Tony is doing well. He likes being back at work. He has been coming home very tired but his stamina is continuing to grow.
In his therapy session on Wednesday they had a guest speaker from the research department. She is doing a study on how exercise affects recovery.
For a long time it was thought that brain cells did not regenerate themselves. They are now finding that they can. By doing arobic exercise, brain cells can regenerate in the hypothalamus and the neurons can then travel to different parts of the brain.

What this speakers research has been finding is that patients have been able to get back to the level in achievement they had before the accident if they have faith that they can. It doesn't matter if it's a physical activity like extreme sports or an intellectual activity. They can build their reflexes and reaction times to the same level they had before. Not only is that true of things they were good at before , but its also true with learning new skills. She showed some slides, including one of a skate boarder who regained the ability to do some amazing tricks.

The way they achieve these goals is the same way they got the skills in the first place. By practicing and continuing to make things just a little more complicated as you progress. She suggested the patients do some form of aerobic exercise for twenty minutes a day to get the oxygen flowing to the brain which in turn starts the brain cells to regenerate. The exercise should be at a level were you can continue to talk while doing it. if you can't, you are pushing too hard. Then follow that with an academic study to build on those new brain cells. The difficulty level needs to gradually increase so you are always pushing yourself just a little bit more.

The speaker emphasized that the patient had to believe they could make the accomplishments in order for them to happen. I find it interesting that in today's politically correct world it is being left out the faith or belief in whom? I have had the opportunity to speak with some of the parents who have been going through this recovery process as we have. So far, the ones I have asked have all been spending a great deal of time in prayer for their children and believe they have been given a very big miracle. These are parents whose children were not expected to make it. One father told me that after a week and a half in the ICU, the doctors pulled off all the life support and told he and his wife his son would die within 48 hours. Praise God he didn't! He and his wife were constantly on their knees in prayer for their son.