Randy had speech therapy today. Randy read a story to himself and then answered questions. Vanessa told him he could use whatever compensatory strategies he neded to use to help recall the facts. He said he used deduction to help him choose an answer to one and then he made a couple of educated guesses on others. After answering some of the questions, Randy checked over the story to double-check his answers. He second guessed himself on 2 questions, but self-corrected them. Vanessa suggested that he do reading every day to keep his mind working in the right way. Vanessa decided she wanted to go ahead and see him tomorrow as well. She believes he is doing well enough that she will be ending his therapy soon. I thought she was going to be working with him on his reaction times for his driving, though.

His physical therapist also told Randy today that he will be finishing up his pool therapies this week. He was originaly scheduled for 8 to 12 weeks. It feels as though they are closing things up very quickly with him. I am not quite sure if it is because they think he is doing just that great or if there might be insurance reasons. I know Randy has made great improvements, but it kind of feels "all of a sudden" with stopping of things. I really thought the pool therapy would continue for the full 8 to 12 week duration and we were expecting the speech therapy to go through January at the very least.

After his therapy, Randy and his mom headed to see Dr Baxstrom. He tested Randy's eye's with reading of a chart. The only line Randy was able to somewhat read was the very top line with the largest of letters. Dr Baxstrom said that his eyes could be strained by his using the PDA. He has been using it alot, but I think once he gets it completely set up (and it becomes less of a new "toy") it will be used in more short spurts of times ~ just inputting and viewing appointments rather than all of the playing of figuring out all it can do. Randy asked Dr Baxstrom about the eye drops that the Harborview doctor's had prescribed ~ the ones that paralyze the muscle. Dr Baxstrom said that the case studies are divided about their effectiveness. He explained that the drops relax and actually paralyze the focusng muscle of the eyes, but they wear off in 4 to 6 hours. Dr Baxstrom said he agreed with the Harborview doctors about Randy's eyes overworking right now. He said the eyes are trying to correct the double images they are seeing. However, he said that the drops might actually have the opposite of the desired affect and might make Randy's eyes work harder as the drops are wearing off. He advised Randy to try them for a few days and then report the results to him.

Dr Baxstrom then had Randy do some beanbag exercises. The first part of the exercises would include Randy moving his head as he watches the beanbag move, tossing it from hand to hand. As he tosses the beanbag, he is to think about how he would catch it. The second part would be Randy not moving his head but instead watching his eyes. He is to go back to the baby steps of visual awareness, asking "where is everything" and "what is it".

This evening, as we all came home, we found we were some of the lucky many who were without power due to the wind storm. We all piled into the car and headed to Covington (which, of course, had power) to grab food. Unfortunately, the place we chose was very loud, so we had to yell at each other to hear anything, but at least we had heat and lights!

Tonight, Randy's dad spent quite awhile on the phone with Christine. We found out that Randy was airlifted to Harborview. It's funny ~ during the first few days while he was in ICU, we had speculated that he might have been, but one of the nurses shot the idea down, telling us he was too close to have been. However, with the seriousness of his injuries and the back up of the traffic, it makes sense. Randy is really wanting to meet Christine, as am I and the rest of the family. We owe her so much! We want to get all of the details of what Randy went through that night (it is rather off how finding out details that seem very trivial in the whole scheme of things actually provides some sense of comfort and completion in having as much knowledge as can be obtained of the incident), but also, we want to have the chance to thank her personally for all that she did, because he wouldn't be here if she hadn't of been there. It would be nice if we could head up and meet her before I am "down and out" for a bit after surgery.