7/4/13 (Rachel Hanson) David has had a great week. Ritalin is getting titrated out of the medication regime, and, ironically, he's becoming more alert and I haven't noticed any possible absence seizures lately. He got his beautiful new AFO's and he's pedaling the bike all by himself over 100 revolutions now! David says it's the Lord that's making him feel better. :) he prayed for endurance for both of us tonight. So needed! He was in the parallel bars today propped up by 2 therapists and a CNA working on standing, weight shifting and stepping, grinning! :) He waved and signed "I love you" to Jocelyn. Today David had a consult with a neurologist. It was 100x better than the visit to the ENT on Friday. He was treated with respect and had lots of innovative ideas for helping David become more alert and control possible seizure activity. He gave him a "magic" nasal spray at the end of the visit that took his headache down from a 6/10 to a 1/10! It was incredible! David asked for prayer to be a witness Monday night. The next morning the OT asked him what his favorite scripture was in her session with him. He spelled out "Rom623" : For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. David is relentless in sharing the Good News - he'll find a way regardless of aphasia! The PT is talking car transfer training with me next week to prep for a trip to the redwoods in the car for us! :-D
7/10/13 (Rachel Hanson) I wish I could say things were still moving forward. Some days it just feels like I'm trying to run through a field full of molasses. Everything seems to happen in slow motion. The neurologist David saw last Wednesday prescribed a drug called Nemenda to help David wake up more. It's primary use is for Alzheimer's patients to improve memory. The last few days (since he started the drug) have been horrible. David has been really lethargic, unmotivated and has been confabulating strange things. He's also had more staring spells. It seems David can't tolerate more than one neurostimulant. I told the nurse I wanted him off of it immediately. I want my husband back! The OT and PT are ramping up my training so I'm doing more transfers with David. Today we got to do it in/out of the car. It convinced me even more that a Honda Civic is not the ideal car for us!! I'll be working with David as much as I can with a regular manual wheelchair to improve his mobility and trunk/head control.
7/13/13 (Rachel Hanson) This is the third day David has been off the new medications. He was a new person yesterday afternoon! Obviously, still has severe handicaps but at least was awake the whole afternoon and was making sense again. He communicated to me that he wanted to know how he got here and how he was leaving (transportation). I challenged him on the bike and told him I would do as many squats as he did revolutions on the bike. I clearly underestimated my husband's competitiveness!! He did 3 sets of 40 and then one set of 56. Needless to say, he was smirking and I was panting and my legs are sore this morning! :-P The PT and OT are determined to make our goal of crossing Point Reyes off our bucket list a reality in the near future. :-)
7/19/13 (Rachel Hanson) David continues to do better, especially cognitively, after stopping the new medications. He is initiating conversation more and more by waving his hand at me with the number of fingers up (representing the number of words he wants to say). Today was the first day he asked me to tell him about something without me pestering him with questions. He asked me to tell him about my dream house. It was so refreshing to dream about something without thinking about head injuries and life-sucking disabilities. My parents visited a couple days ago. David just loves visiting with my dad and it made him smile a lot. :) he also likes to tease my mom about things like asking her if she would go hang gliding...when he knows full well she wouldn't be caught dead in a hang glider!! David is finally getting the prolonged EEG that I've been asking for today. I've been thinking about the goodness of the Lord through this whole deal. There is so many instances where His care is evident. When I hear about what other patients have gone through, I find out how much God has protected us and helped smooth our pathway. One doctor said it would take til November to get an EEG and we got it in July. Another doctor said David wouldn't live and here he is! Another doctor said it would take 6 months for something else and it's only been 1 month. Everything has been paid for without hardly a struggle, which is not typical. David asks for prayer for patience. But when I asked him what he would write if he were to write his own update, he communicated, "God is healing me."
7/22/13 (Janet Rawlings) 
Rachel wanted me to post this time. I have been with David a lot since Aug. of last year and have been intimately involved with my heart in every stage. So it is cause for rejoicing when David accomplishes the smallest things. I love to tell of his accomplishment to any one who will listen!!! July 4th I was with him and the speech therapist was helping David feed himself ice cream. After his bite of ice cream the therapist left the spoon in his hand and turned to me to talk to me......well David wasn't going to let that opportunity pass so he dove into the ice cream bowl with the spoon!!! Way to go David!! This last week I decided to play Rook with David. Keith (my husband) had made him a 2 ft. long card holder out of a stick of wood. David had never played without help before, but with the card holder I thought he could manage IF he could play without his cards being put in order - thumbs up. He surprised me by lifting his whole right arm up so he could lift a card out of the holder and actually laid it on the table several times. Did not having his cards in order hamper him - of course not - he beat me both times!!!! Rachel has posted that David teased me about going hang gliding. I sure did enjoy the bright smile that lasted on his face for quite some time. Some time ago Keith and I were visiting David and we asked him if he had a favorite hymn and could he show us the number of it and we would sing it to him. He surprised us by using his left fingers as well as his right fingers to show us the number 499. 
