Horsing Around

For several weeks we have researched starting Ilan on equine (horse) therapy but most of the ranches we found were in Chatsworth, Sunland, etc. which we felt would be too hot for Ilan. Last weekend we finally took Ilan to a small ranch in Malibu!

Ilan was super excited as soon as we told him we were going to the ranch. The morning we went, he woke up at 7:15am (very early for him) without a complaint and quickly got ready. When we got to the farm his eyes were wide in anticipation of meeting the assistant that would show him around.

They first went to the chicken coop where Ilan was first asked to climb up into the coop about 2 feet above the ground. He looked at the assistant in disbelief at this request, initially believing that it was beyond his current ability. With a little coaxing and help he managed to climb up. Inside the coop he petted the chickens and coaxed them to allow him to collect their eggs they were sitting on. The assistant then picked up a chicken and had him hold it for a while which he most willingly did and then a chicken was placed on his hat and he was told to help the chicken balance itself there. He did it very well.

Next he was lead to an enclosure where there was a baby deer and two el Pacas (a llama's cousin!). Ilan was given some feed and shown how to coax the animals to come close to him as they were not used to seeing someone using a walker. Ilan was quickly able to comfort the animals and make them feel at ease with him. They were literally eating from his hands in a matter of minutes!

Finally he was taken to the horse corral where one of the gentler mare's was brought to Ilan. We could see Ilan was in heaven as he moved forward and reached to pet the mare. He stroked her, hugged her, groomed her and allowed her to rub herself against him. He spent the most amount of time with the mare. When it was time to leave, he did not want to go till we promised him that we would come back again.

Later we asked him if he had a good time and he responded that it was much better than a good time!

Thanks again for cheking in on Ilan.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year, Well-over-the-Fast and you should receive the best writings for the coming year.

Ilan's Swim Successes

Ilan has been getting swim therapy for the past 2-3 months.The therapy does not involve teaching him to swim, rather to make the exercises that are difficult "on land" easier to perform.

Jarone and David have been filling in the gaps and pushing him to swim on his own. About 2 weeks ago we bought Ilan a nose-piece as he was having a very difficult time breathing while swimming and swallowing a lot of water. As soon as he put on the nosepiece, Ilan pushed his brothers aside and began to swim all by himself!

So today he topped that too. Of course he first put on his nose-piece, then began swimming across the pool underwater holding his breath till he made it to the other side of the pool, about 15-18m!! Well, he popped his head out of the water, after the first time he swam across the pool underwater, and began screeching in delight at this accomplishment.

After he quieted down we handed him a pretend microphone and asked him the old saying, "Ilan, you have just successfully completed swimming underwater across the entire length of the pool for the first time - when do you plan on going to Disneyland?"

He emphatically shook his head with an annoyed, yet smiling, face and looked at us like we had just fallen off the moon, then responded, " No ----- Israel!!!!".

Besides swimming, he is also walking more and more confidently without any assistance, pronouncing his words a lot better, getting some very challenging physical training by family, drinking a lot more water (rather than mango juice all the time!), guitar lessons volunteered by a very talented young man (Ilan's age!), went to the beach with the family for the 1st time in 3 years and got himself soaked by waves, and many other exciting accomplishments and events.

Hope the summer has been fun for you, and the rest of summer is even better. Thanks for reading - be well and best of luck in the upcoming academic year.

Honorary Milken Graduate

Mr. GQ at Milken graduation 2010!


Three months ago, Dean Rossoff approached the family and wanted to know if it was OK for Ilan to join his classmates at graduation. We were so excited yet worried how his classmates would feel. After being reassured that the class had suggested including him, we happily agreed to it.

Initially we did not know how Ilan would feel being wheeled into the auditorium. But at the time we said "hopefully he will walk by graduation"??? Little did we know how much Ilan would progress in 3 months!!

