So we had the big conference with our Craig team today. I think it was mostly good news, but I'm frankly still processing everything I heard. Here's what I think I heard, but I may ask Ken to do a separate post if he remembers anything differently.

Emily's recovery is likely to be the reverse of the typical brain injury - her cognitive functions will likely improve much faster than her physical, and we may see significant strides in the cognitive area as her brain continues to heal. She wasn't able to have her MRI this morning (you'd think she'd watched enough "House" episodes to know she needed to lay absolutely still), so it will need to be done next week with an IV sedative. With her brain injury, the MRI will provide much greater detail than the CT Scan - on the CT you can clearly see the injury in the left hemisphere but you only get hints at the injury on the right side. The MRI will also give the doctors a chance to take a better look at her right shoulder and her left hip, both of which may have been hurt in the fall. Her therapy team agreed that they're already seeing cognitive improvements in her ability to follow instructions. There appears to be a small injury to her speech initiation center - so sometimes she needs neuro cues but once given she does very well. When she does start talking her speech will likely be slurred in the beginning. Her ST had her reading words and picking the associated picture today and, while not consistent yet, she was obviously able to read - she was successful well over 50% of the time. In other areas, she can roll herself to either side if asked, right obviously easier than left, and tonight when she saw the harness for the lift she immediately took it and tried to put it behind her and roll.

Other important points from our conference: we'll probably have a very good idea in 6-9 months what, if any, physical limitations she'll have. One really important point - when we were at St. Anthony's we were told that her extended coma didn't bode well for her ultimate prognosis. Dr. Weintraub completely disagreed. With her type of injury, lots of damage to lots of very deep brain circuitry, longer coma periods are not unusual, so there's no negative implications from the 3-weeks she was in a coma. He also made the point, very early in the conference, that we just don't know if the neurological circuits deep in her left hemisphere were badly damaged or just off-set. In either case, this area of the brain in someone this young can have miraculous recoveries.

We're probably looking at a mid-August discharge from Craig with lots and lots of hard work while we're there and out-patient therapy after she's home. The obvious goal will be for her to be able to return to school in the Fall and we'll spend a lot of time trying to determine what kind of assistance she might need to make that happen. Can any of the DSA folks that follow this blog tell me if there's an elevator at school?

Other developments today: I got my "hall pass," so I'm cleared to take her anywhere on the Craig hospital grounds. That means if you visit this weekend and we're not in her room we may be out on the patio enjoying some rays. There's also some interesting activites scheduled in Therapeutic Recreation this weekend - so from 2-3 on Saturday we're likely to be over on the east side making fruit smoothies and at the same time on Sunday watching horse races (no idea, but it's a change of scenery). Friends are welcome.

By the way, Dad got a kiss goodbye when he left after the conference this morning, and I got another goodbye kiss tonight.