David is coming home!

David seems to be getting stronger everyday. On Thursday, Mom noticed that he seemed to be making more eye contact and his therapists noticed that he was more friendly. However, he still has the feeling that "nothing seems real." He feels like it is all a dream.
The doctors have told David that he will be discharged from the hospital Friday! He will continue his therapy at Paradise Valley Hospital where they have a neurology rehab center. That is great news that he won't have to travel too far for his therapy! David is already looking forward to coming home and getting back to a normal life style. Mom plans to have him go to all of his classes at least once before graduation. He is also thinking about when he can drive again. Mom said that he won't be driving for a long time still. He then asked if she meant that he could drive after he got his cast off! Sorry David, it will probably take longer than that!
Mom noticed something historical about when David will be released. On Friday he will have been at St. Joe's for three weeks. In a little less than two weeks it will have been 18 years ago that David was discharged from St. Josephs as an infant after spending three weeks in NeoNatal Care. Pretty interesting!

Paradise Valley H.S. Prom 2007

Here is David and his prom date, Tiffani. Notice the matching cast? His green cast was replaced with this blue one, but not for prom. They had to change his cast because the other one was too loose and they needed to do an x-ray. This color blue just happened to be the only one they had with them when they changed it.


David is trying to figure out how the corsage works!!!



Here is the handsome couple... with David and Tiffani! :) Mom and Dad had the pleasure of attending prom with David and Tiffani.



Look at these debonaire brothers!

David and Tiffani, Katherine and Jimmy at prom.

Yes, that really is the prom King crown on his head! David is the Paradise Valley High School 2006-2007 Prom King! Congratulations David! Tiffani can't believe it either! :) They had the chance to dance together during some of the slow songs.

Katherine, Jimmy, Tiffani, and David after the ceremony!

The newly crowned King and Tiffani.

The king arrived back at his beautifully decorated "palace" and fell asleep! He managed to stay awake until 11:30 which was quite a miracle! Mom had David sleep all day in hopes that he would be able to stay awake for the festivities and it worked!

The day after and "King" David is spending some quality time with the commoners! :)

Pictures posted April 28

Stephen Drew of the Diamondbacks visiting the hospital.



Occupational therapy. David's training to be a pilot ; )



Mom and Dave.



Therapy class outing.

Fixing his broken teeth. He'll be here many more

times over the next several months.

Visitors wanted

David had some visitors last week and it went great. Sorry to the Seminary class that went down and missed him when he was at the dentist. He has a more set schedule now and can have visitors between 3:00 and 5:00 pm. Call first to make sure he's in his room.

Directions to find his room:

Thomas to 3rd Ave., North on 3rd Ave 200 feet, turn right into parking garage. Take elevators to 2nd floor. From elevators go left down long hallway with sign for 'Neuro Rehab'. At end of hall are large double doors, ring buzzer on right hand side and ask nurses desk for David's room.

Call Mom Mackey's cell phone, if she doesn't answer wait till closer to 3:00 to call. She's busy helping with Dave's rehab so is unable to answer sometimes. Her number is xxx-xxx-xxxx

Alright, posting a personal phone number on a blog is a bad idea. So you're on your own. The best time to try is still between 3:00 and 5:00. His dinner comes at 5:30 and he falls asleep soon after that.

He'll be home Sat and Sun. April 28th and 29th but he will probably be there all of next week for rehab. Have fun visiting.

There is also a new article about David in The Arizona Republic. Here is the link:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/nephoenix/articles/0426phx-mackey0426-ON.html

They also have a link in the article to the blog! Now this is really public!

David is going to prom?!?!?!