I have posted three pictures. The one with David's arm around Rachel is one of my favorites. I took it just before Jocelyn was born.They are working on a facebook post. Rachel is doing her squats after David has done his rounds. Of course I had to include a resent picture of Jocelyn. Rachel and I stayed at a motel close by so that we could be at David"s facility early the next morning so Rachel could go with David to an appointment. Jocelyn and I followed in the car. We did some photo shoots the night before in the motel. I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your care and prayers. We certainly need every one.The care of David weighs heavily on Rachel's shoulders. Don't forget to pray for Jocelyn, too. She feels the strain, too. She doesn't get to take her morning and afternoon nap in her own little crib, except on Rachel's day off. And she is sick and tired of her car seat already!!! We Thank God for every little progress David makes and count them as miracles!!! The gospel continues to go out by speaking, our lives lived in front of an audience at the facility, and the c.d.'s David made a few years ago. Pray for the people that see and hear the gospel. "But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." Phil. 1:12 "The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad." Ps. 126:3
Rachel wanted me to post this time. I have been with David a lot since Aug. of last year and have been intimately involved with my heart in every stage. So it is cause for rejoicing when David accomplishes the smallest things. I love to tell of his accomplishment to any one who will listen!!! July 4th I was with him and the speech therapist was helping David feed himself ice cream. After his bite of ice cream the therapist left the spoon in his hand and turned to me to talk to me......well David wasn't going to let that opportunity pass so he dove into the ice cream bowl with the spoon!!! Way to go David!! This last week I decided to play Rook with David. Keith (my husband) had made him a 2 ft. long card holder out of a stick of wood. David had never played without help before, but with the card holder I thought he could manage IF he could play without his cards being put in order - thumbs up. He surprised me by lifting his whole right arm up so he could lift a card out of the holder and actually laid it on the table several times. Did not having his cards in order hamper him - of course not - he beat me both times!!!! Rachel has posted that David teased me about going hang gliding. I sure did enjoy the bright smile that lasted on his face for quite some time. Some time ago Keith and I were visiting David and we asked him if he had a favorite hymn and could he show us the number of it and we would sing it to him. He surprised us by using his left fingers as well as his right fingers to show us the number 499. I have posted three pictures. The one with David's arm around Rachel is one of my favorites. I took it just before Jocelyn was born.They are working on a facebook post. Rachel is doing her squats after David has done his rounds. Of course I had to include a resent picture of Jocelyn. Rachel and I stayed at a motel close by so that we could be at David"s facility early the next morning so Rachel could go with David to an appointment. Jocelyn and I followed in the car. We did some photo shoots the night before in the motel. I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your care and prayers. We certainly need every one.The care of David weighs heavily on Rachel's shoulders. Don't forget to pray for Jocelyn, too. She feels the strain, too. She doesn't get to take her morning and afternoon nap in her own little crib, except on Rachel's day off. And she is sick and tired of her car seat already!!! We Thank God for every little progress David makes and count them as miracles!!! The gospel continues to go out by speaking, our lives lived in front of an audience at the facility, and the c.d.'s David made a few years ago. Pray for the people that see and hear the gospel. "But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." Phil. 1:12 "The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad." Ps. 126:3
7/24/13 (Rachel Hanson) One thing that impresses me continually is that this brain injury has destroyed a lot of things that David used to do and be, but it cannot destroy his soul or his faith in the Lord Jesus. When all else is fuzzy, he still has a relationship with Christ and hope of eternity with Him. Last night was a good example. It had been a discouraging day for me just because I was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted and my perspective was tweaked. David was confused and tired. But we ended up "talking" for a long time after he went to bed and we read the last chapter of Matthew together. I like to ask him if he has any comments on the chapter to encourage him to lead our family. He usually just spells out "good stuff" and that's it, but last night he spelled out, "we serve a risen Saviour". Today we had a fantastic opportunity to share God's word with two therapists. The speech therapist and occupational therapist were using his letter board and wanted to have him spell out the reference to one of his favorite Bible verses. He spelled "John 14:6". The speech therapist got her iphone out and read the verse in about 5 translations and then decided to read more of the chapter! When I asked David what he thought the purpose of all this was, he spelled out, "teaches us patience." THAT it does! I've been working on a lot of transfers with David, car transfers, bed transfers, chair transfers... He's heavy, I'm weak, the end. David is often confused. He asked for prayer to be less confused. He repeats ideas or questions often but he will usually stop if it's starting to drive me crazy! We're having him sit in a regular wheelchair more instead of a tilt-in-space to facilitate head and trunk control. He is very weak and slumps without constant cuing. I asked him if he gets tired of me always poking and prodding, nagging him to keep his head up, do this, do that. He graciously said no. I told him he was a saint because if I were him, I'd be really annoyed! Pray for Jocelyn and I. Our drives are very long - sometimes over 2 hours one way. Jocelyn is a great kid though and really doesn't cry that much for all she goes through on a daily basis. There are unending decisions and business things to attend to which wear me out.
7/29/13 (Rachel Hanson)David is initiating and entering into conversation more and more. It's hard though, because his comments are delayed because we have to spell everything out. When I asked him what he did this morning, he spelled out, "shared the gospel with a lady." He's had on his heart to share the gospel with one of his CNA's since yesterday and asked her first thing this morning, "What do you think of Jesus Christ?" He also asked the PT the same question this morning and she thanked him for such a nice conversation this morning. yesterday he was asking everyone what their first memory was. Yesterday, I put him on the bike. I thought he was ready to go but he held up his fingers wanting to tell me something first..."you have to do leg squats!" Oh dear, what did I start? I can't count on him forgetting something from a week ago, I guess! Looks like we're starting the process of getting a modified vehicle next week. should make it easier to take David on outings with something other than a Honda Civic!
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