How is She Doing?

Reading through past posts, I realize that sometimes we don't do a good job of simply stating how Marilyn is doing. So here it is. We are five months out from her injury and by all accounts - medical and therapuetic - she is doing well. The main challenge in our first five weeks home was the lack of expert neurological monitoring. We had to go a bit on faith that she was improving. So on our return to Craig last week, it was great to hear both her nuero docs and the neuropsychologist reiterate that Marilyn was doing very well and would continue to do very well.

Her left side continues to strengthen and become less clumsy. As the snow melts out here in Dolores, we are hopeful that she can begin to walk around town without having to depend on someone to walk with her. She still has double vision and this remains the main obstacle to complete independence. Without her vision resolved, she cannot drive, steps and uneven ground are harder to negotiate and vision in dim light or darkness is very difficult.

To this end, we are continuing with prism glasses and aggressive therapy to resolve the eye issue. The other end of the equation is suppression - which will happen anyway, so we figure out why not try the new in the event that it works.

From the outside looking in, I see Marilyn becoming sharper every single day. That's the best way I can describe it. We're certainly not at a point where I forget she is injured, (although I really look forward to that day) but it is at least becoming more and more background. And that allows me to hand her more and more of her life back, which will be the subject of my next post....

"...Your Own Reason and Your Own Common Sense."

"Believe Nothing, No Matter Where You Have Read It Or Who Has Said It, Not Even If I Have Said It, Unless It Agrees With..." This is another refrigerator magnet quote, this one from Buddha which, given my new re-found reasons and new re-found common sense, has resulted in some new found beliefs. I got back from yet another trip to Denver for some follow up care. In all honesty, I was not looking forward to it in the slightest because I believed it was a just another big reminder of the fateful bike accident that brought me to Craig Hospital in Denver in the first place. But, like Buddha said, my own common sense was being being tested and the dreadful thoughts were of different outcome. It was actually comforting to see the therapists who cared for me when I was hospitalized. What took me by unpleasant surprise was the overwhelmingly obvious fact that Craig didn't close its doors when I was discharged but the hospital continues admitting new brain injured patients. The very horrifying reality that brain injuries do happen in such massive frequencies and quantities was what hit me hard. Knowing now from my personal experience that their lives will be indescribably changed forever after a TBI was what saddened me and brought me to tears.
My second common sense check was my 37th birthday, my first birthday (but not last) since the accident. I did have a wonderful time with Gareth, and ended the day with the belief that I dodged a deathday to get to celebrate a birthday. I do not consider myself lucky that I didn't die or end up in a wheelchair, that would make death and spinal cord injuries unlucky, and they are truths that we have in the world and if you think you are lucky because you didn't spend today in a wheelchair then you obviously have too much time on your hands. I am lucky that I can use my left arm to drink a beverage and that I am working on walking, and it is the presence of these actions, not the absence of an action, like death, that I am working hard every day to achieve. The bike accident and its results can't be changed, but my actions to improve myself can make the future brighter for me and Gareth so I will continue daily to push for that belief.