Almost 4 months

It has almost been 4 months since Jennie's accident. Wow, how far she has come! This experience has been life-altering for Jennie as well as those who are so close to her. I am truly unable at this point to put into words just what I have gone through as her sister. Overall, I have been having a bit of writer's block so I apologize for the lack of updates. I just returned from a visit to see her and my mom. Jennie is continuing to get more fluid in her movements and ability to do daily tasks. Her speech and language are also improving, slowly but surely. I brought her some of her own clothes from home to try on since she's been wearing easy-to-get-on clothes. She looked so good in her jeans, fitted t-shirt, and pearl necklace! So much like the normal Jennie. We have learned that her complications with speech and language are characterized as apraxia and aphasia. Aphasia is the inability to produce and/or comprehend language. She seems to be comprehending very well just not able to put into so many words what she is thinking. Apraxia deals with a range of skills including speech but overall means the loss of the ability to perform learned purposeful movements, despite having the desire and the physical ability to perform the movements. When she returns home, she will be seen within the first week by the neurosurgeon team to plan the surgery to replace the bone flap that was removed in the beginning to allow her brain room to swell. We all can't wait, including Jennie, to get this over with so she can ditch the pink helmet and grow out her hair! She will also be referred to a more "regular" doctor that will then make decisions regarding speech, physical, and occupational therapies as well as check on things like her eye sight and the condition of her left arm (still in the brace). Please pray specifically for Jennie's improvements in speech, language and decision making. Also, pray for our family as we travel back and forth to Atlanta, deal with the bill arrangements/insurance, and the preparations for Jennie's return home.

May Day

Jennie is continuing to improve. We have an official date that she will return home - May 1st! Thank you to those of you who have sent encouraging messages recently and especially those who have sent in memories with Jennie. The area of memory and language skills is going to take awhile for Jennie to regain. From the expressions on her face, she clearly remembers old friends and family that she was close to. The plan starting next week will be to try some memory enhancing drugs to help jumpstart this area of her brain. To her friends - recent ones and those from the past: Another idea along with writing memories would be to make a short video of yourself for Jennie. You are welcome to send those to my email - jessemsmith@bellsouth.net (or any other personal messages you would like me to read to her). Also, she can still receive mail at the Shepherd Center - 2020 Peachtree Rd. NW Atlanta, GA 30309. Thank you for continuing to keep Jennie's recovery in your prayers!

How far we have come since that breath!

Over the last couple days I just can't get the image out of my head of my mom and I standing over Jennie's bed in the ICU hours after her accident and my mom telling her "Jennie, we need you to BREATHE!" The doctors were going to take her off the ventilator for a moment to see if she would take a breath which would prove her brain was still alive. Jennie took that breath, PRAISE God, and she has made huge strides ever since. Believe me, it's been a very bumpy road, but seeing her this weekend just filled me with amazement all over again. My visit to Atlanta was a lot of fun. Jennie now lives in the Shepherd apartment with our mom and is attending the Pathways day program Mon-Fri. Two weeks ago was a tough week as they made this transition. Jennie had really gotten comfortable with her therapists and was now having to learn new faces and get adjusted to a new schedule. Our mom also had to cope with taking care of Jennie 24/7 without the help of any nurses. Phew! When I saw them this weekend, now another week under their belts, I would never have known the struggles they had the previous week. Jennie loves being in the apartment...a welcomed change after months of a hospital room. She has accomplished all the huge steps along the way including feeding herself and walking everywhere (no more need for a wheelchair!). She is now working on improving all areas of language, cognitive thinking, and ability to do everyday tasks on her own. She is able to repeat pretty much any words you tell her one at a time and is surprising us now and then with her own thoughts on the conversation. She is also doing well to match items such as letters, numbers, and pictures. We went out to eat a couple times and she handled it very well. I can't even explain how awesome it was to hang out with her outside of the 4 ugly gray walls that have enclosed us for months. We are so fortunate that after such a traumatic injury to her brain that she is overall very happy. She laughs and smiles a lot and is agreeable to trying her best and following direction. The plan for now is for her to remain in Atlanta until May 15th. We all can't wait for her to come home!

Huge Milestone!

I just couldn't wait til my usual weekly update to tell everyone about this! Last night, Jennie said her first sentence. :) Our mom was hanging out with her and talking about their plans for Jennie's last day in the inpatient program. The day before patients are discharged is considered family training day and involves a day-full of following Jennie and her therapists. Jen said the name "Ashley" a couple times, her recreational therapist, and then continues to tell our mom that "Ashley has eyes like you." How awesome that she was able to make that observation, remember it, and then speak it into a sentence! Just a little later, I called and told them I wasn't feeling well. After hanging up, Jennie says, "She's sick," referring to me. She is truly catching on to what's going on around her and is really trying to communicate. She even said "mom" for the first time yesterday...what a nice Valentine's present. :) Her eyesight is also improving as she is showing more accuracy when grabbing objects, using her fork to spear food, and also when walking. By the way, she walks everywhere now and is keeping her eyes looking up. She only uses the wheelchair when she is going to another floor or when she isn't with someone as a safety precaution. Please be in prayer for her and our mom as they move in together tomorrow morning.

Last Weekend...

as an inpatient! Jennie will move into the Shepherd apartment with our mom on Tuesday. The apartments are very nice, very accessible, and are one step closer to working towards moving home. This will be the beginning of the outpatient Pathways rehabilitation program that she will go to 5 days a week from 8:30-2pm. This program will last roughly two months. The plan is for her to get everything she can out of that program before the next step of moving back home to NC. That will be just in time for warm weather and trips to the beach! Once she returns, she will still continue to receive therapy while living at home.

