I know everyone's been wondering how being back in school is going. Overall I think it's been great. It's been 2 weeks and we can already see some improvements in Emily. The first thing we noticed is she's talking faster and more clearly, which means she's thinking more quickly. She's also much more independent - moving around the house more on her own. She very seldom uses her wheelchair at home any more and is walking with both her single-point cane and her hemi sidestepper without any assistance. She's even started taking a few steps without any cane.

There have been a few glitches as we've gotten back into school, but we seem to have worked through most of them. The school nurse at DSA has been a huge help. Emily does her home exercise program with her every day during her free period, which allows Emily to focus on homework, walking and her SaeboFlex at home. Emily's homework for pre-calc has been a bit of a bear - not because it's too hard but because she can't write it out, so she ends up typing the problems and her solution which just takes a lot of time. She doesn't want Ken or I to write or type for her partly because she wants to do it herself and partly because getting it down on paper helps her understand and remember. We're going to try some software alternatives this weekend that we hope will make it go more quickly. It also doesn't help that neither Ken or I remember anything from high school or college calculus, so we're basically clueless when she has a question.

For Creative Writing Emily's writing 8 short stories with strong female characters - she's working on her fifth already. Writing has been such a godsend. I think it really allows her to leave behind all the hard work and limitations she faces in this reality and go live in a different reality for a while. Her big project for the year will be to compile a book of "finger exercises." It's my understanding that a "finger exercise" is when you're asked to write for 5 or 10 minutes based on an opening prompt. Emily will be writing up an introduction along with her prompt and sending it to people she chooses to write from there. I think she really wants to focus on the people that have been there for her during her recovery - so many of you that read this blog should expect to see something in the not too distant future.

Emily's last class is a CU Literature and Composition class. So far she's really enjoying it, and I got a lovely e-mail from the University of Colorado at Denver instructor that's teaching it letting me know how much she's enjoying getting to know Emily. We kept Emily's schedule light for the Fall semester so that she wasn't overwhelmed. We're hoping that by the time the second semester rolls around in January that she might be able to add a fourth class. It was important for Emily to feel that she was successful in her return to school and not to get too fatigued by the end of the day. She's pretty tired when she gets home every afternoon, but so far she's been able to handle it well. We know it will only get easier to manage as time goes on.

Her new arm splint finally arrived the day before school started. It's a neurodynamic device that retrains her right had to grip and release. Eventually we'll add an upper arm piece that will add in her reach. Emily hates it but despite that has been a trooper. If you're interested in seeing what it looks like go to www.saebo.com. There's pictures and even some video of how the system works.

Last Spring, just before the anniversary of Emily's accident, one of her former ski team mates who is now a videography student at the Colorado Institute of Art made a 5-minute documentary on Emily's recovery. I actually couldn't watch it until July - things were just a little too raw for me around the time of the one-year mark. I finally watched it a few weeks ago, and it is truly wonderful film - Dutch did just an incredible job. If you go to YouTube and search for Emily Boldt you'll be able to watch it. It's amazing to me to see just how far Emily has come since the film was made.

Finally, we put together an on-line photo album from our trip to Alaska. I've sent it to several people that I have e-mail addresses for. If anyone else would like to see it drop me a note either in a post or an e-mail to home or work and I'll send you the link.