Well after a long weekend, David had to get back to the grindstone on Monday. Mom noticed that it was really hard to motivate him to do anything. This might be a problem because he will probably be coming home every weekend, and if he is taking steps backward in his therapy, this will slow down his progress. The key to his continued improvement is working hard at therapy. Mom noticed in his therapy that when they make him walk, he can't walk fast and it is almost like he is hyperextending his legs. The therapist said that this is pretty typical for those who have had brain trauma. With more hard work, David will be able to walk faster and more normal.
Mom has shown David pictures of when he was in the hospital in Canada to see if he can remember anything. None of it seems real to David. He says that what he is going through is like a dream and that he is going to wake up and be at the Lazenby's house. It is hard to imagine what it would be like to not know what happened to you during a certain period of your life.
When David is talking on the phone he seems to be pretty normal. Mom noticed when he was talking to his sister, Stacy, he had facial expressions and a melody/tones in his voice that were more normal sounding. It almost made Mom cry to see more of the David we know start to wake up and show himself. She noticed that when he's talking on the phone when he's tired then he is pretty flat. However, if he is well rested, he has more expression and life in him. That's great to see that kind of progress!
David went to the dentist again today and had a better experience than the week before. He was only in the chair for about 2 hours today working on one of his teeth. David seemed to tolerate it much better today. Mom has been so impressed with the dentist and all of the staff at the office. They have bent over backwards to help David and have worked hard to get David feeling better. They even signed a birthday card for him when he turned 18!
This weekend is prom at Paradise Valley High School. David is in the running to be prom king!!! David will be allowed to attend prom for one hour on Saturday. The plan is to go to prom, take some pictures, dance a little and stick around for the ceremony. The tricky part is that David hasn't been able to stay up past 7:45 at night and prom is much later than that. Mom said that when he is tired, he can't help but go to sleep. His physical needs outweigh his emotional needs. Hopefully, he can sleep all afternoon at home and have enough energy to make it through his senior prom.

Fresh, Fantastic, Fotos

Moms place for the past three weeks.



Family Home Evening. Becca's in charge of dessert.



The youngest six.




Happy Birthday Dave. We love you and look forward to having you 100% back with us soon.





18 years old.






I'll be there soon.


We Love You David.

p.s. David is going to prom on Sat.

Not so new but new to you pictures

Paradise Valley H.S. choir plus one



still in Victoria




Where is My Plane !? !

Gotta do something about these drivers.

It's about time, my helicoptor wasn't available.

Finally coming home.

It's good to be with family.

We'll try to get current pictures up soon. These are out of order but at least there here.

First time back to church.

David was given another pass from the hospital today to go home. Every time he leaves, he has to have his vital signs checked out and that takes a while. So on top of the drive home, he was late for his first time at church. That's OK because he was ready to go home before the closing song. He loved being there, but it's hard for him to express that emotionally. He has had an exhausting weekend with a lot of noise stimulation, but tomorrow he goes back to work. He does 3 different kinds of therapy 1/2 hour each 2 times a day. They are working on building up his stamina so that he is not sleeping 15 or 16 hours a day, but only sleeping through the night with a small nap during the afternoon. Anytime you might communicate with David through cards or phone calls, please encourage him to work hard. The therapists say that the harder he works, the better he will get and the sooner he will be ready to go home permanently. We are all ready for the day to come sooner than later, but to get there he will need lots of support and encouragement. You have all been great in expressing that to David. Thank you!

Happy Birthday, David!!!

For David's birthday, the doctors gave David a great birthday present. They allowed him to go home for the first time since this whole ordeal started. David arrived home about 10:00 this morning and went straight for the living room couch. It was about his normal nap time and the drive wore him out. He slept for a while and then woke up to visit with his grandmother for a while. He ate lunch and then friends and family started coming over in the afternoon. He had many visitors and David loved seeing them all. His room was decorated at the hospital with balloons from friends and family and the house was decorated with even more birthday balloons. He will have lots of birthday wishes to read on the walls for the next few days. Although David loved seeing so many of his friends and family members, he quickly tired. He learned for himself that even though he wanted to go home so badly, he is not quite ready to be home on a permanent basis. He knows that he still needs more therapy and the best place for him to be right now is at the hospital. He will be allowed to go home on the weekends for a few hours, but then will return at night to sleep at the hospital. His therapists are working really hard with him to able to build up his endurance so that he can be able to go to college in the fall. We know that David can do it! He will need lots of love, support and encouragement to make it through this part of the healing phase from all of his friends and family!

3 teeth and 3.5 long hours!

