Help Josh Continue His Remarkable Recovery
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Today marks the one year anniversary since Josh’s stroke. Many of you have followed Josh’s progress. You have prayed, donated, checked on us and taken care of us in big and small ways.
Over the past year, Josh has made truly remarkable strides in his recovery journey, demonstrating resilience, determination, and incredible progress across multiple areas of therapy. With your generous support, we’ve been able to access critical therapies and resources that have fueled his path to healing. Here are some highlights of his recovery so far:
- Speech and Communication: Josh has regained significant abilities in his speech through both private therapy and an intensive program at Austin Speech Labs. He now confidently participates in group speech therapy, practices one-on-one with skilled therapists, and has developed strategies for communicating his needs and feelings. He’s forming multi-syllabic words, participating in conversations, and has made substantial gains in numerical fluency and reading comprehension.
- Physical Rehabilitation: With the help of advanced therapies at Spero Rehab, Josh has transitioned from requiring full support to walking with a quad cane to working towards no balance supports. He is working toward independence from his AFO and ankle brace as the stabilizer muscles in his leg and ankle start to fire and wake back up. He has conquered uneven terrains and obstacle courses, improving his stability and endurance. His custom leg brace and robotic rehabilitation technology have played pivotal roles in retraining his motor skills, and he even tackled the stairs in my house!—a testament to his determination.
- Occupational Therapy: Josh’s right arm has seen significant improvement. From initiating shoulder movement to using electrodes to stimulate nerve responses, he can now move his arm across a table, wiggle his fingers, and is beginning to isolate specific muscles to perform functional tasks like grabbing, holding, bending, and straightening his arm and handwriting with his left arm. His team continues to work on fine motor skills, flexibility, and arm strength.
- Medical Milestones: Josh underwent a successful cranioplasty, marking a key step in his recovery. Despite challenges like seizures resulting from scar tissue, his medical team is actively adjusting his treatment to support his continued progress.
- Holistic Recovery: Beyond clinical therapies, Josh has embraced a holistic approach to healing, including nourishing foods, quality sleep, meditation, and mindfulness practices. He is also participating in monthly chair yoga at Speech Labs! These have bolstered his overall well-being and recovery.
As you can see, Josh has made incredible physical progress and is beginning to be able to successfully communicate verbally, although speech is the biggest area of ongoing need. For those who have made donations through GoFundMe, those resources are being used for his out-of-pocket supplemental speech therapy.
Josh’s incredible progress has been possible because of the excellent care and consistent therapy he is receiving. He is in a combination of PT, OT and speech therapy 5 days a week. It is a long and challenging schedule for both he and Jaclyn. Our family continues to be in awe of Jaclyn. Josh’s recovery is a full-time job for her, limiting her ability and time to focus on her business, much less herself. Since February 6th, Josh has completed:
- 63 hours of 1/1 speech therapy with Pam, his private speech therapist
- 368 hours of outpatient therapy at CNS
- 123 hours of speech support at Austin Speech Labs (⅓ of the time split with group speech therapy, 1/1 tutoring, and 1/1 speech therapy)
- 41 hours of 1/1 physical therapy at Spero
- 30 hours of 1/1 occupational therapy at Spero
- 14 hours of 1/1 occupational therapy tech support at Spero (robotic technology)
- 12 hours of intense stretching appointments to combat tone
Josh and Jaclyn have recently been made aware that insurance is limiting the total number of hours of therapy Josh can receive. Thanks to a generous donation from a local non-profit, Project Charley, we were able to make sure he can attend therapy as needed for the rest of the calendar year. But, starting next year, Josh will max out his much needed therapy benefits about 6 weeks into the new year. A donation of $150 pays for one PT/OT session. A donation of $35 pays for one speech session
Because of this new development, we have launched a new GoFundMe campaign to continue to support Josh’s ability to access the care he needs to continue his recovery. If we are able to meet this financial goal, Josh would be able to stay in consistent (although not nearly as aggressive) physical, occupational and speech therapy through 2025.
There are a lot of good causes competing for attention and dollars this time of year and we appreciate and are humbled by your continued support and outpouring of love. Thank you in advance for however you choose to support Josh and our family in the days to come. Your support is the foundation of Josh’s recovery, and we’ll never stop being grateful.
Organizer
Lauren Thurman
Organizer
Austin, TX