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PrayersforLayla, Novi, MI (2025)

09/15/2025

Sorry for skipping a few days posting! Layla was sick Friday thru Saturday with a migraine but she's better now. Layla has been improving all week! We can understand everything she says now, her voice is beginning to sound like her again, her hand eye coordination is much better and she is walking with very little assistance. She began this week texting some of her friends and it was hard to decipher what she was saying because she couldn't hit the right buttons but now she's able to hold her phone better and has been catching up with a bunch of her friends. She can now video chat too and hold her phone upright! Layla has her phone whenever she is not in therapy and when it's not bedtime. Layla has been slowly responding to people's Facebook messages, tags and responding to people's posts or photos of her too. We have two more weeks left until surgery!!

09/09/2025

We're going to rent a giant camper for Valley Mx's Halloween weekend (October 25-26) for our family and also Greyson and his mom Cortney Cooper that we met in Grand Rapids! Greyson is a 14 yr old boy who also suffered a traumatic brain injury recreationally riding with his friend and were there in ICU when Layla arrived with her injury. To check out Greyson's story click on Cortney's name above! I'm so excited for these two to finally meet and to catch up with everyone that weekend!! (neither kid will be riding, just spectating to be clear) Layla will have a giant banner to be able to find us!!

I was wondering if anyone has rented a camper before and if there's anything I should know prior to booking or advice? I've never rented one before!

09/08/2025

Huge shout out to Brandon at Only Throttles for sending Layla some new gear!! The green on the reflective lenses of your new goggles match Layla's bike perfectly 🥰 Layla was surprised, we hadn't told her she was getting a package today! Brandon has been one of our top followers and supporters since Layla was injured and we'd love to promote and help support his business! Please reach out to Brandon Criswell if you're interested in his new goggles or visit his website for some cool new gear 😎

https://onlythrottles.myspreadshop.com/all

09/08/2025

We've figured out the point that Layla can't remember past before her injury. The last thing Layla can remember as I scrolled through my photo album today was Dutch Mx state race with her friend Giulia. That was June 1st. Layla does not remember anything after that at all. We found out today Layla has some hearing loss in her right ear but the doctor who gave us that information wasn't an ENT so she couldn't really give us much information. We'll get more info this week and see what her options might be for an implant or hearing aid of some kind. I'm hoping it's repairable somehow. This could possibly explain why it's hard to understand her when she talks. Layla's been trying to reply to more snapchats from her friends but if you get some gibberish just know that she's trying really hard to type again! Today Layla wrote her first word down on paper with a pencil. She lost her train of thought after the first word though. She's been asking "why" a lot lately especially why her hair is gone, why she can't hear out of her ear, why she crashed and things like that. She apologized to us today for crashing, it was heartbreaking to say the least 💔 She asked to ride her dirt bike again so we began the talks about how long she won't be able to ride and we told her today that we plan to bring her to Valley Mx's Halloween weekend. We heard they do one, and we had a tradition the last few years to go to Twisted Wicked Weekend to close out the riding season, but they are gone now. We hope to see a lot of her friends and catch up with some of our friends when we go! Layla won't be riding, she'll just be there to support her friends and thank everyone for their love snd support so far ❤️ 💗 💕

09/05/2025

Layla's therapy update I got today was:

-she was able to complete 4 pieces of a puzzle
-consistently able to follow one step and two step directions (15 out of 16 times)
-can now walk 60 ft with minimal assistance (an increase from 20 ft)
-she was walking up and down 4 steps with minimal assistance

Layla also went for a hearing test today finally. They'd talked about doing it before but now she can communicate so it made the test easier to do now. Layla's injury was to the right side of her head right at the hearing center for that side. We definitely know she did not lose all of her hearing but given the injury location we wanted to know if she had any loss of hearing in her right ear. The nurses did not have the results so I have to wait til tomorrow to get them from the doctors. Layla was switched into an enclosure bed. It kinda looks like a giant mesh tent. It's for her safety so she doesn't fall out of bed or try to walk and hurt herself. Its essentially a cage to keep her in bed because they cant trust she'll put her helmet on if she gets out. Because she got this bed she no longer has a sitter anymore. I worry about her getting lonely so I'll be watching for signs. Layla actually says she likes it! We found out that Layla knows how to use the call light on her remote, she asked the nurse last night to help her use the restroom 🤣 I was pretty surprised so we fed the remote thru her bed and made sure the nurses would answer her when we left just in case. It felt good knowing that even though she lost her sitter, she still knew how to reach someone for help!

