Update:

Kevins surgery went as planned. The Doctors are slowly weening him off of his pain medications. His body is adjusting well. On monday Kevin will sit in his very own custom wheelchair at least three hours a day. During these three hours he will be in physical therapy. The chair reclines back in the a seated position, it has a head rest to insure his head will be stable. This will be a nice change for Kevin.

Kevin has been tracking from left to right, he slightly lifts his head to allow the nurses to get his oxygen tubes on and off of his neck, he also knows who his mom is... The therapist asked him if his mom was in the room, and if she was could he look at her... and so he did. :)
Saturday nurses put a smaller trake in. They want him to soon be breathing completely by himself all the time.

Today Tig, his brother is spending time with him at the hospital. Kevin seems to respond to him more than anyone else so far. He stairs at him, moves his head around, he grunts as if he wants to say something. So far last week was very encouraging. We hope he keeps it up for the next two weeks. Our hope is that the therapists and specialists see that Kevin is making "purposeful" progress so that he can move into an acute care center. An acute care center is where Kevin gets to learn everything he might have forgotten. It's were he gets a lot of attention and stimulation 6 days out of the week and on the seventh day he rests... Of course!

Kevin is not able to do the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy until he no longer has to use the trake. We are all excited to get that therapy going.

My Family would like to Thank Mary and Bob, owners of Robert's Market in their neighborhood. Kevin made a lot of trips to this little store and we appreciate their well wishes and prayers!

Please continue to think of Kevin and keep him in your prayer! I'll get back to you next week...

Christmas with Kevin

Hello everybody, I just want to update you on what's happening with Kevin... Currently Kevin has started a rehabilation program which right now consists of stretching his body out and getting him to respond to commands. This is very hard and painful for Kevin so he is given a lot of pain medication which affects his mental abilities. For this reason it is sometimes hard to tell what he can and can not do. On Jan 5th he will have another operation. They will be putting a tuna can sized canister into his stomach that release a drug called Baclofen. Baclofen is a muscle relaxer and an antispastic agent.
Baclofen is used to treat muscle symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis, including spasm, pain, and stiffness.
Kevin does not have MS. But his body wants to "curl" up because of tightness and spasms in his muscles, this will help with pain and ease his way through rehabilitation. He will most likely not have to be dependent on this drug all his life.

Kevin had another breakthrough the day after Christmas. My sister brought him his old Harley Davidson teddy bear that he threw out a few months prior to his accident. But like everything my mom kept it... When Kevin saw the bear his eyes lit up. He tried leaning forward and then tried to reach for it. This is exactly what we want to see. Only we have to get these things to happen everyday. Kevin can also tap his fingers and blink his eyes on command. He is starting to trac from right to left. Before he could only trac to his left.

In this picture is Kevin and his brother David (Tig) We had just filled out a whole page of questions about Kevin: What his hobbies are, what movies he likes, ect... Tig said one of his favorite movies is Joe dirt. Soon after filling out hat sheet Kevin woke up for a few minutes so everyone was telling him how well he was doing and how good he looked and then Tig threw out a quote- He leaned close to Kevins ear and said "Life's a garden Kev you know that, dig it make it work for you" Once we got home I asked where he had come up with that, he said it was a quote from Joe dirt. How fitting and sweet!!!

Please continue to Pray and keep Kevin in your thoughts... We Thank everyone for their concern!

Much Love and Appreciation- The Family

I will write weekly on Kevins progress.