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By the time Saturday came around, Ryan was exhausted from therapy. And he thought St. Francis was tough! By now the therapists had him talking a little more fluidly. They video taped him talking freely and then repeating sentences so he could see and hear the differences between correct and incorrect speech. Once he saw how much his communication varied, he began to check himself when he spoke. It was a trade off—slower cadence for correct grammar and usage.

Physical therapy had him balancing on foam mats. For someone with a vestibular issue such as Ryan's, that meant big trouble. Ryan had mastered standing alone on solid ground, so the PT's decided it was time to change the surface and challenge the motivated teen. Despite his improved eyesight, an unstable surface still presented problems. Yet just as he had with every other exercise thrown at him, Ryan kept improving and by the end of the first week, he could stand for five seconds before holding on to the parallel bars. Soon he would graduate to a cane once they were confident he wouldn't be a fall risk.

OT kept him busy as well, both mentally and physically. One activity in particular that Ryan found 'annoy' was a matching game. He had to recreate pictures and patterns with multi-colored blocks. The longer he took setting up the picture, the more frustrated he became. They were teaching him to calm himself down and not get upset at little road-blocks, and soon he became more comfortable with the challenges.

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Ryan and Adam were looking forward to Saturday. Not only were their families coming, but Saturday meant no therapies. Sure enough, around ten in the morning, the company arrived.

Adam was talking eagerly with his parents about the past week's activities while Sandy and Kirsten chatted with Ryan. They both noticed that he seemed more alert than when they last saw him.

"I remember Frank," Ryan simply stated. Kirsten and Sandy exchanged glances, unsure of how to handle the subject.

"What do you remember about him?" Sandy began, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

"Why didn't you remind me?" Ryan replied, more out of curiosity than accusation.

"Honey we didn't want to make you upset. We didn't lie to you, we just were waiting for you to bring it up. We wanted you to be as calm as possible," Kirsten followed.

"I know he is in jail. I remember Dawn, too. She got drunk that one time…" Ryan spaced out in thought. Kirsten and Sandy didn't know what to think. They were sad that Ryan was remembering such a troubling time, but happy that he was recalling his past.

"Honey, the important thing is that you are safe now and you have a family you can count on," Kirsten said. She wanted to make Ryan as assured as possible.

"I know. Adam noticed, too. Thank you," Ryan replied with a embarrassed smile.

"Kid, you don't have to thank us. We'll be here no matter what. We're going nowhere, and neither are you. You're doing so well. So many people care about you, Ryan. Do you know how many people read the blog? People at work ask me about you all the time, too. Just because there are two bad people in your life doesn't mean that you're out for good. The whole world's behind you, kid," Sandy finished with an honest smile on his face.

Ryan returned the grin. He didn't say anything, but his relaxed face spoke volumes.

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Marissa and Seth arrived within ten minutes of Leanne and soon room 228 was quite crowded.

"Hey, Ryan, do you want to go for a walk?" Marissa asked after the idle chatter stopped.

Ryan looked at Sandy and Kirsten who nodded in approval. "Ok," he replied.

The couple walked down the hall and onto the long balcony where they saw a few other patients out enjoying the sun.

"So Seth told me you, ah, remembered some more about us…" she began, not knowing how to start.

"You are my Leanne," Ryan replied simply. Marissa thought for a moment and then realized he was just making an association.

"I guess you could say that, yah," she laughed. "Then you are my Adam, right?"

Ryan gave her a confused look, and then realized she was exactly right. "Yesss. I guess you cold say that, yah," he mocked Marissa who laughed.

"I don't know how much detail you remember, but lets try to put the big drama behind us, ok? I mean, we've had a lot of good times, and I want to, well, you know, build from there," Marissa stammered out. This is about him. Seth's voice kept playing in her head.

"I know we had bad thingss between us," Ryan said at length, wanting his sentences to be perfect. "But we are restarting from the ggood, right?"

"That's right." Marissa paused for a minute. "What's something good you remember, Ryan?"

Ryan looked at his girlfriend with a satisfied smirk.

"Kissing is good," Ryan suggested, raising his eyebrows in temptation.

"Not here! There's like people here who don't want that, Ryan," Marissa said in between her teeth in a hushed voice.

"Ha. True. But I am The King, and they know it," Ryan replied. Touché.

