New place, new crew, same mindset

Dhon has been quite busy the past two ish weeks at Madonna. In the last newsletter there were plenty of updates on what his progress has been and he continues to grind.

He got transferred to the adult side unit, to make room for some of the younger kids in the pediatric side, so we had to switch to a completely new team. Our team will be missed but Dhon is loving his new team. He consistently works out with the same PT, OT and SLP each day and is building a great relationship with them. The nurses and other staff are getting to know Dhon a little more each day through pictures and stories from family. If you know Dhon, he makes friends and community everywhere he goes.

Dhon’s typical day starts around 7:30am where he gets up and ready for the day. Breakfast around 8:30 which by the way he is eating food that is Puréed, so yay for real food. He loves it, but it is a workout in itself as he develops the skills to move his eating muscles. After that it is essentially rehab until 3/4pm with mini breaks (that go by way to fast) in between. He has lunch and dinner of course, and usually takes a nap after rehab. Then he sleeps and wakes up to do it all over again Monday through Friday. He rests and recovers during the weekend which is much needed. Anyone needs that rest working out 5+ hours a day.

Dhon is making tremendous progress it is hard to even keep track of all the new skills he is learning and the goals he is accomplishing.

Dhon is loving being closer to his mom and sisters, other family from the midwest is planning to come visit soon.

One thing that is tough for Dhon is he doesn’t get to go outside much, one it’s a little chilly over here and two there’s a whole process for him to get to go on outings but we are working on it!

Dhon could use the continued encouragement so please feel free to contact the family or email dhonstrong@gmail.com to leave a message or maybe even set up a video call.