TV

While we avoided damaging the condo while on vacation, it didn't take long after we returned to cause some real damage:

Who knows why he decided to throw the remote control at the TV.  He wasn't upset or anything.  He just walked by and threw it like it was the most normal thing.

Sunriver

We had a nice weekend in Sunriver.  We got in some nice boating, hiking, and swimming.  And, we avoided damaging the condo.  Yay!

He reminds me of Pig-pen from Peanuts:

Teapot

We got an aluminum teapot so that John couldn't break it.
He still found a way:

Window

We are getting the window replaced with some shatter-proof glass, but it is going to take awhile.  So, I had to board it up:  

Broken window

We knew it would happen someday.  John loves to lay backwards on the couch and kick the window.

Thankfully it was only one pane of a double pane window and it didn't shatter.  But, he seemed pretty happy with what he did and is now continuing to try to bust it out.  I fear for the rest of our windows.   I'm sure it's going to cost a fortune to fix.   For now I taped up all the cracks and covered it with cardboard.  Sigh.

Child locks, part 2

We'll see how these hold up, but so far they seem like the best invention ever:

The drawers and cabinets stay locked until you swipe the magnet over the area where the lock is.  As long as we keep the magnets away from John this seems like it will work very nicely.

Food waste

John eats an amazing amount of food, but he is also pretty wasteful.

This is a normal result after eating popcorn:

and here is the entire bunch of bananas that I carefully picked out just 5 minutes after getting home:

And, I'm glad John is finally eating pears, but this is kind of ridiculous:

Medical marijuana

Well, it was a long time coming, but we finally were able to get John on medical marijuana.  It's kind of ironic that it happened the same day that CNN ran a story about a seizure kid being helped immensely by the stuff, and Sanjay Gupta reversing his earlier stance and now supporting it.
It's a very tough system to navigate, but I finally just went with a guy that had very good reviews and delivered to my house.   We wanted a liquid form and he only had one strain in liquid form.  Not knowing one from another, we just bought what he had.    It's strong stuff, and we started him on 2 drops morning and night.  That didn't seem to do anything so I have been increasing it slowly.  We're up to 5 drops now, and while I can see some change in John, I don't really think it is helping his behavior.
Further study made me realize that we need a strain high in CBD and low in THC.  Unfortunately the one I got is high in THC and low in CBD.  Basically it will make him high but doesn't have a lot of medicinal value.  So, the search is on for a dispensary that carries the kind we need.

Door planking

Maybe the next big thing?

Child locks?

Of course, there is no child lock made that can keep John out.  So, long ago we resorted to tying up the cupboard to keep him out.  It's a serious pain to have to untie that thing every time you want to sneak a snack, especially after he has pulled on it so the knot is super tight.  
But, despite years of not being able to beat this system he continues to try.  The problem is now he is strong enough that the cabinets themselves can be beaten:

Not sure what to do about this.  I think I can repair it, but why?  Now that he knows it's possible I'm sure he'll continue to break it.   I'm open to ideas.   I wonder if they have solid steel cabinets?  :)

Maybe you are wondering where I was while this damage was taking place?  Well, I was in the other room steam cleaning the carpet after he intentionally gagged himself and puked.   And, he was gagging himself while I was in the bedroom replacing all the sheets that he pulled of the bed.   And, he pulled the sheets off the bed while I was cleaning up the box of screwdrivers that he dumped on the floor.  See where this is going?

It's getting very close to being a 2 person job to watch him.  One can do it if they are energetic and watch him closely, but if you get behind and have to clean up after one mess, he will stay one step ahead of you with his troublemaking.  

The easiest way to keep him out of trouble is to just take him for drives.  I wonder how many thousands of miles I've driven him around in circles.

Big seizure

It's been a long time since I've seen a big grand mal seizure.   We had a few last week after he drank the diastat, but those were only about 30 seconds.   But, at 6:45 this morning was a truly scary seizure again.  A lot more violent then I think I've seen and his face was really contorted, etc.   It was about 90 seconds long.   I have no idea what could have contributed to this, but I hope I never have to witness that again.

