New Year, New Goals. "Thrive in 2025"
- Kabrina Ishmael
- Apr 5
- 11 min read
It has been too long since my last blog post, so get comfortable and get excited…I have a lot to report to you all! Thank you for sticking with us, it has been almost 3.5 years since Jared’s accident and almost 3 years since we started updating everyone on this blog! So please be patient with us, stay tuned, and continue to send up those prayers and share our story!
Recap since our last entry…all the way back in September. You got to know me a little bit, I showed you all some amazing pictures from Jared’s grandpa’s centennial birthday, unfortunately we lost Grandpa Mike on this earth in early October, but know 100% that he went to live in the ultimate destination with our Lord.
Therapy has had its ups and downs since our last time here, but as of current he is doing well and making gains! He has been in a good place since our last family conference a few weeks ago. Family conference is something I have once a month with his entire therapy team, PT, OT and SLP, as well as his case manager, counselor and sometimes a behavioral therapist. Family care conference is usually an anxious time for me. Although we may be seeing progress or experiencing cool moments at home, we also need that to transfer over to his therapy sessions during the week.
Therapy Updates:
Get ready...lots of videos
Physical Therapy:
ALL THE WALKING! Jared has been on his feet! It is clear that physical therapy is definitely Jared’s favorite session of the day. He has some amazing PTs he works with on a regular basis and they are continuing to push and strengthen him. He works with different kinds of walkers and sometimes doing just a handheld assistance.
He works on his standing balance, being able to safely transition from a sit to stand and move from one chair to another. He works on kneeling, being able to go from a position on all fours to laying down to using his strength to sit back up. I have recently seen him working on walking up and down stairs and doing lunges even.
These first videos were from a few months ago...
These next videos were a couple weeks ago! LOOK AT HIM GO!
Occupational Therapy:
Continuing to strengthen his right side, they work grip strength, fine and gross motor skills like handwriting, things he does in daily tasks, getting dressed, using buttons and zippers.
PRAISE REPORT: Jared tying his shoes…he may have been able to do this all along, but this is a task I think we not realizing it have either taken away from him by doing it for him, or some of his shoes (ON Clouds) don’t require lacing them up. But here is a video you can see Jared tying up his shoes getting ready for therapy in the morning.
Perfect example of fine motor skills at work!
Some of the gross motor tasks they work on are reaching, picking things up and throwing things. He uses dumbbells and weighted dowel rods to do bicep curls, and chest presses. Stands and does an arm bike. Recently they played a bit of wiffle ball!
SPEECH THERAPY:
Phonation! That is the goal everyday! It is worked on everyday and honestly in every therapy session. Working on strengthening his breath support and cough which will help with sustaining phonation and swallowing. He is using that voice and we are loving it! ROAR!!!
Jared has attended a couple coffee shop outings with his speech therapist where he and other patients get out in the community. Our hope is with more use of that voice he will be able to do more outings while at CNS.
EDUCATION:
This is a session that we don’t talk about too much, it used to be Jared’s least favorite session, but it is a very important session. Here they work on picture identifying, vocalizing for different things, handwriting, reading comprehension, sequencing tasks and visual scanning. The struggle with this session has always been Jared’s participation. I am happy to report that from his last family conference he has been participating and engaged in the activities that have been assigned to him.
Jared also meets with a therapist once or twice a week, Luis is amazing, he is a huge cheerleader of Jared and one that has taken a lot of time to get to know more about Jared before his accident. We can’t stress enough how important this time with Luis is, this is where him talking would be huge, he can use this time to talk about how he is feeling with the changes in his life, education on traumatic brain injuries, or how the three brown ladies that he lives with drive him bananas! Prayers for these sessions, I think he could really benefit from this time and be able to work out whatever he is feeling. Usually during this session, Luis, will present Jared with different kinds of activities, so a lot of these sessions will overlap with some PT or OT skills. They may use a walker and do a couple laps around the treatment center, use the standing frame, do the hand bike, play games, listen to music…really anything that Jared wants to do.
