It has been awhile

We have been pretty busy taking care of Jess and trying to work and keep up with every day events. We have not found a caregiver yet.

Jess has been struggling with seizures. We have changed his medicine and hope it will help. We are also looking into neurofeedback and biofeedback in Florida or Minneapolis to help with both seizures and muscle movement. I have been doing a lot of research. My interest excelled when I was contacted by a wonderful family of a boy we met in California 2 years ago. Jared, their son, was a lot like Jess and had also suffered his brain injury in a car accident. Here is his story:

Jared
Jared suffered a traumatic brain injury with diffuse axonal shearing (same thing Jess has) 4 1/2 years ago on his 17th birthday in an auto accident. He was in a coma for 3 -4 weeks which he came out of very slowly. He had very limited movement on his left side and none on his right, he could not regulate his temperature or heart rate, he could not swallow any food or drink, and he could only communicate with eye blinks.

After 3 years of rehabilitation and therapy, he had improved some. He definitely retained his long term memory, his sense of humor, and most cognitive processing as far as we can tell, but he still could not walk, talk, or care for himself. He constantly struggled just to keep his head up and had to be strapped into all chairs. He could use his left side somewhat, could sign yes and no with his left hand, could eat pureed foods, and gained the strength and endurance to live at home with round the clock care and go on outings. Insurance slowly dropped him from all therapies since their was not enough "significant progress".

After attending the Brucker Clinic in Florida for three weeks, Jared had such improved trunk and head control that his therapists and family were amazed. This made everything so much easier! We no longer had to hold his head for him, and he was sitting up in a regular desk chair for 10 minutes unassisted before we left the clinic. After continuing to practice with the newly discovered pathways, Jared no longer needed shoulder straps in his wheelchair or any straps in his shower or toilet chair. He also continued to work on his quadriceps and was able to transfer with less assistance and begin to take steps while remaining upright. We were approved to begin both physical and occupational therapies again which helped strengthen the muscles that the Brucker Clinic helped Jared find.

Upon our second visit to the clinic 6 months later, Jared had increased his abilities in all of the areas he had worked on previously so he was able to move forward. It has only been a few weeks since this last visit, and he is already able to move his right side with effort, is no longer needing his leg braces, and can close his lips and bite down for sustained periods.

We are now working on balancing while standing independently using a walker. This is difficult since so many muscle groups are involved, but Jared enjoys doing it and tries hard. We can feel many muscle groups kicking in that did not use to, and he is self correcting his balance. He rode a horse last week with minimal assistance and plans to continue once per week to strenthen his trunk muscles.

We know there will be more improvements to report soon as we work to strengthen these new pathways.No one else was able to move Jared forward at this point. The Brucker Clinic opened up the possibilities for Jared again. Not only do therapists believe in his newly found progress, but more importantly Jared believes. He goes into that clinic ready to work and comes home with new abilities and renewed hope. Jared has a long way to go, but Dr. Brucker gave him a road to get there when no one else could.

We are so grateful that we received another avenue to explore to help Jess. Thanks for checking in...we will be back.