December 20, 2006

Today Jesse and I (Jesse's dad) went into Boise to see his orthopedic surgeon. He is quite happy with how Jesse's right heel is healing. That is the surgery that Jesse had on November 6th when he was here in Idaho. The x-ray to the right was taken this morning. It sure seems like an amazing amount of metal, but his right foot sure looks better than it did before.

Jesse's left femur is healing well too. Because of his head/brain injury Jesse's body is making lots of new bone. Jesse can feel the lump in his leg where the new bone is. You can see the titanium rod that goes from the head of the femur nearly down to the knee with the screws that were put in to hold it in place. In the x-ray on the left you can see the site of the fracture with all the new bone around it!

Jesse's left elbow continues to be one of the prime orthopedic concerns. There is so much new bone created around the joint that the doctor is not sure how much range of motion Jesse'll get back. The doctor said that he will show the x-rays to other surgeons to get an idea if there might be someone who could (later on) go in and exise some of that new bone to try to get more range...we'll see how that idea goes. These two x-rays are just different angles of his left elbow.

We did talk to the surgeon about his therapy and he gave Jesse a new prescription to take to the outpatient rehab center. He should be getting passive and active range of motion and strengthing on his left knee (That is for the stiffness and instability from the damaged/destroyed PCL and joint capsule) left elbow and right ankle three days a week. Jesse will still have to wait another month before he can weight bear on his left elbow. That means that he can't start to use crutches till then. Oh well, he'll need to keep using only the wheel chair to get around until then.

We continue to give all the praise and glory to our most wonderful Lord for the blessing of Jesse's recovery. Thank you Jesus.

December 18, 2006

Last week Jesse worked with his speech therapist by reading an essay from his college English text. She then quizzed him on it, then she read one herself and again quizzed him. This week he is working on problems from his differential equations math text in preparation for his session with her. His cognitive recovery continues well. He may even have only a few more sessions. His orthopedic rehab continues, but the progress is slow. Jesse was able to go to two Christmas celebrations at MAF (where his dad works) and he didn't get too tired. That is a good sign. He seems to be gaining better endurance. Thank you Lord for letting Jesse be here with us.

December 10, 2006

Tomorrow Jesse will go to a different rehab center. We have been taking him back to Boise to the same Elks rehab where he was an inpatient. They told us that they would keep him there for his outpatient rehab until they felt confident enough in his rehab to transfer him to their rehab facility here in Nampa. Well, tomorrow is the day! It'll be much nicer for us not having to drive so far each time, but the best part is their confidence in Jesse's progress. Thank you Lord.

December 5, 2006

Today was the first day that I ( Jesse's dad) was able to pick him up after his outpatient therapy sessions. It was nice to see him right afterwards. He had just finished his time with his ocupational therapist and I had a chance to meet her. There was good news to report. She had received confirmation from Jesse's orthopedic surgeon that it was okay to start more aggresive therapy on his left elbow. His elbow was able to extend to within thirty degrees of straight and he was able to flex his elbow so that he could touch his nose with his left thumb! That means that he has approximately the same range that he had about a month ago when he was at Arrowhead. We had feared that he had lost some range lately since the recent x-rays had shown that he had created so much extra bone around the elbow joint. For a while there had also been a clicking between the radius and the ulna as he ranged his wrist, but that no longer happens either. Jesse, and we too, are encouraged about this. Thank you Lord!

brain activity

I just wanted to take a few minutes out of my dull, depressingly uneventful workday to tell all of Jesse's fans just how far I think he's come since his accident.

***

Okay, so this anecdote needs a bit of background. I am, by heritage and personality, a writer. And one thing a writer does (or at least this writer does) is make assumptions about people based on the known facts. (This is soooo different from judging someone, by the way.) Now since I know Jesse grew up on the mission field, worlds away from the techno-savy world us in the States live in, I had made the assumption that his personal computer skills would be on a par with, say, my mother's. (Sorry, Mom, but you know it's true). Not because I didn't think he was smart enough, but simply because he hadn't been exposed to much high-concept technology while growing up.

