November 27th, 2005

Happy 86th Birthday, mom and Happy Thanksgiving a little late to everyone!

When I said in my last update that Jess should shake up our routine, boy, did I get what I asked for. We have had a few crazy weeks. Lots of meetings. I met with the directors and therapists at school to talk about changes in Jess’ program. We sure have a great team! They all really care about helping Jess in any way they can. In Jess’ psyche for success class all of the kids wrote something special for Jess and gave him a hug at the end of day. Amanda said it was very emotional for her and I am sure for Jess too. The trimester has ended already.

Jess and I also had a meeting with Medicaid in Twin Falls and I left the meeting very frustrated and in tears. They informed me that they no longer would cover Jess’ therapists unless we drove to Twin Falls every day (60 miles one way) to go to a Developmental Disability Agency. We do not have one in our area. They also will not cover Amanda and Daniel. The system that we all have paid into for our entire working life that is suppose to take care of the children, the disabled and our elderly is very sad. So, I am on a rampage that I won’t elaborate on. Someday I hope to make a contribution to changing the system.

We also traveled to Salt Lake City to take Jess to a neuro psychologist and had an MRI scan done. I went in with him to have the MRI and held his hand at the end of the tunnel for about an hour. The tapping noise is awful but Jess handled it and the trip pretty well. We are not really interested in the results. We know what they tried to pound into us after each CT scan early in his injury so we opted not to read the results of this test maybe someday. We also dropped off a video of Jess’ therapies for the doctor at the Primary Children’s hospital to see if he could qualify for their rehab program. Unfortunately, we still have not heard from them.

As many of you know, I have spent a good bit of time researching and trying to find a rehab facility that will take Jess. I have emailed Washington D.C., Seattle, Colorado and recently, due to a synchronicity of events, I also contacted a facility in California. I emailed a doctor who spoke at a Brain Injury Association Conference in Boise regarding my attending the conference and I also asked him if his facility could help Jess. His brother had suffered a severe brain injury so he started a privately owned rehabilitation center in Bakersfield, CA. He emailed me back and suggested I contact his Director of Admissions. To make a very long story short, they flew a representative out to evaluate Jess. She went to school with Jess, Amanda and I for 4 hours and watched Jess intently to see how he responded, how alert he was and how well he handled staying awake for the entire day. She was very informative about severe traumatic brain injuries and she was concerned that we did not really have anyone qualified to do intense “neuro” therapies. By the end of the day, before she went to the airport, she informed me she was going to recommend that Jess attend their very intense rehab program. They only take care of traumatic brain injury patients. She also told me Jess could have gone into their program right out of St. Al’s. I could write a book on how insurance drives our health care system and inhibits patients from getting the help they need. I do believe Jess needed to come home first though to remember where he came from. We are negotiating with the insurance company to help cover the $1,000 a day expense. But, no matter what, we are going to the Centre of Neuro Skills www.neuroskills.com in Bakersfield, CA!! We will start with a month and see how it goes.

Chris and I have gone through many emotions about this journey. It took us 1½ years to get set up at home with the necessary things to take care of Jess and organize all of his therapies and school. But, I have felt for a long time that we were missing something and as usual there is a power stronger than we are that is showing us this new road. Many lights lit this path to actually make it become a reality. Jess and I will live in a 24 hour assisted apartment. He will get intense therapy 4-6 hours a day 5 days a week. We will drive 14 hours in Jess’ van to get there and then Chris will fly home in a few days. He will come back in a couple of weeks and switch with me so I can come home, check on my mom and dad and work for a week. I was very concerned about leaving mom and dad alone so I tried again to seek help from the “system”. Again there are too many rules for any of us to fit into their “help” category so with much gratitude I am relying on my wonderful friends to keep an eye on them.

We are going to miss the wonderful people who have so graciously entered our lives and cared for our son. We have made many new friends that are a part of our family. We can’t thank everyone enough and hope they will return when we return.

Joey said he is sending me his old lap top computer so I can keep updating this website. We still need everyone’s good thoughts and prayers that this might just be the key to unlock the door to Jess’ recovery. Thanks for hanging in there with us. With much love, Pam, Chris and Jess