Tony hit the half way point today for his out patient therapy. He has done 4 weeks with 2days a week. He has 4 more weeks left. He is very anxious to be done with them. After the 4 weeks are done he should be able to take the drivers training at Rancho and start driving again. Tomorrow afternoon he has an appointment with the neurologist. He has been taking anti seizure medication as a precaution since the accident. He got an EEG a couple of weeks ago that came back normal with out signs of seizure activity so we are hoping the neurologist will stop the medication. It is the only medication Tony is taking and he will be glad to be rid of it. His speech therapist said usually it is the gun shot victims that are prone to the seizures . We are fairly certain he will be taken off the medication within the year, but the sooner the better.
One Of Tony's therapists asked Tony if he would participate in a panel of survivors at the end of a conference they were hosting at Rancho on Saturday. I got to go to the conference from around 9am until 5 pm. It was really for therapists and nurses so it was a great opportunity for me to get a real taste of what is happening from the therapists point of view. One of the speakers was talking about one the the therapies Tony has been receiving in physical therapy. They had him moving and turning his head if different directions. I found out that was to get little particles out of the fluids in his ear canal that can cause problems with equilibrium. apparently they only need to do the exercise a few times to get the particles out. It only works with trauma patients because the particles are there because of severe shaking, not with people who have the particles because of illness because the cause of it is different.
From 4 to 5 pm they had the panel discussion. Tony and his partner in therapy as well as two other young men who had been patients in the past were on the panel. All 4 of the men were around Tony's age. All of them had very good recoveries. They also asked the parents if they would be on the panel for another prospective. They then had the audience ask what ever questions they wanted to ask. Tony did very well.

Tony went back to work on Tuesday. His work had a welcome back party for him today. Mike said it was standing room only. On Tuesday it was like sending him to his first day at school again. I was very excited to see him getting back to doing what he loves to do, but I was also worried about how it would be for him getting back into the swing of things. His Bosses have gone out of their way to make the transition easier for him as have his co-workers. I couldn't even begin to describe how grateful I am. It brings tears to my eyes whenever I think about it. Tony had a big smile on his face. I know he really appreciates it too.

It's been a good week this week. On Monday and Wednesday Tony had his therapies. He wrote a couple of programs for his occupational therapist. In his physical therapy he ran for the first time since the accident. We have also been going to the gym a few times a week so Tony is getting stronger and looking good. In his group meeting they talked some more about the brain. They said that studying and arobic exercise helped speed up the regrowth of the connections and that improvement can continue to happen for a very long time.
Tony also had an appointment with the neuro optometrist on Friday. We ordered some frames for prism glasses. It should take about 2 weeks to get those. We got a name for an eye surgeon to make an appointment for a consultation. I'm still not sure that's something we should do because I haven't seen much positive reviews on the Internet about the surgery. The eye doctor said Tony is already doing some compensating on his own for the double vision by looking off to the side a little. She thinks working with the prisms may help improve his double vision but wont get rid of it. The best result to get rid of the double vision would be a combination of surgery plus prisms. Please continue to pray for his eye to heal.
On Tuesday Tony is planning on going back to work. Please keep him in prayer for this. He is very excited about going back to work and moving on with his plans for the future.

Pray For Tony: Back to Work

Back to Work

Yesterday Tony had a neuro optometry appointment. They did some more measurements on his eyes. Next Friday they will give him a prescription for some prism glasses. I think the prisms will be stuck inside a pair of clear glasses since his eyes are 20 20 still. That should take away the double vision. I believe the plan will be for him to come in for about 6 weeks of eye exercises once a week. She also wants to refer him to an eye surgion about adjusting the length of the eye muscles on his left eye. she wants the surgeon to get some measurements early in the game but thinks the surgery should happen in about 3 months. Neither Mike, Tony or I want him to get the surgery but we need to know what all the options are. She seems to think the best treatment would be therapy to improve the eyes as much as possible, and then a combination of surgery and prism glasses.
I am still praying for a complete recovery. Our God has been very merciful to us. When I look back to where we started this journey I am so amazed at where he is today. On that day I couldn't see Gods plan, but I knew he had one. That gave me comfort knowing that God loved Tony . I can not imagine what it would be like for someone who didn't have faith in God. Many times I would come up with my own plan in my head as to how things should go. When Tony had the trachea , he would cough a lot. It was hard to watch him so uncomfortable and I just wanted it to stop, but the doctor told us coughing was a good thing because it kept his lungs clear. That is just one example, but I was constantly being reminded that sometimes when things look bad, good things are actually happening. God had given wisdom to the doctors and nurses who treated Tony. We were thankful they had it and prayed for them to have it. They were able to see things that Mike and I could not, but their wisdom is just a speck of what Gods wisdom is. I believe the purpose of miracles is to build faith. I have seen a lot of that happen from Tonys accident. My faith has grown by leaps and bounds but I have also had many others come to me and tell me how their faith had been strengthened. I have also had a couple of people say they don't believe in miracles. I don't really know how to respond to that. I can only say that we are given free will to choose to believe or not. We love you and want you to have the peace that we do but that is between you and God.