The long awaited dentist appointment arrived today!!! David walked to the dentist appointment and he was so excited about finally having his teeth worked on. However, no one knew that David was going to be there for so long. 3 teeth and 3.5 hours later, David finally could get out of the dentist's chair to make the walk back to his hospital room. After his experience, David was no longer excited about being there and just kept saying that he wanted to go home. Ouch!!!
The meeting with the doctors did not bring the good news that we had hoped for. David will not be home in time for his birthday. The doctors want David to stay in the hospital for 2-3 more weeks. On one hand, it will be a good thing to make sure that David will continue to get the best possible care every day with his therapists to keep David on the right track to recovery. On the other, I think many were hoping for David's sake to get him home to start getting back to his daily routine in his own home. At the time of writing this, David still does not know this information because of his exhausting day at the dentist office. Mom felt it best to not discourage him anymore for today.

Jessica talked with Mom yesterday and discussed what to do about David’s birthday. They are having him keep track of the date, so he will know when the big day comes and we want to make it as special as possible (without overwhelming him). We think that it might be fun for him if we all (and any and all friends that want to be included in this) decorate colored-paper balloons that we will use to decorate his room while he sleeps Friday night. The balloons can be as simple or as creative as you like. Feel free to write messages, include pictures or just color them pretty. Just print as many as you want onto colorful paper (or trace them onto construction paper). Make sure to have the balloons back to Mom’s house by Friday afternoon. Sorry that this is such short notice, but we weren't sure what we could do or where he was going to be for his birthday.

Football, dentist and visits!

David's therapy has been going really well! He has been throwing footballs and playing cards. He has also been working really hard on improving his balance! That is great news so that he can become more independent in his daily life. He is not quite ready for too much independence because his ability to reason about what is dangerous has not yet redeveloped. However, David does not like his speech therapy. It's hard for him to do and boring and it feels like little kid work, but will probably be the therapy that will last the longest in David's recovery. The therapists have been working hard on helping David to regain his ability to focus so that he someday he will be able to attend college. Yeah!
David has also been to see the dentist. He has 9 broken teeth and will eventually need 6 crowns and possibly 6 root canals to fix the damage from the fall. Tomorrow he will see the dentist again to start the repairs that will inevitably take months. This is great news so that David will have less pain and hopefully be able to eat better.
David has been playing the piano a little bit in his hospital room. I have heard that he is playing quite well and doesn't let his broken wrist slow him down too much. David got to see many of his choir friends today. He was really excited to see them even though it is still hard for him to show outward emotion. That part of showing emotion will take time. Mom said that he walked out to see them, but quickly tired and returned to his room where he wanted everyone to come in to see him there. The choir students sang a song and David was able to sing with him. That was nice to hear that he remembers the words to songs that he sang.
David is becoming more anxious about going home. He asks Mom all the time when he can go home. Tomorrow Mom will have a meeting with David's doctors to talk about when David will be released to go home. It could be as soon as Friday or the middle of next week. His therapy will continue on an outpatient basis. That would be nice if he could be home in time for his birthday on Saturday!

Determination and sarcasm

David's friend Tiffani found another article from Victoria.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=33a0395c-f209-4e88-be54-6b23d4f8b13e


Today David started his first full day of physical therapy. He did different things in the morning and afternoon. Some of his therapy is reteaching him to do everyday kinds of activities - getting dressed, brushing his teeth, taking a shower, etc. David is starting to remember how he was before the accident. He notices differences in how his body works now and it frustrates him. The therapists have told him that if he works hard he will get to go home sooner. So with all of the training that David had during his years of wrestling and football, he knows how to work hard. He has found his determination to succeed. The therapists tell him that even though right now he notices differences in how his body works now, in about 6 months there will only be minor things that anybody will notice. So, hopefully that will continue to motivate him on his road to recovery. David's sarcasm with teenage rebellion is starting to return more and more everyday. Mom says that David's lips are so dry and that he is not drinking enough water everyday. She tried to reason with him and explain that his brain needs to be hydrated and David's response was, "Yeah, whatever." Then he refused to drink any more water. Mom also said that yesterday he made the beginnings of what sounded like a laugh. It was just a "huh" sound like what you would do at the beginning of a laugh. At least there are some small steps to getting his humor back. And one more encouraging note in David's progress - tomorrow he has the long awaited appointment with the dentist. Mom has to take him out of the hospital and across the street to get something done, but all of Mom's hard work in trying to get him to the dentist will finally pay off tomorrow. After his appointment, hopefully they can help David to not be in so much pain so that he can continue to eat and drink more and more each day. He will need as much strength as possible to make it through the long hours of rehabilitation. Just as a side note, more pictures of David and his trip home will be coming soon to the blog. Technical difficulties. Sorry!

