WOW! He can talk--oops, my bad, he commands!

The staff inserted a slightly different size trach yesterday and since he seemed to tolerate it better than the one previously tried they put the passy muir valve on it today and we could hear his voice. "Scratch my head--down lower--scratch harder--ouch! not that hard--over to the right--no, down to the left, etc." I finally reminded him that he might get farther with at least an occasional 'please' and 'thank you.'

Angelique has been so wanting to carry on a regular conversation with her Uncle Jon that Carol called her and without saying who she was putting on the line to talk with her, she put the phone to Jon's ear. They talked a bit and then we heard Jon say, "You don't know who this is, do you?" About that time Carol took the phone back and told her it was her Uncle Jon...Angelique's reply?--Jon Castanien???? (like she has more than one Uncle Jon.) So then they had to talk some more...you can read her reaction below.

At one point in the afternoon Carol and I set about exercising his legs to keep his muscles from atrophying. He looked down and said, "What are you girls, doing?" We said we were exercising his legs to which he informed us that wasn't what they were doing in physical therapy. We just nonchalantly explained that these were the exercises Parkview had suggested and we had been doing them almost everyday now for about 5 weeks and kept right on going.

They are now administering some lung medication in what they refer to as an easy pack. Jon hates it! It must interfere with his breathing drastically and yesterday he was physically fighting it, pushing away the therapist's hands, etc. I went to take his hand away and declared him almost ready to do some arm wrestling! He's developing some muscle in the left arm...wish his right arm was coming along as well. One of his arguments against the medication was that 'he knew what was best for him!' They'll have to change the name of that procedure--'easy pack' is a misnomer in his mind.
Must say though that it went better today--of course, a male therapist might have something to do with it, too.

I know it is a long drive but now that he is communicating aloud instead of in whispers it would be worth your while to make the trip. He misses you!