Merry Christmas!

Hi Team 44 Followers,

Merry Christmas from Forrest, Austin, Rae and your author today Kent.
Forrest continues to make progress almost daily.  He has recently had a birthday and turned 20.  He had a fun party with his friends the other night and the family was home and had a great Christmas together.

As usual SuperBro and SuperMom have been doing a great job and spend an inordinate amount of time working with 44 and no doubt have helped him progress so well.  We have had a great team healing him throughout this year.  Tami, The Medical Team nurses, Dell, Steven, Tom Sweitzer, his teachers, therapists and Rebekah and many others have helped him.  We also appreciate the many great friends who have come to visit him, party with him and Facetime and Skype with him.  It really keeps him energized.  He got the new Wii U for Christmas and is anxious to play it with his friends.

The amazing things that he has done in the last few weeks is unbelievable.  He has started to form words and then has started speaking very quietly as well. The words are very quiet and few and he has trouble with some of the sounds but continues to make progress on a daily basis.  He continues to improve on other fronts and can walk several "laps" around the room with balance assistance.  He is making progress on almost every front, some of it is hard but he continues to work and make progress every day.

The medical issues are still daunting and we continue to tackle them with our great group of nurses and Doctors. He still is fighting the infection that recently sent him back to the hospital but his incision is healing well and he continues on with antibiotics via the PICC line.  He will likely switch to oral antibiotics after he finishes this course of IV.  He battles vertigo and is working on his swallowing and medication issues.  So he fights on making progress on many fronts.  After a rough almost two years it is great to see him smiling and working so hard.

Forrest has always been the comeback kid and he continues on!
Dad

Friends at a Brightwood Christmas party

Forrest enjoying great friends

An obviously candid Christmas photo

Video above of Forrest playing "pong" while practicing his standing coordination & duration