The Last Couple of Days

We haven't done a whole lot over the last couple of days. Yesterday, I woke with bad headache. I got up in time to take Cass to school. When I came home, I spent about an hour finishing our taxes and updating the budget. Afterwards, I went in to get Randy up. I succeeded in getting him up, but then I fell asleep and pretty much slept all day. Randy worked on some of his therapy exercises.

Throughout the evening, Cass and I played a game while Randy worked on getting the tires of his bike fixed.

Today, Randy was very difficult to wake up. When I finally did him up, he and I went out and ran some errands, ending with Home Depot so he could get a few things for a couple of projects that he wants to work on ~ small projects.

This evening, while I made dinner, Randy worked on cleaning up the kitchen. I have never really like to cook, so I greatly miss the days when Randy did the cooking while I cleaned the kitchen!

Not Much to Report

Randy didn't work on any of his therapy stuff today because I had my follow up doctor appointment and he wanted to go with me ~ it took a good part of our day. They doctor decided to put me on another week of steroid treatment so they gave me the rest of this week off. I will then start back part time next week. I will start back just in time for us to take off and go to Oklahoma to see my parents, so I will actually get another week off, which will be very nice.

Randy got home in time to head out and hang out with his friend Brandon. Cass and I hung out playing games and then headed down for her to try out a drama class. It is a different type of class than the one she is taking in Seattle. This one is more theater type stuff. She isn't quite sure she wants to do it yet.

Cass's Photo Shoot

We didn't do much today, but Randy and I both feel exhausted. The mouthguard came out again last night, so I was woken up a few time throughout the night. He finally stopped early in the morning and I was able to sleep in a little bit ~ a little too much. We got up in time to get Cass ready for her photo shoot today. This is one of the pictures from today. By the end of the time, Cass's facial muscles were hurting from all of the smiling. I think he did a good job of getting Cass to smile a not-too-cheesy smile.

While Cass and I were at the friend of a friend's house, Randy rode with his friend Jon to the dump. They got to the friend's house just as we were finishing up. Jon offered to help Randy work on Cass's playhouse next weekend, which Randy is definitely excited about. Randy really wants to get it done for Cass and he feels bad it has taken him so long to do it. I am glad someone will be working with him, especially with his eyesight issues with the eyedrops he is having to take.

After the photo shoot, we headed to the store to get a couple of alarm clocks. I am assuming that my doctor will release me to go back to work this week, either part of full time, and so we need to make sure that Randy gets up in time to walk Cass to school. I got Randy an alarm that we will put across the room so he can't just roll over and shut it off and then I got Cass an alarm to make sure she can get up and make sure her dad is up!

Saturday

Today got off to a late start, which was very nice. Randy had woken me up at 7 this morning, grinding his teeth, but I was able to get him to stop and then go back to sleep a little while longer. The mouthguard worked very well throughout the night. Unfortunately, Randy took it out sometime while he was asleep.

After we all were up and around, Randy decided he wanted to try to go on a bike ride by himself. I was a little nervous, but he did great. He started off a little wobbly, but once he got going, he did just fine. He didn't get far, though, because his tires need air.

When Randy got back, we headed down to Toys R Us for Cass to spend the gift certificate that she got for Christmas. Cass had a great time shopping. She ended up getting a mix of stuff. She got a 3-D puzzle, a birdhouse that she can build and paint herself, and some little petshop toys. We got done in time to head to Seattle for Cass's first class. She had so much fun. The class was on week 6 of a 10 week course (when they are done, she will go back and do lessons 1 through 5). Since she wasn't there last week, she didn't have the script they were working on, so she didn't get to say any lines, but she got to be apart of other people's commercials. She got to get comfortable with being on tv and she got to know some of the kids.

When we got home, Randy played some games with me on the nintendo. There was one memory game ~ you were shown a pattern for a short time and then you had to copy the pattern and do so before you opponent. Randy actually beat me.

Happy Friday!

Randy was near impossible to get up today. I finally got him out of bed around 11:30. I took him to the Supermall so that he could go to Eddie Bauer and spend a gift certificate he got for Christmas. He and I spent a little bit walking around to what shops were there now. We then headed to Fred Meyer to get a mouth guard. Since the accident, Randy has been grinding his teeth at night. It has been waking me up at night. I scheduled him an appointment with the dentist next week, but I decided today that I cannot wait that long!

Randy and I then headed to the chiropractor and got done just in time to get Cass from school. When we got home, her and I worked on taking pictures for a portfolio. I put a few of the pictures we took on our msn site, http://rarush.spaces.live.com/photos/. I actually took some okay pictures ~ quite a few that didn't turn out blurry.

