Movin' and Shakin'

Alistair's nurse last night told Seth she had never seen anyone progress as quickly as Alistair has. He takes a skill and runs with it. Anything he has begun to do, he looks like he has been doing for weeks in a matter of days! This kid is motivated and I also think he just knows what he needs to do and does it because it beats sitting around! Today we started working on stairs and he did great. We went into the stairwell and the PT gave him some instructions and away they went. There were 11 stairs. He went up and down them 3 times. He was tired after the 3rd time, but he looked good! He is getting an overnight pass this weekend. We will bring him home after therapies on Saturday and not come back until Sunday evening. Our house has lots of stairs, so it is definitely a necessity for him to work on them now. We will need to make sure to accompany him up and down them, but the fact that he can climb them at all is awesome! My brother is coming over tomorrow to help Seth install a handrail along the other side of both sets of stairs so Alistair has options to go up and down. 

 Alistair had some very special visitors today. His preschool teachers Mrs. Bowers and Mrs. O came to see him. They brought him a very special handmade story quilt as well as some donuts from Countryside Donuts (YUM!) and a coffee card for the parents (Thank You!!). They visited for quite a long time and we had a nice conversation. They are always so wonderful to talk to and spend time with and I know Alistair enjoyed having them come! The nurses were all so surprised that his PRESCHOOL teachers came (that was like, 5 years ago!!) and thought it was cool! 

Alistair also had a canine visitor, Hank. He has been here before. Alistair is on the top priority list for therapy dogs. I think we have seen all but one of the dogs, multiple times. He loves it! 

The rehab unit has become quite empty as of late. Alistair's buddy Monte discharged a few weeks ago. Then yesterday Alex and Daniel discharged, as well an older kid who turned out to be a lacrosse player from Woodinville! Alistair was a little bummed that Daniel was leaving. But yesterday, in typical Alistair fashion, he was telling Daniel goodbye and gave him all kinds of inspiring words of encouragement for the remainder of his healing. We exchanged contact information - mostly to get Xbox handles for online gaming. Monte came to visit yesterday to tell Daniel goodbye too. The 3 boys posed for a photo and it was so cool to see Monte AND Alistair standing next to Daniel instead of Monte standing between 2 kids in wheelchairs like last time!

Brian, one of the Recreational Therapists, came and got Alistair during his downtime to see if he wanted to play video games. He brought out an adapted Xbox controller that is larger and easier for someone with gripping issues to use. So they went and hung out in the day room playing video games until lunch! Brian was helping Alistair with the regular controller and then switching to the larger one to give him a break. Seth and Alistair played again later too. I am surprised we didn't tonight, but we did watch the M's win and some of the Seahawks game!

In the midst of everything else, Gillian started 1st grade. She had a great first day of school, loves her teacher and has one of her best buddies as well as neighbor, Kate, in her class. Gillian is amazing. Amid all that has occurred this summer and her being shifted to here there and everywhere and not getting to spend as much time with us as she should, her resiliency is unwavered. She has maintained such a happy and positive demeanor. Her love for her brother is very obvious in her genuine concern for his well-being as well as her excitement about the things he has done. She was so happy when I told her he walked the other day. Seth told her tonight he is coming home for the night this weekend and she was super excited. She is this bright, shiny sprite who continues to be happy and keeps us smiling. 

Things are looking up all over. Alistair has a discharge date of September 11th, one week from tomorrow. If it holds, we will have been in the hospital a total of 63 days...17 days at Mayo and 46 days at Children's. The crazy thing is that the days at Mayo seemed much longer than the days at Children's. Once he is home, he will be going to lots of outpatient therapies to continue to work on everything. He still has a long road ahead of him to get back to square one. But being able to be home and operate in "normal" life will only allow for his progress to continue to move in a steep upward trajectory. As mentioned up above, Alistair will be coming home this weekend for an overnight pass and trial run for the following week. We don't have much in the way of plans other than to enjoy being home and probably playing some video games. Give us a call or email if you want to drop by!