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.

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!!

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.