Tony has his 3rd therapy session today. There was no therapy on Monday because of Columbus day. Tony got to spend some time on the driving simulator. He is really wanting to drive again so he was very happy to give it a spin. He also spent some time working on his balance.
Please keep Tony in prayer as we are planning on having him go back to work on October 24th. He's made so much progress, we think he will be ready.

We were able to get an appointment with a neuro optometrist yesterday. they had a cancellation so we got in right away. The office is at a school optometry in Pomona so there were students observing. On the way there Tony commented that he hoped there were some pretty college girls there. He said the one advantage of having double vision is that if there's one pretty girl he will see two. Well he got his wish because the students observing were almost all women. We were there about 3 hours while they gave him all sorts of tests on his eyes as well as walking and balance. One of the nice things about having students watching is that the doctor was explaining what the tests were for to them . We have another appointment next Friday to finish the tests and then he will be getting some therapy sessions with them to help strengthen the muscles. They will be co-ordinating his therapy with Rancho so they don't do things he is already doing at Rancho. Eventually he will should get some prism glasses but his vision will probably still change some so he won't get the glasses just yet.

Mike took Tony to his 2nd out patient session today. They gave Tony a web site to go on to find a nuerooptomitrist in our area.They also gave him some exercises to strengthen the muscles in his eye. After the therapy sessions Mike took Tony to a resturant for a party for one one their friends at work. It was the first time he had seen a lot of his co workers since the accident and he really enjoyed it.

First out patient rehab session

Tony had his first outpatient therapy session today. The first hour was spent in a group classroom type setting with about 10 or 11 other patients. The instructor was explaining to the group how the neurons in the brain form pathways to save and retrieve information. After an injury these pathways are wiped clean and need to be formed again. This is done by doing things repetitively which is similar to making a groove in dirt by moving a tool back and forth over the same spot . The deeper the groove is the quicker it will be to find the path. Once the most basic pathways are restored they can be used to build more complex pathways. She was discussing some different things the patients can do to help rebuild these pathways.
After the first hour the group separated and spent an hour each with a therapist from ot, st, and pt individually. I asked his ot(occupational therapist) about the neurooptamolagist. She said the neurooptamolagist they use tends to get backed up so it would probobly take awhile to get an appointment. She said she would get me a list of doctors in my area so I could try and get an appointment set up on my own.
The physical therapist spent time working on his balance. His balance is pretty good but he still has some minor issues. Some people have asked me if Tony can walk. Yes he can walk without assistance and he is getting up and down the stairs without any problems. I started taking him to the gym with me a couple of days ago so he can work on rebuilding his strength. One therapist told me you loose about a weeks worth of muscle for every day you spend in bed not moving.
While Tony was in physical therapy I had the opportunity to talk to another mother who's 26 year old son was in the group. He was a very handsome young man and had a really good job in charge of PR when he was injured. Apparently he had just broken up with his girlfriend and tried to commit suicide by jumping off the roof where he lived. He was found by a neighbor who came by and called for help. He seems like a very nice young man. He doesn't remember jumping but he realizes what a horrible ordeal it was for his mother to have to go through. God may use him someday to help others contemplating suiside. I'm sure at the time he didn't really consider how his actions were going to affect those he loved and loved him. I felt their pain. He has had a much slower recovery than Tony. His accident happened in January and he stll has trouble remembering what happened yesterday. While his recovery has been very slow the good news is that he still continues to make progress and his mother is very happy to still have her son.
His mother and I shared what it was like to have a son in a coma and not know if he would live or die .