Ilan's Trake Opening is closed

Last Thursday Ilan went to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica as an outpatient and had his trake opening surgically closed. He had a few rough times for 2 days after the surgery but bounced back shortly thereafter to the smiling funloving Ilan that we all know.

He has begun to strengthen his leg muscles with extra exercises at home; we have set a goal that within a week or two his legs will be so strong that Ilan will feel comfortable in asking us to take him for a short walk without his wheelchair?!

Yesterday he gave us a pleasant surprise and scare - he was alone in the room with his wheelchair close to the bed, unlocked. Apparently he was in an adventurous mood because when Estelle returned to the room she found him sitting in the wheelchair 6-8 feet away from the bed; he had transferred himself to the chair and found a way to move the chair with his legs!!

In therapy he is doing very well. In physical therapy he continues to make great advances - he strides quite confidently with the help of a walker and they had him weaving thru an "obstacle course" to make it more challenging; in speech therapy he is making progress albeit slow and is able to say a few words quite clearly; vision therapy has not yet been provided to him even though he urgently needs same.

Ilan is most excited when he goes out and meets some of his friends. He was at the Clippers/

Maccabi Elektra basketball game last week and several of his Milken friends came by to say hello. On Sunday, even though he was still recovering from surgery, he was determined to go and went to a fashion show at Milken that was done by the students!

Thank you for reading about Ilan's progress and cheering him on when you see him. We hope that soon he will be better able to verbally share his thoughts and feelings with us all.

Happy Birthday Ilan

Ilan recently celebrated his 17th Birthday and his Milken classmates were instrumental in making sure that he really celebrated it. Two of the boys, Sam and Max, and their family put on a concert at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood to honor Ilan's birthday. Sam and Max and their band played unbelievably great music for over an hour. Many of Ilan's friends and teachers from Sinai Akiba and Milken H.S were very kind to attend, taking time off from their busy schedules. Ilan had a huge smile on his face thru the entire session - he stood up at times and swayed to the music, clapped, and moved his hands up/down/around.

They sang happy birthday to Ilan and gave him a present along with cup cakes and then mushed one of the cupcakes into Ilan's mouth - Ilan did not miss a beat and promptly hugged his brother Jarone and in turn mushed Jarone's cheeks too with all the stuff on his (Ilan's) face, and then triumphantly laughed.

THANK YOU, SAM/MAX/AND FAMILY FOR GIVING ILAN SUCH A WONDERFUL TIME FOR HIS BIRTHDAY!!

Following is a brief update on Ilan:

- he has passed all the required swallow tests and hopefully next week his trake opening will be closed permanently.

- he is busy with many therapies (physical, occupational, and speech) which are all giving Ilan the opportunity to improve in all aspects. He is now walking a little easier with less help, he is beginning to pronounce a few words, he has been doing a few swimming sessions, etc.

- he is far more comfortable in moving his body to reach items a little distance away but within his reach.

-he is going on AIM with friends and doing his best to write to them - we have found that he needs vision therapy to help him read and type; he should be starting vision therapy soon

- he is now eating a lot more items, including rice pudding, corn dogs, hot dogs, chicken nuggets and is more willing to try other things at least once!

In short, Ilan is showing his determination to get better and we need to help him further build his stamina to do things for longer periods.

We wish all Ilan's friends, teachers, realtives and well-wishers a year filled with happiness, health, laughter and prosperity.

Speedo Times are here again

Earlier this week at therapy Ilan was made to walk up and down stairs for the 1st time. Ilan took this challenge very seriously and performed very well. He also stood up by himself and walked along the inside of parallel bars all by himself. Today he propelled himself on a new wheelchair along the hallways by turning the wheels himself!

On Tuesday of this week Ilan donned his speedo and had swim therapy for almost an hour with the kind assistance of waterpolo coach Niall, Jarone and Michal. Ilan had a huge smile on his face for the entire session and also for the rest of the day. He was made to walk across the pool, lay on his back and kick his legs, and also lay on his stomach and kick his legs. At first he was quite apprehensive of these exercises but with a little coaxing and reassuring comments from his brother, sister and coach Niall, he let go and willingly participated and then some. He will probably get in the pool again this weekend!!

