18 Months To The Day

Yes, it has been 18 months since Jake's accident and we are very thankful of where we are today compared to where we were 18 months ago watching Jake fight for his life in a coma state and needing to breath with full support of a ventilator. Now looking to where he was and to where he is today- we see a change everyday in Jake, mostly positive but on some days he has moments of anger, depression and frustration, due to the setback in his condition of pain and not being physically able to complete some tasks. But despite some emotional and physical setbacks, we got his smile back - his big beautiful smile- and his sense of humor is coming through.

September for us as a family is our vacation break from all the delivery of summer training sessions, so we had the opportunity to take the boat out a few more times. Jake was a trooper of getting in and out of the boat with assistance, but just to provide him the opportunity to experience this outdoor activity again filled his day with joy. He has memories of riding on our Sea Doos that came back from these Fall boating adventures and he recalls now some specifics of working as a dock boy down at the Lawrence Lake and Marina in Brownsville, MN.  He mostly remembers how kind Jean and Kim, the Marina owners were to him, and filling up the arriving boats to the Marina with gas and collecting some phone numbers from girls on the boats with bikinis. Yep, that is our Jake - of course he would remember that:-)

Jeff and I celebrated our 23rd anniversary this past Friday. Jeff and Jake prepared me a lovely home cooked and homemade dinner as I was teaching all day in a northern WI school. I was welcomed home by a dozen roses, an amazing bottle of brut Chandon champagne and a wonderful clean home- as it always is. Life is good and love my family life now includes my two boys again.

Jake is still taking his antibiotic medication to fight off the bone infection. He went through a series of x rays this past week to see if anything has changed with the bone shifting or movement due to his extreme pain at times in his ankles, feet and with walking. He still has a broken right foot  since his accident, and it has healed but with limited range of motion, which is causing foot movement pain when walking as well. This will be another surgery that will be addressed after the bone infection will be under control. In the meantime Jake is trying his best to continue his daily walking routine, works out on his stationary bike to maintain his knee range of motion, is continually working on his brain strengthening skills with varied brain-based teaching iPad apps, and every day he has varied social outings with Jeff during the week and then we as a family on the weekends when I am home for from travel and trainings.

Routine is very important for Jacob to be successful in everything he does. Change does irritate him and it takes him longer to acclimate to a new situation if his schedule is disrupted, but as long as he is part of the planning process and it is verbalized to him at his pace- so he is aware of the schedule changes- he can adjust to the change. Loud noises still irritate Jake, so we carefully choose our outing locations for him and how many people are talking to him at one time to lessen any irritation and so he can fully participate in the conversation.

Our continued Fall will take us on some traveling adventures with Jacob and Jeff with my work. I will fill you in on these teaching and learning journeys in the next month.