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That night, Ryan and Adam were overtired from their guests and couldn't sleep. They were up talking and then Ryan suddenly had an idea. Seth had told them about the huge TV in the staff lounge that he had seen when he and Marissa were walking to Ryan's room. 'Dude, they've got it made in there,' Seth had said.

"Adam, you want to go check out the TV they have there?" Ryan asked, suddenly sitting up.

Adam knew just what Ryan meant. "Dude I was waiting for you to say that. If anyone asks, it was your idea."

The two quietly made it out of bed. It was an interesting sight, Ryan and Adam both using walkers and sneaking down the hall. They were almost to the door when they saw Jerry, the stroke patient with the MS pamphlets from the front desk, lurking the halls.

"Ryan and Adam! Room 228. You aren't supposed to be up!" Jerry whispered.

"Neither are you, Jerry, room something other than 228," Adam replied shortly, surprising Jerry.

"I'm going to tell on you. You can't be up this late," Jerry persisted. Ryan looked at the lounge door a hundred feet away.

"Dude, hhow oldd are you? No one 'tells' on annyone anymore," Ryan scolded, but immediately regretted it as he saw Jerry getting worked up. "Uh, I meann, that was very smart of you to remind us, right, Addam?"

Adam got the hint. "Yah. We needed telling. Speaking of that…tell us some more facts about MS…I seem to have forgotten all the ones you told me. What's that pamphlet say?"

"Oh, well MS. In that case. We can talk about MS. Well it's an autoimmune disease and—"

Ryan cut Jerry off. "Kkeep talking. But you hhave to be quiet. We're ggoing to walk down hall, and we can still here you, but you have to talk quietly."

Ryan and Adam began creeping down the hallway towards the lounge leaving poor Jerry 'talking' to them about the MS pamphlets.

"Dude, the door's open," Adam noticed.

"That's because I'm walking out. Hello, boys," Dr. Potenza stood tall before them.

"Shit," Ryan automatically said under his breath.

"I'm assuming you're here to watch our famous TV?" the doctor continued.

Adam's face had guilt all over it. "No, we were just wondering what kind of furniture you used and—"

"Save it, Lindsay. Back to bed. You, too, Atwood," Dr. Potenza scolded.

The boys looked at the doctor in surprise. He used to be the coolest one on the floor. If you were going to get caught, get caught by him.

"Busted," Adam admitted in defeat.

"Oh come on, I'm not that mean, am I?" Dr. Potenza faked being hurt.

"What?" asked Ryan, now thoroughly confused.

"Look, the TV's yours until I return from walking poor Jerry back to his room, but only if you promise never to do this again. Deal?" the doctor drove an easy bargain.

"Deal," Ryan and Adam replied in unison.

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ATWOOD AT LARGE

Where Seth and Luke get an A and We Tell You About Ryan's Day

January 23

Laid-out

So everyone, as we're sure you've noticed, we have a new layout, courtesy, of course, of Ryan's roommate, Adam Lindsay. Not only are we back with style, we are back with more great progress from The King.

They are going to start him using the cane next week! He understands that it will be a hard adjustment, but I think he's tired of looking like an old man with a walker, so bring it on! He still does all these balance exercises which obviously get harder and harder so it keeps him on his toes—pun intended. His right arm strength also is improving in PT. They say he's pretty much reached his full strength as far as that's concerned so maintenance and repetition is the key there.

Some of the OT games and crosswords still get to him. They're trying to teach him to meditate when he gets frustrated, which will work because we all know Ryan is the next Buddha. In theory it's good, but in reality, lets just say his chi will not be centered…

Here's an update from the King himself:

HELlloooo all you out there world!! Thank thank thank you to everyone who writes!! I KNOW there are people who care about Me! I LOve when the blog is posteddd because I gett to read about how everyone thinks I'm going good!!! See you All soon!!!
LOVE ME RYAN!!!

Again, he's all about the caps lock and exclamation points. We told him to write a serious message, but he gets too excited and doesn't re-read his posts. But it really means a lot to him and keeps him connected which is what he totally needs!

Keep on getting better, Ryan and we'll see you soon!!

Until next time, this is Cohen and Ward, signing out.

Posted By: Seth and Luke at 3:49 PM---Click to comment---Links to this post---

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Thanks so much for reading! The next post might take a few days…big weekend coming up! Epilogue to follow!