Hope For Brain Injury
Hope For Head Injury, Coma and Traumatic Brain InjuryArchive for April, 2000
Today is Monday, April 24. I had a wonderful visit with my family on Good Friday. My mother had a last-minute opportunity to travel to my aunt’s home in Virginia for Easter, so I had also decided, last-minute, to visit with Harold the weekend after Easter so that I wouldn’t miss my mother. All that changed when both my sister and I received a phone call telling us that Harold was aware that Easter was approaching, and he wanted to know where his sisters were. Wow! I had no idea that Harold was that aware, so my sister and I decided to visit Harold on Good Friday, and we even caught my mom before she left for Virginia on Saturday. What a great, great visit we all had. My sister, who used to work with challenged individuals, was especially gifted with Harold. They just talked and talked together on the sofa for over an hour. She was really able to connect with Harold and he seemed to really enjoy that connection. Cognitively, Harold has improved by leaps and bounds, in my opinion. Whereas before he seemed to understand you 15% of the time, it seems now more like 50%. He’s getting some of his passion back as well, and more of an understanding look in his eye as opposed to a fixed stare. I wish I could describe it better, but you’re also always welcome to visit Harold. Harold would say things that made real sense, and more often than not. He even corrected my sister at one point while they were sharing a photo album that contained many faces that we as a family grew up with. The two of them were having fun as she would point and then ask Harold to name the face. He was doing really well, getting 99% of them right, when she said, “Harold, do you know everyone in this book?” And Harold replied, “Yes, I do.” Then she said, “That’s amazing!” And Harold quickly corrected her and said, “No, that’s not amazing. There are only about 180 pictures in this book, so that’s easy, that’s not amazing.” Well, for Harold to come from where he was a few months ago, and name 180 names 99% correctly, my vote goes for amazing, but if Harold tells me it’s easy, I’m certainly not going to argue. Thanks to all of you for your vigilance, it’s making all the difference. Blessings to you all.