Update #72, January 15,2011

It has been 2 years today that Sean and our world changed. It has been such a blessing to have a 2 year anniversary on the road to recovery. He still is improving everyday, little steps here and there that continue to amaze us. Thursday he was looking at the mailbox we had given him as a teenager to put his treasure in and lock up. We had to pop out the glass with the mailbox number on it in order to get the extra set of keys for the Hummer when we turned it in to end the lease. He stated matter of fact "Go for broke" (the combo lock is the old fashioned letters) I said what, he repeated go for broke. I said to him where were you 18 months ago when we needed to open it. we both laughed. Sure enough I got it open. :o)

We waited to send out our Christmas letters because Sean was evaluated by the VA Brain Injury Team on the 20Th of December and we wanted to include the results in the Christmas letter. A delay in receiving the report in a timely manner resulted in not being able to pass along the results. They still tell us he can continue to improve, they don't know how much or how long he will improve. He has already surpassed several doctor's expectation, which is encouraging. They see his challenges as: memory, fatigue, occasional irritablity, easily distracted, residuals of cognitive impairment, some depression and occasional falls. We are still doing physical therapy to strengthen his arms and hands. He is unable to write very much and is dominately left handed. The occupational therapist is going to be coming to the house to see Sean in his own environment to help him improve more of his skills. He is ready to socialize with others and attend day group activities with others having brain injures. He currently is not ready for vocational rehabilitation.

It is interesting that he gets on the computer and searches the net. It is time to put his computer up, let him work with it again and see what he is able to do. He has come so far. He is able to walk without assistance, he takes care of himself, showers etc. and is a blessing. As I said before we still see small improvements everyday. The speech pathologist told us that the first thing that goes with a brain injury patient is initiative. Well the other day he surprised us, went out to the garage where we store the beer and sodas and got himself a beer. He is still a miracle and beating the odds.