Cass and I spent the evening playing games together. Because of the eye drops, Randy cannot see, so he opted out of playing. He has a few days left to take the drops, but the effects of them will last 2 weeks from the last time he takes them. I really hope these drops help this time.

Exercise

This morning, after dropping Cass off at school, Randy and I headed to Bally's for him to work out with the trainer. The trainer had an excellent work out planned today for Randy. He worked his entire body and gave him handouts for shoulder exercises to do at home. One of the exercises that the trainer had Randy do was lunges. They worked not only Randy's legs, but also made him focus on his balance. There were a couple of times I thought he was going to fall over! But he did an excellent job and even when things were a little difficult to do, he just kept trying.

When we got home, I layed down to take a nap while Randy went into the living room to work on his therapy exercises. When I got up, though, Randy, I found that Randy had tried to do his therapies with his eyes closed. So that he could get some sort of therapy in, he and I played games throughout the afternoon that would work on his reaction times. He did quite well with a lot of them.

Relaxing Day!

Today was a wonderfully relaxing day. We only ventured out to go to and from Cass’s school. In fact, we were relaxing so much, we almost forgot to pick Cass up. We weren’t paying attention to the time. When we realized what time it was, we both jumped up and ran out the door, getting there just in time for her to walk out the door.

Randy slept in and then worked some on therapy stuff throughout the day. He didn’t make it through the entire list due to the late start, but he plugged away at it and got done as much as he could until Cass got home. Then we all spent the evening in front of the television, which isn’t usual for us. Right before the accident, the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” was being advertised a lot because it was getting ready to come out. Everytime we saw a commercial for it, I told Randy how much I wanted him to take me to it. Of course, the accident got in the way of that. While he was in Harborview, his mom and sister and I went to see the movie. Tonight, Randy and I finally got to watch it together along with Cass.

Some exciting news for Cass ~ she needs headshots for the school she just joined for any auditions she might go on. I had told them that we weren’t in a position to be able to get professional ones done, so they told us just to try to get a nice one with our digital camera and then print it on nice paper. Well I am not that great at getting good photos. Most of the ones I tried to take came out blurry. Randy loved photography prior to the accident, but even he was struggling to get an in-focus picture that really captured Cass. A friend of a friend of ours has a studio. He takes amazing pictures. Some have been used professionally. He has said he will take a good headshot of Cass and not charge us anything.

Harborview Opthamologist

Randy had an appointment with the Opthamologists at Harborview today. It wasn't good news today. There have been no improvements with Randy's eyesight or his double vision. The doctor said that if there hasn't been correction by this point, it generally means that the nerve will not heal on its own. For the double vision, the doctor thinks Randy will need surgery. Randy will go back in two months to get baseline measurments to prepare for surgery. They will not do surgery until all improvements have been made, so if there are any changes they will not do it until his eyes stop changing. Randy doesn't want to do surgery. He is very much scared of it.

For the nearsightedness issues, the doctor wanted Randy to take another set of drops. The one he prescribed this time is the strongest one out there. Randy will have to take it for a week, but the effects of the drops will last for a couple of weeks after he stops taking them.

The other opthamologist that Randy has been seeing keeps giving Randy various prism glasses. The prisms haven't been working that well. They do move the objects further apart from each other, but they don't fix the problem. Today, the resident we saw told the student that was following his around for the day that the type of double vision that Randy has cannot be fixed by prisms. I believe that he called it the superior bleak muscle, but I don't remember for sure.

The news today was very disappointing. Randy has said in the past that he would rather lose a limb than deal with these issues with his eye sight. I was so hoping that the nerve that is causing this issue would heal on its own.

Callbacks

Today, Randy tried to work on getting into the vocational rehab people at Boeing. He was told today that he cannot work with 0ne until he has been cleared to come back to work. However, the whole point of working with the rehab person is to get him ready to come back to work and to find out how successful he would be. Randy is now working with HR to try to sort all of this out.

We also found out today that our insurance doesn't cover massage therapy even with a prescription from a doctor. We were a little disappointed since it seems to help get some feeling into fingers and toes on that left side.

Randy spent a good part of the rest of the day working on therapy stuff with things such as Brain Age and memory games. This evening he got to test out his motion sickness pill on a ride up to Seattle. He still felt a little yucky after the ride, but not as much as usual. He will get to try them out again tomorrow for his opthamologist appointment at Harborview.

