Day 41 Catching up on week of progress

First off let us apologize for the lack of blogs this week. We have been consumed with Zach and his progress. I will try to update you day by day this week as I can remember:

TUESDAY- Mom and I were informed that Zach would be moving floors once again. Good because they felt as if he was getting better but bad that because we were still dealing with Zach pulling out all sorts of tubes. That was a rough day and with Zach restrained in his bed mom felt better if she stayed over night.

WEDNESDAY- Mom was tired and up all night with Zach and the noise on the new floor. After ripping out yet another feeding tube the doctors kept it out for the day. That morning they removed Zach's trach. YAY. He is now completely breathing on his own. Later that day they decided to do a swallowing test on Zach to see if he was able to eat food and drink liquids. He past the part of concentrated liquids ( pudding, applesauce, etc.) but failed drinking liquids. We assured Zach that we would try again another day. On a side note this swallow test is the only thing that now comes between him going to rehab or not.

THURSDAY- Zach has become more and more understandable with is words daily. Yesterday he went without a feeding tube for most of the day because every time he takes one out the nurses have to put it back in the nose, call for an x-ray, wait for the x-ray to make sure the tube is in the stomach, wait for the doctor to read the x-ray, and then start the feeding. This is a process. However he was in a good mood for most of the day. The highlight of being on this floor is that Physical and Occupational Therapy come by to work with him once a day and get him out of the bed.
On this particular day one of our favorite physical therapists decided to put Zach in the wheelchair and wheel him over to ICU. Everyone was so impressed with Zach and he was grinning from ear to ear with each compliment.
Later that day Zach and I watched the movie Aladdin and sang (Zach mouthed) all the songs. The Rehab Resident came in and was overly impressed with Zach. She expressed that she was going to use Zach for a study for some neuro meds he was on but he was improving to quickly. OH DARN! She assured him that they are excited to have him over there. He grinned.

FRIDAY (Today)- Zach and Mom had a slumber party once again last night. When she left she told Zach she was going to go home to get some coffee and shower to which Zach responded that he too felt that he should come home to get a shower and some coffee. "That sounds like a good idea mom." I came in the morning and spent the day with Zach. He had both PT and OT where they sat him up on the edge of his bed. Zach and I played a card game of war and I quizzed him on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" questions. He's smarter than his mother and I.
Even though he has his feeding tube in he is thirsty and hungry. He told me that since it was the weekend he felt like we should go to Fuel Pizza. I told him once he got better he can have all the pizza he wanted. You feel so bad but know you can't give him anything.

Everyone that talks or deals with Zach loves him (how could you not). He is so polite with everyone that comes in the room and waves to them when they leaves. He remembers so much and needs to be reminded about so little. Zach does have his random moments where he will speak of a car on interstate 77 or the Louisville baseball team but its just a blurb and then hes back.

He's doing so great and there are so many more little details. Thanks for being patient and will update you soon.

Ang and Jo