Saturday September 22, 2007

Kelsi completed her first full 24 hour day at home yesterday. She is very happy to be back with family and friends and even happier to be out of the limited world of living in a hospital room. She went to her sister's track meet, celebrated her youngest brother's birthday, visited with friends that dropped by, played some games and did some therapeutic exercises designed to overcome the challenges she still faces.
Kelsi's parents have discussed the continuation of daily updates to this blog and have determined that trying to keep daily updates of her progress is not really useful or practical since the remaining recovery will take months. Updates will be done as significant events occur or milestones are met, rather than on a daily basis. In general, the following is a summary of what needs to happen before Kelsi has completely recovered:
1) Double Vision must go away. This already goes away at times. This affects her walking, reading and generally anything else that you use your eyes for. The doctor indicated that this problem should go away on its own, but that it could be surgically repaired if is doesn't.
2) Small motor skills must be refined. This affects her walking, writing and anything that takes small muscle movements. This has rapidly improved and should continue to do so.
3) Muscles must get stronger. Living in a hospital room for 51 days causes the muscles to become weak. It will take weeks or months for them to return to full strength.
4) Kelsi's days will become longer. Right now her brain requires more sleep to continue to recover. She will gradually recover to the point that she needs the same amount of sleep as everyone else. Until then, when she gets tired, she will need to take a nap.
5) Kelsi must relearn some of the things that were forgotten as a result of the brain injury. These don't appear to be big blocks of data, just small things that are observed as she goes about her regular day.
6) Kelsi will be integrated back into the school system. This will not happen all at once. She will start out slowly and build up until she is attending the regular school day.
Kelsi's story is like a really good book. A tragedy happened, conflicts occurred and the the good guys won. Unlike fiction, the real live miracle happened and it doesn't just end with "and they all lived happily ever after".
This blog was started to help all who have fasted and prayed for Kelsi to have a place to track her progress and to share in the miracle of her recovery. Where Kelsi is home and can meet with those closest to her, this blog is probably not as useful as it was when she was in the hospital. Those who are more distant, who are following her progress, praying for her and are interested in the progress of the milestones listed above, are invited to comment on this blog so that we know how useful it is and can determine how best to proceed.
Thanks again for your prayers of faith.