December 20, 2005

One thing that I have noticed this week is that we are finally able to rock him to sleep or rub his face to calm him as he falls to sleep. It doesn’t always work, but most often it does. It is so wonderful to even have ways to calm him since it has been months since we have been able to do so.

Samuel got the cast put on his leg this past week and will have it on for about a month. He doesn’t seem to mind it much although it is really hard and does kick his other foot with it at times. So we are careful to keep big, heavy socks on both feet so he doesn’t hurt himself.

Today was one of the best days we have had with hyperbarics. I moved his car seat next to the window over the weekend. I did it so it would be easier for me to get him in and out of the car. Funny that I didn’t think to do it a long time ago. But today as we drove down to Murray, he was wide awake the whole time and didn’t cry once. He seemed to enjoy watching the scenery and cars go by. I definitely should have put him by the window a LONG time ago! Oh, well!

We have nearly weaned Samuel off his tranxene. We should have him entirely off it by the first of next week. That will basically leave him with taking a vitamin, suppositories and his keppra for his myoclonic jerks. We may try in the near future to see how he does without the keppra. But I am not getting my hopes up too high as I do see the myoclonus nearly everyday and I am assuming it will be worse without the keppra. But we shall see. We also started giving Samuel 5HTP which is a protein or herb that helps to calm. It seems to be helping him as he is a little calmer than before and that is without his tranxene. We also started giving him omega 3 fats once a day to try and help with his weight and to ensure he is getting enough fat in his diet since the brain is made up mostly of fatty tissue.

Otherwise, Samuel has good and bad days still. It seems to sort of run every other day. I’m not quite sure why. But even when he is upset, it is nothing like in the beginning. We watched a little video of him taken about 2 weeks after the accident and I must say that memories fade quickly and I soon forget just how awful things were. I would have paid a million dollars to have him doing as well as he is now when we were at that point. So we DEFINITLY can’t complain because he has come so far.

As hyperbarics ends, we are boosting up his therapy and will hopefully have therapy every day - even a few times each day. Samuel is finally getting to the point where he can handle that much stimuation in a day. So we are going to do all we can to help him continue to improve.

Thanks again for all the prayers. We are considering holding a fast for Samuel in the near future and will let everyone know once we decide. The more faith, the better! so we would love everyone to be involved.

Thanks again for all your support!

Love,
The Jewkes