Replies

Thank you all for your continued prayers...as you'll see from Tom's latest updates, Ian continues to benefit and heal as a result of your prayers...

January 09, 2007 at 07:54 PM CST

Here's a quick update on what we learned yesterday and
today.

Monday was a very long visit with the Pediatric
Opthalmologist. Ian was put through a lot of testing,
first by the doctor's assistant (sorry, I don't know
the proper name for her job), then by a guy who was
taking measurements (looking for proper eye
alignment), and then finally by the doctor. By the end
of the second set of tests, Ian had just about had
enough. He had to concentrate for a very long time,
answer lots of questions and have lights shined in his
eyes for a very long time. This is a pretty tough gig
for a kid who's recovering from a brain injury--you
could tell that his head was beginning to hurt and he
was definitely getting frustrated with the difficulty
of the process.

Despite Ian's obvious discomfort and the difficulty HJ
and I had with watching him struggle through the exams
(I can't overstate how hard that was for us), we came
away with what appears to be good news. Ian's right
eye seems to be improving. When we left the hospital,
his vision tested out at 20/200. At the doctor's
office yesterday, his vision in his right eye tested
out at 20/100. While this is not perfect vision, it is
a significant improvement--the doctor told us that the
letters for 20/100 are about half the size of the
letters for 20/200. We pray we are seeing a positive
trend, not just a difference in how each of the
individual doctors measures.

The other piece of good news is that Ian's optic nerve
still appears to be healthy. The doctor explained that
often in nerve injuries, the nerve begins to atrophy
and turns white/pale. Currently, Ian's optic nerve
appears pink and healthy, giving us hope that the
nerve will continue to heal. Please keep praying for
his vision to totally recover--it would be another
miracle, and we know it is possible.

Today, Ian had his first visits with the Occupational
Therapist (OT) and with the Physical Therapist (PT).
The OT subjected him to a number of tests. The first
test involved a lot of spatial skills, where Ian
looked at patterns and tried to find the same pattern
from a number of choices, completing patterns, etc. It
didn't look that easy to me, as you definitely needed
to concentrate and pay attention if you wanted to get
the answer right--I think I might have missed one or
two. I think Ian did pretty well, though he got tired
near the end and didn't complete the entire book.
We'll have to wait for the therapist's report to see
what she thought. Another test involved testing Ian's
gripping and pinching strength. We thought he did
well, but apparently, Ian needs to work on his hand
strength. This could be a result of the brain injury,
so it's another good topic for prayer (and exercise).
Not sure what conclusions can be drawn from OT, but at
least he enjoyed most of it.

Ian did very well in PT. He showed good strength in
his unbroken leg, and was able to do a lot of
one-legged squats and balanced himself well on one
leg. He was also fairly adept at transferring himself
from a small chair into his wheelchair with minimal
assistance. Another good area was balance. He did a
very good job of maintaining his balance on an
exercise ball while we played catch and chased
bubbles. His therapist said he did very well. We
probably won't do a lot more PT until after Ian gets
the cast off his leg and we begin walking again. He
has an appointment with the the Ortho doc on Thursday,
so we'll see how much longer the full-leg cast will be
required. I'm pulling for a walking cast by Thursday,
but I'm probably optimistic. We are praying that his
leg is healing properly and that Thursday's X-rays
have only good news.

January 09, 2007 at 08:00 PM CST

Over the limit again...please read this last!

One other point for prayer. Ian has been complaining a
little that his head hurts. I'm guessing that some of
this comes just from being more aware of how he feels
and his increasing ability to express himself, but
we're watching him closely. Please pray that the pain
in his head is just part of the healing process. We'll
keep you apprised if there are any changes.

Finally, a quick update on me (Tom). I continue to get
better. My head is still numb, and I still have a way
to go to get the laceration on the back of my head
completely healed. I continue to experience a bit of
vertigo, so I gave in to HJ's pressure to schedule a
PT session. I have my first session on
Thursday--they've warned me to have someone drive me,
as I will probably be too dizzy to drive home...I'm
soooo looking forward to that! Hopefully, we'll be
able to solve the problem fairly quickly--it's not an
all the time thing, but it can be annoying.

Thanks for your continued prayers. We know they are
working!

Tom and HJ

More answers to your prayers - thank you!!
Here's Tom's update:

January 11, 2007 at 10:22 PM CST

We visited the Orthopedics folks today (for 2.5 hours) and got some great news. Ian's leg is definitely healing and you can see new bone forming around the fracture. Following the reading of the x-rays, Ian's full-leg cast was removed (he couldn't stop laughing while his cast was cut off, because the vibration of the saw tickled so much) and a short-leg, waterproof walking cast was put on. Ian will wear this for two more weeks, and then he'll be on his own.

He has given walking a shot, but his balance isn't all that great, so we have to help him get around. Following his meeting with Carol, the speech therapist, we bumped into his Physical Therapist, Betsy, and she took a quick look at him. She was also concerned with his balance and recommended that he use a walker, at least for the short term. We spent about ten minutes choosing and sizing the walker, and then a few more minutes training him to use it. So, Ian is now mobile--we have to watch him closely, as sometimes his ego writes checks his body can't cash (he tries to do things he's not yet capable of doing). I figure a couple of days with the walker and he'll be running around the house.

Speech therapy went pretty well today, too. Ian did a good job with picture identification and with making up stories about photographs. It all appeared pretty basic to us, especially relative to what he was doing prior to the accident, but he continues to show improvement. He is now scoring in the average four-year old range, but both the therapist and HJ and I agree that this is not where he was before he was hurt, so there is still quite a bit of work to do. However, he is showing marked improvement in spontenaity, responsiveness and concentration. His key challenges continue to be word identification (i.e., coming up with words without prompting), putting things in sequence and problem-solving/thinking things through. They assure us that these things will improve, but it's still a major area of concern for us and we continue to pray for his recovery in this cognitive area.

That's about it for today. We are thrilled that he's beginning to be able to get around, and with the long leg cast off, he's much easier to get into the car and take to the bathroom. We are so thankful for this progress.

Oh, and for those of you who are curious about how my vertigo treatment went today, you'll be happy (at least I hope you'll be happy) to hear that I didn't lose my breakfast. Instead of an hour of trying to make me dizzy, the PT took mercy on me and just treated me after I told her about my symptoms. I still got plenty dizzy, and I've felt queasy all day, but it looks to me like my symptoms are markedly improved. Theoretically, the queasiness should disappear in the next day or two and I should be as good as new. With snow coming this weekend, maybe I will be able to get out on the slopes with the girls before the end of the Winter! Thanks for your prayers for me.

No more therapy this week, but if there is more news I will give you an update. In the meantime, please keep on praying for us!

Tom and HJ