Therapy has started.

David started therapy today. He got to dress himself and brush his teeth. That must be difficult with the broken teeth that he has. Next week he should have something done about those. The doctors have recommended that when David has visitors that it happens in a group and not throughout the whole day. Maybe after he gets into his therapy routine we can find a good time for people to visit after work. He is only awake about 1-2 hours of the day and with therapy starting he may not be awake for anyone's visit. After he gets stronger, this will change and he will be able to interact more. Mom was talking to him and asking David if he wanted to see some of his brothers and sisters. So she named off some names and mostly David would just say, "mmmmm." When she said Mandy, he said "Mandy." When she said Trevor, he said "Trevor." So Mom asked them to come and visit. When he saw Trevor he asked him if he had any new girlfriends. Mandy brought him some strawberries and he really liked eating those. Trevor was talking to David about his green cast. Mom asked him if he could have chosen his cast color what would it have been. He responded that he would have picked orange which is his favorite color. Mom asked him if he liked playing the piano. At first he said no, then he said yes. He now has a small keyboard in his room so that he can play if he wants to as part of his therapy. It will be interesting to see if he does remember how to play. David has started to try out some Mackey humor, but just by looking at his face you wouldn't know that he was telling a joke. He shows no emotions on his face. If you remember how David would mimic people and repeat back what someone had just said but in a higher pitched voice then this will make more sense. Mandy was talking about a root canal that she had gotten. She said, "Oh, I didn't like mine. It hurt." David repeated it back, but in a slightly higher pitched voice. A pure Davidism! :>

Choir concert is a success!

It was so nice to see all of David's friends in choir sing at the concert tonight. They all did a great job! There was another story about David and the concert on channel 12. I could not post a link on this page, but if you go to www.azcentral.com/12news/ and look for the title on the video page, you should be able to find it from there. I have noticed that they don't keep up the video links for very long. If you missed it, we have it recorded and we'll just add it to the other stories that we have collected about David. Mom is spending the night at the hospital with David tonight. He rode over comfortably in his special medevac jet. The doctors will begin to evaluate him tomorrow and hopefully get his therapy started and on the rode to recovery. Thank you for all of the love and support that the family and David have received from all of David's many friends.

David is HOME !!!!!

David arrived home this afternoon with Mom around 4:00pm. Hooray !!!! He'll be assessed at St. Joseph's Hospital and work will begin on his teeth as soon as possible so that he can greet all his friends with his great smile. No visitors yet, but soon.

"Young people can be in charge."

David slept through the night last night. That is the first time since his accident that he has been able to do that. However, he is in a lot of pain from his broken teeth. His upper molars have been sheared off to the root and so the nerve is exposed causing him to not want to eat or talk as much. We are hoping that he can see a dentist as soon as possible when he gets home to Phoenix so that he won't be in so much pain. David is getting steadier on his feet everyday. He doesn't look like he is going to fall over every time he gets up to walk. While David is in the hospital in Canada, not much is happening with him in the way of therapy. So Mom tries to take him on little "excursions" in a wheelchair around the hospital. They go all around the hospital and to the waiting room. Mom even took him outside for a bit of fresh air and she said that David just loved it. After having been in the hospital almost 2 weeks now, it is not hard to understand how excited he must have been. Some more of David's old habits are coming back. David always cracked his own neck before the accident. Now he does it out of habit, but sometimes it seems like he doesn't realize how far he is actually pushing his neck to make it pop. So Mom asked him to stop doing that so he doesn't hurt his neck. And in his monotone voice he just says, "OK, Mom!" Mom says that for the most part David has been very agreeable to everything. Mom has been feeding him extra-healthy foods all the time. However, David had a bit of a stubborn streak going today. As Mom was helping him to eat his vegetables, he saw some pudding that was sitting on the tray with the hospital food. He tells Mom, "No more vegetables. I want pudding." Mom said, "OK, but 5 more bites of your vegetables." Then David says to Mom, "I want to be in charge. Young people can be in charge. It's good for young people to be in charge. I think Chase should be in charge of me while I'm sick." Mom explained that parents need to be in charge of their children and Chase could be his friend. "OK," says David. That was the end of his little temper tantrum. Mom said it was so cute and asked me to share that story with you. Sometimes it seems that David gets his mind set on one thing for a while. A few days ago, it was the phone and he kept trying to call everyone. The other day, it was ice skating. I heard that they had done that on one of the last days of the choir trip. So David thought that he should be able to go ice skating. For the most part he is very talkative and agreeable. The nurses just love him! They are glad to see that David did not come out of this with an angry disposition. David's eyes are opening wider all of the time. For a while his left one didn't open, but now it is open wider than the right one. He is also smiling for the pictures that Mom is taking of him now. It isn't quite a normal smile and he doesn't look quite like David when he does smile, but nonetheless, he is smiling. When he sleeps, he looks just like David. Well, that is the latest update on David. Oh, I almost forgot...David will be in Phoenix, by dinnertime tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! As I have stated before, visitors will be restricted as it could hinder David's progress. As he continues to show signs of improvement and after the doctors here have told Mom and Dad that it is ok for visitors, then we will let you know. Until then, continue to pray for his recovery and please be patient. We are all anxious to see him.

