This Monday, exactly 3 months after his accident, Dad had a psychological evaluation to determine the cognitive and emotional effects of his brain injury.   The psychologist expressed surprise and amazement at Dad's positive results, especially as these evaluations are usually not done until 4-6 months post-accident.  After three and a half hours of testing in which Dad's cognitive function results were compared to other adults his age, Dad was only found to have one area of deficit.    With how extensive Dad's brain injury was, the psychologist indicated that this was exceptional - especially so soon after the injury.  The one area where Dad apparently struggles is with reading facial expressions of others to determine meaning.  The psychologist did mention, however, that we may notice other small changes that they are not able to test for.

The psychologist reiterated that brain injuries are so unpredictable and no one knows why some people heal quickly, while others heal very slowly or not completely.  We feel that some of Dad's success is most definitely due to all of the prayers and faith expressed on his behalf.  Thank you to all of you who kept him in your prayers!

In other news, last week Dad met with his opthalmologist for the first time since the accident. 

The bad news - the Dr. did not feel that Dad would regain any vision in his right eye due to the damage to his nerve.  Also, there is nothing that can be done for his permanently dilated left pupil and it will not repair itself at this point.  So, barring a miracle, Dad will suffer from these vision problems for the rest of his life (blindness in his right eye and his left eye is very sensitive to light).  The Dr. reminded Dad how important it is for him to protect his eyes to preserve his one "good" eye.

The good news - As far as his vision goes, Dad was cleared to drive!  Dad is just itching to get his license back and regain his independence.    The psychologist would like him to do some test drives with the accompaniment of a therapist  before he is given the final OK.  Once that is done, he will just have to take his driving exam again, and he will be able to be on the road again.

Dad continues to slowly improve day by day.  He is still really weak and has much healing left to do, but we marvel at how much progress he has made!

The one major development since the last update revolves around Dad's throat.  Dad had been having so much trouble with eating and swallowing, and his voice had also been very hoarse.  These issues were a result of the right side of his throat and vocal cords being paralyzed.  The ENT in charge of Dad performed a procedure earlier this week where he shot some Gelfoam (similar to Botox) into the damaged vocal cords,  to fill up some of the empty space in there.  This has helped improve Dad's voice and has also made it a bit easier for him to eat.  I am not entirely certain how it works, but it allows him to be able to more easily swallow without gagging.  This is not a permanent fix and will only last a couple of months, but the hope is that he will regain some of the function in that area by then.    In the meantime, his appetite has already improved a bit.  He still is not eating much, but he is doing much better than he was.

Dad has continued to receive therapy at home several times a week.  This upcoming week will be his last for home therapy, and then they will evaluate whether he should continue on with outpatient therapy at the TOSH clinic. 

Dad has been doing great cognitively and has been slowly getting back into some of the activities of his life before the accident.  He is physically not up to much yet, but does enjoy getting out of the house for a ride or taking a walk around his yard.   As a family, we realize how fortunate Dad was that he was not injured even more severely (such as being paralyzed), and what a miracle it is that he survived and is doing as well as he is.  We are so blessed to still have him with us  for (hopefully) many more years.