I've decided I miss blogging and I've heard from enough people that they miss the blog, so I'm going to start posting again. Nothing like the daily/weekly schedule I maintained during the first year after the accident, but fairly regularly.

Emily's doctors - both her rehab doc at Craig and her neurologist - are thrilled with how far she's come. For me it's a constant battle between how far we've come and how much we've lost. I know Emily feels the same way although she tries her best to hide it most of the time. Where's she at? She's now walking regular, moderate distances with just a cane and standby assistance. I've started taking my hand away for a few steps at a time and she does just fine. The problem with walking is that sometimes she just can't get her right leg to listen to her and that can result in her leaning too far back or to the left and losing her balance. We'll get there - the more we work on it the better the signal gets. Her right eye has healed to the point that she no longer has double vision except with peripheral vision upward - so no prism lenses or tape on her glasses. The pupil is slowly getting smaller and more reactive to light. Her voice has improved dramatically - her pitch is back to normal and she has good modulation, except when she gets really excited about something. Her tremor with her left hand is gone; now she just continues to struggle with having only one working hand.

The right arm/hand are still a huge challenge. We've been able to maintain all of her range of motion and avoid problems with her shoulder and elbow, but she still doesn't have any real functional use. She's regained her shoulder movement - so she can bring the arm forward and back with her shoulder, and she can do her own stretching and sometimes even hold her right arm straight up above her head while on her back. We've started using a small, hand massager to stimulate her bicep/tricep and with that stimulation she can do bicep curls even when she's sitting upright. We're waiting for a new splint that will use the muscle tone to get functional movement with the arm and hand, which then in turn is supposed to trigger the signal to/from the brain. Hopefully it will be here soon.

Our trip to Alaska went really well. We were able to go all of the places we had planned - day cruise in Seward, bus tours in Denali, some accessible trails. Emily was an incredible trooper - walking on uneven surfaces and rocky areas, up and down stairs even on the bus, and some really long days. It wasn't the trip we envisioned when we started planning 3 years ago, but we were still able to do it. Some of the highlights were watching the glaciers calve, having a black bear walk across the trail right in front of us in Kenai Fjords, a grizzley right next to the bus in Denali, and actually getting to see Mt. McKinley. I'll try to figure out how to post some pictures.

We only have 3 more weeks at Craig before we head back to school. The current plan is to transition to therapy through DPS for the school year and then go back to Craig for additional therapy next summer. Even though it's been 16 months since the accident, the doctors still think there will be continued progress. We haven't had a real set back in her recovery yet, although there have certainly been some bumps, and we really haven't had any plateaus. We all just need to keep working - it just feels like a grind sometimes. I'm a little worried about how hectic things are going to get when school starts, but we'll figure it out. We always do.