Choir concert

David certainly has a lot of great friends! Here is a link to an article that talks about the great things that David's school choir and friends are doing in honor of him. By posting this link, I am not trying to publicize the event, but rather trying to let others know of the kindness of David's friends. I think that by doing something for David, this will help them to feel like they are helping David in some way. I know for myself writing this blog everyday helps me to feel like I am helping David in some way too. Hopefully, he can read this some day and know what happened to him during this time in his life. He may not remember it on his own until his brain starts to make those connections as it is healing.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/nephoenix/articles/0410phx-fundraiser0411.html

Tones and Teeth

Good news! David is improving a bit everyday. Mom has noticed that he talks with some inflections in his voice at times. His teeth are starting to hurt, the ones that broke because of the fall. Mom says that David keeps asking to see a dentist and asks to get "them out". He is getting better at walking on his own, but he still needs a little help with his balance. He remembers some phone numbers and people and at times attempts to call them, but can't because it is an international call.

Transferred out of the ICU!

Mom said that David was transferred out of the ICU today!!! Instead of having a nursing ratio of one-to-one, it has a nursing ratio of 1 to 8. Needless to say Mom is staying around as much as possible. Sister Keyes comes to relieve her so that she can get a shower. One of the reasons that Mom is around as much as possible is because David can now walk on his own, but he is not to steady on his feet. He decided to go for a walk on his own and took a tumble and almost hit his head. Luckily he hit his chin instead. So mom wants to be there to help him get around so that he doesn't hurt himself till he is more steady on his feet. But at least he is walking on his own. As he walks around the unit, Mom prompts him to say good morning to the nurses and he does in his monotone voice. Mom will spend a lot of time singing songs to David and with David. Right now, he likes to listen to the Primary songs he sang as a child. He will, also, take turns saying prayers with Mom. Sometimes he needs help in what to say, but he is trying.

Life in Victoria

This is a copy of an email that I got from Julia Keyes, the family that has been taking care of Mom and Dad in Victoria:

It has been wonderful to get to know Brother Mackey and your family and be able to help out. We know that if we were in trouble in Arizona, church members would come to our aid also. That is what the gospel is all about, no matter where in the world we live. The Savior is our finest example and in our imperfect, human ways each church member tries the best they can to follow his example. I love it that that is the common bond that we all share. As a convert to the church at age 21, (28 years ago), I continue to marvel at this phenomenon!

I'm so glad my husband was able to come so quickly to the hospital to give David a blessing. It just so happened that we had another couple over for dinner Saturday night (good members of our Ward) and the two men were able to go immediately to the hospital. David's brother was quick on his feet and insisted that the church be contacted.

We are probably not in the loop about David's progress as much as Sister Mackey is, as she is now with David every day. Please let us know if there is anything we can do for her to make her stay here more comfortable.

lots of love and prayers,
Julie Keyes
ps Eileen just came home from the hospital and said that David had pulled out the feeding tube again, so the nurse decided to see if he could get some liquid down on his own. Apparently he was able to drink from a straw a couple glasses of liquid. That is fantastic news!! My husband and I will join your ward tomorrow in their fast.

pps. I will send you another email tomorrow with a little bit of
information about British Columbia and Victoria if you like.