And, because Yoshie is overseas I had to force John to get up and go to his daycare just a couple of hours later.  I felt really bad about that.   But, he seemed OK with it.  I'm sure he was a lot calmer than usual.  I checked in this afternoon and he is apparently back to normal.   #resilience

Money

Oh man.  Yet another new thing to worry about.   John has taken a liking to paper money.   I mean, EATING paper money.  I guess he likes the chewy texture.  I suppose it is more satisfying than the wimpy paper he usually chews on.   This money was sitting on our counter (only ones, thankfully!)  But, later I caught him going through my wallet looking for more.

Diastat

We had a little bit of a scare last week when John decided to DRINK his emergency medicine (Diastat otherwise known as valium) that is normally given rectally.   It comes in a syringe inside plastic packaging.  And, we've carried this with us for 8 years.  I have no idea why he suddenly decided he would drink it.
It's strong stuff.

He suffered several small seizures in the hours following this (yes, it's an anti-seizure med).  And, was generally out of it for awhile.  But, he bounced back pretty quickly.

More shoes

It's hard to see in the picture, but John's new fascination is taking all of our shoes and putting them behind the piano.

More destruction

The destruction continues.  In the last couple of days he broke the glass light in our bedroom, pulled out the light in our bedroom that was installed with those strong drywall fasteners,  and slammed the kitchen door hard enough to create this hole.   And, believe it or not this had a thick plastic 4" protector on it.  It broke in two.
I'm thinking I should just buy the drywall repair kits in bulk.

New hobby

So one of John's new hobbies is ripping up papers.  This was just a newspaper, but he has since moved on to magazines and books.

New (big) problem

John has always been an escape artist.  But, lately his desire to escape our house has become alarming.  We already have keypad locks on all of our internal doors and the windows are all locked.  But, we cannot install a keypad lock on the inside of the front door due to fire codes or something.   So, we have alarms on those doors and I installed a small slider lock high up so he couldn't reach it.   But, that no longer works.  Check this out:

The breakup at the end is because he ran outside and was going to climb the tree.  I barely got to him in time even though I was standing right there!
Not sure what we are going to do about this yet, especially with Yoshie leaving to Japan in a few days.  I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to take a shower without John escaping.  I'll have to get creative.
 

Running

Well, I knew it was too good to last.  We had a couple of months of nice runs where I pushed John in his push chair and Yoshie rode her bike with us.  But, that ended today.  He decided he didn't want to ride in the chair at all.  He kept trying to escape while we were moving pretty good.  That is kind of dangerous.   I ultimately had to run with him for about a quarter mile, pushing the chair with my left hand and holding on to John with my right.  That would wear him out enough that he would sit in the chair for a few minutes after that.  Repeat.   We didn't get in much of a run, unfortunately.

I could probably put the harness on there to force him to sit, but I don't want this to be torture for him.  I was hoping he would continue to enjoy the runs.  

At least we did get in a nice trip to the beach after the run:

He did pretty good at the beach again.  The only thing that freaked me out was that he grabbed a 12" jellyfish that I was trying to get him to avoid.  I mistakenly thought it might sting him.  He grabbed the whole thing and ran in to the surf, tearing it in two on the way.   I don't know why he had the need to do that, but I'm glad it didn't sting him!

On the roof again

He can get on the roof in about 20 seconds now via the tree in our front yard.  And, he will if you take your attention off of him at all.  Today we were both watching him, but the neighbor across the street came out and said something to us.  John saw his opportunity and was up there before we even knew what happened.  Yoshie somehow climbed the fence and got up there almost as fast.  I ran out back to get the ladder.  But, John was already sitting on the gutter on the side of the house ready to jump off.  I tried to stop him but was unsuccessful.  I tried to break his fall but didn't do a great job.  He got hung up on the gutter messing it up and bruising his arm in a couple of places.  Of course he thought it was all great fun.

