Jennaishealed.org

My mom was here for the holidays and she remarked that Jenna seemed to be much better.   Her observations included the fact that Jenna is using longer sentences and just seemed more “there”.  She really is amazing.  Everything I ask her to do as far as her recovery goes, she does.  She used to be such an obstinate character, but now that she is on the good meds, she really is working hard at doing what she needs to do.  I tell her that as long as she never gives up on herself, I wont.  And she just continues to kick so much ass.

The last week she dropped her norelco-style rotary shaver (legs) and kept calling me telling me that she needed a new one (she forgets what she’s told me, in case that is not obvious).  I went ahead and bought her one online, and I called her to tell her about it, and she announces to me that she has fixed her existing one!

This is a girl who was injured so profoundly in her brain that she almost DIED, from that brain injury.  Not a heart attack, or gunshot wound, but an injury to her very identity and capacity to be who she is and was.  She was just about as close to dying from her brain injury as is possible, without actually doing so.  Technically there was one more step of “worse” she could have gone through, then it would have been certain death. And here she is reassembling the shattered remains of her broken electric shaver!

We are still working on her transition home. Jenna is working on the skills she will need once she is back at home with her son, where she absolutely belongs.  I’ve been working on the relationship between mother and son kind of as a third party to it, with Jenna’s name on my lips all the time with Cooper.  But there is no substitute for her actually being there and physically being his mother again.

This all happened when Cooper was only about a year old, so he never really got a firm picture of who his mother was before the accident.  And I can talk about it until my face turns blue but there is never a substitute for the real thing.  We do have a new, different Jenna.  We will never have the other one back again, most likely.  But we love the new Jenna and we are so EFFING proud of her, it gives me shivvers.

Kicking ass and taking names, baby!

Love you Jenna!

I meant but failed to post something for thanksgiving (which was awesome), so this will have to cover both holidays.  Just want to say we are together as a family and having a great time.  Cooper had a great bunch of stuff to open and all of it was his favorite stuff.  Mostly Indiana Jones with a little Bolt and Back to the Future thrown into the mix.  He got three big Lego kits (Indiana Jones) among everything else.  We’ve been building legos all day in fact.

Jenna is doing well.  Still about the same recovery-wise, but I am just so grateful to have her at all.  I’m patiently waiting for things to improve.  Her memory remains the biggest issue, with her physical stuff a close second (zombie stagger, left arm).

Anyway we all hope everyone else is having as much fun as little old us.

-Rob and Family

But we are going to rise above and kick ass!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abnormal_posturing

Lately I have been working on her to get her to write everything she does down.  The problem is that she doesn’t realize how impaired her memory is, and thinks she is getting better so she doesn’t actually have to do any work.  I’ve been working on her over the phone to disabuse her of that notion but it continues to persist.

This morning I think we made a little progress.  After discussing (sometimes a bit harshly I admit) it at length with her this morning, she called me back a few hours later and read me a whole list of all the little things she had done since our last phone call.  It brought a huge smile to my face because she is actually doing the work that is going to allow her to come home full time, for good.

What I tell her is that her full-time job is to WORK on getting better, not just sitting around waiting for it to happen.  My “spritual journey” has gone full circle through all of this, but one thing has stayed consistent with biblical teachings, and that is that the Bible never says that God helps those who help themselves.  That is a myth and a lie.  The Bible actually says that God helps the helpless.  Jenna is not helpless, so she is on her own.  She can do the work that it is going to take to get her out of the CCS facility and back home with her son where she belongs.

I tell her that I will never give up on her as long as she never gives up on herself.  The moment she does that, I’ll do the exact same thing and just leave her there.  Its harsh but effective.  Today’s little litany of her activity since this morning is evidence of that much.

I love Jenna and will do anything and everything its going to take to get her back home with her son, including kick her metaphorical ass when it is needed.  The beautiful part is Jenna is at the point now where she can rise to the occasion and kick back.

I love this girl!

Cooper and I have moved out of the inlaws’ house (finally, thank God), out here to a friend’s “farm” in Rosedale, IN.  It is a tiny little hamlet outside Terre Haute, and the house sits on nine acres of land.  It includes a gigantic backyard the size of a soccer field, a largish horseshoe-shaped pond at the bottom of a gentle hill (behind the soccer field), and a number of outbuildings.  My buddy has a ton of project cars and other fun stuff to do.  We can go shooting in the backyard since we are outside of city limits, there is a gas-powered golf cart to ride around on, among other things.

The house itself is this pretty big old farmhouse, and Jenna got to visit out here last weekend.  It was absolutely AWESOME to have her here. It was a wonderful, peaceful visit over the weekend.  It was a bit of a drag having to go get her on Friday, then take her right back on Sunday, but hopefully we can get longer home visits in the future.

Jenna did very, very well.  The only issue she had was trying (and failing) to remember the layout of the house.  Jaime (new housemate) had a ton of people over to help work on one of the project cars (1989 Helios Blue VW Jetta 16v identical to the one I had in Alabama, and was blasting the music out in the garage.  Jenna and I were sitting outside the garage listening to the music and just hanging out.  There were also a bunch of kids there, and a lot of other activity, all of which Jenna tolerated very very well.

We are going back to visit on Friday the 11th, and hopefully Carbondale isn’t hit in a 8th-anniversary attack.. Something tells me we’ll be safe in the middle of bumblef*ck southern Illy…