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.