November 22, 2007
Dear family and friends,
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who've given us so much to be thankful for.
Danny spelled out a message to pass along to all of you yesterday, which was great because it's been a hectic and sometimes nerve- fraying month here (at least for me; Lynn's poise is less flappable).
For over a month Danny's been fighting off a painful rash under his arms. We've had three doctor friends look into it and have used a range of different remedies and finally seem to have the condition on the run, but there were about two weeks when Danny was so uncomfortable that whenever we got him up on the therapy table, he tensed up and didn't want to move. Since the slow, slight movements of his arms while sitting upright on the table are his most concrete means of communicating with us, (though not the only means, given how expressive his eyes can be) I was brought pretty low during this period, wondering if it meant he was cognitively moving backward.
The rash abated however, and he was back to working hard on the table, as when I wrote on his board:
"If a squirrel eats 12 nuts a day, how many will he eat in 3 weeks? a) 222 b) 232 c) 252"
I didn't read the question to him, merely put the board in front of him and waited until he moved his hand deliberately to touch "252".
He also told us again that "Yes", he's happy, and "No", he's never sad. Given that, any sadness on my part would be selfish. But that didn't stop me from panicking a bit this past Sunday when he suffered his first seizure since June. It didn't seem as bad as some of the others but he was wiped out for nearly 24 hours, just staring upward or sleeping.
So, come Monday afternoon, I was relieved when he did great in therapy again, spelling out "YOU ARE SPECIAL" and then indicating to us that the message was for his friend Tommy, whose birthday party we all attended that evening.
Two years ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving in the backyard of CareMeridian, the skilled nursing facility where Danny spent ten months after leaving the hospital. We wrangled up some turkey dinners from a Denny's-like restaurant. In those days, Danny could only spend brief periods out of bed and we had no way of knowing if he was even aware of his surroundings, especially after the gloomy picture painted by one neurologist at the hospital.
By Thanksgiving last year, here at home, we knew that Danny's short and long term memory skills were intact but it wasn't until December that we got excited when he solved a math problem like "2 + 3 = 5". How can we help but be thankful?
Recently, a friend remarked that we're lucky we're not out driving and doing business in L.A. He said people have gotten ruder and more selfish and impatient. We just smiled: we seem to be surrounded daily by the best in people. So many friends, family and strangers have been so generous with their time, skills and love. Dentists, doctors, musicians, house painters, mold remediators, accountants, producers, lawyers, agents, chiropractors-- These are some of the people who've been a great help to us, just in the past month alone.
And at the center of it all is Danny who keeps on inspiring love in so many people. We still hear stories of Danny appearing in people's dreams, often providing encouragement or advice.
Yesterday, before we got Danny up on the table, I said to him, "Tomorrow's Thanksgiving. Maybe you could give us a Thanksgiving message." An hour later, he spelled out "YOU ARE VERY WONDERFUL". So I wrote on his board, "Who is wonderful?" and gave him the choices, "Mom and Dad", "Our family", "Meher Baba" and, down in the lower left corner, where his hand eventually touched down: "Everyone who's been sending love". So thanks to all of you, from Danny. And from the rest of our clan.
Happy Thanksgiving Love, Jeff and Lynn
"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues." Cicero
"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all." William Faulkner
"You should go on thanking God over and over. Even if you lose your limbs, you could not thank Him enough." - My friend Sohail Afaq
Attached are 3 photos:
1) Danny and our friend Mary Hamilton during her visit on November 11th.
2) Danny while home for Thanksgiving, 2004, with good ol' Buddy.
3) Danny's Thanksgiving message.
to write to Jeff: manonash@verizon.net to write to Lynn: lynnswan7@verizon.net for mailing list issues (Mitchell Rose): dannymagnews@gmail.com to view previous updates: groups-beta.google.com/group/dannynews to automatically unsubscribe, send email to dannynews-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
Dear family and friends,
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who've given us so much to be thankful for.
Danny spelled out a message to pass along to all of you yesterday, which was great because it's been a hectic and sometimes nerve- fraying month here (at least for me; Lynn's poise is less flappable).
For over a month Danny's been fighting off a painful rash under his arms. We've had three doctor friends look into it and have used a range of different remedies and finally seem to have the condition on the run, but there were about two weeks when Danny was so uncomfortable that whenever we got him up on the therapy table, he tensed up and didn't want to move. Since the slow, slight movements of his arms while sitting upright on the table are his most concrete means of communicating with us, (though not the only means, given how expressive his eyes can be) I was brought pretty low during this period, wondering if it meant he was cognitively moving backward.
The rash abated however, and he was back to working hard on the table, as when I wrote on his board:
"If a squirrel eats 12 nuts a day, how many will he eat in 3 weeks? a) 222 b) 232 c) 252"
I didn't read the question to him, merely put the board in front of him and waited until he moved his hand deliberately to touch "252".
He also told us again that "Yes", he's happy, and "No", he's never sad. Given that, any sadness on my part would be selfish. But that didn't stop me from panicking a bit this past Sunday when he suffered his first seizure since June. It didn't seem as bad as some of the others but he was wiped out for nearly 24 hours, just staring upward or sleeping.
So, come Monday afternoon, I was relieved when he did great in therapy again, spelling out "YOU ARE SPECIAL" and then indicating to us that the message was for his friend Tommy, whose birthday party we all attended that evening.
Two years ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving in the backyard of CareMeridian, the skilled nursing facility where Danny spent ten months after leaving the hospital. We wrangled up some turkey dinners from a Denny's-like restaurant. In those days, Danny could only spend brief periods out of bed and we had no way of knowing if he was even aware of his surroundings, especially after the gloomy picture painted by one neurologist at the hospital.
By Thanksgiving last year, here at home, we knew that Danny's short and long term memory skills were intact but it wasn't until December that we got excited when he solved a math problem like "2 + 3 = 5". How can we help but be thankful?
Recently, a friend remarked that we're lucky we're not out driving and doing business in L.A. He said people have gotten ruder and more selfish and impatient. We just smiled: we seem to be surrounded daily by the best in people. So many friends, family and strangers have been so generous with their time, skills and love. Dentists, doctors, musicians, house painters, mold remediators, accountants, producers, lawyers, agents, chiropractors-- These are some of the people who've been a great help to us, just in the past month alone.
And at the center of it all is Danny who keeps on inspiring love in so many people. We still hear stories of Danny appearing in people's dreams, often providing encouragement or advice.
Yesterday, before we got Danny up on the table, I said to him, "Tomorrow's Thanksgiving. Maybe you could give us a Thanksgiving message." An hour later, he spelled out "YOU ARE VERY WONDERFUL". So I wrote on his board, "Who is wonderful?" and gave him the choices, "Mom and Dad", "Our family", "Meher Baba" and, down in the lower left corner, where his hand eventually touched down: "Everyone who's been sending love". So thanks to all of you, from Danny. And from the rest of our clan.
Happy Thanksgiving Love, Jeff and Lynn
"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues." Cicero
"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all." William Faulkner
"You should go on thanking God over and over. Even if you lose your limbs, you could not thank Him enough." - My friend Sohail Afaq
Attached are 3 photos:
1) Danny and our friend Mary Hamilton during her visit on November 11th.
2) Danny while home for Thanksgiving, 2004, with good ol' Buddy.
3) Danny's Thanksgiving message.
to write to Jeff: manonash@verizon.net to write to Lynn: lynnswan7@verizon.net for mailing list issues (Mitchell Rose): dannymagnews@gmail.com to view previous updates: groups-beta.google.com/group/dannynews to automatically unsubscribe, send email to dannynews-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
