October 11, 2014 ~ Day 191

Saturday Greetings,

It has been almost three weeks now that our Jake has returned home for the rehabilitation hospital of Gundersen Heathcare in Lacrosse, WI. He was welcomed home by a border of American Flags to signify that he finally made it to his place he calls home once again. We can not thank you enough for your words of kindness, and the many cards of health and wellness greetings for Jacob and our family- we greatly appreciate your efforts!

We also wanted to personally thank all of you that contributed to Jake's cause monitarily. The money that you donated covered a portion of the purchase of a new Serta adjustable accessibility bed for him. This new Serta bed has benefitted Jacob greatly to aid in a good night sleep and the ability to assist him with getting into and out of the bed safely with assitance, and eventually independently on his own. We are forever grateful that you personally have aided in our son's wellness recovery!

Jake has been interacting with quite a few freinds and family members since his home arrival  through Facebook, phone calls, video chats and face to face visits. He loves the interactions with his freinds, and all of the social interactions and contacts are making great "brain gains" for him to appropriately interact in a social context once again. Relearning the do's and don'ts of a safe and appropiate social media presence is taking time, but modeling and sharing best practices with him to assit him in learning this "social media influence" will be a job well done. As with any tramitic brain injury, and the type of injury Jacob incurred, it has affected some of his reasoning, problem solving, and decision making skills. He is relearning a lot of occupational skills of what you and I would take for granted on a daily basis- when making day to day descisons. Every day he is improving and rebuilding his knowledge bank :-)

Jake still tires easily and takes a scheduled rest in the afternoons, as he is busy many Monday through Friday mornings and afternoons attending PT, OT and Speech on an outpatient basis. This will continue on for at least another year. On Saturday and Sunday's, Jake does not slow down on PT, OT and Speech progressions, as Mom and Dad make scheduled outings with him to the grocery store, Farmer's Market, clothes shopping, cooking, going out to eat- and please note-  he still loves his hot wings :-) and blue cheese dressing, so Ardie's Flip Side is his current favorite buffalo boneless wing eatery in Lacrosse, WI. We also have done some vehicle shopping with Jake, as we are looking at purchasing a more suitable SUV for meeting Jake's transporation needs of getting in and out more easily.  Our two sedans can work, but it takes quite a bit of effort and assitance to get Jake in and out of a vehicle as the sedans sit much lower to the ground and limit Jake's leg room. Jake will not be driving any time soon, but we need to accomodate to his physical leg limitation needs now and in the future.

Jake is getting stronger. He is now walking up to 300 feet at a dedicated time with standby support from Mom and Dad, and using the walker as a great mode of tranportation and with transitions. His goal is to be wheel chair free by next year and just rely on a walker and then eventually a cane for walking assitance. He is bound and determined and we know he will reach his goal! "I Walk To The Sound Of My Own Drum" is my motto (and song lyrics) for Jake as he is so determined to master this feat through an individualized and personal progression plan of action- I am so elated he has that self-driven spirit inside of him still as he is my walking dreamer and I LOVE IT!

Jacob has been considered and has been called "The Miracle Soldier" by the WTU "Warrior Transition Unit." As this is the unit that is now following Jacob's recovery and his Army case as a wounded soldier. They can not believe the rate at which is healing and the little to no pain he has indicated that he is dealing with currently. The WTU has noted to us on the last checkin phone call this week, that it is because of us- his mother and father- for deeply caring for Jacob every single day since the date of his accident- that he has progressed so expoentially. These words were so comforting to us as parents, and we know Jake has a long way to go- but we would have never have done it ever differently- to fight the good fight- to keep our Jake safe, make the best possible life saving health decisions for him, staying positive and upbeat even though we were so tired and so exhausted with little sleep these past 6 months, and to ensure Jake's safety of his well being- from any type of negative influence that would have setback his physical and emotional recovery!  

Many people do not even realize what the last 6 months have been like for us parents. We have tried to reflect the updates on Jake's progress, and have kept the focus off of us and what we have gone through personally. Someday soon we will be sharing our life story of the good, bad and the ugly from Jake's accident and what our entire family has gone through. There is a part of Jake we will never get back, but we so look forward to what the furture has in store for him because he is "The Miracle Soldier" that will be rewriting history for current and future tramatic brain injury victims and their families. 

Here is a great article to understand tramatic brain injury and healing progressions for family members that have taken on the active role as we have as parents to shed some light on our current and future journey. TBI Ten Yers Later

Thank you all once again for your support and well wishes for our Jacob!