1/15/05 @ 4:30 p.m.

After driving through a bad snow storm, witnessing many cars and semi's off the road we finally made it to Salt Lake on Tuesday evening. We ended up staying in Salt Lake two nights and quickly learned about maneuvering in a motel and in a big city with a wheel chair. It was our first big adventure since we brought Jess home. All I can say is it was an adventure.

We had a one hour appointment with the doctor in a very busy hospital. Five hours later we left the hospital impressed, full of information and exhausted. She was a wonderful physician who never made us feel rushed and was so willing to answer all of our many questions. She spent the first half hour convincing us that a rehab hospital was not the best place for Jess. She was impressed with what we were doing for him and felt his being in his own environment was giving him a better chance for recovery. He needs the comfort and security of all those that love him around him. When we walked in her office we feared we would hear all of the negative diagnosis that we had heard from the neurologists in the beginning and...when we left we had a plan to help Jess increase his progress. She didn't look at or ask us what they had diagnosed. She said her job was only to get her patients functioning. The words I hang on to every moment are "Jess is in there...he just needs help to emerge." She informed us he is ready to try things that we have questioned ourselves whether it was time. She insisted we try standing him for at least an hour a day (if not his bones will lose the calcium and he will develop osteoporsis), she wants him to venture out into his familiar territory (basketball practice, the bowling alley, his friend's house) and she felt he needs to interact with his peers. All this will spur his memory of who he is and what it was like to be Jess Matey. She watched a video we made of things the therapists were able to accomplish and was pleased to see his movements. She said we have a very long climb at a very slow pace.

She suggested we get a standing machine, a bathtub lift (which we have been trying to get for 3 months) a new wheelchair, a new car to transport him, buttons he can push to communicate...the list goes on and on. She wants us back in 6 weeks to see a neuro opthamalogist, to do another swallow evaluation, to replace his feeding tube with a "button", and to check his legs from the botox shots she gave him to relax the muscles that have become so strong they overpower the weak ones. We have to find someone that can do serial casts on his legs three different times for 7 to 10 days each time, increasing the flexion 10% each time they are casted. And then, she had to leave the room for a phone call stating when she returned we would talk about getting him back into school. Our mouths dropped and our emotions when on a rampage..."Is she kidding?" No, she wasn't and I will continue that subject when I can breath again and when I have more information.

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful positive messages just when I need them. We love you all...