Dh walked the dog with me today using his new tricycle. This season has been nothing short of amazing, with this only one example. Friends have blessed us with good wishes and with many unexpected gifts for me and the children. Dh's sister, brother-in-law and mother gave me the gift of a break. Dh did wonderfully well at his sister's house, while the kids and I spent some restful days out of state with my sister. Dh has come so far and the improvements have even sped up recently. With some of our Christmas money (thanks friends and neighbors!), I bought a Nintendo DS with brain training software, and Mindfit and Brain Fitness for the PC. And dh's doing these with minimal assistance from me (mainly just keeping him on task). I've experienced many things to give me hope: dh's behavior, the amazing stories others have shared, convictions in my prayers and prayers of others, and the stories in a fantastic book, The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science.Sunday, December 30, 2007
Christmas presents
Dh walked the dog with me today using his new tricycle. This season has been nothing short of amazing, with this only one example. Friends have blessed us with good wishes and with many unexpected gifts for me and the children. Dh's sister, brother-in-law and mother gave me the gift of a break. Dh did wonderfully well at his sister's house, while the kids and I spent some restful days out of state with my sister. Dh has come so far and the improvements have even sped up recently. With some of our Christmas money (thanks friends and neighbors!), I bought a Nintendo DS with brain training software, and Mindfit and Brain Fitness for the PC. And dh's doing these with minimal assistance from me (mainly just keeping him on task). I've experienced many things to give me hope: dh's behavior, the amazing stories others have shared, convictions in my prayers and prayers of others, and the stories in a fantastic book, The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Christmas Letter
Hello! The following is old news to those following our blog. Prayers and good wishes to everyone for a wonderful holiday season and a new year full of blessings.
We started 2007 with dh full of confidence in a new role, partner in his own firm. I had gone back to work for the first time since our first child's birth, eleven years ago then, and was proud to lead an environmental nonprofit.
In early February, though, dh nearly died in a car accident. He was virtually untouched, except for a devastatingly severe brain injury that left him in a coma for weeks and partially paralyzed for months. It still affects his memory, emotions, and thinking as well as his ability to balance and use his left side. Medically, he's expected to improve for years. So we are hopeful he will be better able to connect with his family and become more independent with time, healing, and therapy. And God has answered so many prayers. We continue to pray and ask for prayer.
Dh's holding on to the long-term goals of returning to work and to being a more active parent. In the near term, he's learning how to compensate for the areas where his brain doesn't function as well as it used too.
As I look back over this year, I'm grateful for so many things: dh always has known who we were, can now speak without difficulty, can get around without a wheelchair, and even helps at home with household chores. I've experienced tremendous support from family, friends, our church, and neighbors. Our children's resilience reassures me. I don't know what I would have done had we not had the support and some financial means to enable me to stay at home and assist in dh's recovery. Most of all, I know God has plans for good for us.
And I thank God for all those who have stood by us and held us up. I've made some wonderful new friends, too. I've found a depth and sense of purpose in all of us that we didn't know we could have.
With age and maturity most of us come to understand and experience personally that life entails loss, too. We just experienced it faster and harder than many. As dh improves, it makes it easier for me to be buoyed by hope. I rely on Jesus's reassurance, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30, NIV)
This year stunned our household. But we wake up in the light of a new day every day.
We started 2007 with dh full of confidence in a new role, partner in his own firm. I had gone back to work for the first time since our first child's birth, eleven years ago then, and was proud to lead an environmental nonprofit.
In early February, though, dh nearly died in a car accident. He was virtually untouched, except for a devastatingly severe brain injury that left him in a coma for weeks and partially paralyzed for months. It still affects his memory, emotions, and thinking as well as his ability to balance and use his left side. Medically, he's expected to improve for years. So we are hopeful he will be better able to connect with his family and become more independent with time, healing, and therapy. And God has answered so many prayers. We continue to pray and ask for prayer.
Dh's holding on to the long-term goals of returning to work and to being a more active parent. In the near term, he's learning how to compensate for the areas where his brain doesn't function as well as it used too.
As I look back over this year, I'm grateful for so many things: dh always has known who we were, can now speak without difficulty, can get around without a wheelchair, and even helps at home with household chores. I've experienced tremendous support from family, friends, our church, and neighbors. Our children's resilience reassures me. I don't know what I would have done had we not had the support and some financial means to enable me to stay at home and assist in dh's recovery. Most of all, I know God has plans for good for us.
And I thank God for all those who have stood by us and held us up. I've made some wonderful new friends, too. I've found a depth and sense of purpose in all of us that we didn't know we could have.
With age and maturity most of us come to understand and experience personally that life entails loss, too. We just experienced it faster and harder than many. As dh improves, it makes it easier for me to be buoyed by hope. I rely on Jesus's reassurance, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30, NIV)
This year stunned our household. But we wake up in the light of a new day every day.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Happy Holidays!
We got to open one Christmas present early today - dh has started a fifteen week post-acute brain injury program. This is his second experience with the program. The first time, we bowed out early. Dh wasn't cognitively ready and his insurance program limited the number of physical therapy hours. This time around the state is paying, one of the few enlightened programs offered by the state to help people get back on their feet. This program consists of physical therapy, group therapy and some counseling.
We're blessed too by dh's continued improvement. He's interacting with us more, seeming more emotionally connected. Mark is getting more physically fit, walking on a treadmill about 5 times a week and walking in a heated pool, too.
God still is giving us the gift of people caring for us. A friend took advantage of our neighborhood holiday party, Lights in the Heights, to set up a table selling hot chocolate to raise Christmas money for us. And we've had the chance to meet more families of brain injury survivors, many with children similar in ages to ours. I'm hopeful our children will benefit from friendships with other children who know what it's like to have a parent with a brain injury.
We're blessed too by dh's continued improvement. He's interacting with us more, seeming more emotionally connected. Mark is getting more physically fit, walking on a treadmill about 5 times a week and walking in a heated pool, too.
God still is giving us the gift of people caring for us. A friend took advantage of our neighborhood holiday party, Lights in the Heights, to set up a table selling hot chocolate to raise Christmas money for us. And we've had the chance to meet more families of brain injury survivors, many with children similar in ages to ours. I'm hopeful our children will benefit from friendships with other children who know what it's like to have a parent with a brain injury.
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