Eye Tracking

I just finished making a video of Jess eye tracking for the eye doctor and wanted to download it here...but it failed. I wanted to show you how Jess can track with his eyes. When we first came home from the hospital Jess could only look to the left. He can now look right, left, up and down. He also can sometimes identify letters on a board to spell different words by looking at one letter at a time. I want to thank all of his therapists who have worked so diligently on his eyes. I feel he is ready for an eye gaze program. We have an eye appointment on Friday in Boise so I will discuss the options with his doctor. I would still like to get him back down to the eye specialist in California. She was so good and saw potential in him two years ago.

Jess has also been moving his shoulders and arms differently. He seems to be more aware of his movements. He is holding his head up longer and shifting his hips a little while Chris holds him up standing. These are all encouraging for us to see.

I called the Cleveland Clinic last week and talked to the research assistant, Jenna. She informed me that the doctors have requested Jess' files to review again. She said it was a good sign. The second patient they performed the brain stimulation surgery on in December is doing very well and is in intensive rehabilitation now. She said they were anxious to pick the other 10 candidates so they could continue with the study. She also said the procedure and the 6 months of intense therapy would be paid for by grants. We would only have to pay for our transportation and our stay in Ohio. Her enthusiasm gave me hope that Jess would be chosen. We don't want to get too excited though and then be disappointed.

Keep the prayers going for Jess. We need all the help we can get to keep us all going! With love...