So imagine my surprise (and delight) when Roy, Jesse's roommate and proud papa of this blogging site, informed me that Jesse had just signed onto AIM Instant Messenger. (For those of you who have no idea what that is, it's basically a way to "chat" via the internet. Think of it as emailing, only with instant exchanges. It's really quite cool.)

Jesse? Chatting online? I was flabbergasted!

I instantly sent Jess a message: "Hi Jesse! This is your cousin Emily!"

The instant reply (see the theme here - it's "instant" messaging!) from him was perfect: "Oh, hi Em! How are you?"

The conversation went on from there for about 15 minutes. We talked about decorating for the holidays, who stole what at last year's family gift exchange (Jesse had a really cool fiber-optic tree stolen from him), and how weird it is to live in a place where it actually snows.

As we were "signing off" (AIM code for quitting the program), I told Jesse goodnight, that I love him, and told him to keep warm.

He fired back at me with "buenas noches."

Luckily for me, my 4 months spent living in Spain were not entirely wasted and I remembered that "buenas noches" means "goodnight" in Spanish. I replied with my own standard sign-off of "ciao," Italian for "goodbye."

"Au revoir," was Jesse's response.

Dang! The kid knows how to say goodnight in 4 languages! Needless to say, I was impressed. I know so many people who have serious issues with speaking the English language (seriously, how is "wazzah, homies" any form of a greeting?), so it was so good to talk to Jesse and see that he's so far ahead of most people.

Thus, I am happy report that, in my humble opinion, Jesse is in fine form and ready to compete in Jeopardy, if only he could stand Alex Trebek long enough. :-)

December 3, 2006

Friday Jesse received in the mail three packages from AVID students at Redlands East Valley High School. Jesse worked as a tutor in the program, and one of Jesse's fellow tutors seems to have organized the gifts and sending them. Jesse was very pleased to get these thoughtful gifts. There was a really big card that the students made, there was a terrific panaramic photo of all the kids and they also gave him a nice box. It really cheered him up.

Yesterday (Saturday) Jesse and I (Jesse's dad)went to a men's breakfast meeting at church. Jesse had a really hearty breakfast, along with the rest of us, and then enjoyed the discussion at our table.

Jesse reports that his therapy is indeed showing improvement in his range of motion in both his left knee and his left elbow. He keeps working on his left wrist on his own. He is slowly able to better twist it with its own muscles. He is able to play his guitar some now, although he plays it vertically. As he is able to supinate (that's the term for the outward rolling of the wrist) he should be able to play in a more conventional fashion.

December 1, 2006

Jesse has been home for a little over a week now. It is really great to have him here with us. We are truly greatful to our Lord. Jesse has been to outpatient therapy twice now and he likes the result of the aggresive therapy on his left knee...his ability to extend and to flex the knee are already improving. The therapy prescription note from his orthopaedic surgeon was not real clear to his occupational therapist about whether it was okay to start aggressive therapy on his left elbow though. Elks rehab is trying to clarify that with the surgeon. In the mean time the elbow therapy continues with little range of motion improvement. Jesse hopes to be able to switch to aggressive therapy on the elbow soon.

Jesse is fairly independent in the house here. The carpet does slow him down, but he manages to get where he wants to go. I (Jesse's dad) help him with his shower, but I actually do little more than monitor him. He can get onto the tub seat, pull the curtain, and do all of his own cleaning pretty well now. I am there just in case he needs help.

Jesse has had some times of sadness and discouragement this past week. It is hard for him to listen to guitar music that just eight weeks ago he could play and now he can't. It seems as though the gravity of what has happened in his life weighs on him at times. We try to encourage him to realize that God has let him live for some special, particular reason. We pray that our Lord will reveal Himself and His plans to Jesse as the days go by.