Last night, Randy and I watched the Coma documentaries from HBO. In the main documentary, they follow 4 people from just a few weeks after their accidents until 1 or so years after. All 4 have head injuries - two from car accidents, one from a fall from a balcony, and one who was assaulted and thrown from a bridge while in another country.
In the documentary, they talked about the coma stage (which Randy was in for 12 days) and then they talked about the minimally conscious state versus the vegetative state. Randy went from the coma to the minimally conscious state.
The show was heart wrentching. It was hard for me to watch because it reminded me of all we had been through. Also, watching it made us feel so fortunate. At the year mark, everyone was at a different stage.
One person, who was around 19, was taken home by her mom and then brought back 4 months later because she was getting inadequate therapy.
The man who was assaulted was about 19. He was actually at his two year mark during the documentary. They were debating throughout the documentary over whether or not he was in a vegetative statement. At the end of the show, the doctors and therapists were saying he wasn't going to improve. The parents weren't willing to give up yet.
The man who fell off a balcony was finally able to go home after a year
The fourth person had started coming out of his coma, was in a minimally conscious state, seemingly getting better, and then slipped back into the coma and died.
At the time that some of the "better off" people were just starting to walk while in rehab and just starting to make some vast improvements, during that time in Randy's recovery, he was at home walking and doing outpatient therapy. Randy was definitely on the fast track of recovery.
Watching this shore made us both feel so thankful for the miracle of Randy's fast recovery. It also made Randy feel very fortunate for the family and friends that he has. Throughout the show, in seeing what the family went through, Randy was constantly saying "Thank you". He kept saying how thankful he was for all that his family did, all those who visited him, and for all of those that prayed for him.
1 comment:
Wow, Randy's progress really has been miraculous, hasn't it? Randy, I think the best way to say "thank you", especially to God, is to be led by Him for whatever adventure is next in your life!
I was reminded last night that the reason for reading the Bible daily is to learn to really recognize His still, small voice. We are literally bombarded with input from people, media, Satan, our culture, our own inner voice, our memories (accurate or not!)that it feels really hard to discern what God is telling us. I think the best way to get in touch with that is daily time with Him - in Bible, in prayer and in fellowship with other Christians. It seems He just wants to shower blessings all over us, but we can't hear Him sometimes!
I hope you will be able to hook up with one of the men's groups at work in time.
Rachel - thank you for your faithfulness :)
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