VISITING THE INFIRM

 

As most of you know, during the summer of 2004 my eldest daughter was involved in a serious boating accident at Lake Tahoe resulting in traumatic brain injury.  She was whisked off the beach by helicopter and flown to a hospital in Reno where she stayed for two months before being transferred to a hospital in Folsom for a month, and finally to one in San Jose specializing in head injury rehabilitation for the next 2 ½ months where she underwent intense recovery therapy learning how to eat, walk, talk, read, write, and etc. all over again from square one.  I know I’ve shared this story before, but it fits this week’s prompt, so I’m telling it again – maybe with a few different pictures.

The early days when she was in a full coma in the hospital in Reno.  Even in a coma, the nurses were so good – coming in every couple of hours to gently move her into different positions.

She was still in a coma in this picture when her younger sister, & older brother & sis-in-law were visiting.

Here, she had awakened from her month-long coma, but only partially so.  Her sister and two good friends are visiting.  Note the football game on the TV.  Her Dad was sitting in a chair on this side of the bed watching it.  Looks like daughter might have been watching it too, but maybe not.  She used to stare at the ceiling a lot at this stage.  Kind of unnerving to the rest of us.  We always wondered what she was staring at so intently – or so it seemed?

Three months almost to the day of the accident she woke up one morning fully conscious, and not long after that was thumb wrestling with her brother who came to visit!

She was then moved to the third hospital where she would undergo intense therapy and visitors showed up to visit her in her new place.  

Each time she moved from one hospital or room to the next we made sure all her pictures and whatnot followed her and went up on the walls of her new place!

We also decorated her room for special occasions – in this case, Halloween.  She didn’t understand, but we did. J

Learning how to walk again.

Here, she was visiting with friends having come home to live with Mom & Dad for a while after almost 6 months in 3 different hospitals.

During an outpatient rehab session at our local hospital, her therapists took her on a field trip to the library and had her fill out a form to obtain a library card.

They also took her to our local supermarket where they had her search the aisles for items I wrote on a list for her to find and buy.

Six years after her accident she met with the neurosurgeon who had saved her life.  She is still in touch with him through Facebook and a Christmas card & letter each year. J

In 2024, 20 years after the accident, we held a celebration of her amazing recovery with her immediate family - Dad, Mom, sister, & brother (sis-in-law took the picture).  She lives independently in her own home now and is doing exceedingly well!  This photo was taken in her beautiful big lots-of-windows kitchen.  I’m envious!

:->

La Nightingail

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