Thursday February 2nd, 2012

Time marches on and Josh moves forward.

Josh continues to thrive under the guidance of
the Bryn Mawr Rehab team. He is in the pool every
week now. Despite his protests, he always has a big
smile on his face while he's in the water.

Josh is walking in the pool with little or no
assistance. He can stand at the wall unassisted.

Josh is walking in the gym with and without a walker
with minimal assistance. He can stand at a wall or with
a support on one side unassisted.

In OT, his arm and hand strength continue to increase
and his right arm gains more mobility and dexterity
week after week. "Righty", as we call him, is helping
with dressing, eating, grooming and on the tablet computer.

Josh's memory issues seem to come and go to a varying
degree. For the most part, he is coping, and learning
skills to help overcome this.

At home, Josh is assembling wooden models, paper crafting,
baking and working on his stand up routine. Thanks to Abilities
in Motion for finally getting us some assistance in the home a
few hours a week and finalizing some minor alterations in the
bathroom.

Things were a bit hectic last week. As Mike was flying in
from a trip to Chicago, Darling was driving to Vermont
to help out Rose who was diagnosed with Scarlet Fever.
Everyone is doing better now and back at home this week.
It's always something...

We are thankful for the progress Josh is making and for the
continued love and support from our circle of family and friends.

The Bonjos

Saturday January 21st, 2012

Things continue to move forward. Josh is working
hard in the pool, walking with almost no assistance.
In the gym, he is walking further with minimal assistance.
He is also riding a recumbent bike.

Josh is working in his old college computer science books
and doing really cool stuff on his iPad.

Winter is finally here, 4 inches of snow today.

Mike leaves in the morning for Chicago for a trade show.

The days are getting longer.

Love you all,
The Bonjos

Monday January 2nd, 2012

Happy New Year Everyone!

We had a great holiday filled with many emotions;
celebrations of Christmas, a New Year and the life of
Josh, as well as, difficult memories of Josh's accident
brought to the surface by the time of year.

We are so grateful for the second chance we have been given
with Josh. He understands how blessed he is and demonstrates
this through his hard work in therapy. He is standing and walking
with little or no assistance in the pool. We believe his "dry land"
skills are about to make another leap to a higher level.

Josh is also using a very interesting new program at BMR on the Ipad
which tests, tracks and monitors cognitive skills in many
areas. Josh picked it up immediately, of course, and it looks like
the Ipad has become the tool of choice at the rehab center.

We are so thankful for all of our friends, family, co-workers,
and strangers who dropped everything in their lives to be at
our side in our time of need, a year ago. This has been a truly
life changing experience in so many ways.

So now we move ahead in a new year, cheering Josh on, day by day,
on his race to recovery.

We Love You All!
Mike, Darling, Josh and Rose

Friday December 16th, 2011

This past week included some tough moments. It was both a
celebration of Josh making it through a year in recovery, and the
"anniversary" of the night of the accident. Bittersweet.

Josh also changed his Facebook status to single this weekend, which is
ok under current circumstances and everyone remains close friends.

Still we move forward. Sam and Dylan came for
dinner on Saturday night and lifted our spirits!

Josh had a great week in therapy. Keystone Mercy basically cut
him off for the last 2 weeks of the year, (to save money).
The angels at Bryn Mawr Rehab scholarshipped Josh in until
January 1st, when he automatically gets his benefits reset
for the new year.

Josh's new shoe modification has helped with standing and walking
and pool therapy continues to push him closer to functioning with less
assistance.

If we don't get a chance to post again before the holidays,
please have yourselves a wonderful time! Hug and kiss your
loved ones.

We love and thank you all for your continued support!

Love,
The Bonjos

Tuesday December 6th, 2011

Josh had a minor operation last week on his foot. Everything
went great. He is continuing with lots of standing and walking
exercises and the 3 days of therapy each week have really made
a difference. A lift installed in his shoe has made a noticeable
difference in these activities. Josh is working very hard.
Unfortunately, this leaves him exhausted, but he has to do the
work now.

Josh's right arm is continuing to improve in strength and agility.
He can now eat about half of his meals with "Righty", as we call it.

We are coming up on 1 year since the accident. It's hard to believe.
I don't know how we will handle December 12th, 2011. I feel
anxious as the date approaches, reliving that night in 2010 in my mind.
Really, we should treat it like any other day now that we
have our son back with us. We should be hopeful and thankful
for the gift we have been given.

Love you all,
The Bonjos

Wednesday November 23rd, 2011

Josh stood in therapy last week for 40 minutes
with minimal assistance during one of his PT sessions.
He stood today in the pool without assistance for short
periods of time. I can feel when I transfer him that he
is regaining his balance again.

He continues to fight walk on his own. This has proven to
be more difficult than we anticipated. However, we knew
this was going to be an uphill climb. Interestingly,
he is better climbing stairs and walking backward
than forward. Still he pushes on.

Josh is doing complex math in his head, surfing the
web and Facebook on his tablet computer and keeping
us all laughing with his dry wit. He is hilarious!

We can see a difference already, having therapy 3
days a week. Thank you.

So as we prepare for the holiday tomorrow, we are so
very thankful for our friends and family who
supported us through this most difficult year, and
of course to have Josh, happy and healthy,
at the dinner table with us again.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Enjoy your family and your Thanksgiving celebration!

Much Love,
The Bonjos

Josh turned 20 last weekend.

Despite the freak snow storm, loss of power
and Dad getting the flu, we were able to have
a small birthday celebration with those who
made it through the snow and around closed roads.
(No, the generator still will not start!)

It is a great gift and a blessing that we were able
to celebrate this birthday with Josh. There were times
11 months ago when I questioned if we would make it this far.
Josh has come a very long way.

After an initial denial and subsequent appeal, Josh was approved for
3 days a week of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy.
It was only a 6 week approval instead of 8, but we will take it!
He is starting to use a walker now in therapy. Things are coming together.

Sometimes we lose sight of the forest for the trees as things
move so slowly. We were looking at Josh's work book yesterday and
all of the sudden had to ask ourselves why we still had a list of
"Josh's Important Questions" in there. Well 4 months ago, Josh had a
list of very important things he had trouble remembering. In that moment
of realization, I remembered that he had not needed to ask any of those
questions in a very long time. This is how the healing happens.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the party and thanks
for your continued support!

Love,
The Bonjos