Cass got some exciting news tonight, which is what lead us to go to Seattle. She got a callback from the audition she went to on Saturday. Out of all of the kids they saw, they chose 16 to call back and Cass was one of them. She was so excited. When we were asked to come to Seattle tonight, I thought it was just to sign a contract for cass to take classes, but Cass had to do another interview and little audition. She actually did excellent tonight. I was actually amazed. Saturday she was so nervous and so shy, but tonight, when the lady asked Cass to read a script for a commercial and had Cass do it in a few different characters, Cass did excellent with all of them. The lady said she would really like to work with Cass, so Cass will be starting classes this Saturday. She gets to start out with a TV Commercial class where she gets to practice doing commercials. It sounds like so much fun.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Today was a fun day. Randy’s parents drove from Yakima yesterday and Randy’s mom’s sister flew in last night so we had a houseful. This morning, everyone went out to breakfast except for Cass and I. They went to the Black Diamond Bakery, which is one of Randy’s favorite places. They then explored some of the shops around there and took the scenic route home. When they got home, Randy’s mom and her sister headed up to Seattle to meet their other sister who is in town this weekend for a library convention. The three of them are going to stay and hang out in Seattle for the night. Randy spent the afternoon working outside cleaning up our yard. Randy really enjoyed it. I have never been an outside sort of person, especially when it is cold. Prior to the accident, I would hang out inside working on the house and Randy would go outside working until dark. Now, though, he likes to be wherever I am, so he doesn’t go out much. He really enjoyed being out there and working today.

Cass and I had a blast today. Thursday night, while on the way to the support group, we heard an ad on the radio for kids to audition for a chance to audition for Disney Channel. I am generally very skeptical about those things, but thought just going through the motions of it would be fun for Cass. So I called. Today was the audition and it was so much fun. I was expecting to go and have them try to sell me on acting classes for Cass, but there was no sales pitch today. As each kid walked in, they were given a script for a commercial ~ there was about 4 various commercial scripts depending on the age of the kid. The room we were in was so packed that all of the chairs were filled and the walls were lined with people. The vice president talked a little about himself and the company and then he and 3 other employees called kids up one at a time to go through a little interview process (so 4 kids were being interviewed at a time). The families got to go up with the kids for the interview. Everyone was told that they would go through an interview and then they would go out into the hall and do their little commercial to see what they looked like on camera. I watched as kids were called up and then escorted out and I could hear them do their commercial. I noticed, though, that a couple of kids and their parents sat back down. Then Cass was called up for her interview. She is so shy. She would look at me before answering any question. The lady that interviewed her said how much she loved Cass’s red hair and then she really looked at it and commented a little surprised that it was Cass’s real hair color. After the interview, the lady asked us to take a seat because they wanted a little more look at Cass. That was when I found out that those few kids that had sat back down were those they were actually interested in. They told us the other kids got to go through the commercial thing for the experience, but they weren’t interested in any of them. I couldn’t believe my shy kid was actually one they wanted to see more of! It was reduced down to 8 kids. Those 8 kids did their commercial in front of the remaining group. Cass did alright during the first reading, but when the vice president of the company asked her to re-read it and act like a spoiled brat, she kind of flubbed it a bit. But she had so much fun doing it. She had so many people today tell her she was beautiful ~ that alone made it worth is to me. When Cass stepped up the line to do her reading, the vice president commented that Cass was very beautiful. She just beamed as she said “Thank you” in a meek, quiet voice. It was just so much fun.

Neuropsych Evaluation Results

Today was a very busy day! After getting Cass to school, Randy and I headed to Seattle for the results of his neuropsych evaluation. It was a good evaluation ~ I felt very positive upon leaving the doctor's office.

Dr Fordyce said that, with old knowledge and vocabulary skills, when the exercises were not timed, Randy scored above average. He was actually in the 95 percentile. I think that is pretty amazing. His biggest deficit was with problem solving skills that required visual perception. He scored below average in that area. When it comes to visual things, his processing speed is very slow. This is what also affects his ability to drive. With memory, Randy did good with things that were logical and organized, such as words that related to each other or stories. However, when it came to trying to remember to remember lists of things that were unrelated, Randy would do well in the immediate recall, but if asked later, he couldn't remember any. He would also get the unrelated things mixed up with stories or the other lists of things ~ so it all became jumbled together. Another thing the doctor commented on was Randy's inability to be concise in conversation (which is a nice way of saying that he tends to talk too much). He personal opinion is that Randy is not ready to return to work yet because of the deficit with the processing of visual information, but he felt that it was time for Randy to begin working with a vocational therapist to start to path to getting back to work. I felt this was definitely a postive thing. The vocational therapist that Randy met with at Harborview a few weeks ago told Randy (without having any realy knowledge of how far along Randy was) was too early in the game and should come back in a few months. I think it made Randy feel good to have Dr Fordyce believe that Randy was further along than that and ready to start this process. We tried contacting Boeing's vocational rehab, but for some reason they don't have Randy in the system and we didn't have time today to sort that out, so that will need to wait until next weeek.

