An Update as of 11/23/12

As you can imagine, we had an exceptionally joyful Thanksgiving this year with deep, deep gratitude for Bob’s healing, as well as for all of the love and support that has surrounded us during these past months, from family and friends as well as the great cloud of witnesses who have been holding Bob in prayer. How can we not be grateful for the amazing gift of life and for the miracles of healing we have watched unfold?

The Jackson family is visiting this holiday weekend, and we have so enjoyed the warmth of their love and care. Thanksgiving was a spectacularly beautiful fall day here in Williamsburg, so we got out the rakes and blowers to rustle up all of the fall leaves we could carry and spilled them down the hill at the back of our house. Then we had SO much fun jumping off the wall and sliding and rolling down the hill of leaves, laughing all the way!

Our biggest thanks, though, were reserved for the news we received when we got the results from the MRI that Bob had on Wednesday. Like his EEG, the results showed that Bob’s brain was essentially normal with no evidence of scar tissue that might require that Bob remain on anti-seizures medications permanently! We are so, so grateful for the miracles of healing Bob has experienced.

We are postponing the turkey and trimmings until Evan, Michelle, and Everest arrive tomorrow. Even without the feast, we found plenty to be thankful for. We had fun as we drove home from dinner at the Japanese Hibachi Grill playing a game of going through the alphabet and mentioning one or more things we were thankful for each letter. There included:

A – Andres, Amy

B – Bob, Bryn, Breanne and the Bowers girls

C – Caring, Cousins everyone and everywhere!

D – Dad, Dave

E – Evan, Erika, Elek, Everest

F – Family

G – Grandpa, Language of the Giraffe

H – Hope, Hospitals, Hospitals

I – ICU Staff

J – Jennie, Jeannie, Jacksons

K – Kids

L – Love, Laurel, Lo

M – Maura, Michelle, MRI Results

N – Nurses

O – Oliver, Optimism

P – Philip, People Who Love Us, Poetry

Q – Quilts, Quiet Time

R – Resting

S – Spongebob

T – Tschannen-Morans, Tschannens

U – Universe

V – Van

W – Wren, Wallace kids

X – X-rays that show no broken bones

Y – YOU!

Z – Zero seizures!

For all of Bob’s good progress, we learned today that Bob’s brain is still healing, and that sticking to a regular pattern of meals and rest times is still important. During a visit to Jamestown Settlement this afternoon we also learned that his brain is still “irritable” enough that the restrictions on crowds, stimulation, and loud noises are still advisable when a demonstration of muskets and cannons sent Bob into another worrisome “episode.”

So for those who have been keeping Bob on your prayer lists, please keep up the good work! 

-Megan