May 12, 2007 Update

Hello everyone. Luke is progressing, 1 inch at a time, but in the right direction. We are very thankful for the following improvements:

1. He is off the feeding tube and able to carefully eat pureed food. This is great. He really enjoys this.

2. All his IV's are out, no more tubes or wires. Yea!

3. His headaches are subsiding. He still has them but he's not requiring as much pain medication as he had been.

4. He is beginning to have some movement and a little sensation on his left side. With great concentration and physical effort, he can raise his left arm and leg a little.

5. He's still on blood pressure medication, which is doing a good job of controlling his pressure.

6. His temperature is now holding close to normal, this is great news.

7. He's had two showers this week! How good they felt! They wheel him to the shower in a special chair and put him under the shower and scrub him up. He feels a lot better after this as you can imagine.

8. Speech and swallowing therapy are going well. His word are getting clearer. It will take a while to get fully back, but he is progressing.

9. Physical and occupational therapy are very tough for him, but he's giving it all he has. It completely exhausts him. They lift him out of bed and put him in a wheelchair. He sits there for 30 minutes, just balancing and learning to hold his head up and straight. They also wheel him to the therapy room where they do certain arm and leg exercises, neck exercises, hand control exercises. They lift him into a standing position and have him stand there for 5 minutes, holding onto a stand attached to the floor, just trying to balance and hold his head up. This is grueling work for him and hard to watch, but we are so proud of his effort and we and he know that this is just what he has to go through to regain things and come back. He struggles with balance because his equalibrium is off and because he sees double. It will prabbaly take quite a while for his eyes to correct and come back. If they don't on their own then surgery may be needed.

There are many friends to thank for all the help they are continuing to give us. Tom and Julia are a second pair of parents to our family. Marisa has spent time at the hospital keeping Luke and Susan company, which helps A LOT. Marisa stayed with Luke while Laurie LaDow took Susan away for a couple hours and got her a massage. How good that felt! Others to thank are Joanne Lee, Shelly Bell and others I know I'm missing for help with our other kids. We were told at the beginning of this that the long term support of friends and neighbors would be crucial. That is so true and we thank you all for it. Special thanks also to grand parents Rusty and Wanda who have trecked up here from San Luis Obispo several times and spent a couple weeks overall with us taking care of things at the house. Their help has been invaluable. Thanks also to everyone who is bringing meals to the house. Thanks to Dr. Mark Douglass who came to the hospital and worked on Luke's retainers for his teeth. Thanks to everyone who comes to visit Luke, please keep coming, it's very good for him to know you all care.

That is the latest. Please continue to pray for a good recovery for Luke, and for him and us to have patience, strength and perserverance because this is going to take months to maybe a year or two to come back from. Your support and prayers are invaluable to us. Thanks everyone.

Tom and Susan