Ilan is making a concentrated effort to begin to speak. He gets on the computer by himself and is determined to soon have private AIM chats with friends by typing by himself!

Wii - Success!!

Watching Ilan miraculously improve himself during these past few weeks has been very rewarding. When we 1st bought the Wii for Ilan we had difficulty getting him to play it because he was very frustrated at being unable to move his hands as needed by the Wii - last evening we experienced the exact opposite, Ilan was so excited and happy to be playing golf, by himself on the Wii that he did not want to stop playing!!!!

This past weekend we took him to watch the USC Trojan football team practices and tonight we will go to a football practice game - Jarone is an assistant with the team and Ilan is constantly on the lookout to watch him, more so than the team. Jarone requested all the star players to autograph Ilan's Tshirt which they most willingly did, including Coach Pete Carroll!! Ilan was extremely happy for getting all the autographs.

July 10th - a historic day for Ilan.

Yesterday, Friday July 10th 2009, was a very important day for Ilan.

Earlier this week we received results from Ilan's recent sleep test informing us that he passed with flying colors. So, yesterday morning Ilan was taken to the ENT specialist for a followup examination.

Well, I arrived home around 2:45pm and asked Estelle what had happened at the ENT meeting. She responded that Ilan would tell me (Ilan was sleeping at the time!).

So around 4:00pm Ilan woke up and I went to his room - I found him with a big triumphant smile on his face and pointing with his index fingers to his throat area. He had a gauze bandage there:

the TRAKE that he had had in place in his throat for the past 22 months was REMOVED!

This is a major achievement for Ilan as this will alllow him to safely swim (with proper protection near his throat) in a pool and will hopefully jump start his ability to speak!!!!

Have great summer.

Ilan-a-go-go

Ilan is working really hard and making tremendous strides in his recovery during the past 30 days. He now requests us to do exercises which include:

- coordinating his arm movements to replicate swimming styles

- shifting his legs to walk with some assistance

- practicing boxing with both hands; jabs, upper cuts, round the world

- hitting and kicking a beach ball, that we throw to him, with perfect timing

- sitting or standing unassisted holding the side of the table with one hand

- happily doing crunches with assistance

- doing the equivalent of bench presses with arms or legs

- wheeling himself around on a wheelchair using his hands on the wheels,

and much more.

He recently took another "sleep" test to check his breathing while asleep - we are waiting for the results. He also took another "swallow" test and passed. He is also receiving electronic stimulation to his right cheek to "awaken" the muscles there to regain his gorgeous smile - see picture

On July 4th, we took him to Back on the Beach restaurant. Jarone took Ilan at high speed in his wheelchair on the new ramp built from the bike path to the ocean. Ilan screamed with excitement on the way to the water and back. He returned to our table and immediately asked for a french fry and began to stuff the whole piece in his mouth (this is a first!). We had to stop him and instead have him bite a small piece. He also ate pancakes, hamburger and later some saltine crackers. He now eats yogurt from the cup all by himself.

Ilan meets a few of his friends now and then when we are out shopping. He truly enjoys meeting them and gives each and every one a hearty handshake and bear hug. He says that he remembers each of them.

Ilan's face constantly shows his exhilaration with the improvements he makes. He loves to watch comedy shows and heartily laughs out loud - it is very exciting for us to watch him confidently venture outside the box he has been limited to for so long. He keeps an unbelievably positive attitude at all times and more recently that attitude has been fortified by his accomplishments. He wants to build Rome as soon as possible and we are trying to keep up with his desire to achieve same.