09/04/2025

Layla no longer has the NG tube and we can finally see her full beautiful face again!! Layla's therapist let Layla call me to tell me herself today! Layla remembered and dialed the first 6 digits of my phone number but needed help with the last 4 digits. My old manager at Amazon, Will, gave me money today and told me to buy Layla a steak dinner to celebrate so Layla had steak, loaded baked potato and Caesar salad for dinner 😁 The doctors called today and asked if we wanted to extend Layla's inpatient therapy two more weeks now that Layla's progressing faster so that she can come home more independent so we are debating it. We know Layla really wants to come home, but we also know how independent Layla likes to be too. Layla would still have outpatient therapy either way but staying longer may give her enough time to be able to fully care for herself when we get home (shower, tying her shoes, brushing her teeth and better speech and walking, etc.). It's gonna be hard to decide over the next few days 😬

09/03/2025

Layla had a big weekend! She's talking more, we can understand more words, she read part of a book to our friends Medina and Bella and today she got cleared to eat whatever she wants! Layla is taking back her independence fast!!!! The tube is coming out tomorrow!!! Layla was able to show she can and will take her meds by mouth and can eat regular meals! We powered up Layla's phone today and we read her some of the SWEETEST Snapchats and messages ever ❤️ Thank you kids so much for sending Layla well wishes!! She typed some small things back to a few friends, she recorded a few snaps to a few friends and video called a few of them. She can't fully use her phone by herself yet. She's still working on hand eye coordination. If you're interested in a phone call from Layla you can reach out to me or Snap Layla asking and I will turn her phone on again tomorrow and help her reply to them. Layla was also visited by one of her substitute teachers Ms.Tran today. They talked about school and shared some laughs. Layla was excited for a new visitor today 😁

08/31/2025

Layla had a rough night last night. They refused to leave her NG tube out and replaced it. I'm angry, but at least they put in a smaller tube. When the therapists and doctors come back on Tuesday we can see about having her take her meds by mouth and eat meals with the nurses while we aren't here. Layla had a half of a happy meal at lunch today thanks to my Aunt Terri!! Layla also ate about half of her dinner plate of pureed foods and snacked on mandarin oranges today. She's eating and drinking a lot more so my goal is to ditch the tube by the end of the week. We brought Up Words (the board game) with us today to see if Layla could spell some of the words we can't understand yet but she just played with the tiles. I spelled a bunch of words and she read all of the words back to me. Layla's friend Aubrianna and her mom Jen came to see Layla today too. We took her with us to eat lunch and go outside for a Lil bit too. Laylas not had any accidents today so potty training has been pretty successful so far!

08/30/2025

Layla ate a big breakfast today and went outside during her speech therapy. When she was in her PT and was walking the halls she led her therapist to the bathroom and used it so the potty training they just started is really working quickly too! Layla is still having a hard time annunciating her words so she's been getting real upset when we can't understand what she's saying. It breaks my heart seeing her cry so much. She ate really good for dinner too. Her NG tube ports are so worn out they keep leaking everywhere so since they said they'd have to put another one in I asked if they could leave it out for 24 hrs and see if she can pick up the pace eating and maybe talk a little better without it, I'm waiting to hear back from the doctors on that. I'm hoping they give her that chance and I'm hoping she can prove she can eat without it so hopefully they won't have to put another one back in. Everything happens for a reason, it leaking may be a sign it should come out altogether 🤞

08/28/2025

Layla's therapists left us notes today about how therapy went 🥰

Layla also ate a LOT for dinner compared to what she's been eating lately! I feel like something just clicked because she's using her right hand again (which she's right hand dominant) and her movements are a lot more coordinated too!

08/28/2025

Layla's surgery for her G tube was canceled today because she had Thrush and her treatment for it wasn't finished yet. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, I am hoping it's because Layla will begin to eat enough to not need the surgery. Layla ate a good bit of mashed potatoes in therapy today and we finally got cleared to feed her! Layla is now on a pureed diet and I was able to get her to eat some mashed potatoes again around dinner time. Her feeding is getting much better and she even drank a few sips of a drink from a straw successfully! Ok, on to the BIG NEWS... Layla began talking today!!!!! At first she said "Mom" and "No". Josh then showed Layla photos of our family and all of our closest friends and Layla recognized every one and attempted to say each of their names, even our newest friends! She is just finding her voice so she can't quite say them clearly yet but she's so close! Once Layla started talking we video called our friends Amanda and Ryder and also her friend Bella. Layla tried holding and using my phone too. When I was texting Amanda before we called I was typing something funny in snapchat and Layla actually was able to read it because she started laughing as I was typing it! Josh asked Layla if she knew where she was, why she was there and if she knew she got hurt on her dirt bike and she answered "yeah" to all of those questions. When I showed her a photo of her cat she said "Robin" and started crying real tears! Layla also walked the halls today and I was able to get better videos

08/25/2025

Layla practicing steps with Josh today 🥰

PrayersforLayla

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