home at 5:30 he was pretty wiped out. We had him lie down and rest while we fixed something to eat. So he had a really good day but a really long day. We're hoping to get him started on some Home and Hospital schooling soon and work towards getting him back to school (at least for the last month or two).

We sure do appreciate that so many people are still praying for Chase and his recovery. They really do help a lot.

Love,
Michelle

Visitors and shopping

Chase has had a few visitors yesterday and today. My brother and his family along with my sister and her family came for a visit yesterday. They hadn't seen Chase since he was in ICU in a coma. They were very happy to see him up and about. We're happy about that as well. His girlfriend and best friend since 2nd grade stopped by and visited yesterday for awhile too and had dinner over. It was so nice for Chase to get to spend some time with family and a few friends. His personality is coming back quite well too. He's more and more like his old self again.

Today we took the kids to get shoes as they all needed them. Justin and Breanna wore their's out and Chase's were lost in the accident. Chase was a little worried that people would stare at him but we told him if they did it's only because they were curious about what happened to him. He did pretty well and I think it did him some good to get out. A very nice man was sitting next to him on the bench when we were looking for shoes and made the comment that Chase looked like he had a stiff neck. :) Chase told him what happened to him and the man talked with him for a little while. It made Chase feel at ease. He commented on how nice the man was later on. Isn't it wonderful to have such kind and considerate people out there?

This afternoon another of Chase's friends stopped in a for a visit. He's enjoyed being able to have a few of his friends come by. He's pretty worn out by the end of the day though. We're doing some therapy at home with him and also just enjoying spending time with him and having him here.

That's it for today. It's late and I need to go set my clocks ahead before I go to bed.

Love,
Michelle

What a difference a day makes!

Chase started feeling better last night. He had a couple of his friends stop by and play a game with him so that really cheered him up. He enjoyed that. He also slept well last night. He went to bed around 9:45 PM and slept until almost 5:00 AM. That was nice. I got up and gave him something light to eat and some pain medication and then he went right back to sleep. So I took advantage of that and did the same.

Today had actually had a pretty good day. He's having to take less medication and he's not sick anymore. His doctor had started him on some ritalin and was going to combine it with an antidepressant but then thought that was what was likely making him sick. So he had us take him off of it and see how he did. Well as I said, yesterday and today we didn't give it to him and he's no longer nausiated. So I think we found the culprit. :) We're also not having to give him pain medication as often either so that's great! He was eating better and drinking more as well as being in better spirits.

He had speech and physical therapy this afternoon and it went quite well. In physical therapy they worked with balance and coordination. Then in speech they worked with more problem solving skills, staying on task (attention & staying focused), some math and organizing thoughts. All in all it was a little slow but he did pretty good.

Now we're back home and he's pretty wiped out so he's resting. Stay tuned for next time.

Love,
Michelle

Rough couple of days

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but Chase has been pretty sick and I've not had much time to do anything but take care of him. I would like to post about his therapy on Monday afternoon though. He had "Speech" and Occupational therapy. Occupational therapy went well. He had to do some puzzles and pinching/squeezing measurements with his hands. She also worked with movement and range of motion in his arm. During speech therapy he did some math, memory exercises, problem solving, word finds and things like that. The speech therapist wants to contact the school and see about setting up some home hospital schooling for him soon to try to get him back on track there. We want him to be able to graduate with his class next year so we'll work on that.

Yesterday he wasn't feeling well most of the day and by later afternoon was quite ill. He's had horrible nausia and been vomiting. I feel awful for him but unfortunately there isn't much we can do. I'm hoping that he'll start feeling better soon and be able to hold down food and liquids. He's a little better this morning but not much. His spirits were better Sunday evening and Monday but getting sick has brought him back down again. We're praying for him to start feeling better soon.

Please keep those prayers coming Chase's way. He sure could use them. Thanks so much!

Love,
Michelle

A good night

Chase came back from his Dad's house about 5:00PM last night. He was in good spirits when he got here. His girlfriend, Jessica, was here when he came home and that made him happy. We played some games together and had a nice dinner provided by a close friend of mine. And by the way, thank you to all of you have brought dinner in to us. It has been a big help! All in all it was a good evening.

Breanna and I went to Sacrament meeting yesterday and both bore our testimonies. We both felt that we needed to do that and express gratitude. It was so nice to see our ward family. We've missed them all very much. Jeff was unable to attend because he had the flu. He seems to be doing ok today so luckily it looks like it was a 24 hour thing.

Chase woke up this morning in pain and upset. I got him some breakfast and pain medication and now he is sleeping again. I hope we can keep his spirits up. We'll give it our best. It makes him happy to know that he has so many people routing for him and praying for him. He is very grateful for that and expresses it to us.

Today he will have occupational and speech therapy in the afternoon. I'm sure that will go well. He's doing a remarkable job with everything.

Thanks so much everyone!
Love,
Michelle