Still Progressing

While working out in the field with my dad in Clermont I got a text message from my little sister Morgan. It said that Mikey was speaking to our Aunt Jennifer on the phone and he told her that "Brian was coming to visit him later." While Dad went to go get a 16 oz. Checkers milkshake, I went up to visit with Mikey. When I walked in the room he was restless, twisting and turning on his bed from side to side. At one point he had his head turned around toward the foot of the bed and was crawling as if he was trying to get off the bed. I said "Mikey, don't get out of your bed. It's not time for therapy. I think you should stay in your bed, don't you?" Mikey said "No, I think I should get up." I looked over to the nurse and she kind of shrugged her shoulders. I convinced Mikey to stay in his bed and not 5 minutes later he had a little accident. The nurse and I quickly realized that when Mikey was restlessly trying to escape from his hospital bed he was actually trying to tell us that he needed to use the bathroom. We explained to him that he should tell us when he needs to go; and if he can't tell us he should at least point to the bathroom. When Dad arrived with Mikey's usual Strawberry milkshake we were prepared for him to wrap his lips around that straw and pay little attention to anyone else in the room. He intently sucks that straw until every last drip of that milkshake is gone. We looked at some magazines. First I showed him a Surfing magazine and he said "Let me pick." I asked him which ones he liked and he responded "It doesn't matter, I just like the nice colors," which is not true because Mikey readily reads magazine headlines out loud. After showing him the latest ESPN he said "The Body Issue." We asked Mikey what he thought about visiting with Petey, his beloved dalmatian-pit bull mix and he laughed and muttered something about dogs being in the hospital. In the future we plan to get him in a chair so we can take him downstairs to see Petey in the parking garage. Mom brought him a stuffed animal from his childhood, an alligator puppet with a mouth that zips up. We asked Mikey what it was and he said "It looks like some kind of a stuffed frog." Close enough! While at Lakeland Regional we asked him to throw a little stress ball and after five minutes of intently staring at the ball in his hand he plopped it about six inches. Compare that to what he is doing now. Yesterday we batted around a balloon like we were playing a game of volleyball. We played around some with a Fisher Price type box with a variety of shapes. Though designed for toddlers, playing with the shapes helps his hand-eye coordination, recognition, and decision making. It took him a few minutes to figure it out but he eventually found the correct shapes and pushed them through the proper holes. When his doctor, who is from India, came in and asked how he was doing Mikey responded "he talks funny," which may be inappropriate but is surely a sign that his personality is returning.