Dear Friends,
Thank goodness we have only one more day of Intensive for this week. Our poor Dwaine is just beat. He's been an incredible trooper after all the events of this week! And just one more day and we get a bit of a weekend break.
Today Dwaine had a long, full day of evaluations - first Occupational Therapy beginning at 7:00, then Physical Therapy at 9:00. Then a break for rest and lunch, and another P/T at 1:30 and Speech/Cognitive at 2:30. So by 3:30, he was just totally beat. Friend Julie Jensen spent the morning watching Dwaine as I took the chance to just sleep in for a bit and do some work. I arrived in time for his afternoon P/T where he made 50 out of 56 points on his balance evaluation! Damn overachievers, always wrecking the curve! After that I watched a full hour of Cognitive evaluation, where Dwaine had to answer more of those math word problems, sentence writing, word categories, etc. He did really well, with just a note on having to work on maintaining his focus and concentration when faced with distractions. The test they used for that was so difficult, though, I'm not sure *I* could have passed it. He had to take a list of numbers on a piece of paper and put a mark through every one that was even, and at the same time - with his left hand - click a clicker whenever he heard a voice on an audio tape say the word "two." Holy cow! No wonder he was tired.
During dinner, Dwaine was very silent. He munched away at his chicken-fried chicken and carrots like a man on a mission. It's at times like this that I wonder if I'm giving him what he needs. He's so tired he becomes somewhat curt and unresponsive when I ask if he's too cold or hot or if he wants to watch TV. Am I babying him too much? Being a pest? Smothering? So I just try to feel out what he wants and leave him alone. What he wanted tonight was to crawl back into bed and sleep. So I helped him out of his chair, got him situated comfortably, and floated the sheet and blanket over him like my mom did when I was a kid. All my own insecurity vanished when he gave me that familiar goodnight smile as I put on my coat and gathered up my things to go.
I believe that, hidden somewhere deep inside, is an intangible energy that makes each one of us a unique human being. Sometimes our body gets in the way of that energy. And yet, somehow that energy finds it's own way to sneak out and let us know it's still there. Even when you're exhausted from working hard, from not getting good sleep, from being poked and prodded and tested six ways to Sunday - that special energy reveals itself as if to say, "Hey! Here I am! I haven't changed a bit! I'm still that little boy, that young man, that newbie teacher, that mentor, that coach, that friend . . . it's all here!" When you see that, even through exhausted silence, you find that you've communicated more thoroughly than a hundred conversations could ever accomplish.
Good Night and Sweet Dreams everyone. And if you have any spare energy - send it Dwaine's way tonight.
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