Wednesday, March 9, 2011

cruise and update



This past Saturday, my dad and I drove Aron's 1967 Nova wagon in a car cruise with over 100 other Novas. Aron would have loved this event: at one point on the freeway, there was a traffic break and four lanes across and as far back as I could see, there were Novas. My dad and I were one of the lead cars, along with Amy and her dad in Amy's Nova wagon. Once we arrived at our destination, there was a banner on Aron's car for people to sign - you can see us holding it in the above photo. My dad and I held up better than I expected - but it was such an Aron event I kept expecting to see him walk by or hear a "Hey Dad" or "Hey Sister" at any moment.

He continues to receive therapy, and a few recent highlights: He can hold himself in a seated position on the edge of the bed, and the other day, he reached across his body and picked up an object (his cell phone) and transferred it to the other side of his body. This was done with help, but was a pretty big step. He hasn't spoken yet of consequence - every now and again a word comes out, but rarely. His vision was examined yesterday, and he could follow an object in front of his face when it went back and forth, however there is some limited movement in his left eye. He can identify things correctly, at times: my mom brought his graphing calculator, and told him to press certain keys, and he pressed the correct keys. I should also say there are times when he does nothing at all, even when prompted, and that is just the nature of the recovery process.

We continue to hope and pray for his eventual return.