Cleaning

For some unknown reason, John had a NEED to move all of our shoes to this one location.  There was no stopping him.

Autism is so weird.

Climbing

We bought the mats to keep him safer, but of course he figured out a way to have some fun with them:

Sugar!

This is why we keep the cupboard locked:

Where are you?

John was supposed to be in bed (in his pajamas).  This is where we found him:

Today's damage

Window sill:

The picture speaks for itself

This weekend's damage

Another sun visor (3rd one for those that are counting):

Another umbrella:

And, this is a new one.  He discovered the molding can be ripped off:

On the roof again

John is back to climbing the trees.  This is the one he uses to try to get on the roof.

As you can guess, we have to watch him very carefully while outside.  He did manage to get up on the roof yesterday even though we were watching closely.  

I think we're going to have to cut that tree down, unfortunately.

Today's damage

I hope this current phase of tipping over furniture when he gets angry passes quickly.

Beach

We took a short 1-night trip to the beach.  We stayed at a place he is familiar with because he loves their pool.  Unfortunately the pool pump broke right before we got there and was scheduled to be fixed just as we were leaving.   But, they let John in there anyway for a short swim.  It seemed like it was enough to keep him happy.
This was probably the best trip we've had with John.  He was well behaved the whole time, didn't have any seizures, and was safe enough at the beach that we could just let him be.  
The weather was beautiful and warm and we couldn't see another person in any direction.   It was like a giant playground for him.

He refuses to drink from a cup:

The beach all to ourselves:

 

John actually playing normally and safely:

One little act of defiance just as a reminder:

You can see his joy in the video:

crying

Yoshie and I can't remember ever seeing John cry.  I think it's been years.  But yesterday evening, he had these wild mood swings where he would hit things and knock over furniture, even causing some damage:

... followed by long periods where he would pace back and forth crying.  He couldn't be consoled at all.  I don't think he even knows what he was crying about.   It was like he had figured out crying and he was forcing himself to do it.  

We're really hoping this is just a short phase and not a new challenge.

On the flip side, he attended his summer day care/camp for the first time yesterday.  Sounds like he had a great day there.  He was very active and wore out the staff.  We got a message on the machine saying he was so active that they are sure he must be at home completely worn out now.   Got a chuckle out of that.  Nothing wears him out.  He is like that from early morning until late at night, unless he's in the car (or lately in his push chair).

Run

I pushed John in the giant stroller on my run today.  It actually went quite well!  We picked a flat bike path.  We ran for an hour and I didn't have to stop even once to deal with something.  I think he enjoyed it too!

3 minutes in the car

And this is what happens when John is left alone in the car for a few minutes:

$90!   I only know because this is the 2nd time this has happened.

3 minutes

This is what happens when John is left alone for 3 minutes.

Happy 11th Birthday!

Happy Birthday John!   We had a nice little party with Christi, Jack, and Grandma.

John got a new "push chair".  It's really just a BIG stroller.  Of course he can walk and run just fine, but this calms him and has been a real help while waiting for the bus.  You can see the video earlier on the blog with our past struggles getting him on the bus.   But, with his routine of sitting in the chair he has been much, much better.   I'm entertaining the thought of running with him again with this, but it is pretty big.  It would definitely have to be a flat route!

pancakes and staples

We had a nice pancake breakfast at John's school this morning where he got recognition for finishing 5th grade.

Then, he proceeded to have some sort of accident which required him to get a few staples in the back of his head.

Soy Sauce

John loves any foods/drink with a strong flavor.  He loves to eat salsa by the bowlful, and liked coffee for his entire life.  He will also steal a sip of beer from you if you aren't careful.
Well, he recently started drinking soy sauce.  We have had to hide our soy sauce for the last few weeks.  But, he found the big Costco sized bottle of soy sauce yesterday and drank all that was left in it.  It was about 2 cups worth.  We're very thankful it wasn't more!
He seemed totally fine, until he wasn't.   He threw up 6 times in my car.  :(
Outside of being pale for the rest of the evening, he seemed fine.  It sure didn't slow him down.  I hate to think what that much sodium would do to you.  Glad his body got rid of it.