Visit to the Zoo

Ilan was excited all week for the trip to the LA Zoo we took on Saturday. The Ashkenazi boys (and my friend Ben Gramer) spent a few hours at the zoo and had a really great time. Though the elephant exhibit that Ilan was looking forward to was closed, we still managed to find one hiding, which was really great. I could go on about how much fun Ilan had, but the smiles below tell it all.

Hail the conquering hero

Every day as Ilan walks in the door, we sing to him "hail the conquering hero" from Disney's Aladdin and the Lamp - it brings a big smile to his face.

At physical therapy sessions Ilan pleasantly astonishes his teachers with the advances that he is making. When he is sat next to a parallel bars, he pulls himself up to the standing position all by himself. While standing in between the parallel bars, with the slightest of help, he is able to walk along the parallel bars supporting himself using the bars with his hands.

His right hand and leg are making good progress albeit they have not yet matched the prowess of his left side.  But knowing Ilan it won't be long before that happens.

Lately Ilan is contorting and moving his body every which way; as he explains to us, he is only trying to stretch so he will feel better. 

We play Wii with him sometimes and he gets a little frustrated at not being able to work the system by himself - but it does not stop him from continuing to try. 

Last week Jarone and Dad put him in the crouch position and rocked him back and forth.  We soon found that Ilan was rocking himself!  Also thruout this exercise, being horizontal, he held his head erect by himself and also turned his head to the side to be able to smile at his cousin who was on skype talking to Ilan.

This week Ilan began "wheelwalking his chair" - he used his legs to move himself (on the chair) both back and forth.

Ilan is heartily eating lots more yogurt and trying other mini foods.  He has started speech therapy in earnest which should help him vocalize very soon.

Finally, Ilan's brothers will be home again next week for the summer so we look forward to seeing further major improvements  due to their help/input and Ilan's competitive responsiveness to their challenges.

Brief update

Since we last wrote Ilan has been in a consolidation mode.  He is improving on all the gains in movement and control he has made the past 4 months.  He continues to improve on his right side abilities and also a bit on his speech control - just today we had a sing along where we sang the abcd and the aleph-beth:  the game was that I said one letter and he had to respond with a sound to say the next letter, this was to a tune of course!!!  Ilan responded promptly over 90% of the time.   

Ilan went for a sleep test 2 weeks ago and he passed.  

Also, we finally bought Ilan a Wii and have been practicing same with him.  It is quite difficult for him as he is not yet able to snap his wrist and cause the machine to react.  We help him along and give him to try by himself - the good news is he does not give up and continues to try by himself. 

This week his 5th grade teacher from Sinai came to visit - at the time Ilan had a huge crush on her.

Ilan was very happy to see her.

Ilan's daily task is to try something new and he enjoys 'creating' new goals.  He thrives on challenge and we are confident that before long he will master playing Wii games!!

Ilan's 1st Seder and 1st Steps

Happy Passover to all.

Our 1st seder at home with Ilan was a wonderful experience.  Dad did his normal "Cochini" (South Indian) rendition of tunes and melodies for several of the prayers and everyone did their fair share of reading of the Hagadah.  Ilan closely followed the Hebrew writing in the book and had a proud look on his face during the reading as he was happy to be with the family and also that he could still read and understand the Hebrew!   

Ilan carried the Hagadah a step further today- just as the Hagadah tells the story that the Jews took their 1st steps out of Egypt, Ilan literally took his 1st steps in a very long time.  With the help of a walker and some help from his physical therapist, Ilan managed to walk across a room (approx.  10-12ft) for the 1st time!!  It sounds really small but this is (larger than) a huge accomplishment for Ilan.  Dad was with him when this happened and was blown out of the water by Ilan's tenacity.  His therapist told Ilan that it is the best birthday present that she ever received!!

Thank you for the comments posted - we will read them to Ilan before the 2nd seder tonight!!

Ilan's Tsa-adah (Hike)

Fan-tas-tic and a-maz-ing are the two words that come to mind to describe Ilan's active dedication to improving himself during the past 10 days.