Jennie went on her first outting yesterday with other Shepherd patients to the Mellow Mushroom for lunch and ate pizza. She was able to leave her wheelchair on the bus and walk all the way in to the restaurant! She has been speaking more this past week. She does well to repeat words one at a time back to you and is still working on her ability to say responses on her own. She is consistently able to answer "yeah" when talking in conversation with her and can also say "hi" on the phone when we call her. This past Thursday, Jennie's therapists all got together, grabbed her radio and recent "Best of the Grammy's" cd and had a dance party in the gym with her. She was up on her feet dancing along and even moving her hips a bit! She has definitely become one of their favorite patients and are all sad to see her go but excited for how much progress she has made in just 5 weeks. The nurses and staff at Shepherd have been so positive since the minute she arrived. They helped to renew our confidence that we have all been fighting and praying for a reason and it has truly made a difference.

On that note, thank you so much to all who have helped Jennie along the way; EMS guys, surgeons, doctors, nurses, case workers, and especially family and friends who have been so supportive and not given up hope. Hundreds of people have been involved in Jennie's recovery and I am certain that each of them have been guided by the hand of God who has truly performed a miracle in her sweet life.

Yum!

Jennie had another big week of improvements. On Thursday, my mom called me and gave the phone to Jennie and she said "Hi" to me clear as a whistle! She has been up until this week shaking her head for "no" but finally came out and said "no" loud and clear for my mom when she was trying to get her to push the button to open the door. It's so exciting to hear her saying more words! Another huge step this week, she had her feeding tube removed yesterday. The doctor has given her the go-ahead to eat anything she likes. Tonight, I received a picture message with her best smile yet...turns out she was eating a burger. :) This week she has done well picking up utensils on her own. She is also no longer having to take blood pressure meds. Jennie has also started parking her wheelchair and began walking more. She is working on keeping her head up and staying balanced. She wears a belt around her waist that the therapist can grab if she loses balance, but overall she is doing well to walk along on her own for short distances. More work has also been done to help Jennie identify words on paper. She does a great job distinguishing between yes and no and was able to find her name today. One specific prayer request is for her eyesight which may be giving her some double-vision making it difficult to distinguish between similar looking words and also confidence with walking. Hopefully, that will get better with time as so many other things have. In just a couple weeks, she will move into the apartment with our mom and start the outpatient program. At that point, she will be able to go anywhere as long as she is up for it. How exciting to taste that freedom! If only the weather in Atlanta was better...bring on spring already!

Words can't even express...

...how awesome our visit with Jennie was this weekend. When David, Jack, and I walked into her room for the first time and my mom announced that we were there, she turned her head towards us and gave us a huge smile. (Sidenote: David is my husband and Jack is our 15-month-old red-headed cutie). Within minutes, she was out of the bed and in her chair with just a little assistance. Jack instantly loved playing with all the gadgets on Jennie's wheelchair and had her laughing right away. Next thing I knew, we were strolling down the hallway with Jennie leading the way using her feet to wheel herself swiftly along. She does a really good job manuevering through the hallways and can even pivot to turn around in as small of a space as the elevator. After checking out the gym for a bit, we decided to see how Jennie and Jack would do together with him riding on her lap. She held onto him tight, he leaned back on her and Nana (our mom) pushed them fast down the hallway. Jennie did great holding up her feet and hanging onto Jack and he was smiling from ear to ear. That would be one of many trips that they would take together over the weekend. We made our way up to the family room which has a kid's corner, couches, computers, a tv, and a kitchen area. We hung around and watched Jack play for awhile. This was a moment I had been wanting since the night of the accident...to have Jennie chilling out with us again, participating, and enjoying her surroundings. She smiled, laughed, raised her eyebrows at the right moment, tracked along with Jack as he ran down the hallway, and reached out her hand to touch his head. It hasn't been since Thanksgiving that we were all together in a relaxed setting and it truly warmed my heart. The next day, I helped Jennie with her lunch. She is now eating all of her meals! I helped by getting a bite on the fork and then she would take the fork and raise it to her mouth on her own. She also was able to hold onto her drink containers and take sips on her own. Since she is doing so much better about eating all her food, she doesn't have to drink all the Ensure anymore...great news! She makes the worst face when she swallows that stuff. :) At lunch, I was able to get Jennie to say Jack's name! I asked her if she would try to talk to me and figured I'd prompt her with some words to say. She said his name in a whisper but it was very clear two times in a row. She was trying to tell me something today before we left but I was unable to understand her after a lot of attempts. Even though I kept asking her to try again, she didn't get frustrated she just laughed and tried again. I can't wait to be able to hear her voice loud and clear once again. She is also getting better about using both her arms and hands. I showed her how to sign "I love you" and she was able to do that multiple times. She also showed me the correct number of fingers when I counted up from 1 to 10. When we got to 6, I told her we would have to use both hands and she just kept right on going slowly but surely aligning her fingers to show me the correct number. I was really impressed by that to say the least. What a week of full rehab has done! I was just in awe of how far she had come in the 3 weeks since I saw her. She will remain in the inpatient rehab program until Feb. 16th (give or take) and will then move into a Shepherd Center apartment with my mom and attend the Pathways day program 5 days a week. It is such a blessing that she was able to get into this next step in the program which will truly prepare her and my mom for life outside of Shepherd. Please continue to pray for Jennie's ability to make decisions on her own and to continue on a path to communicating more clearly. I have no doubt that she will continue to progress in leaps and bounds!