We got done with that appointment just in time to grab lunch and head to see Randy's primary care physician. She increased Randy's Gabapentin, which is the medication that is to help his nerves heal. She also gave him some medication for motion sickness. She gave him pills to take on as needed basis and then gave him a patch to wear by his ear for when he rides on the plane to see my parents in a few weeks. She also gave him a presciption to get massages on his left side since when I was rubbing his left arm, it seemed to help bring back some feeling in those fingers that he doesn't have much feeling in. I am hoping that having it done by a professional on a semi-regular basis can help repair some of the damage in those nerves to bring back some of that feeling.

All in all, we had good visits with the doctors today and felt that we got a lot accomplished.

Positive Attitude

Our last couple of days have been pretty restful. The weather has finally cooperated enough for Cass to go back to school. She was sad to see the snow go, but happy to be back at school.

Randy and I haven't done much of anything. Tonight was the first time we have really ventured out the last few days. We went to the TBI support group. It was a very nice meeting. The main subject tonight was positive attitude and how it helps with the recovery process. I definitely agree with that and believe Randy's positive attitude has helped him get as far along as he has. Quite a few people tonight also talked about the practice of gratitude, being thankful for the challenges that you have been given and being thankful for all that you have been able to do.

Randy is desiring to get back to work. I think part of it is boredom and part of it is wanting to see if he can. Tomorrow we will get to hear the neuropsychologists view on when Randy should try to return. Tonight, at the meeting I asked one of the people there how he knew when he was ready to return to work. He is 2 years post accident and he went back to work around his 10 month work. His response to my question, though, was that he wasn't ready. He talked about how difficult it was for him then and still is at times now. He said it was a challenge he wanted to face. I kind of want someone just to tell me when the right time is and I want that "right time" to be a time when Randy can go back and not fail. Right now, that is my biggest fear ~ that he will go back too soon and fail and lose out on something that he loves. But as Randy has said many times throughout this, he will not know what he can and cannot do until he tries!

Another Snow Day

When I got up today, the news had Cass's school as being 2 hours late due to some snow last night. I looked outside and it was still snowing. With 2 hour delay, it would run into the time of Randy's doctor appointment so I rescheduled it for Friday. Then Cass's school closed for the day. So we had a nice day at home today. I checked for tomorrow and they are already saying the school is going to be 2 hours late for tomorrow. I am wonderfing if they are ever going to be going back to school!

Randy read through the book that we had in his hosptial room at Harborview and had asked people to sign. He loves going through that periodically and seeing who visited him and see what they had to say.

Tonight, Brandon came to pick Randy up to hang out with him. He took Randy to pick up his medication (the insurance got everything worked out finally) so I didn't have to drive anywhere. My back was really hurting from the walking yesterday so it was nice to have a day of not going anywhere.

Neuropsych Eval

Today was a very long day! We headed out of the house around 6:45 and didn't get home until after 6 tonight. The appointment started off with Randy, Cass and I meeting with Dr Fordyce (the Nuerospychologist). Dr Fordyce got the background of what happened, what Randy has done and where he wants to go. Randy did a lot of talking throughout the time. Since the accident, Randy does talk a lot more. If asked a simple question that should get a short, simple answers, Randy responds with a speech. He is very aware of it, though, and warned the doctor that he talks a lot. Of course, knowing about it doesn't stop him from doing it. Often it is kind of funny! I have noticed that during these times that he is talking a lot, what he is talking about is centered around self-esteem items. For example, it is very important to Randy that people know that he was highly intelligent prior to the accident. He also talks a lot about his work. He doesn't talk about specifics, but talks more of the overview of what he did because he loved it so much and was proud of where he had gotten.

The doctor then kicked Cass and I out and talked to Randy alone for a little bit before the testing began. I don't know what they talked about, though, because I wasn't in there and Randy didn't take notes so he doesn't remember. Randy then moved on to the testing part, which he did with Joan, the doctor's assistant. They did testing from 9:30 to 12, took a break for lunch until a little after 1, then went back to testing until 5:15. Randy was exhuasted after it was all done. We will find out the results of all of the tests Friday morning. Randy feels that he did quite well with most of the areas he was tested on. He said there were just a couple that he struggled on. I am very interested to find out the results. They should tell us his areas of deficts and what we can possibly do to work on those areas. They might also be able to give us an idea of how soon he can try to get back to work.