Besides card playing, backgammon, ping pong and other board games Ilan has kept busy building up his stamina.  It is ironically a deja-vu subject on stamina because just prior to the accident Ilan spoke to me very seriously about improving his stamina so that he could play better in the waterpolo team.  At therapy he is being made to stand mostly alone with the aid of a walker to keep his balance and strengthen his legs.  He is also having to move his head in all directions to strengthen his neck muscles (most of the time he sits holding his head straight up!).

Last weekend Ilan, Mum and Dad took Nahla (our dog) and went for a long walk near Venice Beach.  Ilan absolutely loved the outdoors as the weather that day was great. 

Over the past few days Ilan has played a kind of handball.  We take a beach ball and throw it to him and he has to punch the ball with his left hand - he does fairly well.  He also plays soccer: we throw the ball near his leg and he has to kick it - his coordination is phenominal when he kicks the ball with his left leg (probably because he is/was a natural leftie in soccer?!) 

HAPPY PESACH from all of us in the Ashkenazi family  

To all Ilan's friends that read this blog:  PLEASE take a few seconds to write Ilan a sentence or two in the comments section - we promise to read it with/to him.  Ilan should be getting a userfriendly computer soon for his own use; once he gets up-to-speed we will have him communicate directly online?!

Spring break with Ilan

This past week I have been on Spring Break and it has been amazing being home with the family especially Ilan. Besides his normal routine of therapy and classes, Ilan, my mom and I took a special trip to the beach with nahla. Whenever he has free time, Ilan likes going to the beach and feeling the breeze in his hair while checking out for some girls! Sadly, this time Ilan said he did not find any cute girls but he did say he had fun time walking along Ocean Blvd. with us holding onto nahla. He even picked out places and poses for some of the pictures above. 

In therapy this week, Ilan started pre-gate work which involved him stepping up on to a wooden block. Along with the two therapists, I stood him up and aided him in taking his first step up. After a couple practice runs, he did it all by himself. He had a huge smile on his face knowing that he accomplished something new. Also at home, he has been slowly moving his right arm.

We also played: texas hold em, backgammon, hangman, tic tac toe, and spelling this week on his white board. Using his left hnad, he beat me in texas hold em and backgammon both times. He enjoys playing hangman and tic tac toe while he is in the stander at home laughing at the funny words that we tell him to solve.

Ilan visited friends at Milken yesterday

The picture with his 2 friends was taken a week ago after he played backgammon with his brother David.  The next picture is one of Ilan standing with the help of his brother Jarone and both of them giving the victory sign.
Thanks to the kind cooperation and assistance of Milken administration and  students, Ilan (along with his brother David and Mom) yesterday visited his Milken classmates at lunchtime.  Later in the evening, when asked if he enjoyed the meeting he responded by strongly nodding his head.  His brother David told us how well organized the meeting was and also about the tremendous outpouring of positive energy Ilan received from the friends and students he met.  All evening yesterday and also today Ilan has been happy and relaxed like he just returned from a long vacation; he has that extra drive to improve himself.  In our eyes, the meeting has had a very positive impact on Ilan.  We pray that the meeting was also positive for all the MCHS students who made time during their lunch break to meet and chat with Ilan.

THANK YOU ALL FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!!

David, Jarone, Michal, Estelle and Brian

Sharper by the day!

Ilan is now back to being the sociable person he always was.  One of his brothers friends, who used to teach Ilan guitar many years ago,  came to visit the other day; Ilan immediately broke into a huge smile and followed him with his eyes all across the room till he reached Ilan whereupon he immediately stuck his left hand out to give him a handshake!

Also, two friends from Milken and Camp Ramah came to visit last weekend.  Ilan was delighted to have them over and did not stop showing his enthusiasm to them until he got quite tired about 1-1/2 hours later.  During their visit we asked Ilan if he would like to visit all his classmates at Milken and for the 1st time he strongly nodded his desire to do so.  He will visit Milken tomorrow with David and Estelle!! 