Vaccine

We are continuing to get John vaccinated, one shot at a time.  It obviously takes longer, but if you've had the chance to see John after a vaccine you'd understand.   He got a polio vaccine last Thursday.  Friday was a new level of craziness.  He could not stand or sit still for even the tiniest amount of time.  He ran back and forth across the house with no breaks the entire day.   He wouldn't even stop for food.   Thankfully he did get to sleep around midnight and slept until almost 7am.   Then, he was back at it all through the weekend.  He's gets better each day now.
Surely, this must mean something?  I've never heard of another kid reacting to a vaccine that way.   We have seen this with each of his vaccines.

window locks

I had to put a window lock on John's bedroom window after we found him running around outside at 10pm when we thought he was asleep!

House

At what point do we quit referring to this as our house and start calling it our gym?

VNS adjustments

We continue to increase John's VNS settings.  He is up to 1.25 output current, with the magnet set to 1.5.  It is on for 30 seconds and off for 1.8 minutes.  He's still having about the same number of seizures, but changes are never immediate with the VNS.  But, one thing we do see with each increase is that he gets super hyper for a while.  It's really incredible to watch him.  He can't stay still for a second.
He has 2 new behaviors since we increased his VNS on Wednesday.  The first is he tries to escape the house constantly.  I installed some more window locks so now he is really locked in, but he has figured out how to undo the door locks so I'll have to add a key to those.
The other new behavior is that he takes all his clothes off constantly.  I mean like 50 times a day.  He can't go 5 minutes without taking his clothes off.  It's very tiring for Yoshie and I as we have to watch him constantly and if we don't our punishment is putting his clothes back on.  It's not too bad until you have to do it several dozen times.  It gets ridiculous.
Yesterday, he combined his 2 new behaviors and was running around out in front of our house completely naked.  I'm kind of surprised we didn't get a visit from the cops.

More Zonisamide

We're still hoping the VNS will help with these night seizures, and we have 2 more appointments to adjust his VNS settings.   But, in the meantime we had to go back up on his Zonisamide.  We were hoping to get rid of this drug altogether, but I guess that isn't going to happen any time soon.  He's back to 100mg twice a day.

Seizure video

Yoshie took some video of one of John's night time seizures this morning.  These are the typical ones that he has 3-4 times a night now:

Sunday morning seizure

New VNS settings

The daytime seizures have mostly stayed away which has been really nice.  Unfortunately the bigger night time seizures have continued so we got his VNS turned up yesterday.  The current is now set at .75, on for 30 seconds and off for 1.8 minutes.   The magnet is set to 1.0 and is on for a minute.  Hopefully we'll see some improvement with this, but he will have it turned up again in 3 weeks regardless.

Struggling

We went to the surgery follow-up appointment yesterday and the incision is healing nicely so he got the OK to submerge it in water again.  That is good because he likes to play in the bath and didn't understand why he couldn't for the last 2 weeks.  
John continues to do pretty well during the day.  He's had some good therapy sessions and very few daytime seizures.   But, for 2 days in a row now he has had a very bad grand-mal seizure around 5am.  These are the kind where he shakes violently and doesn't breath.  It scares us to death.   And it completely exhausts him.  So, today we had to keep him home from school yet again.