Cass and I entertained ourselves around the hospital area for the day. Since it takes us an hour to get there, I didn't want to drive all of the way home to turn around and come back. Her and I spent the morning reading ~ I actually fell asleep while sitting there and slept for almost an hour. After the lunch break, her and I decided to venture out to try to find some cards to play games with. The gift shop there (Virginia Mason) didn't have a lot, so we decided to head out to some place we were very familiar with ~ Harborview. It was 5 to 6 blocks away. We get there to find out that the gift shop there was closed due to the holiday. We hung out at the cafeteria for awhile before venturing out in the cold again. We decided to try the nearby gas station. The guy there said they usually carry them, but they were out and told me to try Bartell's. Bartell's was about 4 blocks away. We get to Bartell's, get the cards, and then realize we are only a couple of blocks away from where we started ~ at Virginia Mason!

Our Weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend. Well, at least I did. Randy wouldn't let me do anything pretty much all weekend. He stayed busy all weekend doing things that I would start to do before he would stop me and take over. Also, even though I didn't include Saturday and Sunday on the therapy schedule, Randy worked on some of the exercises, both physical and the mental ones. He seems to really enjoy doing a lot of the exercises. With not getting to do anything all weekend, my back and leg feel great.

Cass had a friend stay the night this weekend, so while the two of them were off playing together, Randy and I played the Mario Party game. Playing that game makes him have to work his left hand and really work on his reaction times. There is also a game on there that works on his quick recall ability. He needed a little bit of help with that one.

I talked to Mrs Merrill today (the wife of Randy's first roommate at Harborview). Her husband has made vast improvements since being home and doing in-home rehab. He is getting ready to start outpatient rehab. In talking to Mrs Merril, I try to tell her the things that we have done to help Randy along during this whole process, but what works for one person might not work for another. No head injuries are exactly alike and so no healing processes are exactly alike. Though Al and Randy's injuries were about the same time, they have both had two different paths for healing. I am sure a lot of that has to do with age. Randy wasn't quite 30 and Mr Merrill is in his 60's I think. Different parts of the brain were affected, Randy's was the side and Al's was the frontal lobes. Even if they injuries had been in the same areas, everyone's brains operate a little different. The brain is truly a fascinatig thing. After talking to Mrs Merrill, I felt very fortunate that Randy has come as far as he has in the short amount of time that it has been since the injury. I feel that Randy has been put on the fast track of healing.

Insurance

Cass didn't have school again today. It didn't snow again, but it never warmed up enough for the ice to melt. She had fun playing in the snow while I got to sleep in, which of course I loved. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. The three of us watched a movie together and then I ventured out to get stuff to clean the guinea pig cage and to return movies. The rest of the day I pretty much just relaxed. It was very nice. The only issue we had today was in dealing with the insurance company. We had tried to refill Randy's prescription for the seizure medication that he takes for nerve pain. The pharmacist put it through to insurance and the insurance company and the insurance company said they show his coverage expired 12/31/06. I had signed him up for coverage through Cobra a few days ago. Through 2 phone calls and talking to 3 different people, I found out that, with Cobra, you have to actually make your first payment before they will begin covering everything. They just sent out the bill in the mail to me today. I offered to pay over the phone, but they only accept payments through the mail. At that point, I lost my temper a bit. I wasn't mean to the lady, but explained in a very strong tone that Randy needed seizure medication, which is very expensive, and if anyone had explained to me that the first bill had to paid before anything would be covered I would have sent off payment when I first signed up.

The lady was taken aback a bit by the sudden change in my tone. She began looking at our account (we have been paying for insurance for the last few months). Since they bill in advance and I have been paying a little bit more than what we have been billed each month, we have almost paid for what they would be billing us for. The lady ended up getting her manager to review the account and approve her to activate our account. It should hopefully all be through the system by tomorrow when we go to pick up the medication.

Yesterday I had a battle with the company that pays out the disability. Part of our car insurance policy was to take whatever Randy got paid with his disability and supplement it to bring his paycheck to 85%. of his previous pay. What the disability company did, though, was to deduct what the car insurance company was giving us to bring back down to the 50%. I didn't win that battle.

On days that I have had to deal with issues such as insurance, disability pay, and trying to get Randy into to see various doctors such as the Neuropyshologist, I get frustrated with how the medical world seems to operate. Over the last few months, though, I have read quite a few stories of others who have gone through the TBI experience either because of their own injuries or because of family members. In reading those, I have found that we are incredibly fortunate. The battles we have had to have, have been minor in comparison. There was an article in the paper a few days ago about many people who have struggled to get insurance to even pay for therapy for them. Many got flat out denied and others were limited in the number of therapy sessions they could have. The therapy is such a huge part of the recovery process. I can't imagine where Randy would be at today without all of the therapy he has received over the last 6 months. We have been very fortunate indeed.

