It's the Little Things

What a happy day! 😃😃😄😄😀😀

Some dear friends gave me a book by M. Russell Ballard called "Yesterday, Today, and Forever". There are a few quotes from it that I want to share, so I just snapped pictures of them. ;)

Ryan was awake for a while this morning, laughing and smiling with the RNs and CNAs. Then he fell asleep, and only a few minutes later one of his therapists came in! Fortunately he agreed to come back later, after Ryan finished his nap. So, as soon as Ryan woke up, we let the physical therapists know, and they got here pretty quick.

Ryan's PA was also anxious to see Ryan awake, so she came in first and asked him a bunch of questions. One question she asked was if Ryan could see her. He nodded. Then she asked if he could see the glasses on her face. He scrunched up his face and squinted for a minute, and he finally mouthed the words, "Are you messing with me?" 😂 Yes, she was messing with him! She doesn't wear glasses! 😎 He wasn't able to answer the question about how many fingers she was holding up, but that's ok - he may have just been overwhelmed by all of the questions, or he may not be able to see that clearly.

We had just a few minutes before the physical therapists arrived, so I was asking Ryan if he could remember his cat's name. That one was tougher for him, but after I described his cat and when and where we got her, he finally remembered that her name is Link. He had more trouble remembering our dogs' names, but he did seem to remember that we had dogs.

The physical therapists went right to work with Ryan. They sat him up on the edge of his bed, and worked with him on holding his head up, leaning backward and forward, and rotating his head from side to side. Every tiny movement was hard for Ryan, but the therapists could see that he was initiating the movements that they asked him to make, and he had a few successes at pulling his head up and keeping it up briefly! He really pushed himself, and I am so proud of him! Towards the end of the therapy session, I asked him to smile for the camera, and instead he cheekily stuck his tongue out at me!!! 😛😜😝

Concentrating very hard!

Cheeky!

Earlier today we had Ryan try his speaking valve again. He coughed some normal coughs (out his mouth instead of out his trach), but it was reaffirmed that his current trach is just too big for him to speak around.

All in all, today has been a happy, hopeful day! Thank you again for all of your prayers, kind thoughts, and words of encouragement! Every single one matters, and means a lot to us! 💜💜💜