VNS #3

John had his VNS replaced again on Jan. 3.   Over the last several months John's seizures had gotten progressively worse so we made an appt. to get the VNS checked.  It was dead or close to it.  So, that pretty much convinced us that the VNS was actually helping him so we had no choice but to get it replaced.
John did great during the surgery and once out of the general anesthesia he did not want to stick around so we left the hospital almost immediately.  We were at Subway literally 90 minutes after he woke up.  Crazy kid.
It was a challenge to keep him from taking the bandage off but with very close supervision we were mostly successful for the required 2 days.  He then took the steri-strips off almost immediately but the wound looks like it is healing very nicely so no worries.
John has had a couple of bad days since the surgery, but overall he is doing MUCH better.  They just turned it on a very low setting during the surgery but it has really helped him.

Behavior therapist

Today, John's behavior therapist came over.  We haven't seen her for awhile, so we had a lot to share.  She gave us some techniques to use to control him when he gets really wound up.  And, she is going to come over in the morning next week to help John get on the bus.  Hopefully she will have some ideas to make this easier going forward.   I start my new job next week, so I will not be able to help Yoshie in the morning.  She simply cannot do this herself so we need to figure out something very quickly.
We also are considering starting John on his new seizure drug (Onfi) and backing off on the Risperidone for now.  We have to discuss with his doctors first though.  There are several doctors now, and I want them all to be in agreement about our course of action.  
We think John IS slightly better these days.  It can be hard for us to tell, but we did have his sitters over again tonight and they said he was much better this week than last.   We have noticed that John is eating like crazy these days.  He has always been a big eater, but now he can eat non-stop for hours.  Weight gain is a very common side-effect of Risperidone, and it looks like he is running in to this. 

Doctor visit

We went back to the developmental pediatrician today, this time with John.  She wanted to do an exam, but of course he wouldn't allow that.  She still got to see him in action, which was great.  And, we got more information about our course of action.   We are going to continue to increase his Risperidone.  It hasn't done much yet, but his current dose is still low so we have a long way to go.

Morning seizure

John's seizures have gotten somewhat worse lately.  Today he had a big seizure in the morning and he had to sleep it off all morning so he missed the bus.  We had to take him to school.  He wasn't happy at all about that.   They had to lock him in the room so we could escape.

playing at the park

Just another day dealing with the "new" John.   We took him to a park to play for 30 minutes while we were waiting to pick up Maya from school.  When we were ready to go, he simply would not get in the car and Yoshie and I could not even force him in.   Ultimately, John and I had to walk from the park to Maya's school.  He continuously tried to escape (into the busy road).  This is the first time that we simply could not get him in, no matter how hard we tried.  It's been a two person job for a couple of weeks now, but we are at the point that even with both of us it can't be done.   So far the Risperidone doesn't seem to be helping at all.

Bed-wetting and Big Al's

Well, John did wet the bed today.  But, this is the first time in over a week!  So, simply moving his seizure med from night to morning made a HUGE difference.  And, to think we were just about to put him on another drug for this.
Today was the worst day yet for getting him on the bus.  It was a huge struggle and we thought we had succeeded.  We were just going back in the house when we turn around and see him in the stairwell of the bus.   So, we had to do it all over again.  From now on, we have to use the harness which clips him in so there is no way he can escape.  I think we are getting quite a reputation in our neighborhood as there is a nice line of cars every day that have to wait for us to get him on the bus.  It can take up to 10 minutes some days.   Twice we have had to give up and have the bus drive around the block so we can try a second time.
Today was also my last day of my job that I have had for 14 years.   To celebrate, we went out to Big Al's (a noisy restaurant, bowling alley, arcade games, etc.).   We sat down and ordered and that was about all John could handle.  He doesn't understand that he has to wait for his food to be prepared and he simply couldn't understand why other people were getting food before him.  He became very agitated and eventually Yoshie had to take him outside so he could throw rocks in to a mud puddle.   When we were done eating we went outside to find John still throwing rocks.  It was very difficult to get him in to the car.  I had to hold his feet while Yoshie held his arms.  He fought the whole way.  I'm surprised the police weren't called.  It was very exhausting.

