Hello faithful family, friends, and followers. This week has been what now seems to be rather “routine.” Time with family and friends, walks, emotional and physical ups and downs, outpatient therapy, therapy homework, rinse and repeat... On Saturday we enjoyed dog-sitting our grand-dog Nova for the afternoon and, as always, she was a champ. On Monday Joy enjoyed her Knitting Grandma’s group in the afternoon and then in the evening we celebrated Marc’s birthday over dinner at their home. We also had therapy appointments during the week and watched Liam and Revan Wednesday afternoon. Again, pretty routine, until it’s wasn’t.
Last week I mentioned Joy had re-read my post in which I accounted our first learning of her permanent brain damage. The resulting questions and discussion from her increasing awareness of her injuries, led her to ask for more specific information about the scope and magnitude of her many wounds. We spent a tearful evening as I detailed each injury and did my best to explain them, as we sat in sadness around the reality of her many injuries and then marveled at the healing and restoration, unimagined at the time, that God has so wondrously worked. As Joy continued to ask more and more questions especially about her brain injury, I chose to read her the portion of my May 22nd post in which I shared:
After a very intense day of therapy with all three disciplines yesterday, we returned to Allina Abbott Northwestern today for a CT scan and follow up meeting with the neurosurgeon’s nurse practitioner. The nurse practitioner had met with us when Joy was in inpatient rehab and is very kind and compassionate with her, for which we are very thankful. But no matter how hard I try to mentally prepare myself, it still literally, “knocks the wind out of me,” and I struggle to breathe, when I see the massive amount of black space on Joy’s CT where healthy brain tissue used to reside. The technical terms are encephalomalacia and gliosis. And while I am no neurologist, neurosurgeon, or radiologist, I still find myself asking, “How is she even alive and/or not in a vegetative state with so much brain tissue literally gone, not waiting to heal, gone.” On the one hand it is a testimony to the miraculous healing that has happened so far, and for that we thank God, but at the same time, presents a clear picture of how permanently damaged and altered (without miraculous intervention), Joy’s brain actually is.
While I am sure there are those who would question my choosing to share this rather graphic explanation of Joy’s brain injury with her, it seemed to help her process, and for each of us to hold, the pain of loss in one hand, with the thankfulness of her miraculous healing in the other. That she can speak at all, that she can understand any language at all, that despite her upper right vision cut, she sees very well, that she can hear with both ears, that she can walk on both legs and feet, and grasp with both arms and hands. These are all miraculous realities for us and for a time that evening it was hard to tell which tears came from the sense of loss and which from thankful hearts, but in the end, we were awestruck by the wonderful life we share and the very real gift that it is to us. So, like I said, routine…
This coming Monday we had planned on traveling to IA to visit Joy’s mom to share an early birthday lunch with her, she turns 97 on Saturday the 26th, but on learning she has contracted Covid, will wait until after Joy's upcoming surgery. We appreciate your prayers for Ruth's full recovery from Covid. The surgery to remove the plate and screws from Joy's wrist reduction in Florida is scheduled for Thursday the 24th. While appropriate at the time for repair of the wrist, the orthopedic surgeon here recommended removal to avoid possible tendon complications in the future. We appreciate your prayers for Joy’s surgery and for a quick and uneventful recovery.
As we continue to plead for your faithful prayers for Joy, we of course ask for prayer for sight to the upper right, but also especially for cognition in understanding words she both sees and hears. Joy has made huge advances in her ability to read and understand, but at the same time, in recent assessments, it has become clear that there are many words that Joy does not comprehend, even if she can read them. She does a great job of “getting around them” and compensating for this, but for her own well-being and greater understanding, we covet your prayers for her comprehension.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, you all mean so much to us. As we have said, we hold you in our prayers, even if we don’t know you by name and if you would like us to pray specifically for you, please feel free to reach out to us through the contact form on our home page. Your prayers have been an integral part of the healing I spoke of above, words cannot express our gratitude.
