January 1999 Update

1-30-99

Dinner at the Weather's home in Katy, Texas before returning home from Christmas vacation

We arrived home from our Christmas trip the first weekend of January. We were glad to get home!!! In talking to different family members, it was apparent that we all shared the same positive feeling about our reunion of family. We focused on the positive, realizing how fragile life is. The fact that we all live so far apart makes it important to enjoy our time together and stay away from criticism or majoring on minors. We also agreed that this was yet one more blessing that has come from Catherine's accident. Our mutual prayers for her healing and our familial love has served to draw us yet closer.

We began our first week back home with some challenges. Catherine has had a tutor that came to the house twice a week to help her with her school work as well as a cognitive retrainer who comes once a week. The tutor's visits were funded through the public system's homebound program. It had come to their attention that Catherine wasn't eligible for these services as she has had a homeschool curriculum through a correspondence program for all of her high school years. This is a Christian curriculum and therefore not in tune with the public schools agenda. After checking into various possibilities, our solution came when the cognitive retrainer agreed to add the additional four hours which had been served by the tutor. She will help Catherine continue to work towards her diploma using this curriculum that was taylored to meet her needs cognitively and to receive the credit requirements to graduate.

Occupational Therapy  1-27-99

Catherine's therapy schedule started back up on the Wednesday after our return. She was very happy to see her therapists and commented on how thankful she is to have been in rehab for all these month's building a "hospital family". She feels a closeness and love for the people who have become a part of her life as a result of these circumstances. She enjoys her therapist's sense of humor and they share many laughs. What a positive, healthy approach she maintains!!

Catherine had several fun outings with friends and family including a visit with a friend who was visiting from Indiana, a birthday party, and a mall shopping experience. She was excited to go shopping and be with her friends who continue to spend time with her in such a positive frame.

In the middle of the month we went to Prescott to keep an appointment with an independent physiatrist (rehab specialist) from Scottsdale who travels to Prescott to see patients there twice a month. Catherine was cooperative and pleasant and didn't miss an opportunity to tell this new doctor her thoughts, goals and that above all, Christ is the healer in her life. Barrow was brought up again as a program that would benefit Catherine. We talked it over and Catherine agreed to go for a month. I called and put her on the waiting list. We are hoping to go during the month of March as it won't be too hot yet in the Phoenix area. Pray with us regarding the timing and the other details involved.

"Cousin Therapy"  Robin Daulton giving Catherine plenty of TLC
Tucson motel parking lot.
We traveled to Tucson also this month and spent the weekend of the 22nd there to attend a special church service on Friday night. We left that afternoon around 1:00. Since Joe was out of town, Aunt Mary was our chauffeur. We picked Neta Bess up in Camp Verde and arrived in Tucson just in time to go to church. Steve and Joy were there also and we had a good time. On Saturday morning we met Catherine's cousins, Amber and Robin Daulton, and their mother for breakfast. Catherine made the decision to stay in Tucson another night with them and I came back home on Saturday. Amber Hawkes was there also and had offered to bring Catherine home Sunday. They wanted to return to the scene of the accident together for the first time. Catherine was hoping for a flashback of memory but that didn't happen. She still can't remember the crash or the events leading up to it. Saturday evening they went to a bonfire with a group of teens and the girls all went to McDonalds together. They decided to go into the kid's play area and climb on the jungle gym equipment, go down the slide and get into the balls. Catherine had a great time with lots of laughs. I told her it was "cousin therapy". I was disappointed no one had a camera to capture the candid moment on film. She was sporting some bruises when she got home. On Sunday morning they attended church, went out to eat and then headed up the hill to Flagstaff after a short rest. This trip was an unexpected visit to Tucson preceding our planned anniversary trip in February. Catherine has been planning and looking forward to her one year anniversary trip in which she is going to go back to the hospital and hopefully see staff members that were present when she was there a year ago. It is an exciting milestone for us.

We had a barbeque at our house on a Monday evening with Joe doing his usual great grilling for Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary, Jimmy, and Chris. Afterward we had prayer before everyone left. Aunt Mary looked over at Catherine and exclaimed that there were tears in her eyes. They have yet to tumble over and spill down her cheeks, but the fact that they are welling up in her eyes is again progress in her healing.

Route 66 Travel  1-27-99

A driver's training course was started the last week of January as part of her occupational therapy. That was exciting for Catherine. She has been going into the travel agency where she worked to have exposure in performing the tasks that she did there before. She said everything is in her memory bank but she has to be reminded and then she can remember how to do the various jobs. I told her it's been a year since I did my job and I don't remember many functions and would have to be reshown if I were to sit back down at my desk and computer. I haven't had a brain injury but the same exercises apply to get back up to speed.

Catherine and I had a discussion about the closeness of our relationship and the amount of time we've spent together. We both agreed that it is remarkable how well we have been able to get along considering the time we are together and the dependence that there is now as opposed to preaccident. She said she doesn't remember how she thought before. I told her that that is good in that she has emerged as a much more loving person, giving and receiving love more generously and easily. She has accepted who she is now without grieving the loss of some of her former self. She has actually embraced who she is in a very healthy way. This is just another area that we have to be grateful again and again.