Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Thusday March 10th, 2011


Josh has been recovering very rapidly in some respects. That is what we have
been focusing on in the updates. Every new accomplishment, no matter how
small lifts us all up another inch out of the mire of this tragedy and gives
us the renewed hope and energy to face this challenge for another day.

At this time, we wanted to explain some of the challenges Josh is still facing, despite his rapid advances in speech and cognition.

Josh is able to help with his grooming, washing his face, brushing his teeth and other necessary tasks. He can assist with getting dressed a little bit. But his right side, especially his right arm and hand are still rebooting. He is using a cast-like splint for several hours a day to keep the arm extended and stretched. This week, his OT person Ann, thinks she is detecting voluntary movement in his thumb and shoulder. This type of one-sided temporary paralysis is common in the type of brain injury Josh has and we have all hope that his arm and hand will heal completely.

Josh is beginning to wiggles his toes. The doctors have asked us to encourage this "exercise" to strengthen the newly re-established neural pathways to his legs.

Josh's hips have a hard time flexing and bending which makes the wheelchair uncomfortable. That flex to a sitting position is getting better every day and he is much more at ease when in the wheelchair now.

Despite his rapid improvement with speech, Josh is really struggling with his
short term memory. When he is tired, his memory can last as little as
15 minutes with some things, which can be quite confusing but quite normal with TBI.

Despite these struggles, Josh remains polite and cheerful most times. It is great
to see him belly laughing at Rose doing a silly dance or at his roommate cursing
up a storm for no good reason. (That lifts us up 2 inches at a time.)

Josh will be at Bryn Mawr at the least for another month, maybe two or three. We hope he can stay long enough to overcome the larger hurdles of his recovery. After discharge, many months of outpatient therapy and family coaching will be necessary to get him further on down the road to self sufficiency.

We thank you again for your prayers, support and for just following Josh's
progress on the blog.

Cheers,
The Bonjos

3 comments:

  1. This blog has been so insightful in understanding Josh's catastrophe. The human body is such a miraculous machine that we often don't realize it until something goes wrong. I so admire the determination, strength and conviction the Bonjo family has. You are lucky to have Josh, he is also lucky to have the Bonjo's!
    SB

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Darling, Mike and Rose-
    Thank you again for sharing so much on this blog about Josh. It really helps ease our minds, and hopefully yours too to know so many people care and are here for you.
    Love
    Susan, John and Toshi

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great news once again about Josh. Thanks for the updates, we look forward to them, and his continued progress. Keep up the good work Josh, you are doing great. Love to all, Judy & Kimmy

    ReplyDelete