Another Day

Wow!!! What a change in Cole. If you see Cole everyday you'll see all the small subtle changes and signs of improvement. But you don't realize the sum of all those improvements until you see him after not seeing him for a few days. That's what happened today when I saw him for the first time since he moved to CHLA. I saw the sum of all those improvements that have occurred over the past few days and wow. It really gives you hope and makes you believe that everything is going to be OK.

Probably the one thing that stands out the most about Cole today is that overall he just looks a lot better. Even though he still sleeps a lot allowing his brain to heal, and still gets tired pretty quickly, he's more alert and responsive when he's awake. He talks more, asks questions, smiles, makes jokes, eats a lot more and is walking a little better. He all but busted out laughing once today when he saw his mom dancing in the room to the tunes of Adele.

Cole underwent a marathon of therapy sessions this morning and then had lunch. He tries very hard during the sessions but usually about half way through gets tired and can't continue. This was demonstrated during the afternoon speech therapy session when Cole abruptly put his chin on the table and closed his eyes as the therapist sat across the table from him. And then later, during the same session, leaned back and put his head on the back of his chair and closed his eyes. Cole had had enough. These 2 episodes sparked laughter from everyone in the room. It was really funny.

Cole is doing better and better everyday but no one is under the illusion that the road to recovery will be anything less than a long one requiring a lot of hard work. Even though the MRI's show that Cole's injuries are severe, the doctor doesn't give them much value and believes that based on his current progress, he'll be walking and running around in the next 6 months. He even ventured a guess that by the end of 2 years, Cole could recover to the point that, even though he might have some issues, it would be difficult for even doctors to know that he had an injury at all. The doctor added that Cole will be at CHLA for the next 4-6 weeks.

Cole finished out the night with dinner, a shower and watching cartoons in bed. Sounds like a normal teenager already.