Snow Day

Cass didn't have school today because we got a couple inches of snow. She had a great day with a couple of friends that live a few blocks away and Randy and I had a great relaxing day at home. He actually made it through an entire movie without having to pause and with only getting confused on a couple of things at the end.

After the movie, he jumped into doing sudoku puzzles. He is really enjoying those! Then this evening, the three of us played the Mario Party again. Randy did a little better this time. He actually won. There were a few of the mini games that he had a hard time with because they required the use of both hands going as quickly as they can and the left hand wasn't wanting to cooperate. He did very well, though, in not getting frustrated and he just kept on trying.

Improvments

Today, Cass's school was delayed for 2 hours due to a light dusting of snow. She went outside and built a little snowman (it was very little!) on the back of my car. I thought it looked more like a snow duck. It was kind of nice getting to hang out with her this morning.

Randy worked on his list of therapy exercises today. He actually surprised me. When he got up, he, without being prompted, just started in on finishing a sudoku puzzle he had started last night and then went on to work on the other items on his list. I think he is really enjoying doing some of the exercises.

We worked on spelling again and again he did excellent. He then worked on Brain Age. He scored better today on one of the exercises in that game then he did on Monday and he it made him so excited. I think it is important that he see the progress within himself. Now the progress feels very slow and improvements aren't always as obvious as they were in the first few months.

Tonight, the three of us hung out and played one of the Mario Party games on our Nintendo. We use to sit and play that together most weekends. We had tried playing it when Randy first came home, but his attention span was too short and he couldn't figure out how to play some of the little mini games in it. Tonight, though, he made it through a whole game. He didn't do so well, but he use to win constantly so it was kind of nice to beat him for a change. I think playing the game was good for him because it made him at least try to use his left hand and some of the mini games within the game involve reaction times. It was a lot of fun to hanging out tonight doing some of the things we use to do, even though things aren't quite the same.

Let's Get Physical

Randy did Day 2 of his home therapy exercises. We found that I have put too many tasks that take him too long for Tuesdays so we will have to revamp the schedule a bit.

Today, he worked on some word exercises such as Word Whomp and Text Twist. They are both very similar games. You are given 6 letters and the goal is to come up with as many words as you can during the time you are given. The two games are just in a little different format so I thought it would be good for him to give each format a try.

Randy then moved to working with the Big Brain Academy game. It is kind of like Brain Age, but has different exercises that work different parts of your brain. I then got him started on Sudoku. It took him a little bit to understand it, but once he got it he was really enjoying it. He didn't quite get to finish the puzzle he was working on, though. Today he went down to Ballys to begin working on to get himself physically fit. Randy loves working on the mental side of things, but many people have told us that they have found with getting physically healthy the mental comes along as well. Randy gets a few free sessions with a trainer down there. The trainer he is working with is very nice and has himself had an injury that affected his shoulder so he was able to give Randy some exercises that will help with the issues Randy has with his shoulder being weak and kind of hurting. He also gave Randy a lot of exercises that will work on rebuilding some tone on his left side.

Randy got done there just in time to pick up Cass and head off to the chiropractor. The chiropractor felt that Randy has progressed enough that he can go down to once every two weeks for a couple of visits and then move to once a month.

We had another good thing happen to day ~ well we feel it was a good thing. We have been trying since either late October or early November to get into a Neurophysologist. We had wanted to get into the one Randy saw in Good Samaritan. However, we have had an awful time in dealing with his staff. I have had to leave a message every time I have called and often they don't call me back until I sound not so nice on the message. Anytime we did get to talk to them, they kept saying that they were waiting for information from Randy's primary care physican. and would tell us they were already booking two months out and counting. Whenever we would call Randy's PCP, they would say that they faxed it over days ago. Yesterday, someone from the PCP office faxed it again and then called over there to verify they recieved it, but when I called, they didn't answer and then never returned my call. It is a shame because we like the Neurophsychologist, but his staff is too difficult to deal with it. I finally had the brilliant idea of seeing if Virginia Mason had a Neurophsychologist. They do. I called and left a message and got a very quick response call back. The lady I talked to was so nice. Randy has an appointment for next Monday morning. He is so excited!

Home Therapy Starts

Today was a busy day. With the holidays, my early recovery from my surgery and his dad visiting, I didn't push Randy doing much of the "therapy" stuff last week. We started in full swing today. We fit it in around other stuff that either needed to be done today or that Randy got distracted with, so therapy was done off and on all day.

Randy did excellent with everything today. We started the day off with talking to our attorney, going over the questions. He liked the answers that we had come up with. Somewhere in the conversation, Randy told the attorney that he (Randy) has always been long winded, but finds that he is more so now (which is true). Then a little later, Randy said he had a question and the attorney responded with "only if it isn't long winded". It was rather humorous. In all seriousness, though, it is a positive thing that Randy is able to recognize this about himself and tries to remain aware of it while talking to others.

