A Day of Real Food!

Hello to all of our favorite followers...

We have just returned to Dana's room and decided it would be nice to fill everybody in (since we skipped out last night). I, Courtney's sister, arrived in Atlanta late last night and, unfortunately, Dana was already zonked out so I had to wait til this morning to see him. But he is filling me in on yesterday's events...
Dana attended his therapy sessions throughout the morning and afternoon. Dana tells me that his therapy went well, "tough, but it feels good." He concluded his day with a ride around the facility; but it wasn't exactly a joy ride. The therapist, Mark, who accompanied Dana challenged him to open all of the doors and press all of the elevator buttons without any assistance. Dana, of course, mastered this task with ease while also maintaining his motorized chair (which Court and I both decided we would crash). After checking out Dana's neck, the head nurse commented that Dana's trach wound is healing very well...hence his voice is getting much stronger and clearer. Good thing because Ernie needs a little fatherly input in order to modify his behavior. After all his hard work throughout the day the rest of the evening was a party... no pun intended...
For anyone who did not already know yesterday was Courtney's birthday (hurry up and get the belated's in before she holds a grudge!) For the occassion Erin and Dan brought over party hats and a cake and they really did have a little party (they saved me some cake and I must say..mmm delicious... nice pick Erin!) Ryan and Matt Osborne made appearances to visit Dana as well during the evening, and Dana said that was nice catching up.
This morning Susie-Q and I came over just while Dana was finishing up his breakfast (nasty eggs and bacon but he did enjoy the oj, fruit and cherrios). During a normal week the plan is that Dana will be working hard Monday thru Friday and then resting on the weekend. Today, however, was an exception. At 10 oclock Dana attended one occupational therapy (OT) session, which he has termed the "saturday special." Ginger, who is not the OT on his treatment team, is a super nice girl who enjoyed working with Dana. They worked on some seated balance exercises and Dana even got to lift some weights. He says that he did bicep curls and tricep extensions 15x for 3 sets with his right arm... "5 lbs feels like a lot when you havent done anything in awhile." To refuel after the workout, Dana, Court, Q, and I enjoyed lunch from Panera outside in the Garden section of the facility... HOT out there!
The rest of the afternoon was some chatting and resting. We concluded the day by having take-out dinner from a southern chain called Maggianos... sooo delicious.... I really would not have guessed southerners could do Italian so well! The choice was between Mexican or Italian but Dana said he wanted to have Italian since he was hanging out with some Italian women (although no one believes we really are). Upon eating downstairs in the atrium sitting area high school pals James and Sadie surprisingly popped in after having driven 6 hours from Orlando. Dana was happy to see them and briefly catch up, but they will be back again in the morning!
Right now Dana is scrubbing up his pearly whites and getting ready to lay back in bed. We will update you all again soon.... but for now Dana leaves you all with the following words...
"I continue to get stronger each and every day and learn more about my rehabilitation and what led me here. I look forward to the continued weeks in rehab so I may return home strong and healthy!"

Goodnight everybody... thank you for all the love you send... and we love you all right back.
Adios for now-
Brittany