Ilan has joined us for lunch at restaurants a few times during the past 2 weeks.  He also went to see "Slum Dog Millionaire"; he sat thru about half the movie then intimated it was too loud for him and we left.  

Ilan is now enjoying playing many board games and winning at most of them, no jokes.  He has played backgammon several times with his brothers and Dad; he enjoys playing.  He has also played chess once with Dad for about 15 minutes; he remembered all the moves and was busy planning many traps!!  Additionally he is playing cards (hearts, 21, poker, texas hold em, etc), tic tac doe, checkers, and dominoes .  Just this evening he played texas hold em with a friend and was busy going "all in" at every second opprtunity, chuckling each time he did so.   

David has taught him to write, using his left hand, many letters in the alphabet and a few small words on a white board. Jarone has helped him with many workouts including standing and arm/leg movements.  Michal coaxes him to talk and Estelle takes good care of him all the time.  

 Written by:  Dad

He's on a roll

Ilan played backgammon three times this week.  He is able to comfortably lift both dice, throw them and then move each of the pieces by himself to the right (count) spot, all with his left hand. Tonight he completed a whole game, and won!!

Ilan is now using his hand to direct traffic by telling/reminding us what to do.  For example, when he is being changed and we have not yet finished pulling his shirt over his head/arms, he already points to his feet to remind us to (get our act together and hurry up) to put on his shoes! 

Last evening he had another first.  He has refused to be fed by mouth with the delicious purees

(apple, peach, etc.) that his bubbe and mum make for him.  Well last night we gave him chocolate pudding and he ate 4-5 times more than he has ever eaten thus far.  We are not sure if it was the taste or the texture that spurred him to eat so much.

This afternoon mum took him after therapy and they had lunch together with dad in the park as it was a beautiful day.  In the evening, Ilan and dad went to a Sinai family's house as a visitor/healer from Israel, that has prayed daily for Ilan's recovery since the accident, was in town and wanted to meet Ilan.  He feels that Ilan will recover almost completely but it will take some time?!  

Late this evening Ilan showered his affection to his sister (when she wished him goodnight) by hugging her tightly and also caressing/stroking her head and hair!!

 

Additional Progress

Ilan has had quite an exciting week.  He did his regular physical and occupational therapy classes during the week where he sometimes chose not to participate - he came home and showed us where it was bothering him (his cheekbone) and that is why he would not participate! However, he did very well when he did participate.  So much so that the therapist is looking to add a piece of equipment to their inventory that will assist Ilan in learning to walk again.

Ilan excelled with multiple flash cards in Math, English, and general logic type items scoring 100% in most everything.  He seems to be unsure of himself in spelling. Also, he has agreed to play backgammon and chess when time permits?! 

One of the Milken parents, Susan Kaye, who has so kindly come regularly to help Ilan with therapy since his accident, came on Saturday morning and she mentioned that she found Ilan helping her quite a bit with his "lazy" right arm.   

On Saturday late evening we took Ilan to drive his sister to a Bat Mitzvah in Westlake; we decided to stay in the vicinity till we picked her up.  We asked him if he would join us for dinner at BJ's restaurant and we were overjoyed when he responded yes.  After we were seated, he had a very interested and excited look on his face - he looked around a lot, "conversed" with us a lot, and checked out the TV screens.  This lasted for about 20 mins and then he got a bit restless. As soon as we left the restaurant he perked up again.

On Sunday Jarone was home and exercised him a lot.  We stood him up and tried shifting his legs alternately to duplicate walking.  It did not go very well as Ilan favored only his left leg since his right leg is still quite stiff and immobile.  The good news is that while Ilan was standing we asked him to give us the victory sign and he did.  We got a great picture of this and will try to post same in the near future.

This afternoon (Monday 2/23) Estelle said that she worked with Ilan in the transfer of tennis balls from one basket to another.    She asked him to use his "lazy" right hand to do this exercise and was happily surprised to see that he did this exercise four times with his right hand for the 1st time since the accident!!!   

