Added note: Just wanted to let everyone know we did see 60 Minutes last night about the minimally conscious people that have taken the Ambien sleeping pill and "woke up". It is ironic because exactly one year ago today I asked our neurologist about it and she said there was no scientific proof it worked so she didn't advise us to try it. We are going to pursue it again!

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. The holidays are still pretty emotional for us. It just doesn't feel good to sit down to dinner and not have Jess filling his plate a mile high. I did give him some mashed potatoes and gravy and some sweet potatoes but he had a hard time swallowing. Later on I tried pumpkin pie and that was a success. We were glad to have Jamie, Jahara and Jess' Aunt Claudia here. Little "Ja Ja" always keeps us hoppin' and doesn't give us much of a chance to be too sad.

Jess started to have another little seizure the night before Thanksgiving but it stopped on it's own....thank goodness. We have increased his medicine and he is not sleeping very well. He grinds his teeth and acts like his stomach hurts. It would be nice to know if it is the medicine causing it. Chris and I are not getting much sleep either.

This week the Wood River Journal printed my letter to the editor (scroll down to find the letter titled Ford Should Be Held Accountable) this week. I do hope the people that needed to hear it...read it! I won't elaborate on it because if you also read it you will get our point of view on the whole subject. I just wish the government would listen.

Hopefully, things will be calmer now. It has been a rough month. We are trying to get the video created to send off to Cleveland. They want to see what kind of responses Jess can make. They have another person going into surgery for the procedure the first week of December. We are anxious to see if that one will be a success too.

Before we know it, it will be Christmas. It has been down right cold here but no snow yet. Jess sends all of you his love.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is my mom's 88th birthday. She is such a strong lady and a great helper for me with Jess. She watches him while I do things around the house, she talks to him so loving and she reads stories to him. She has always been close to Jess since he was born.

Thank you, grandma! Thanks for always being in my life!

Jess has been doing ok. Not many changes and he finally has recovered from the seizure. We have increased his medicine and so far have not seen too many side effects. He has a short week due to Thanksgiving. His sister, Jamie, his neice, Jahara and his aunt, Claudia will be here for turkey dinner.

It is the season to be grateful...grateful for all our friends and family. Thank you to all of you for being part of our lives! Happy Thanksgiving!

Please Light a Candle November 18th, 2007

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims

Sunday 18th November 2007

from "Make Roads Safe"

"Public remembrance is not for the benefit of victims to remember what happened to them. Victims remember well what happened to them. Public reflection is the act of recognition. It states to the victims and their families that their humanity is valued, that their loss is our loss and that their suffering is shared, if only through recognizing the tragedy and error of its occurrence."

The United Nations has designated the third Sunday in November every year as the official World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

This World Day provides an opportunity to remember the millions of people who have been killed or injured in road crashes across the world; to show solidarity with those living with injuries and disabilities from road crashes; and to call for better support for those who have been left behind: the families of road crash victims, who have to deal with grief; a search for understanding about how and why their loved one was killed or injured; a demand for justice and accountability from those responsible; and support in putting their own lives back together.

This World Day is also the annual day of action to demand greater national and international efforts to reduce the tragic toll of death and injury on the world’s roads.

What you can do:

‘Light of Hope’. The European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR) is calling on people and organizations to light a candle to ‘remember and reflect, remember and respond’. Please support this ‘Light of Hope’ initiative. See here for more details. For more ideas for marking the World Day, please read this guide prepared by WHO, Roadpeace and FEVR.

Make Roads Safe petition. One practical action you can take during the weekend of 16-18 November is to sign and circulate the Make Roads Safe petition to your friends, family and colleagues or to the community in your place of worship. You can download a paper copy of the petition, which calls for UN action on global road traffic deaths and injuries, here. Our petition will be presented to the UN Secretary General in advance of a UN debate on a proposal for a first ever UN Conference on Global Road Safety. Help us to achieve this objective by supporting the petition.

Please share this information with anyone you know that needs remembered.

Thank you....with love!

NOT a Piece of Cake!

I spoke too soon in my last post. Jess had a grand mal seizure at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. We did stop it with a lot of medication but it was so frightening. Everyone wonders if he might not be able to handle the anesthesia and the other drugs they gave him in the hospital. It was in July that he had the last one. He was "wiped out" all week. I stayed home and watched him like a hawk. Brandie stayed with him all week too and then he went to school on Friday. Brandie said he had more facial expressions and quite a few smiles...a good sign. We had to up his night dosage of seizure medicine and so far it doesn't seem like it has affected him too much. We were hoping to get to a year seizure free so he could get off the medicine. So...we just start over! Sending lots of love to all of you...

Piece of cake!

Jess did very well with the oral surgery. We only stayed one night in the hospital and just had to use the suction machine a couple of times. It took 1 1/2 hours to remove all 4 wisdom teeth and he also cleaned his teeth really well. The doctor was wonderful and so was the staff at St. Luke's. Dr. Nelson said he thinks they were probably hurting him quite a bit. We had an idea that was the case. Glad to have that one behind us. Jess will stay home with me tomorrow and then be back on schedule on Tuesday. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts!

Wisdom Teeth

We finally have an appointment at the hospital to get Jess' wisdom teeth removed. We are going in tomorrow (Friday) and his surgery is at 12:00 pm. He will need to stay the night in the hospital so they can monitor the bleeding, his pain and help with his swallowing. I just wish Jess could tell us how he feels. Please send a few prayers in his direction tomorrow.The oral surgeon from Boise was able to get temporary permission to do the procedure up here. It will be much easier since the staff knows Jess so well. Thank you, Dr. Nelson!

I just got a phone call from the Cleveland Clinic. They are requesting a video of Jess showing the things he can do. I guess that means he still might be considered for the surgery. Whew...

I had to go to Boise this week to the Supreme Court. It seems that Medicaid wants us to pay them back the money they have spent on Jess. We recovered some auto insurance dollars and now they want a chunk of it. We won the case here but they appealed so we now have to go to Boise. There was a similar case presented to the US Supreme Court in which a girl was injured like Jess. She received a settlement from insurance and Medicaid wanted to be paid back. Luckily, she won the case because to pay them back would have taken all of the money she had to help her recover. They just don't understand the financial impact a tragedy like this has on a family. So, unfortunately, we didn't solve anything and we will have to continue at a later date. You would not believe what you have to go through when something like this happens. You think you do all the right things to protect your family and you find out quickly why they write all of the fine print in policies. Then, you find out you have to have an attorney to understand what it all means. We have a strange system. I could elaborate but it is not good for my blood pressure!

I do have good news...Jess is going to be another uncle. Joey and Angela are going to have a little boy, Breck Joseph, in February. We are so excited! I just wish they lived closer.

I will let you know how the surgery goes. Thanks for checking in!