Mensches at Century City

This past weekend a few more menschey friends took the time to get together w/Ilan at Century City for dinner. Ilan was thrilled to be with old friends and the sound of his shrill excited laughter filled the air in the food courtyard - others (not shown in picture, taken on cellphone) also joined them for a long chat.

Thank you guys!!

Beach Day w/Menschey Friends

We met Ali W. at Ramah Visitors Day and she said that she was planning a Beach Day for Ilan with some of his friends. True to her word she organized this outing for last Friday and Ilan met some friends (pictured) at the beach. They took time out from their busy schedules plus fought traffic to spend time/meet with Ilan. Ilan enjoyed every minute with them at the beach and told Ali so before everyone left.

A brief update on Ilan: he had corrective surgery performed about a month ago which turned out much more successful than originally anticipated.

He continues to take guitar lessons that he enjoys very much. He also continues to have several therapies for speech and studies.

Thank you Ali!!!!!

We wish everyone a happy and fun-filled summer.

Back on wheels in Los Angeles

Ilan returned to Los Angeles on May 18th and right away began to pick up where he left off but with a twist.

He has begun taking guitar lessons again at Adams Music and just this weekend he rode a trike on the bike path just south of Santa Monica Pier (the Department Director of the hospital in Israel told Ilan that both these activities were a requirement to his continued recovery). Ilan absolutely loved these activities, his face was beaming with excitement as he participated in both activities.

In addition, he is also performing recommended activities in physical, occupational and speech as specified by his therapists in Isarel.

It is quite obvious that Ilan's visit to Israel was a complete success thanks to the caring and dedicated efforts of his therapists and staff at Loewenstein Rehabiliatation Hospital in Raanana. Brian (Dad) heartily thanks them for the confidence they have instilled in Ilan that he CAN tackle and overcome all challenges that come in his way to advance his rehabilitation process.

And Ilan wants us to add that his therapists also helped him improve his hebrew speech

and vocabulary!

Happy Shavuoth to all!

Massada and Ein Gedi

Last Thursday our cousins drove us to Massada and we took the cable car up the hill. Ilan spent over an hour roaming the ruins and was blown away by the view of the Dead Sea from Massada, as well the view of the neighboring hills.

We had lunch and travelled to Ein Gedi and went up to Nachal David (the 1st waterfall area). From the lookout platform Ilan looked down at the waterfall and at first did not want to walk down the rocky steps to the water but with a little coaxing he not only walked down the steps but also walked across the rocky-bottom pool to the waterfall -- he absolutely loved it and was really proud of himself, mostly because he realized that he had conquered his concern and fear of trying something new and fun.

We spent the night at Kibbutz Hatzerim near Beersheva and Ilan asked the next morning if he could go back to Ein Gedi again that day!!!

Needless to say, a few days later when Ilan returned to his therapies he was so relaxed that all of his therapists commented on his happy demeanor and intense concentration.

We will return to Los Angeles next week with a bag full of new exercises and challenges for Ilan that were provided by the therapists at Beit Loewenstein who have treated Ilan as one of their own!

We look forward to meeting you and hope that you will come visit Ilan so he can share pictures and videos of his trip with you; your kind effort could assist Ilan in climbing some new mountains and further conquering some of his fears and concerns.

Jerusalem

Ilan finally went to Jerusalem last Thursday!

Before he left for Israel Ilan made it clear that he wished to meet with the President of Israel! So we did our best and therefore first visited the outside of the President's residence. We then visited the Cotel where Ilan was overwhelmed with emotion as we approached; it began to drizzle as we got near the Cotel and then it poured as Ilan stood against the wall and made his wishes and prayers. It did not bother Ilan in the least that he was getting soaked - he behaved as if it was an expected event.

We then went to a beautiful new mall called "memeellah" (I think I got that right) where two of his friends (see picture above) made a special effort to visit with him there - Ilan was extremely excited to see them. Later we visited family and Ilan absolutely was in heaven as there were over 20 young children there that Ilan talked to and played with.

Ilan's therapies are moving along very well - his gains in all therapies are quite obvious thanks to the conscientious effort put forth by staff at Beit Loewenstein; they do not give up and continue to plan new therapies to offer Ilan potential improvement till his last day of therapy.

Just this morning I was speaking with Ilan about the activities we will be doing outside of therapies before we leave Israel (which include going to Massada and the Dead Sea later this week) and Ilan reminded me that I must not forget he wants to see his friend Tal before he leaves Israel!! This blew me away as it shows me how far along he has progressed in his memory recall capability that has been improved by the many games/puzzles that his occupational therapist has helped him persevere with!!!

The physical therapists are busy stretching his ankle muscles and Ilan has responded positively by improving his walking movements/gait!

We return to Los Angeles in about 2 weeks and hope to post at least one more blog before then.