Good results

Last Monday, we took Ilan to Casa Colina Hospital in Pomona for his evaluation.  Ilan was quite shy of the doctor at first but came on strong in the latter part of the checkup (after he was prompted by phone by his older brother David!).  The result of the evaluation was that they were quite pleased with Ilan's progress and felt that he is a good candidate for a stay at their hospital to help and teach him with his recovery; they suggested various additional meds that could also help him with specific needs.  The holdup at this point is getting approval from our health insurance, HealthNet.

Later in the week Ilan went to the school district for a speech evaluation.  This entailed asking him many different questions using flash cards; he managed to correctly point to 9 out of 1o!

Ilan continues to have a smile on his face thruout the day like a newborn child discovering his surroundings.  He accomplishes all his tasks with twinkly excited eyes, even when he does not like what he is doing or is in discomfort.  He amazes us with his tenacity to try new things.  He utilizes his left arm and leg to maximum benefit.   Jarone has him doing 'circles' by holding his hand out wide and moving his hand in circles (similar to what is done in aerobics).  Ilan manages to do so by himself with his left hand and Jarone helps him with his right arm.  

His right arm and leg are currently immobile and relatively stiff, similar to how his right arm and leg were prior to him achieving controlled movement.  We asked the doctor about this and he confirmed that the stiffness could be a prelude to his developing control of his right side?!

The other day he looked quite tired and looked at me like he was trying to communicate with me - I asked him many different items he wished to to tell me.  Turned out that he wanted the TV turned off and for me to leave the room.  Well I told him he needs to use his hand to tell me this. So he pointed to me and then pointed to the door, for me to leave!!!!   

Ilan has also been trying to speak.  He realizes that this is not yet going very well but upon a little coaxing agrees to try.  We try to break down the words into only  2 syllables.  For instance, we say 'la' and he responds the best he can and then 'ni' and he responds.  We do this several times and sometimes he will combine both syllables with a tone inflexion, and then smiles extremely proud of his accomplishment.  When he does combine the 2 syllables we ask him if he said 'lani', he nods emphatically and gives us a shy yet proud smile.  

This weekend we took him to the Westside Pavilion for a brief visit, against his complaints.  Once there he was cheerfully looking around at the stores and the people.  We took him to the puppy store on the 3rd floor and he was totally absorbed in watching the puppies playfully rolling around with each other.  When we returned home and asked him about the trip, his observations were that he was disappointed he did not meet any of his friends and also he did not see any pretty girls there!!!

Ilan is making strides

Since the last posting Ilan has made many strides forward in his desire to improve.  He is moving his left leg and hand on request; with his left hand he shakes hands, he grips a ball and places the ball from one spot to another,  he stacks cups (in color order repeatedly), he reaches and points to his shirt selection for the day.  On request by his brother he now lifts his head high off the pillow.  His right hand and leg are making slight improvement so far.  Also, Michal taught him to shake and nod his head for no and yes and he will very often give us 'no' in answer to everything and then laugh. 

This has led Ilan to a lot of mischief.  He throws the covers off him in the middle of the night even though it is cold and then loudly calls out "Ma" for Estelle to replace it;  while he is in the van he lifts off the safety hat restraint  from his head even though he is requested not to do so; he refused to swallow during a recent crucial swallow test and laughed when the doctor gave up and said to reschedule; and last weekend he pulled out his feeding tube in the middle of the night which later caused him a lot of pain and discomfort when the doctors took a while replacing same the next day.  This led us to make Ilan start to eat "foods" and have started him on a daily routine of a small amount of pureed fruits - he puts up a fuss but gives in and eats his alotted share!

Last week, Ms. Greene and Mr. Pennay from Sinai Akiba visited with Ilan one evening after school.  They are Ilan's favorite teachers.  Even though Ilan later said that he enjoyed their visit, apparently he was very quiet during their visit not making much eye contact.     

