Graduation

David will be graduating tonight at 7:30 pm from P.V. High School. I found another article in the paper about David graduating. I love how they point out that David is the 15th Mackey to graduate from P.V. Mom said that they are going to announce that at the graduation tonight. Cool! David will also be singing with the senior choir tonight. They will be singing the alma mater song and "The Star Spangled Banner." We will take pictures tonight and will post them later. Hopefully we will see many tonight at the graduation! Just as a side note in case anyone wanted to watch, David also has two interviews today with Channel 15 and Channel 12. We don't know what time they will be aired or what day, but stay tuned if you get a chance.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/nephoenix/articles/0523phx-mackeygrad0523.html

P.V. Choir Concert

This is not David by the way. Mom told me a couple of days ago about the concert at P.V. high school that Jimmy was singing in. (Sorry, I am just now getting a chance to write about this.) David wasn't even going to go to see the concert, but decided at the last minute to go. Anyway, David was invited to sing with the choir. He sang every song that he knew. When he didn't know it, he just sat down. All of the seniors were given a long-stemmed flower. After the concert ended, David thought he would play the piano. He had recently gotten his cast taken off his arm so he has just been waiting patiently to be able to play again. David stunned the crowd with his playing. The audience just loved to watch him play and they didn't even move. Even though he may not be quite at his same playing level as before, he can still do it and do it well! Keep up the good work, David!

I need prayers

Yes I need more prayers. Hopefully im not asking to much but I was reading my sisters comment and she said that I will blow them away with how quickly im recovering. Well our insurance doesnt cover any of the therapy that my doctor wanted me in. This therapy is more intense and it will give me a better chance to come back a hundred percent. So if you could pray for my mother and me that we may be blessed by our Heavenly Father and give us a chance to get in the better therapy. Thank you so much if you do pray because I want to come back to my old self again except im more sweeter(thats what my mom says). Ya the therapy im at right now the past three days didnt challenge me as it should. Only one activity in speech challenged me. Thank you again for your prayers and your continued(I think I worded that right) prayers. Oh and thank you for all your comments I love to read them. :) peace

David Raymond Mackey

Hi this is Dave.

Hey everybody this is really David. I would have written sooner but it takes to long to only type with one finger and im a busy kid. Not busy with dates which i hoped but with therapy and I need to be by my mom who helps care for me the whole time. I am excited to post something about me on the website for me. First I want to thank everyone for there prayers and fastings for my health. They have been answered because I can see the change frome what I remember till now. And I am grateful for your love for me and everyone that has visited me and my sisters who have stayed with me to give my mom a break. Also I know they love me because they made a blog for me. I dont think im that important. Especially winning prom king, at least I would get nominated but not win king. If I got didnt get in an accident it would have never happend. Oh and I am sorry to all those that I saw at prom because it didnt seem like I was excited but I was. Prom was just a little to crazy for my brain so it wears me out. Im thankful for chior for raising money for my parents because I am a very expensive kid even when I was born till now. I finished reading the blog today so its nice to read and see what I dont remember and I love all your quotes. I guess I was a pretty funny or cute(as Tiffany would say it) kid in ICU and the hospital. Well I can tell you a little of what I went through in the hospital. At first I did not beleive any thing. I thought this whole thing was a dream and I was going to wake up in Canada or at Chase Lazenbys house(my best friend). Just everything was confusing to me and didnt make sense. But I started to beleive everything was real last wensday. I had to ask a ton of question to all my therapist and I quized them all but they got all the questions right. Then I got really frustrated. I was remembering how I was before and that its gonna be a long time to get normal again if I get normal. Also my plans were ruiend like going to college for a year and I was missing alot of fun with Chase and going on dates. But then I prayed that I may be optimistic and the next day I was. I loved going to therapy it was fun! It went by so fast like in school when you enjoy a interesting subject. I miss all my therapist they became my best friends(sorry Chase) and I love hanging out with them(well therapy) and just talking to them. But im glad to be back in my own bed because the hospital bed is so uncomfortable. Also being with my family and seeing everybody again. Well I have to go and play piano even though I really suck right now. I really dont want to go through the prosses of learning everything again. So many things are hard for me, But I have to be patient. Talt to ya later. :)

David Raymond Mackey

Looking ahead!

As we already know, David will be released on Friday. Mom had a meeting with some of David's doctors to talk about the next steps ahead of him. He will be starting therapy at P.V. Hospital. They talked about David hopefully starting to take a couple of college classes next fall. They are working on his ability to focus. David's ability to do things like he did before should return over the next two years. He has been given a 40% chance to get back to 100% of himself. He may find that he has to develop new ways to do things and that may be very frustrating at the beginning. He will have scar tissue on his brain so things may be hard to do that weren't before. He is anxious to get off his cast so that he can get back to playing the piano. That was his way of relieving frustration before the injury and he is ready to get back to playing the piano. The doctors really stressed that David needs to be protected from any other head trauma. This is the #1 concern for any brain injury patient. If he reinjures his brain during the first year of recovery it would be bad. It could be 20 times worse and he could possibly never recover and/or reverse his progress permanently. So in other words, we have to remember that David's brain is very fragile. We know that David has broken his wrist because there is a cast on it. The doctor's can't put a cast on his brain so it is up to us to remember. Mom is very worried about how to protect him so that all of his prgress won't go to waste. As for driving, David will have to undergo extensive testing from his doctors before he can get his license back. It will be at least 6 months to a year before he can get his license again. He will also have to wait before he goes on his mission. So Mom wanted everyone to be aware of this so that if she appears very protective about the things that David does, it is because she is and will continue to be.
Now a side note about David' progress: Mom noticed on Monday after prom that things were not going well at therapy. He had too much stimulation at prom with all of the loud music, strobe lights and lots of people and conversations. He seemed to be "hypertalking" all day meaning he was talking non-stop. He went to bed late and woke up at 1:00 am wired and still couldn't get to sleep. These are the effects that Mom has noticed when David gets too stimulated. Hopefully, there won't be too many other major events that David needs to go to so that he can continue progressing.