March 28th, 2007 Update
Dear Family and Friends,
I can’t believe it’s already the end of March. It’s good for our spirits to have the warmer weather coming. Jess continues to progress. She works very hard in therapy. Her therapists at the hospital are now putting her in a contraption call a ‘lite gait’. She’s belted in and it kind of looks like a sky diving aparatus so when she lifts her feet, she floats in the air. She is so funny. She’ll lift her feet sometimes and pretend to be flying. Ha Ha! Anyway, she walks the halls of the hospital with the lite gait and uses it with the treadmill. She continues to work on her balance. Jess was given an important cognitive test in speech therapy on Monday and will finish it up on Friday. Her speech therapist was really excited to be giving this test to her. I stayed in the room with her and was amazed at how she aced it so well. (I think I’m the one who needs therapy now!) She continues to work on short term memory stuff and I’m constantly encouraging her to use her planner and to write stuff down. But… what 21 year old is real enthused about being so organized? Ha. Her writing is improving. We keep working on it anyway.
Jessica is showing more interest everyday in being independent. She is trying very hard to do alot of things on her own and definitely lets me know she wants to do them by herself, which is such a good thing.
We are slowly weening her off all medications and she is thrilled about that. But we are still not sure how that will go.
April will be a busy and exciting month. She is starting a new kind of physical therapy that will supplement her therapies at the hospital. I talked about it a little last update. She will be wearing a Neuro Suit during her physical therapy, developed in Poland. It aligns the body and helps teach the brain the way the body is suppose to feel when walking. We went to her first evaluation today, March 28th, and were pleasantly suprised that one of her therapists already knew who she was from when she was in Salt Lake at Health South. The staff there feel like they can help her. No promises but worth a try. We feel really good about it and are hoping she will be able to go 2 times a week for 3 to 4 hours at a time. Info on this can be obtained at www.nowican.org, the Now I Can Center for Intensive Therapy.
Jess will continue with horse therapy, and her cooking skills (like I said, she is a better cook than me). She may also have a small job that she’ll be taking on, but more on that next time.
She goes to a music class on Monday mornings with a friend and helps her friends little daughter. She really enjoys this. This could also be a way to help with her voice, breathing, and coordinating skills.
Jess has taken a few steps on her own! They are not perfect but she is so proud of that. The missionaries come to visit with her and offer their help which we so appreciate. We appreciate your comments and all your prayers. We ask that all your prayers be directed to Jessica’s full recovery and teh continued healing and re-routing of her brain. Also that the tone in her body will ease, her left leg to bend and her right arm to cooperate. It seems like a tall order to fill but we believe in prayer and we believe that the faith and prayers of others will help Jess.
We also know that there are times when Jess feels lonely and frustrated but she continues to smile and work hard. I ask her if she feels sad, her reply is “why would I be sad mom?”.
Jess knows her situation, she knows about her accident and wishes it never happened but she also knows she can’t change it and she has an incredible sense of gratefulness for her life now and what she knows it can become. It’s so hard to be patient but we will trust in the Lord and his timing.
Thank you to all that help. As always, we are committed to Jessica’s recovery and willing to do whatever it takes to help her have her life back again. She really is holding us to those Cadillac moments!
Thanks Abby for all you do and not just the therapy part but your sweet demeanor and genuing love for Jess. It means so much to us. It helps to make therapy bearable.
Love to all
The Krehbiels
Tim, Geri, Sara (Kade), Samantha and Ben