For therapy today, Randy started out working the physical things. He worked on stretching his arms and legs and then worked on strengthening them with some small weights that he has. He also worked on his eye exercises. We taped the sheet that he has to use onto the wall so that he will be able to do them even if I am not available and that way they are very visible to remind him to work on them.

After working on physical stuff, Randy got distracted with sending someone an email. What would have taken him less than 5 minutes pre-accident, now took him an hour.

After he completed his email, he diligently went back to task and started working on the mental exercises. He played the Brain Age game, which worked him on math today and some quick short term memory things. The short term memory one is rather difficult. It quickly displays numbers with little boxes right by them and then the numbers disappear and only the boxes are left and you have to click on the boxes that would represent the numbers going from lowest to hightest. I even don't do that well on that one. Randy did alright.

Randy and I then worked on his categories exercise that he did with his speech therapist. We used her guidelines of trying to get 15 things in the given category within 30 seconds. Randy did excellent in all 3 categories I had given him. I think we need to up his goal and push him a bit more with that one.

We then moved onto spelling. I gave him 10 words (one was one that he had asked him how to spell the day before). He spelled 9 of the 10 correct and the one he got wrong was very close.

He then played chess online. I unfortunately don't know how to play, so I couldn't play with him. The online version is very nice, though. He couldn't quite remember how each piece moved and this version of it will show you the legal move of a piece if you click on it. It also times his moves, which makes him have to make quicker decisions.

The last item that Randy did was work on homework that his speech therapist had given him.

Very busy, very fruitful day.

Blog

Per our attorney's advice, we will not have a public blog anymore. I will be closing the blog to public access effective tomorrow. I know there are several people out there that still want to get updates on Randy. Those people can email me at Rachel.Rush@gmail.com and I will include you in the list of those I keep updated.

Thank you!

Paperwork Overload!

Randy and I have spent most of the weekend on paperwork ~ how fun, right?! There are some questions that our attorney had sent over for us to answer. They have been put aside because of my health issues and now we are up to the last minute of needing to get them done. What they are is a list of questions from the attorney who represents the company and its employee of the truck who hit Randy. We each only have about 20 questions to answer (the questions are different for each of us since the affect on each of us is different), but some of them take some researching and a lot of thought. Randy has struggled with answering them ~ with spelling issues as well as trying to put thoughts into logical order. He finds it takes him a lot longer than it did before to do things. I tried to help him, but he really wanted to do most of his on his own.

Tomorrow we will be reviewing the questions and answers with the attorney to get them ready to submit.

I find it a little difficult to have to sit here and concentrate on all that we have lost because of the accident when I have tried to keep my focus on all of the positives throughout this time.

A Couple of Funny Stories

Not much to report today, but I have a couple of funny stories.

During a conversation that Randy and I had today, he had taken two different conversations we had had a few days ago, taken what he liked out of each of them, and turned it into one conversation in his mind (it was about me saying that he needed to wait to get one thing that he wanted but that I would take him to the store when I could to use a gift certificate for another thing ~ he turned it into me saying I would take him to get the thing he wanted). I reminded him of the two different conversations and his response was "Hey, it is my memory. I can make it work how I want to!"

This evening, we were at Kohl's (his parents got him a gift certificate for Christmas). I warned him that my back was hurting so the trip could only be for so long. He quickly went through all of the sweater clearance isles and grabbed the ones he wanted to try on. After a little bit of being in the fitting room by himself, he called me in. Thankfully no one else was in there. He sheepishly admitted he needed my help. For one thing, he kept putting the sweaters on backwards and then, he couldn't remember which ones he had tried on and which ones he hadn't. He had tried to make different piles, but then couldn't remember which piles were which. Life with a brain injury can definitely be entertaining at times! Thankfully, Randy can laugh at himself (so I don't feel bad for laughing at him :-)!

Eyes

Today, Randy saw Dr Baxstrom, his opthamologist that he has been seeing since Valley Medical. He tested Randy's double vision and his eyesight. With the double vision, there were no improvements. With the eyesight, Dr Baxstrom said there was a little improvement in the right eye. He said the improvement might be from the drops that Randy had been taking. He also did some eye exercises with Randy. The exercises showed just how much Randy's eyes work independently of each other. On one exercise, his right eye could see letters that were in red blocks whereas his left eye could only see the ones in white blocks. The goal is to try to retrain the eyes to work together again.