Another doctor

John had 2 more big seizures on the 18th and 19th.   We don't know if this is because of his new med and it's known side-effect of lowering the seizure threshold.  Seems a little suspicious, though.
Today, Yoshie and I met with his new behavioral/developmental pediatrician while John was at school.
This was a good appointment, and this doctor is getting the ball rolling on a lot of things.  It's obvious we've reached a point where we are struggling and need some help.  She is pulling together his other doctors, his school, etc. to get everyone in the loop.
She gave us a dosing schedule to slowly increase the Risperidone, which we will start doing today.   We will increase from .125 twice a day to .25 twice a day.  We will have another meeting with her next week so she can see John in action.

We were able to take a video of our daily struggle to get John on the bus these days:

This goes on for another 5+ minutes inside the bus.  And believe it or not, most days are worse than this.  It's a horrible way to start the day, both for John and for us.  I really wish we knew why he suddenly doesn't want to go to school.  He rode the bus without issue for many years.

Big seizure

Maya and I left for a hike today.  John ended up having a big seizure in the morning, with no breathing and just his right arm shaking violently.  He seemed to recover OK from this, but his behavior and aggression remains very bad.

Friday the 13th

Today started with John's appointment with his primary care physician.  She came in early just to see John which was nice.  John was crazy in the waiting area and at one point pulled Yoshie hard enough that she fell and bruised her backside.  He continued to be wild in the doctors office and so she ended up sending Yoshie and John to the ER at OHSU.   I got a phone call at work from the doctor saying that she had just sent them to the ER and that they needed to try to medicate him for his own safety.  And, if they couldn't find something that would work that she would recommend sending him to a psychiatric ward until they could get him settled down.
As is typical of ER's, we had to wait a couple of hours to see anyone that could help.  They did bring us back to the ER room quickly, but this required 2 men to forcefully pull him to the room.  John can't just wait around so we had to make many trips up and down the hall and to the vending machines.   We still needed to get some blood.  They wrapped him up in blankets so he couldn't use his arms or legs and then had 3 nurses and myself attempt to hold him down so they could get some blood.  Even with 4 of us we couldn't hold him still enough to get the needle in the right place.  They had to poke him twice and only ended up with 1ml of blood which wasn't enough to do most of the tests.  And his hand ended up completely bruised.
Yoshie had a long conversation with a social worker.  I'm not sure what will come from that, but she seemed determined to help us.
We finally got to talk with the child psychiatrist.  After many questions she decided that the best course of action was to start John on a low dose of Risperidone.   We agreed and we were able to leave in the afternoon.
To make matters worse, I thought that someone stole our iPad from our car while parked in the ER parking lot.  I even filed a police report.  Turns out that I had left it at work and my friend had seen it on my desk and hid it for me (and forgot to tell me!).  
We ended up keeping our plans to go out to dinner with my mom while John was cared for by Yoshie's friends.  That actually went fine.  John loves company and is usually pretty good at home.
Based on Yoshie's hunch, we changed when we gave John his Zonisamide from night to morning.  Can you believe that he didn't wet the bed for the first time in a long time?  Hopefully that will continue.

Sleep study appt

Today, we had an appt. with the sleep study center.  John's neurologist referred us here due to John's issues with bed-wetting and waking up repeatedly through the night.
John was in fine form during this appointment.  He fought going (and staying) in the doctors office, and threw her notes across the room when he got a chance.  He put on quite a show which I think was a bit alarming to the doctor.
There is a chance that John's VNS could be the cause of his bed-wetting.  Or, it could be seizures.  Or, it could be too deep of a sleep due to meds.  Or, it could be an issue with how his body creates urine.  Or, it could be sleep apnea.  Anyway, we decided a sleep study would be a good idea to help get to the bottom of it.
The doctor also wanted to start John on a new medication that limits the amount of urine that gets created.  It seems he has some issue, as he can go to the bathroom dozens of times between dinner and bed.   But, he needed a blood and urine sample before he could start taking this med, so we were instructed to make an appointment with his primary care doctor as soon as we could.
After seeing John at his worst, this doctor made some phone calls and got John's primary care doctor to come in early the next morning to see John first thing.

