April 17, 2007

Jesse saw the orthopedic surgeon who repaired his heel today. He is very pleased with how Jesse's right heel has healed. He is also pleased with how well Jesse functions without a PCL in his left knee. He still wants him to really push himself in rehab to strengthen his left leg. He says that is the key for that knee. He is glad that Jesse was able to see the other surgeon to go back into his left elbow to remove that bone growth too. We have a date for that surgery. Jesse will go into the hospital on May 10th and will remain overnight and maybe one other night. Jesse has signed up for a Physics class in the summer session as BSU. He is working now at Taco Bell several days a week too. So far so good, he is learning lots there and he gets tired from being on his feet so much, but he is gaining strength all the time. Praise God for all your blessings!

April 3, 2007

Today Jesse and I went to see another orthopedic surgeon. He is an upper extremities guy who specializes in elbows. Jesse was refered to him by the surgeon who fixed his right heel. Anyway, two weeks ago Jesse had a CAT scan of his left elbow and today this doctor looked at it and examined Jesse. He wants to operate on that damaged elbow. He, and another surgeon, will open that elbow back up...take out the titanium hardware...remove the extra bone growth that Jesse's body made as a result of the brain trauma...all with the hope of restoring more functional range of motion in that elbow. The surgeon is confident that this procedure will help Jesse. He has to coordinate the schedule with the other surgeon, but he hopes to be able to schedule the operation within two to three weeks. On top of that, Jesse today was able to get a part time job! This should help him greatly in his rehab...gaining strength and endurance. It'll be good for Jesse to try to save some money to help him with expenses as he reenters college life next year too.

March 25, 2007

About a week and a half ago Jesse went in to Boise to spend the afternoon taking psychological tests at the neuro-psychologist's office. This past Tuesday we went in to Idaho Elks to meet with the neuro-psychologist to go over the test results. He told us that Jesse had done extremely well on all of the tests. It has not even been six months since the accident either! We do praise our God for restoring Jesse. Dr Beaver, the neuro-psychologist, doesn't see any reason why Jesse can't return to college in the fall. His only caution is for Jesse to take a lighter academic load for his first quarter back, just to make sure that he doesn't over do it.

This past week Jesse also had another scan taken of his left elbow. He is going to be evaluated by another orthopedic surgeon to see if there might be anything more they might do to help restore better range of motion. His appointment with that surgeon is this coming week.

March 15, 2007

This past Tuesday the 13th Jesse went in to Boise to be tested by the Neuropsychologist. It was a long afternoon for him. The testing was from one in the afternoon until nearly five. Jesse and his mom and I will all go in to Idaho Elks rehab next Tuesday for an interview where we'll learn the test results. This is part of the process to determine whether Jesse can return to school in the fall. His rehab continues to go pretty well. It does tire him, but there continues to be progress. He also goes over to a friends house to work on calculus a couple times a week.

March 1, 2007

It has been a little while since I have updated this blog...Sorry.

Jesse has been walking for a while now. At first he was a little unsteady as he walked. It had been four months since his right leg had done much more than stretch and so that leg was pretty weak. Through his rehab he has been able to regain enough strength so that as he walks he looks pretty normal. His left leg, the one with the destroyed PCL, has improved greatly too. He is now able to straighten it out all the way and when he flexes it he can bend it nearly as much as his right (the undamaged knee) one. His arm continues to improve too. It's really slow going with that left elbow, but there is progress.

This last weekend Jesse went on a trip to Oregon with some friends here in Nampa to see Phil Keaggy in concert. He had a really good time. Then, this past Monday he drove himself to therapy by himself! I took Jesse last week to see his rehab doctor and she cleared him to drive. He had to take a cognitive evaluation and a practical driving evaluation at Idaho Elks rehab also. He's now back on the insurance policy and able to get around on his own.

Jesse needs now to have another appointment with the Nuero Psychologist at Idaho Elks rehab. Then, within a few months we'll be able to assess better how he's doing and be able to better make a decision about him returning to school in the fall.

February 11, 2007

Jesse continues to make progress in his recovery. But, it is slow going. He has been walking for about two and a half weeks now after four months in bed or in a wheel chair. His left leg is pretty good now even though the PCL in that left knee is destroyed. We'll know more the next time he sees his orthopedic surgeon whether he will get a brace for that knee or not. His right heel still gets sore when he is on his feet lots, but Jesse is able to stand in church for singing praises to our Lord. His right leg still needs to regain the strength he lost from being off of it for so long. His left elbow is making very slow progress too. He is able to play his guitar better and better all the time and he wants to volunteer to play with the church worship team.

This Wednesday the 14th Jesse goes back to Idaho Elks Boise rehab for the first of his driving evaluations. If things go well he should be driving within a few weeks. That'll be really nice for all of us. Thank you Lord for bringing Jesse back to us!

Wednesday, January 24, 2006

Today Jesse was cleared for full weight bearing, and he's walking! He says it's not the easiest thing to do, but no crutches are required.