The afternoon was spent dealing with insurance. We had two different companies that had collected from the insurance that continued to bill us and say the insurance hadn't paid. The insurance company was great about dealing with it. They actually took on the responsibility of calling the companies and sorting out the issues.

This evening, the whole family went to the support group (I with my pillow in tow). Randy actually was more vocal this time than he has been other times. He spoke about his experiences as well as asked other people quite a few questions. I think it is definitely good for him to go and be around others who have been through the same thing. Listening to some people's stories, it makes him feel fortunate for where he is at today and listening to others gives him hope of where he wants to be.

Uneventful Day

Not too much happened today.

We went up to Seattle this morning to get my staples out. Everything is healing up nicely. There was a little irritation where the staples where because my body has never responded well to metal. Now that they are out, that should go away in a few days. I am healing better than I expected to be, though I ended up doing a bit more than I should have today and am now paying for it.

I took Randy to get a massage today and was delighted to hear they can bill the insurance. When I was rubbing his left arm the other day, it seemed to increase feeling a bit in those fingers that are always numb. We asked the therapist to really concentrate on his left side. Randy said it did make a difference. Not a huge one, but we will take anything at this point.

For those out there praying for Randy, we would like to ask for specific prayer for his eyesight. He feels that is the worst part of all of this. The eyedrops that he did for a couple of weeks didn't make a difference. He just wants to be able to see one of everything and to see somewhat clearly again.

Happy Tuesday

A funny thing happened today ~ while Randy was out and about, his friend Brandon called him. They talked for a bit and said their goodbyes. A little while later, Randy fell asleep right after completing one of the therapy tasks on his list to do today. He was so out of it that he slept through his dad sanding the bathroom floor (our bedroom is right next to the bathroom). When he woke up, the first thing he said was "I need my phone". I asked him why and all he said was that he needed to call Brandon. I didn't push it from that point. Randy located his phone, called Brandon and then apologized, saying that the call must have dropped. Brandon must have been very confused! I heard him say to Randy "Are you alright?". Randy must have been talking to Brandon on the phone in his dream. All I could do was laugh. It took him a little while after waking up to get reoriented.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We got our car back from the shop with some new brakes on it. However, the information display is now not working. Thankfully, that is covered under warranty. I actually use the display quite often ~ when my gas light comes on, it tells me how far I can go before I absolutely have to stop to get gas.

With the therapy stuff, Randy didn't get to all of the things on his list, but he did get to some. We are going to be working on getting him into a set schedule.

We now have a new floor in our main bathroom. It looks very nice. The intention was to have Randy head up this project and do most of the work himself, but it didn't quite work out that way. Randy was disappointed, but his dad did a great job. I think his dad felt that with Randy's eyesight issues that Randy wouldn't be able to handle it. Randy wanted to try, but didn't quite have the ability to convey this to his dad. That is one thing I have noticed since the accident ~ Randy has a harder time talking to anyone other than me about things that he doesn't like, doesn't agree with, or isn't necessarily happy about. I am a little worried that when Randy gets out into the "real"world again, that he might end up being too much of a pushover. Hopefully, though, this will be something that resolves itself as he heals more.

Randy is at that point where he wants to figure out what he can and cannot do. It is hard sometimes, though, to "let go" when we have spent the last 6 months taking care of him and doing so much for him. He is going to come up with a project that either he can do on his own or will require only minimal help from me so he can test out his waters with getting back into doing what he loved to do ~ tinker around the house.

The New Year

Today was a nice lazy day. Randy, Cass and I made it to midnight so we all slept in. Randy and his dad watched some show on the discovery channel throughout most of the afternoon while I read and worked on getting things ready for Randy to start working on therapy stuff at home. One thing he really wants to work on is his spelling. He has actually never been a strong speller (he relied heavily on spell check for email at work), but he has noticed that his spelling has gotten worse since the accident. Today, I put together a few lists that we will use for "spelling tests".

Tonight, we went up to the Ballard area (Northern Seattle) to visit the Edwards ~ they have been friends of the family for years. We had a very nice time! Randy did alright in the car. He has wrist bands that are suppose to help with motion sickness. On the way, he wasn't feeling that great as we were starting out, but he ended up falling asleep and doing just fine. At one point, his arms kind of flailed and he jumped forward. I thought for sure he was getting sick, but it turned out just to be some dream he was having that stuff was falling. On the way home, he seemed to do just fine. He stayed awake and had no major icky feelings.

We got home right at bedtime. Before everyone went to bed, though, I had them all watch a short little video I had made and put on DVD. It was one that Randy had recorded 2 years ago on Christmas Eve at his parents house. His dad was doing his performance to "El Paso". I tried to load the video to google videos so I could share with all, but I think it was too large of a file. It definitely is a sight to see!