Teusday Evening, September 17th

Hi All

Well I guess I didn;t have to blog yesterday as we had a guest blogger, one whom this site is dedicated to. It was really amazing. I came to the computer area and she was reading the blog. I asked her how she got on and she said she has searched herself on line and saw it there. I then asked her if she wanted to do some writing and to my great surprise - she did. It was really cool watching her read the site because it was truly the first time she was getting an understanding of what the blog was and how it was helping everyone. She was also reading the posts and gettting a real feel and understanding about the emotions which follow trauma and the amount of love, and prayers she was getting from people all around the world. It was heart warming to watch the light come on with regards to understanding.

Today she began reading other peoples blogs. She started with her High School friend Jessie Garren www.caringbridge.co then jessiegarren who is recovering from cancer and then by reading rachel juliano's site www.caringbridge.com - then rachaeljuliano. Well it was on Rachels' site that Allie really becan feeling. She was truly sad for Rachel and for what happened. She kept talking about how pretty she was and began reporting to me what her posts were and how sad people wqere and how beautiful some of the writing were and then I told her that was how it was with her you see Allie does not remember anything before going into the rehab and probably even alot of the time in there so it was inpossible for her to remember how she was or the pain she was in or the pain we and many others were in but when she read what had happened to Rachel and how it affected everyone she began to relate that how Rachel was is how she was and that made the so grateful for where she is now but at the same time so emotion for her on-line friends. What cool growth right before my eyes.

The trip to the new neurologist yesterday was teriffic, A very nice man who was patient and understanding and the first thing I liked about him was that he directed all of his questions towards Allie, looking onlt to me to clarify or fill things in. He was tuning into her and I liked that - alot, she has the story, ask her. Along the way he played games with her challenging her memory and cognitave thinking abilities in a friendly - non-threatening way. He asked her to remember four words and then a few minutes later asked her to repeat them, she got 2.5 out of four but with very little prompting she got the rest (hey I forgot one). The he asked her to spell world which she did and the out of the blue her asked her to alphabetize the word world without paper. She got it the second time (off by one letter) I got it the second time also so I guess I am as smart as a teenager. Hey if you think that's easy try it right now - pick a five letter word and spell it backwards. He pretty much gave her a good bill of health but I also gave him a huge box of reports, MRI's, Cat Scans Yadda Yadda Yadda and he said it would take him awhile to go through it. I would take me a month but he was encouraging and we liked him.

After many calls to the hospital, I finally got a return call from the hemotologist who sent her blood work to the MAYO Clinic and all of her blood work came back A-OK.

Today was a great therapy day again. We are seeing a speech therapist for cognative thinking skills and she is doing well, we refuse to point out or shine the spotlight on defecits so I will only point out that she is awesome and getting better everyday. She now gets homework at night and makes a very good attempt at it. Another thing we have stopped doing is letting medical professionals speak in front of her, they are insensative and at times think she does not understand what they are saying and while that may be so at times their words put a label on things and abilities and that gets into her psyche and we have to go in, remove all things negative and replace it with a can do attitude and remove all labels - brain injured - no way - momentarily stunned maybe but not damaged. I really think that we need to stop this practice - talks to parents in private and remove the stigma of labels thereby creating a more positive attitude of accomplishment. I am sure we can all remember being called names in scholl and how it stungs and for some scarred for life well I find these words and conversations hurtful for her and for us.

We walked around Asheville after therapy today. These are times I really treasure and am grateful for especially having the opportunity or creating the opportunity (closing the office to make the opportunity) to be with her at her appointments and then spend quality time during the day walking the shops and having lunch together. She has been so sweet thinking every time we go out about getting Nancy a birthday present. I don;t think it would have entered her consciousness prior to the accident until the day or two before and here we are about 4 weeks out and she just thinks about it all the time. Well she found something today in a small shop and it was just perfect. Can't say what it is because her mom reads this blog to.

Well don't ever give me a day off again because as usual I can go on and on but today's growth and understanding was just more than my heart could hold.

Thanks everyone. Thank you for responding to her and thank you for being there for all of us.

Love and Recovery
Allie's Dad