Everything Will Be Alright

 For the first time since Rie's stroke two years ago, we braved a visit to a friend's house. It went great.  We stayed an hour longer than we had hoped for. Praise the Lord. ❤️🙏

 On 7/30/21, the wicked one hoped to surprise us with an attack that took us to fifteen minutes from losing Rie, not knowing that the Promise-Keeper had gone ahead of him and promised us that EVERYTHING WOULD BE ALRIGHT.  The Promise-Keeper kept His promise and ironically, the wicked one has had to bear watching the strengthening of our relationship with the Lord through ongoing life changing events.  Isn't He wonderful?!  Praise God🙏.

 No significant complications since the last update three months ago. Rie continues to show steady improvements in all areas. The improvements are slow but significant.  Every little improvement translates to major time and energy savings for the three of us. We're laser-focused on using any extra time and energy that we receive to strengthen our relationship with Mia and with the Lord. Even though we are fighting demons right and left, we know it's just war, and we've already won! "...and above all, taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye SHALL be able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the wicked one." (Ephesians 6:16). Love and Blessings to all. ❤️🙏🇺🇸

 Things have been fairly stable with steady improvements in most areas.  Praise God.  The dermatologist's treatment of the scalp scars have definately helped.  We are alternating two different medicated shampoos every other day which seems to be the ideal frequency to keep away the scalp dermatitis.  Voice volume is much better.  Speech processing is faster.  Speech content has returned to normal.  Cognition and memory are much better. Cognitive and physical processing speed is improving with medication adjustments.  Swallowing is essentially back to normal.  Neck spasms which were causing migraines have resolved since we switched to a "cervical pillow" and been doing the McKenzie neck therapy program.  The neck tightness that was constantly pulling Rie's head down and to the left is much improved.  Right shoulder tightness and weakness is getting better, partly due to our home therapy program but mostly due to Rie's diligence ...

 Stable overall. Some persistent short term memory deficits necessitate repeated verbal walking cues to minimize fall risk. We’ve resumed walker walking whenever we’re not under time constraints. Voice volume is much better. Singing has helped a lot. Cognitive and physical processing times are still quite delayed at times but all responses are thankfully appropriate now. Since we left the hospital last February, Rie’s neck had been stuck in a flexed and left-rotated position with significant range limitations. We’ve been following a therapy home program which has really helped. Hopefully, it will help her sleep with less neck pain and fewer morning tension headaches. All eating and coughing issues have essentially resolved. Praise the Lord. Right shoulder weakness and tightness are still a challenge, especially since Rie is right-handed. The painful right leg spasms have resolved since the second round of Botox injections but we’ve also lost a little strength in that leg. Fortunate...

We’re doing well here. Praise the Lord. Rie is being weaned off of one of her neuro meds to decrease the risk of seizures but her reaction time has slowed down as a result. I’m hoping that will improve with time, otherwise she may have to get back on it or on a different medication. Very complicated science since so many different parts if her brain are affected. We’re devoting some time to bringing back the Christmas spirit to our home since Rie and I were stuck in the hospital last year and didn’t see Mia for Christmas. Rie is doing about 30 minutes of exercise/therapy daily. I finished my required medical readings and was able to renew my medical licenses. In 2023, if it is His will and He directs my paths, I hope to donate some time to our local free clinics that help save unborn babies. Rie’s parents and sister are coming here from Virginia and California and will stay with us through Christmas. We’re very excited about that. From here till Christmas, we plan to rejoice, sing, lau...

Sorry it took so long to update this time. Rie’s lengthy daily scalp care has dominated our time and energy since the last update. The extensive scalp dermatitis (scar dandruff) is almost completely resolved. Praise God. The dermatologist was very pleased and has reduced the treatment frequency to every other day for a while then once to twice a week forever for prevention.  Walker-walking and stair-climbing  are going well. She’s enjoying 30 to 60 minutes a day on the stationary bike which also has concurrent upper body tension straps for increasing flexibility and strength.  Voice volume is improving. Per speech therapist, we’re trying to sing often (whenever others are at a safe distance)! We saw Rie’s rehab doctor yesterday for the second round of Botox injections to the spastic right leg muscles so we can work on strengthening the opposite muscles for better range and function. Probably will need Botox every few months for a while. Rie is tolerating outings for sever...