Scary

I obviously haven't been very good about keeping the blog updated.  But, things are changing again so I will make an effort to keep this up to date.
John has been on 225mg of Zonisamide (taken in the evening) for quite a while now.  He continues to have small "head nod" seizures throughout the day and a bigger seizure (with vomiting and ultimately sleep) once every 1-3 weeks.  So, things have been pretty good, but not great. 
Lately, John's behavior has become more of an issue than the seizures.  He get's aggravated easily and cannot be calmed down.  And, he is getting bigger which makes it harder for us (especially Yoshie) to handle. 
We had a scary situation happen recently that made us realize that we need to make some changes to keep him safe.
Yoshie was driving our minivan, and was turning left from Cornell on to 185th (a very busy intersection).  As she slowed down, John undid his buckle and went to the opposite side door and got out!  Yoshie tried to stop him, and ended up hitting the car in front of her (only slightly, no damage).  But, John still escaped and took off down Cornell barefoot.  Yoshie got out and screamed for help and the guy who's car she had just hit got out and chased John down.  Then, a couple of good Samaritans helped to keep John on the sidewalk while he fought to get away.  By the time I arrived, the car was still in the middle of the road and several people were in the parking lot nearby.  A couple were helping to keep John from escaping but the rest really didn't know what to do.  I went around and told everyone of John's condition and thanked them for helping out.  The guy said the scratch on his car wasn't enough to even worry about.  What a nice guy!  I really wish I would have gotten his name.  Thankfully, I know his car very well so hopefully I will see him again.
Anyway, we obviously have to worry about safety now so some changes need to be made.

Playground fall

John went to a special needs camp all last week. We were pretty nervous about sending him, but he seemed to really like it. That is, until Friday. The group was playing at a playground that had a pretty high play structure. Of course John was at the top. Nobody seems to know what happened, but someone mentioned that he was pushed from the top and fell about 12ft down. His head and face hit something on the way down.
They said he was acting "stunned" so they called the paramedics. They put a neck brace on him and drove him to the ER.
Unfortunately I was in an all-day meeting and Yoshie was at the zoo with Maya so we couldn't be reached. They were able to reach my mom who got in touch with my brother who I think called the front office of my work. I finally got called out of the meeting and was able to call the camp director. All she could tell me was that John had a bad fall, was in a neck brace and on a backboard and that I needed to get to the ER ASAP. Scared me to death. And, traffic was horrible. Then, there was construction at the hospital. Three ambulances passed me while I was waiting there. I'm guessing John was in one of them. Thankfully, Yoshie had come back to the car for her phone so I was able to get in touch with her. She actually got to the ER about the same time as the ambulance.
When I got there, they were holding him down and cutting off his clothes. He had a big lump on his head and a bruised face but didn't seem to be in any horrible pain. I think he was a lot more upset about being held in place. They did an x-ray and CT scan. Both of those were fine, thankfully. Soon after that we were sent home. They said he likely had a mild concussion and we just have to watch him carefully for awhile.
His face got a little more swollen on Saturday, but has since gotten much, much better. He also was favoring one arm and his shoulders were crooked. This required another set of x-rays on Monday. Those also looked OK, so we're hoping that it is just some muscle pain that will go away soon.
We did keep him home from camp this week. We're still decided whether or not to send him back next week.

CT Scan:



Looking a little beat up:

Japan trip

The trip to Tokyo went well. I think John had a great time. The flights were tough, but only because he was happy and making a lot of noise. That is a lot better than crying or breaking down out of frustration. He loved all of the trains, the noodles, Disneyland, etc. Overall we had a great trip.

Here are some pics:


Tokyo Disney Sea


Shibuya




Enjoying an ice coffee at McDonalds



Roller coaster at Toshimaen



Anpanman ride


Easting some noodles at a shop in the Ikebukuro train station.



Leaving rainy Portland