Ilan's challenges will start all over once we return to Los Angeles as it will probably be difficult to find and keep up with the progress he has achieved in Israel.

Please call or write us if you know of a structured, social (study or work) program that could benefit Ilan in his quest to return to the funloving, motivated person and achieve all (and more) of the skills that he had before his accident. We would appreciate hearing from you

Our best wishes to everyone. See you in Los Angeles soon.

Ilan has casts on both legs

Since the last blog posted, Ilan has been a very busy person.

Firstly, for the past 2 weeks, Ilan has had casts put on both of his legs. Each week they have been replaced and "tightened" in order to attempt to increase the angle of his foot relative to his leg at the ankle - this will hopefully help him restore a natural walk pattern. It has been quite uncomfortable for Ilan but he has surmounted his aches and pains in a cheerful manner.

His therapies have proceeded very well - for Speech therapy he is now able to hold his breath without having to hold his nose; prior to this the air would immediately escape via his nose within a split second. Also he is able to take a deep breath and blow out five interupted sounds in a single breath which he also could not do before. He is working on increasing the sounds to 10 in a single breath. This is a big time improvement for his speech capability (and swimming too, that he misses very much!!).

In Occupational therapy he is now able to perform slightly higher level reason/logic function games on the computer without assistance and will work on reaching even higher levels.

In Physical therapy, he is able to contort his body into many more positions than before without feeling excruciating pains.

The pictures above are of the (fort) ruins in Caesaria (which was a thriving large township thru approx. 610 BC, for 600 years, and was the main gateway/entrance via sea to the entire land) and Ilan on the back of an electric cart during a tour of Kibbutz Gan Shmuel near Hadera.
Ilan will finally visit Jerusalem on April 28th and the following week will visit Metzada and the Dead Sea!

We wish everyone a Happy Passover and Easter from the Holy Land.

Israel PT - Ball exercises

Weekend in Yafo

Ilan went to Yafo, near Tel Aviv, this past Friday-Saturday where he spent time with family, in picture. He was blown away by the beautiful views from their place that was overlooking the harbor and also provided panoramic views of Tel Aviv. The house is surrounded by 3 churches and the sounds of bells were everywhere. Many, many tourists walked by the house.

On Saturday he went to 'Safari' in Ramat Gan, which is a 250 acre preserve with rhinocerus, antelopes, hippopotamus, deer, zebra, etc. running free and giraffe, elephants and lions in caged areas. He sat in the car and drove thru the preserve and later rented a golf cart to go thru other exhibits in the zoo. In the evening he ate falafel in old yafo.

Today Ilan was back for his therapies and he again performed very well.

Thank you again for reading Ilan's blog.

End of one week in Raanana, Israel

Ilan has spent one week in Raanana. The picture shown was taken on the grounds of the Beit Loewenstein Hospital, Raanana.

Ilan started assessments at Beit Loewenstein on Sunday 3/20 which continued through Monday. He receives speech, occupational and physical therapies daily; he will also begin individual and group (psychological) counseling and pool therapy starting next week. In addition, he will also take courses in ceramics and gardening.

The therapists, who are taking Ilan's improvement seriously during his stay with them, are very detailed in their dealings with Ilan and do not miss a single detail, asking very pointed questions that relate to Ilan's therapy. The exercises that they already have him doing are quite intense and advanced (very specific to Ilan's needs) and require Ilan's full concentration, which Ilan has eagerly provided. With Ilan's characteristic flair, he cheers on the other patients in the room on their accomplishments!

Ilan's days (Sun-Thurs) start very early with his first session beginning at 8:15am - he wakes at 7:00am which was impossible to do when he was in Los Angeles - and lasting till 1:30pm with a few breaks in between. Once he gets used to this routine, additional workout sessions will be added to his schedule. Currently, at the end of his daily therapy sessions, Ilan is quite tired and requires a nap.

The cousins that he stays with (2 bus stops from the hospital) are most kind and give him daily rides to and from the hospital. Ilan did get to take the bus one morning and he liked the experience.

Ilan will go tonight to a 2nd wedding this week in Zichron Yaakov and spend Friday and Saturday with other family in Yafo.

At Caesaria Beach in Israel

Hi from Israel!

Ilan is very excited being in Israel and is already over his jet lag as you can see in the pictures below he is already busy charming the girls.

This morning we went for a long walk to a nearby park and Ilan had a brief workout on the exercise equipment there.

In the afternoon we went to the beach and Ilan walked into the the cold water and splashed his cousins!

He starts his therapy tomorrow at Beit Loewenstein in Raanana and we hope to post many photographs/postings of his progress.

From Israel, Ilan and Dad wish Oliver Savage an 'easy' marathon tomorrow and thank him and all of you for your assistance for making possible this additional therapy in Israel.