It's update time. How do we top Bryan writing his name?? Well, for starters, he also wrote Tyler and Tabby's! This week Bryan has been working diligently with his therapists, even though it causes him pain at times. The therapists tell us that he works through the pain and has never said no. His range of motion is slowly but surely getting better but his left side is still a lot stronger then his right. He usually writes with his right hand, but he's now writing with his left because that arm is looser. His speech therapist is working on having him eat actual food, which he CAN do but he doesn't always seem to want to.
We've also been noticing more of a sense of humor coming through. The other night Bonnie was visiting and held the phone while Bryan talked with Erin. Erin was asking him questions and he would answer with, "Yeah." She said, "Are you just going to keep saying yeah?" He said, with a smile, "Yeah." We also heard from one of his therapists that she was asking him to bend his leg. He wasn't so she went bent down to do it and he said, "No, wait." She sat up, and bent down again and he said, "Wait." This happened about 5 times and she finally asked him what he was doing and he said, "Messing with you." Erin had asked Bry if he knew her name. He responded, "Miss Sweaty Pants." Bonnie made sure to thank him for the new nickname for Erin and Bryan smiled.
At this point, we are so happy to see him smile, joke, answer questions correctly, and interact with his children since we didn't know if we would see that again. It's those times that make the difficult times easier. Knowing the harder he tries, and fights through the pain, the stronger he will be. With all the ups, there are "downs" but we take them where we can. Though he smiles, it's not the same smile we know to be Bryan's. Though he jokes, the humor is different, though he interacts with his children, he isn't the dad they have known. We picked this song specifically for one sentence. "Part of where I'm going is knowing where I'm coming from." Nobody can say where he will be down the road, but one thing is for certain...he has come far, and we make sure to remind him of that every single day.
Happy Veteran's Day. To everyone who has served, or is serving, in our military: Thank you for all you do. God bless our troops.