Ten days ago Ilan was awarded an honorary diploma from Milken Community High School. He was so excited to be with his classmates at the graduation that he did not stop smiling for over 4 hours! Ilan looked so handsome being all dressed up after so long. Everyone in his class was so good to him. After the entire class walked down the aisle to the stage, it was Ilan's turn. He proudly and confidently stepped forth into the auditorium. As he set foot int the auditorium, all the students on the stage and the entire community stood up and erupted with cheers and applause till Ilan took his place on the stage. To our great surprise, Ilan stood up with his class for the singing of the anthems. And an even bigger surprise was when he lipsynched the Hatikva along with everyone.

It was a pleasure to watch all the graduates get their diplomas and give Ilan a high five or hug him as they went back to their seats. Once again when it was Ilan's turn to walk and get his diploma there was thunderous applause as everyone stood to cheer him. We, his family, had goose bumps on our shoulders and arms and happy tears in our eyes at the love being showered on Ilan by the community.

It was a fabulous event. Thank you Milken class of 2010, faculty and administration, and the community for the tremendous support that was bestowed Ilan. It gave Ilan great pleasure being there and sharing it with everyone. We are positive that it will spur him to further achievements.

We wish everyone a very happy and fun-filled summer!

Basketball (and more)

Last week Ilan played both seated basketball and standing table tennis with his brothers and had a non-stop smile on his face for over an hour as he pushed his limits to achieve better control of coordination.

Ilan is now showing good signs of improvement in his walking. He is able to walk by himself about 40-50ft with very limited assistance - however, he is still lacking in confidence. He has not remedied his right leg problem which does not produce good movement unless he is reminded.

These past few weeks Ilan has received very deep, and sometimes painful, muscle and body massage therapy from a family friend. Initially Ilan moans and groans as his body is contorted and bent in a variety of positions; but shortly after, he gives a big smile of deep appreciation as he hears his back produce a few popping noises which result in great relief for him.

Ilan has also been working with an ankle specialist to improve the range of motion in his ankles with the same actions and results. As a result the demands on Ilan for extra exercising at home have multiplied.

We hope to enroll Ilan in early June at a specialty fitness gym where he will work on regular equipment and additionally receive electronic stimulation during the workout.

Also, we hope to enroll him is an electronic stimulation program offered at Cedars Sinai to enhance his swallowing (and possibly speech) abilities.

We thank all of his friends for their continued encouragement and support, whether it is in person or on Facebook/AIM/texting.

We congratulate Ilan's Milken classmates on graduation and wish them great success in the coming years.

Thank you for reading Ilan's blog - Enjoy this summer!!

Ilan gets a "drivers license"!

This evening we went to the supermarket and it was the first time Ilan agreed to get into an electric shopping Kart. At first he was a bit wary of handling the controls but within 2 minutes he was busy racing up and down the aisles and putting the Kart into reverse so it would make the annoying beep-beep reversing noise! The store manager told him he would qualify for a special drivers license if they had one!!

Nevertheless, a few minutes after this picture was taken, Ilan was surrounded by several (4-5 very cute) San Diego college students that unabashedly oohed and aahed over him. Ilan told me later that he thoroughly enjoyed the ride as well as the attention from the female students!!

This week Ilan was given the task of using 2 ski-type poles to balance himself while standing and also to take a few steps.

He met the challenges with true Ilan determination. He stood up and balanced himself very well. He also walked by himself (with the poles) for about 12-15ft; however, the walk made him very nervous an he has not repeated it since. We are waiting for a few additional days and will have him do it again.

Ilan is also progressing quite well in the academic dept. His math has improved tremendously and he is now working on improper fractions and algebra equations; he is also working on basic crossword puzzles which is a super achievement for him.

He goes for swim therapy and is gaining ground there; vision therapy is helping but speech is going quite slow and we just found out that he has difficulty hearing in the right ear.

The ham that he is, he surprised us the other day when (lying down) he pulled his legs over his head and put his knees at the side of his head, as he said in order "to stretch" before exercising!!