Just a few days ago Ilan went to see his  neurologist who he had not seen in 2 months.  She was amazed and excited at the improvement in all arenas that Ilan showed her.  Ilan confidently shook her hand and nodded to many of the questions she asked him.  She was very glad to learn that Ilan will be going next week for a rehab evaluation and, like all of us in the family, she is anxious to learn the results which could put Ilan on a faster track to better recovery.  She also suggested that, due to his recent progress, she would check into a new program for Ilan of magnetic brain stimulation at USC Medical Center.

Please do us a favor and inform us if you know of, or can suggest, any new exercises or routines that will help Ilan in his recovery. 

Sinai Friends Come for a Visit

When we told Ilan that some more of his friends were coming to visit last weekend he became very excited.  He helped select the chips and sodas that he wanted served to his friends and had a smile on his face all afternoon before they arrived.  He was a little shy when they did come but he managed a few smiles and furtive glances at them.  The girls that visited were all classmates from Sinai Akiba and also from Milken.  He really enjoyed their company, their smiling faces and discussions with him.  He actually played a joke on them because when they asked him if he remembered them he responded with a "no" using his eyes.  Yet after that when we gave him the wrong names for each of the girls and asked him if that was their name, he shrugged his shoulders and laughed!  When they left Ilan grew quite sad - we asked him why he was sad and we were able to find out later it was because he was not able to speak with them! 

Ilan is looking his best in a long time and has an interested look on his face at all times - he is also becoming very keen on improving his ability to move and communicate.  Just this weekend he learned how to shake his head to respond "no" and nod his head for "yes".   He hasn't lost his humor - he has played a few pranks on us by giving the wrong answers on purpose and chuckling loudly when we look at him with a perplexed look.   Also, now that he has better control of his left arm he is able to shake hands well and give and receive a ball; these are huge steps for Ilan!! 

Ilan goes for an evaluation in February to determine if he is able to proceed to the next stage of his rehab - we believe that he is now ready and hope that the doctors feel the same way.  

Dad-Brian

Hannukah Party

Last Saturday, a bunch of Ilan's friends came over to spend time with him. The highlight of the day was a video they put together just for Ilan, which had friends and teachers from Milken wishing him a happy Hannukah. Ilan really enjoyed watching the video, but I think his favorite part was seeing familiar faces and being a part of the excitement. I'm attaching a few pictures of the fun day.


I figured now might be a good time to update on Ilan's progress, as it has been pretty amazing. Ilan's control of the left side of his body is getting better every day. He can move his arm pretty much on his own (into shirt holes and to arm wrestle with one of us), and he can bend and move his leg with ease. As some of you may remember, we used to communicate with him with blinks. Now, he has incredible control of his head in moving it from side to side so we try to use that instead. For example, instead of asking Ilan to blink twice if he wants to watch the Laker game, we now ask him to look at Michal. It makes it easier for us to understand what Ilan is saying, and also gives him good practice working out his neck muscles.

Ilan has some pretty amazing therapists working with him (some of whom might even be reading this). The big exercises for Ilan in physical therapy right now are sitting holding himself up on his own with his arms, and rolling his upper body over. He is also working on holding his head up on his own and doing more things with the right side of his body.

Thanks for reading and Shabbat Shalom!

- David

Trip to Milken

Sorry nothing has been posted for a while, but we'll hopefully be writing more especially over the next few days. Ilan has been pretty busy lately, hustling around for appointments around town. More importantly, he looks great. Ilan is smiling and laughing, and goofing off at every opportunity. He is moving his head on his own and loves being the center of attention.

Ilan and I have been arm wrestling on a fairly regular basis, and the strength in his left arm surprises me every time we battle. Lately he's been a little shy in doing it, but he might also be bored with beating me every time.

On New Year's Eve, the whole family went up to Milken so Ilan could hang out at his old high school. He really enjoyed being up there, especially when we stopped by a few of his hang out spots. I'm attaching some pictures, of us in the amphitheater and Ilan making note of his trip on a whiteboard. More to come in the next day or two, so keep an eye out.

- David