Good Things Come to Those Who Wait!

I am so sorry for the long hiatus in blogging.  I'm pretty sure that the summer of 2010 has proven to be the busiest of our lives! This weekend was one of the first that Ryan and I have been home in several months, so it was nice to catch our breath.  We have been able to go down and visit Jamie about every three weeks.  This rhythm has been great because there is enough time in between visits that we can see a difference and improvement in her abilities, but its not so long that we get too anxious about being separated too long.  That being said, there is a lot to catch you all up on!! I am going to try and do these in installments, cause there is a lot of info! So, without any further delay...

Vision
Jamie went to a neuro-opthamologist (I think in LA) and went through some testing to pinpoint the precise issues with her vision.  We have always known that her eye health is fine, but we have also known that there were vision issues that were neurological.  The doctor had her put on all different types of glasses that isolated different areas of the eye to really figure out what she was seeing.  So, the major issues are that she has a significant blind spot in the middle of her left eye, and the peripheral vision on her left side is impaired.  She also has a "suppression" issue going on.  Basically this means that she would probably have some blurred vision as well, but her brain is somehow suppressing whatever is causing the blurriness.  The positive is that she isn't really struggling with blurred vision, but the negative is that it's not really being corrected - she's just coping with it.  Convergence is still an issue as well.  Most of us look at things and  the eyes send two messages to the brain and the brain puts it into one image.   Jamie’s not doing that, her brain is having one eye look because her brain isn’t meshing the two images.  I think, but I'm not sure, that this goes hand in hand with the blurry vision/suppression.  The vision issues are affecting her balance and gait, but there is a plan! Jamie has a vision exercise plan that she is supposed to work on both at the clinic and at her apartment.  So, we are hopeful that this will, with time, improve. 

No Cue Day
I think most of you will remember that J had a "no cue day" scheduled, where she wouldn't be prompted to do anything, and she would be evaluated based on what she is starting herself.  This day happened a few weeks ago.  She did a great job and getting herself up and ready, but didn't quite make it out to the bus to go to clinic.  :) She was waiting for someone to come get her.  She did get bored later and went out for a walk, so that was kind of neat.  The staff will be working on getting her to start doing more things on her own.  She is at a place now where she needs to be doing things for herself so things will be geared toward getting her to take more initiative in anticipation of the next no cue day.  In PT and OT, she has things that she is supposed to start once she gets there, without any prompting from her therapists.  So, the focus is now more and more towards her starting tasks and thinking about the next step, because those are steps toward independence! woohoo!


Memory
We have seen such a huge improvement in Jamie's short term memory.  When she first came to Bakersfield, J's short term memory was pretty much only seconds and minutes, sometimes hours on the things that were repetitive and happening every day.  Now, we are blown away with what she can remember.  She will relate stories from the previous week, she can tell us how her week has been, what things she's done and is doing in therapies, info that is days and weeks old.  One Sunday while Ryan and I were there, we took Jamie to church.  She had been a few times, over the course of several weeks.  The church is doing a sermon series on questions from the members of the church, and the weekly bulletin has a big question mark with all of the topics on the front.  When we sat down and were looking at the bulletin, Jamie pointed to one of the topics and said "I was here for this sermon.  Mom really liked it, I thought it was okay."  After checking with Ron and Kathy, I confirmed that J had in fact heard the sermon and that Kathy did like it! When J told me this, it had been two weeks since hearing it!

All in all, the course is on an upward trajectory.  Jamie has never plateaued and she continues to make baby steps and improvements.  Please pray for the following things:

1. Jamie taking initiative and needing less and less prompting.
2.  Vision - that God heal the connectors that are creating the blind spot and vision issues.  This will help with so many things.
3.  Attention span - that she be able to focus for longer periods of time without it tiring her out too much.
4. COMPLETE RECOVERY! I feel like it has been a while since we specifically asked for this, but it is still there.  We have not given up that God will completely heal Jamie, that He will restore her and put her back together in a way that is better than new. :) We are praying for her independence and her future, and that God continue to bless her recovery.

Love, Us.

(more installments to come)