More!

Ryan and I got to go down over labor day, and it was great to have such a long time down with Jamie. She has also had some girlfriends come down and visit, which she has loved! Jamie keeps getting better and better, the things that stand out to me are in her memory and awareness. Each time we see her, she is more aware and engaged in conversation and what is going on, and she is able to remember longer stretches of time.

When we were down over labor day, we got to attend the monthly conference where we go over what goals J has met and what the next ones are. It was really cool to see the clinic and where Jamie spends her days, as well as meeting her therapists. We learned that her reading is getting better, and I think that goes hand in hand with her memory.

Physical therapy is going great. She is up to walking about 30 minutes at a time, and her therapists are increasing all of her exercises to get her stronger and stronger. She is doing GREAT on her balancing exercises, and she keeps improving and getting better on balance. I think I see running in her future! (that is one of the ultimate goals, btw.)

For right now, Jamie's come home date is in December. That is how much her insurance has approved, so that's kind of what we are looking towards. Now, as long as she keeps getting better and it's a benefit for her to be at CNS, she may be able to stay. She may stay longer, but we have to get closer to that date. Jamie knows that being at CNS is good for her recovery and getting better, but its a bit of an open secret that Bakersfield...is...not as cool as the Bay Area. :)

Over labor day, we also got to go to a meeting with some of Jamie's doctors (different from the conference) to go over her MRI results and get some more information about her actual injury. Jamie didn't come to that meeting because she was in therapy, but it was super informative. We got to look at some of her MRI pics and see what is going on in there. The major injury is still the shearing of the axons, which has cause some generalized volume loss, adn there are some bruises that will pretty much always be there.

She also has a subdural hematoma, which is essentially a sheen of blood over the surface of the brain. From what I understood, that hematoma doesn't really effect anything, but the doctors want to keep an eye on it. As for recovery, what the therapies are doing and what her brain is doing is creating new pathways and connections to compensate for the sheared ones. So, its the same airplane analogy - where once everything was a direct route to pass information, now things have to make multiple connections. One helpful thing the docs said was that even though she is having to make these new connections, she will get quicker at things the more she practices and the more she does things. Just like when you go somewhere new for the first time, it may take a while to get there. But as you travel the route over and over, it becomes innate and you get quicker and do it with less and less effort. Make sense?

So practically speaking, as Jamie relearns how to do things and does them over and over, she will get better at them and be able to do more and more on her own. She is doing really well with her independent living skills in the apartment, and is very capable of doing most things on her own.

Please keep praying for our girl, mainly that she just continue to improve. Also be praying that the staff at the apartments be working with her on her vision exercises, and that she continue to gain more and more independence.