Thursday, June 24, 2010

Day 755 - Jun 23, 2010

Today was another great day. We had a young lady come as Kevin's aide today and they hit it off as well as he did with Johnny. Johnny can only come on Mondays as he is in college so Leigha (sp) will come the other two days a week.

Anyway, I am ecstatic to say she came in the door with skater punk clothes on as well. She is from a military family too and she lived predominantly in Germany so they also had that in common.

We also had a guy come today to discuss technological aids to assist Kevin in being more independent. He is going to request (from the VA) that Kevin get a remote that will control all of the lights and fans in his domain. Man, that will save me about 200 (not an exaggeration) trips a night into his room to adjust his fan and turn on/off the lights. We also discussed an iPad and that excites me more than anything. One of the nurses had one when we were in the hospital the last time and as soon as I saw it I knew it would actually be perfect for Kevin. He has a laptop now, but it's too bulky for him to move around by himself with one arm/hand. The iPad is super lightweight and it's not bulky at all. He also can't spell or type so browsing the internet doesn't work for him unless I am sitting there with him. He can also lift it to his face so that he can see things clearly as he does have an issue with that on his laptop. He enjoys playing games and the guy watched Kevin zooming around his phone to get to the different apps so he was just as excited about it for Kevin as I was. I so hope that happens. Kevin would truly be so ecstatic! Some of those apps would really help him learn and he could also work on his hand/eye coordination. The guy also mentioned that speech pathologists have apps for it to help with speaking so that Kevin could use it when he needed to say something that he couldn't voice. Wouldn't that just be so awesome for him?

So other than that, we did nothing today so I am going to sign off and continue scrapping. I hope Kevin goes to sleep soon...

4 comments:

Lorraine said...

Hi
If your post says 4:32am is that the time you sign off of it? Lorraine

Unknown said...

Dear Leslie,
my husband has an iPad and loves it...I really hope you can get one for Kevin...there is a nifty little gadget for it! My husband found this during E3 in LA...it is called iBallz (www.iballz.info) I wish I could send you a picture so you could see what it is...it is four rubber balls on each corner of the iPad...these balls will protect the iPad if one should drop it!!! At the Expo (E3) the Lady demonstrating the iBallz dropped her iPad over and over and over and nothing happened to it. The iBallz are $19.95!!!
As always best wishes from El Paso, TX
Tina Dwyer

karen said...

So awesome to get some assisted technologies! I am amazed at what a toddler can do with an iPod, so I'm sure it works at a gazillion levels.

My friend Glenda just got an iPad for herself and it has awarded her freedoms that she has till now only dreamed about. (http://www.doitmyselfblog.com/2010/the-ipad-as-an-affordable-communicator-initial-review/) She uses a technology that aids in speaking as it is very difficult for the average person to understand her cerebral-palsy affected speech (she calls it Glendish). The comments and a further post (and ensuing comments) are also worth the additional information they hold.

Franklin HS T&F, thanks for the information about the iBallz ... I'll forward that to Glenda as I'm sure hers has already had its share of abuse. (My iTouch is barely hanging in there and I am merely a clutz!)

I sure am glad for these new technologies ... it has put a new spin on the relationship that Glenda and I share and given her a much more powerful voice. I hope it brings Kevin joy and freedom too.

Kathy said...

Glad to hear that the aids are working out for him!