What we have been up to since our last update to you guys…
In October as I mentioned earlier in the post, Jared’s grandpa Mike died after creating, leading and loving generations of Sawalls! Jared’s grandpa was Jared’s favorite human on this earth, and although Jared was not very vocal at the time, it was very clear how affected he was by his grandads passing. We were grateful to have been able to celebrate so much of his life on his 100th birthday back in August, and be around so much family.
We also attended the Fall Festival at ABLE Faith, where they had food and a ton of games that Jared was able to play. Jared was a bit sleepy, but we managed to wrangle a few pictures out of him.
October is also the month of Jared’s accident, so October 31st was the three year mark. Although, everyday should be a day of reflection for me on how far Jared has come, how many people didn’t think Jared would get back to so many of things he is doing now, he continues to prove them wrong every day that the Lord has said “nope, it’s not your time, YOU ARE NOT DONE YET!”
November we celebrated Jared’s birthday with a party! Family and friends came over to celebrate Jared and hang out for the day. It was wonderful, some of our oldest and dearest friends came out for the day, and Jared’s family came over. We were blessed with a beautiful day on the patio and mom’s cooking!
Then as quick as they come and go were the holidays, we got out on a Friday night and went to see Marc Broussard in concert thanks to Krissy! We had a table on the floor and really got to jam out for the evening. Jared was engaged, and even wanted to dance! We all had a fantastic time! Christmas day Jared wanted to go hang out with his family for dinner, some games and then we came home and opened presents!
Last month, we lost our caregiver, so we have had to make some big changes to our routine as a family around our house. Another one of those so grateful my mom and sister are here moments have been prevalent. Thankfully, I was able to adjust my schedule at work so I could be home a couple extra mornings to help get Jared up and ready for his therapy day and mom has been working more with him independently to feel more comfortable in some of those “assist” tasks.
To be honest, Jared CAN do everything in his morning routine for himself independently. It is just that some mornings can be more of a struggle if he is tired and he just needs a little more assistance and motivation. Let's be real though, WE ALL HAVE MORNINGS LIKE THAT!
But, Jared's strength and coordination are in place for him to do everything such as sit up in bed, brush his teeth, getting dressed with a shirt, short or pants, socks and as you saw tying shoes, he can do. There may be pieces of those things that he just needs a little help with. As we continue to work on balance and his walking we still use the wheelchair and assist with him sitting and standing to make those tasks easier for him to do.
Recently mom and I went up to CNS to do some family training with Jared’s PT and OT, where they showed her different ways to help transfer Jared from different surfaces, and getting more comfortable walking with him to better assist and safely help him around the house. They both did amazing!I am so proud of Jared for his participation that day and engaging with mom and being patient to let her work on those tasks repetitively. Funny thing, one of the transfers they tried out was to a massage chair, and go figure he didn't want to get out of that one. And we had lots of sweet moments during this time, where on both mom and Jared's end, they just end up hugging rather than moving or transferring to the selected locations!
We had a new experience with Jared. We had a beautiful weekend day and Jared was very busy and vocal from the time he got out of bed, or to be honest, the morning started off with Jared falling out of bed, yup that's right...Jared was feeling adventurous and tried to get out of bed on his own (thankfully he was ok, this is where him hollering for help and using that voice of his would have been helpful). We started with asking him a bunch of rapid fire questions, and man do I wish we had gotten him rapid fire ANSWERING them!!! He was clear, audible and correct! I wish I had gotten a video of the responses but maybe next time. To help paint a picture, I asked him his full name, he ANSWERED; his birthday, he ANSWERED; my full name, he ANSWERED (giving my full birth name); then I asked him my married name, he ANSWERED; I even asked him the address of the house he grew up in in Lubbock, he ANSWERED (me not actually knowing if it was correct), and the kicker is when my sister asked him who the president was, when I didn't think he would know, I WAS WRONG, HE ANSWERED!
We then head to the kitchen where mom was making breakfast and Jared decided he wanted to put together his own breakfast biscuit. After eating, him and mom sat at the table where they looked through the circulars and Jared took the initiative to circle some things he wanted from the grocery store. Later that afternoon, he wanted to GET UP AND GO, SO WE DID, he vocalized he wanted to go to Tom Thumb, so we loaded up in the car, gave him his Tom Thumb ad he circled things in, and decided to take his upright walker to give that a go, and GO HE DID!