That's all the info I had... thought it would be cool to get it up right away for all y'all to enjoy... praise God!

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
Psalm 39:1-2 NIV

January 13, 2007

This past week Jesse was able to see his girlfriend. Her name is Bre Henry and she attends the University of Nevada Reno on a basketball scholarship and her team was in town to play Boise State. This was the first time that Jesse remembers seeing her since the day before his accident. He was on his way home from visiting her when the accident happened. She was able to come down to Arrowhead to see him when he was in the hospital last October and was there when he first woke up from his coma. But, he doesn't have any recall of that at all. There are about two and a half weeks that Jesse doesn't remember, and probably will not ever remember.


Last Sunday night Bre was able to get permission for Jesse and I (Jesse's dad) to visit with her for a few hours. You'll see Bre checking out the titanium in Jesse's elbow here. Jesse can also stand up on his left leg for a short while.

On Monday night our whole family was able to go into Boise to watch Bre's team play. They lost by 3 points to BSU, but it was a great game. It was great that Jesse and Bre could spend a little time together. It was an encourageing time for all of us.

Jesse continues his physical and occupational therapy three times a week. Soon he should be able to put weight on his right leg. His left leg continues to strengthen, although he'll likely need surgery in the future to repair his destroyed PCL. His left arm recovery is the slowest. He is playing his guitar more and more and he will start taking piano lessons soon.

Thank you Lord for what You have done...and are doing.

January 2, 2007

Jesse continues to work hard at his occupational and physical therapy. He works at home too. He is able to get on our exercise bike and ride. But, what he spends most of his time doing is stretching and working on his left elbow. His extension is getting better and so is his flexion. He is also able to play his guitar in a normal position now. He can reach some of the low notes, but he can't do bar chords yet.

He was able to go out with some of his friends who were home from college for the holidays. They went to see a movie and then played a card game. On New Year's eve Jesse's whole family went to friend's house to eat, play games and celebrate the New Year.

Thank you Lord for letting Jesse be here with us. All praise and honor to God.

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.

November 23, 2006

Today we went as a family with Jesse over to some friends house for a very nice Thanksgiving dinner. This has to be the best Thanksgiving day ever for us.

Jesse won't go in to the rehab hospital until next week, but we do have some exercises to do with him here at home. They tire him out and his knee gets sore, but he is motivated to regain strength and range of motion so he is willing to work at it.

November 22, 2006

Jesse came home today! I (Jesse's dad) went in to Elks rehab to pick him up just before 9:30am. We had to take care of the discharge stuff, get his belongings, and then get over to the orthopaedic surgeons office by 10:30am. It had been two weeks since Jesse's heel surgery and it was time to take x-rays and remove the stitches.

Boy, Jesse has another railroad track of a scar. This one runs along his foot and then up the side of the heel. The x-rays show that the heel is heeling well and so is the his femur. (I'll comment here that the amount of titanium in Jesse is most impressive.) The difficulty may be in Jesse's elbow. Brain injury patients create lots of bone around injuries and that is happening in the elbow. This extra new bone seems to be limiting Jesse's range of motion in his arm. Only time will tell how the arm ends up.

Jesse's speech therapist tells us that he continues to make really good progress. She will continue to work with him and test him.

The goal of the inpatient rehab was to get Jesse well enough to come home. Now, the goal of his rehab is get him as funtional as possible...with the end goal of him returning to school.

We rejoice and give all praise and honor and glory to our Lord Jesus. He didn't have to let Jesse survive the accident, but he did. One prayer that Jesse is asking God is why, what plan or purpose does He have for him. God will answer that prayer.

November 19, 2006

Yesterday I (Jesse's dad) was able to take Jesse out for a drive. He had learned how to get into a car on his own using a sliding board from the wheel chair into the car. We had a nice time just driving around Boise while we talked. We are getting excited about Jesse coming home this Wednesday.

A friend of the family made a ramp from the entrance walkway up to our front door. That was a great blessing since I don't have wood working tools. Jesse continues to improve. He does get tired easily though. His brain is still working quite hard to remake connections that were lost in the accident and that energy takes its toll on Jesse. His therapist told him that he should expect to tire easily for quite some time. The time frame for most brain trauma patients to get their energy back is at least a year. Jesse's therapist thinks that because he is recovering more rapidly than most that time frame might be shortened somewhat. Tomorrow Jesse's mom and I go into the Idaho Elks Rehab for a few hours of training to prepare us for bringing him home.

November 15, 2006

Yesterday we learned that the Idaho Elks Rehab wants to plan to send Jesse home with us next Wednesday the 22nd. They have ordered a wheel chair that will fit him well. Debbie and I (Jesse's mom and dad) have to go in to the Idaho Elks Rehab for several hours of training to make sure that we will be able to care for him. This Thanksgiving home coming will be very special for us all. We truly give all the honor and glory to our most wonderful Lord Jesus for helping Jesse get better.