A little info on Victoria, BC, Canada


British Columbia is one of 10 provinces and 3 Territories in Canada.
British Columbia covers an area about the same size as Washington, Oregon, 1/2 of California, Idaho, and part of Nevada put together. It covers a lot of land, but most of the population is in the southern most part. To give you an idea of the difference in population between US and Canada, Canada has a population of 30,000,000. US is 300,000,000. We have a Prime Minister of Canada (Steven Harper - he's a conservative) instead of a President and we have a Premier of BC (Gordon Campbell) instead of a Governor.

Vancouver is the 3rd largest city in Canada and is on the west coast mainland of British Columbia and about a 1/2 hour drive north of the Washington State border. Vancouver Island really has nothing to do with the city of Vancouver, except that it is across the water from it. Vancouver Island takes about 8 hours to drive north / south and about 4 hours to drive east / west. You have to take a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride to get to Vancouver Island. On the southern tip of Vancouver Island is the city of Victoria. Victoria is much smaller than Vancouver (about 300,00 people). It is a quiet, quaint tourist town, but is also the capitol of BC. So the parliament buildings are in Victoria (sort of like your state capitol building). Victoria climate is very moderate compared with the rest of Canada (it has been referred to as the "Hawaii" of Canada). We only get snow about once every 3 years here and it melts off within a few days. We also get 1/3 less rain than Vancouver and Seattle (Victoria is very close to Seattle). I guess we are in a sort of rain shadow from the Olympic mountains. There is a definite influence from England in our city. So you will see hanging flower baskets everywhere in the spring, summer and fall, horse drawn carriages, double decker buses, etc. Victoria is also home of the famous Butchart Gardens and small pockets of rainforest.

Here is a picture of our Provincial Legislature Building. Victoria is the
capital of BC.











Here is the ferry that Eileen came to Victoria on from port Angeles. The Olympic mountains and Port A are in the background. Click on the link to see the ferry:
http://victoriabc.com/postcards/message.phtml3?90786573&newid=6888

Random Pics of David with daily update

Hey, what's up?












I just got some more pictures of David from Mom. I thought some of them showed some of David starting to come back. The update for today from Mom is that the David we know is still not there yet because those connections in his brain have not been made yet. He is more like a 2 year old David then the 17 year old David that we all know. Whatever he learned in the past is still with him, but he can't express it like he did before. He is still so sweet, says Mom, but just real monotone when he talks. The doctors feel that in 8 weeks that David will be 90% back to normal, but that last 10% will take 2 years. The doctors are also worried about over stimulation. They know how large the family is and are worried that everyone coming over to visit David will be too much for him and actually slow down his healing. When David gets home, the visits will have to be short and quiet. Let him do the reacting to you and don't be too excited. Mom said that we will have to take turns and maybe only 1 or 2 people a day will be able to see him so that he doesn't get over stimulated. Of course, we will have to see how he does with everything to know if even 2 visits is too much or if he is ready for more. So don't be offended if you can't see David right away. It will take some time for him to let us know what he wants or needs.

David's progress

Mom is helping David to eat some soup. Mom said that in canadian hospitals, they take care of the patient, but don't treat them like it is a hotel. The hospital food is awful. So, if you want your loved ones to eat something delicious and nutritious, then you have to bring it in to them. Mom brought David some vegetable soup and an apple and he ate it all gone. Good thing Mom was there to save David from the instant potatoes and paper-thin slice of old-looking meat!

This looks great to see David doing something for himself.
Mom got to help wash David's hair. I wonder if they shaved him at this time too!

More pictures of the fall.

Here is the view looking down from where David fell from. He must of hit that awning because it is damaged.
Here is a view from the street in front of where David fell from looking up. Wow! What a fall!
They took down the lamp post where david fell from.
The Keyes family took Mom and Dad to the site where David fell from.
Mom got to see where David fell from too.

I think this is an example of the type of lamp post that David broke.

Here is another view of where David fell.

David's Walking!!!

We got 2 more pictures of David walking. He isn't really awake during the "stroll", but it's just good to see that he's strong enough to hold himself up for a bit. It looks like they caught him in mid-stride.



It looks like they shaved him, too. Jimmy's glad they kept the sideburns.:)