Ryan moved to the rehabilitation center

On Friday they moved Ryan out of his regular floor room & into the rehabilitation center in the hospital. It's really great there & we're excited that he was able to get a room so quickly. He has a private room, spends 3 hours a day (Mon-Fri, & about 2 hours on Sat) doing rehab, & is even allowed to have visitors stay overnight in his room! In addition, there's a great media room there where he/we can watch movies, a washer & dryer available for all to use, & showers for visitors (especially helpful if you stay overnight). He's really comfortable there & seems to like it very much. His rehab is going extremely well: he's really pushing himself with all of the exercises that they have him doing. He is determined to get out of the possible as soon as is humanly possible. If for no other reason, I'm glad that they have them doing 3 hours a day of rehab because it helps break up the monotony of being in the hospital. They also take him out of his room & to a dining area for his meals, which helps give him a change of scenery.

Speaking of his meals, he's eating all of them very well, & his voice is getting stronger everyday. Speech is still working with him & they plan on upping the types of liquids that he can have: nectar thick instead of honey thick (his current allowance). Hopefully he'll soon be off all food consistency restrictions & be able to eat whatever he wants.

I should have more updates by Tuesday or so. I'm currently "stuck" here in Watertown: Chloe has kennel cough so I can't put her back in boarding just yet. She seems to be almost over it, & as soon she's well enough I'm going to have her boarded again. But until then, I'm staying at home with her. We (John, Monique & I) are looking into getting an apartment in Syracuse which would make life easier on all of us. We're going to try & find one with short-term leasing & one that allows pets, so I may not need to ship Chloe out to my dad after all.

We continue to appreciate all your concern & interest in Ryan's progress, & thank you very, very, much for all the well wishes!