Ilan is a delight, always with a positive take on things; even if he does get annoyed about something, we hand him a mirror to take a look at the funny face he makes and he right away cheers up and smiles.

Thank you for keeping up with this blog about Ilan.

We wish everyone a great, happy, healthy and fun-filled summer.

Ilan's "G" day finally arrived today!

This past week Ilan has had a few tummy pains caused by his g-tube. Well, today he went to see the doctor who said that it was time to remove his g-tube and he did!! Ilan was in heaven as he had been asking us for months to remove it. His challenge will be to make sure that he is able to drink enough liquid every day!
This weekend David and Jarone took Ilan to the tennis courts to play. One of them stood him with a racket in Ilan's hand while the other hit the ball to Ilan. At other times they sat him in his wheelchair and raced him around the court. Ilan did very well, enthusiastically waving the racket around and getting quite a few good hits on the ball to get it over the net to the other side. Throughout this activity Ilan was ecstatic and had a smile on his face the whole time; firstly because he was with his brothers and also because he was able to achieve.
We hope that everyone had a good Passover (and Easter) and thank you for reading about Ilan's progress -- L'Chaim and cheers!!

Ilan on the move

It has again been a while since we posted an update. These pictures were taken in Feb '10 at Purim. Jarone dressed Ilan in the pirate costume and then later Ilan and Dad went for a walk on the boardwalk near Venice Beach!

Ilan is starting to take control of his life. He is more independent getting in and out of bed, going up and down stairs, expressing his needs/desires with hand motions and backing it up with a few words. His speech has improved by leaps and bounds the past few months (albeit he does have quite a ways to go yet). He does situps, pushups and loves to just clown around.

Most importantly he has begun to have his own opinion on most every subject, which is actually very good - it took us almost 6 months looking for shoes for him as he did not like any of the shoes we checked out; just last week he finally bought 2 pairs!!

At therapy, he has begun to play a guitar with nylon strings and remembers many of the chords by himself! We are hoping to get him a guitar soon.

During his "school lessons" he is beginning to excel and moving on to more advanced subjects.

He enjoys chatting online with friends - thank you to all of you that spend time chatting with him online.

Also, thank you for reading Ilan's blog.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to all!

Happy New Year

We took a long time to get back to posting and have lots of exciting information to report about Ilan.

Ilan is doing great! He has gotten back to his jovial, sociable self. He enjoys company and loves to go outdoors. During the past few months, he:

- now walks about 150ft with the aid of a walker

- stands for an hour in a new special stander that we built for him that allows him to kick a soccer ball with his legs (that he does very well), balance on one leg, and also to balance by himself (without support) for about a minute

- eats 95% of his meals orally, but so far only 20-25% of his liquid requirements

- stands up and walks 2-3 steps by himself without support

- spends more time on AIM and Facebook chatting with his friends

- takes speech therapy which is helping him along to begin speaking a few words quite clearly and attempt to pronounce more words

- will begin pool/swim therapy next week at Northridge hospital

- hopefully will get vision therapy soon that he really needs in order to help him read more than 2-3 words

- visited Milken, where he was kindly invited to throw the 1st ball for dodge-ball in color wars, and thoroughly enjoyed himself; his senior classmates kindly invited him to join them for a party this coming Thursday.

- spent shabbat dinner at a family friend's house

- **went go-carting in Palm Springs (as a passenger with Dad) and at the 1st turn almost fell out of the cart till he learned how to hold on to his steering wheel!

- **rode an ATV by himself for about 100 meters!

**he absolutely loved these rides

Ilan is also beginning to assert himself by informing us if he does not like or does not want to do something; previously, he was quite passive and acquiesced to everything we asked him to do!

Family-wise, David is working hard in Century City, Jarone completed his mid-Junior year semester at USC, and Michal recently interviewed with Milken for high school.

Thank you for your patience and coming back to read Ilan's blog site.

We wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, Safe, Peaceful and Fruitful New Year!!