Reflecting a lot lately on how very lucky Jeff and I are having Jake in our life, and the opportunity that he will be living with us for a lifetime.  Jake's previous life as a high school student and an US Army soldier still linger with us of where he was and what he had, but the opportunities that afford him now so outweigh the disability he now from the "invisible bruise" - of the TBI. The pictures shared with you in this post- showcase his pre-accident days. His passion for drumming, even in his bathrobe to start his morning, his love for riding his 1000R Ninja motorcycle with his Army buddies and others, but especially Jacob Mann- his Army mentor and one of his closest friends that understood Jake, our family vacations from seven countries in Europe, the multiple trips to the Caribbean, to the Florida Keys, and to our lovely outdoor patio on the big beautiful Mississippi River. Yes, Jake owned every second of his life and was living life to the fullest. The song "I Lived" by One Republic sums it for this time period and what he is  and what he went through - as Jake has accomplished so many positive learning adventures that most adults never have an opportunity to experience or achieve. #WeLoveJakeHarm[...]

Happy New Year Everyone,

We hope you can find time today and tomorrow to spend more quality time with your family to welcome the new year. The Harm's are planning to celebrate this evening with a delicious home cooked meal and enjoy the comforts of being home, as this will be the last New Year's we will be celebrating in our Minnesota river view home. [...]

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.[...]

Jake is continuing to make daily learning and physical range of motion gains for August and the beginning of September. Jake continues to use daily a knee brace contraption to try his best to maintain the 75 degree angle bend and a sit down stationary bike to gently stretch and keep the range of motion active. He has a lot of pain in his left new and constructed left ankle, due to the bone infection contracted in Texas. He is getting bi-monthly blood analysis checks to measure the level of toxins in his body and is still taking a high potent antibiotic to try to wipe out this dreadful disease. We are still crossing our fingers and hoping for the best and that he does not have to look at the possibility of amputation from his left knee on down. He goes in next month to see the orthopedic surgeon and we will re-evaluate the situation.[...]

It has been a long month since Jake's knee and femur surgery from mid June. He spent two weeks in the powered knee machine to maintain the 90 degree bend he obtained from the surgery. It was a very painful two weeks for Jake. By week three he got all 80 staples removed from both sides of his left leg and knee region- it truly looked like a zipper. [...]

Just a few updates on Jakes knee surgery. Yes it took 5 hours, but the doctor feels it was a success to allow for a future 90 degree bend with his knee to assist with sitting more comfortably and allowing him more stability to go from standing, to sitting to walking. They removed 3 pounds of hardware from his two TX surgeries from April 2014, and a large amount of bone mass was removed due to the overgrowth around his knee from his TBI. A few setbacks incurred during this round of surgeries, as the results came back on the removed bone mass at it contains a very serious bacteria, bacteria that developed from his TX surgeries. This bacteria has caused the delay for Jakes upper knee and femur fracture not to heal properly, even 14 months later. His doctor noted his fractures were still open in some areas, as the bacteria counteracted the healing process. Jake will be put on two week's ( new correction as of June 19, it will be now 7 weeks not 2 weeks) of a high dose antibiotic through a dedicated peg insertion to treat the bone infection. Jeff and I will be trained later today of how to administer the medication and monitor and keep the peg site clean. The training went well today on Friday afternoon. Who knew Jeff Harm was going to be a RN as his next career. Life is good! Jake will be on bed rest for the next two weeks and also will be utilizing a knee machine that he has to wear 14 hours a day to keep his knee in constant motion to allow for him to retain his range of motion of up to a 90 degree bend. Through all this, Jake is trying to stay in good spirits, but can't week to leave the hospital, get through the bed rest period and finally begin walking with his new knee and rod supported femur. We are hoping that Jake will be able to come home later today or by Friday morning. Included in this post is a picture of the 3 pounds of hardware removed from his TX surgeries. The hardware looks so archaic and to think this is what it took to hold his knee, femur and lower leg together......wowza. Jake is so glad to have all this removed, get the bone infection cleared and focus on his physical and occupational therapy regiment with Gundersen in LaCrosse, WI to gain back a quality walking gate and be able to gain some new independence. Thanks for the listening ear everyone, and please feel free to send our Jacob a Facebook post to keep his spirits up, or feel free to mail him a card to our home address to help the two week bedrest go by more quickly. Home address: Jake Harm 295 North Marina Drive Brownsville, MN 55919

Jake has been enjoying the beginning of summer and making it a point to strengthen his walking skills everyday with increasing his duration of his walks in our neighborhood. He is very adamant that he wants to keep his cardio up to stay physically fit and improve his walking stride. His knee is still limiting the quality of his walk and his gate as he walks, as it cannot bend more than 30 degrees. So Jake is slated for another round of surgeries on June 15th to replace all the hardware in his knee, above around his knee to improve the degree of bending to up to a 90 degree angle. This will also aid in quality sitting for his knees to sit at a more comfortable angle, and the ability to assist him with getting up to stand and sitting down. The surgery will be a substantial surgery again, over five hours and another week in the hospital. The only good thing Jake is looking forward to this hospital stay is all the kind, caring and pretty nurses. Yes, he definitely is a 20 year old young man .[...]

Well today is the day, Jake is officially retired from the US Army and it is a sad and happy day all wrapped into one for him. His career focus was to be a US Army soldier - to serve, lead and protect our country, but due to the physical impairments from his injuries and TBI from the April 5, 2014 accident, Jake will never be able to meet the Army's mandated physical and mental requirements. [...]

It has been officially one year since our son's in-line of duty military motor vehicle accident occurred on April 5th. Our entire family has come so far to deal with this life-altering situation. Our Jacob has and will always be a fighter, but coping and dealing with a TBI has been very difficult. This condition is permanent- which will affect Jake's personal, professional and social skills for his entire lifetime. Jake is coping and everyday is gaining a stronger sense of the severity of his accident, as he broke close to 70% of his bones in his body and the realization that the TBI occurred from the initial impact of the accident causing the sheering action of his head and then the final blow to his right side of his head, which caused his helmet to crack and penetrate into his right frontal lobe of his skull.[...]

Well, today is the day, it is Jake's one year anniversary of his accident. All I can say is I am so glad this year is behind us. It has been the most trying life event of our lifetime and I, Jeff and Jake never want to live through another tragic event such as this ever again.[...]