After Jared's full day of therapy, usually time to wind down and relax on the couch, watch a couple shows, eat dinner (hopefully) and get ready for the next day...many times what that looks like:
We continue to count our blessings that Jared is still making progress and able to attend daily therapy at CNS, and are so grateful for every single person who is a part of his day-to-day wows and wins. Everyone that is involved in lifting him up and cheering him on and only wanting the best for him! From the start of his morning with his transportation person, Aneesha who always greets him with a smile and a "good morning" to the various techs that assist Jared during the day, Ms. CC who patiently works with Jared most days at lunch time, to the various therapists he works with daily in the different disciplines, we say a BIG THANK YOU!
Some of our goals for this new year, are to get his feeding tube out. This can only happen with continued eating, which he has been doing better with, we just have to stay consistent.
We would like to be able to get Jared on a VACATION. Since his accident, all of us have been able to travel on go on vactions and trips (we have all needed it), except for Jared. Since the moment we were blessed with his "wake up" and we able to get insurance coverage for therapy whether it has been inpatient or day neuro outpatient we have taken full advantage of it and Jared has been to therapy since then, which means he has been hitting it hard in therapy for 3 years now, without a break or vacation of his own. I ask for prayers that we can get something planned this year and get all those new details we will have to take into consideration as we do so.
PRAYER REQUESTS AND PRASIE REPORTS
I know the updates and pictures and videos are always fun but this section may be the most important.
Jared continues to be in that rhythm he found the last couple months at therapy. PARTICIPATION, ENGAGEMENT, and PROGRESS!
May our cups be refilled; Jared, myself, mom and Krissy...we need it, it has been a long 3.5 years and we are here to fight till the end, but it is a constant battle, and whether it be physically, emotionally or mentally, we can always use a little help.
Jared's eating and his speaking continue to improve and strengthen, we know these things will open so many more doors and opportunities for him and us as a family!
We are praying that we will be able to take some sort of vacation this year and celebrate Jared in how far he has come, and though we know it would be work for me and my family, it would give Jared the opportunity to relax and reset and enjoy something different since he has been working so hard at therapy.
We pray we are able to find a new caregiver to help us out in the mornings before Jared's therapy day. On the contrast, we have been so blessed in the past with all 3 of the caregivers we have had. The Lord has put amazing people in Jared's path so far, so I want to give praise and celebrate the people who have been a part of this journey.
PRAISE!!!!
Our mom (Suzy) has been AWE-some in stepping in and doing even more than she already does. Since our caregiver quit, mom is helping Jared EVERY morning with our routine in getting him up and ready for his therapy day during the week.
Jared's last couple family conferences have been celebrated with progress in different areas! The goal posts are always being moved further out, but that is ok, we are here to press on!
We continue to be grateful for the community we have found at ABLE FAITH. The various events they put on each month. I have found an amazing group of women who are caregivers for their loved ones, we fellowship, they check in on me when I get lost in the days and the weeks. Sometimes a simple "how are things going?" or a "how can I pray for you this week?" to a "is there anything you need?"
I am so thankful to have a place that "GETS IT" and people who understand, and are genuinely here to help in anyway possible. This organization is just fantastic, and I pray that all of you that read this, give them a few minutes of your day and see what they do, and all the people they help. www.ablefaith.org
*******************************************************************************************************
For anyone who might be new here, or wanting to know how they can help, here are a couple options:
-- I'm going to drop the link to Jared's Amazon gift registry here:
The most needed items (due to everyday consumption) are briefs, wipes and the various vitamins and supplements. Contributions and/or gift cards are also very helpful for random items that pop up as well.
-- And his GoFundMe is still alive and always useful.
Thank you so much for any contributions and/or purchases. We appreciate it more than you know! We look forward to the day when Jared is FaceTiming all of you to share his gratitude as well!
Stay tuned with us as we keep truckin' along! We love when we get to share pictures, videos, stories, praise reports, and even the hard stuff. Thank you for your support, prayers and encouragement! We are grateful to our community out there who care about Jared! You can always check in here or see our day to day wins and wows on my social media pages!
Instagram: @kbrenie
Facebook: https://facebook.com/kabrina.ishmael
Comments