2/16-Dogs and sticks

Trying to make it fun, I’m tired of the boring title of just the date!

Last spring, Auntie Pam, Mike’s sister, often mentioned the idea that getting a pet might be therapeutic for Ashley. I was in no state to take that on then, but since summer Ashley has persistently asked for a puppy anytime she sees a dog. I tried to ignore these comments. Then Brittany and I saw a sign when we were out about Virginia Service Dogs. Basically, they have puppy raisers, that do what the name says, and then the dogs are given back for further trainer and after that assigned to a blind, wheel chair bound, or diabetic, person. You then get to be a part of the ceremony of seeing the dog that you raised, go to a person who is much in need. I have to admit that this first appealed to me because they pay for everything and I don’t have to enter into another lifelong commitment with a pet! In my mind, I was certain that Brittany would take the responsibility and Ashley would just love on the puppy. Well, by providence I believe, Brittany has been unable to make the first 2 classes (yes, you have to go to class 3 hrs a week for 5 weeks, I’m learning everything that I did wrong with Boomer!) . It has been amazing how Ashley has stepped right in and sat there and listened to the lecture and intently practiced the training exercises. She won’t let me miss! Who knows where this will all lead, we don’t know if we’ll even be accepted. You have to go thru a home visit, like an adoption, and you have to pass the class! We’ll keep you posted. For now, she intently asks me every day what we learned that week so she doesn’t forget and is pretty set that we will get a puppy. It will be intriguing to see how this could help Ashley, as well as the person the puppy goes to!

“Sticks”…we have to come to learn that if Ashley hasn’t interacted with a word since she has “woken up”, she has no idea what it means. For example, the other day she asked us what the “stick” in the basement was for and we explained to her that it was for lacrosse and then told her how the game was played and that she had played lacrosse for 3 years prior to last spring. Well, she decided that she wanted to try it again, as long as the coach knew that she wouldn’t remember the rules. Luckily, we know her coach from past years and explained the situation to her and she is willing to have Ashley on the team. This is going to be very interesting and potentially incredibly healing…I keep thinking about all the eye/hand coordination that it will work on. Plus, even though she swam for fun this summer and had PT this fall, she has not been on a team nor regularly exercised since she stopped playing basketball a year ago December because she was feeling lousy! I’m sure that she won’t have the stamina at first, but it will definitely be healthy for her to build that up again. Once again, we will keep you posted!

Brain training…as I said, no real memory improvement seen yet, but definitely writing and reading improvement. The biggest obstacle right now is this trouble remembering words. There are exercises that they go through with her and they have to spend time simply explaining the words in the exercises to her…like lasagna and many others. Please pray for the brain training to connect and rewire her brain and that her progress won’t be slowed by all the stopping to take the time to explain the words!

Recently, I’ve been trying to read more about the “limbic” part of the brain, where I believe Ashley’s damage occurred. I am no neurologist, but boy does some of this stuff line up exactly with what happened. For example, here is one quote…

In response, as a kind of means of protection from catastrophic anxiety, chronic stress, and chronic pain, your brain can slow down in terms of EEG waves and blood flow, which slows thinking and produces cognitive inefficiencies. .

Wow, that is exactly what we saw last Jan/Feb…a slowing of reading, speech, walking, talking, eating! Her body was certainly stressed and her GI system was definitely  in tremendous pain, her legs ached, etc…make sense that her brain started slowing down.

Here is another quote…

“Certain structures of the limbic system are involved in memory as well. Two large limbic system structures, the amygdala and hippocampus play important roles in memory. The amygdala is responsible for determining what memories are stored and where the memories are stored in the brain. It is thought that this determination is based on how huge an emotional response an event invokes. The hippocampus sends memories out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemisphere for long-term storage and retrieves them when necessary. Damage to this area of the brain may result in an inability to form new memories.”

She certainly does not have the ability to “form new memories”, as is evidenced by her not remembering Lake Champion, Florida or last weekend! And there is still no long term memory.

This road sometime seems like it is getting long to us, but as a dear friend reminded me the other day, it is nothing short of a miracle how Ashley has healed in a relatively short period of time. It has been less than a year since her traumatic injury and God has done incredible things! Will you continue to pray with us for her complete healing…restoration/rewiring of her memory and normalization in her blood work! I believe that as these are resolved, some of the behavioral challenges we face will be resolved as well.

Grateful for you standing with us, we believe that “surely the Lord will heal”!

Lori

“I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.” (2 Kings 20:1-6).