Friday, September 26, 2008

An Update on Kendra Johnson

I know things are moving along with Kendra's recovery and I asked her Dad for an update.

If you haven't been following along you can go back here and catch up.

Here is her Dad's update.

Where to start....

Last month Kendra was on her way back. I was in the hospital with her during her physical therapy most of the time in August and all was going well. Her eye sight returned. She was able to wheel her self around in a wheel chair even though she is paralyzed on her right side. I saw her stand up for the first time on her own for two minutes. She is so strong with her will to live and recover. We had an inkling that she had some speech capability and on my last day in Norfolk they removed her tracheotomy and the first words out of her mouth were hi.

Oh my God! We just jumped. That was a small miracle.

Her brain is speaking to us but all that comes out is hi. Hard to explain but I am not a doctor. The left side of the brain controls the speech etc... and she will have to relearn speech if that is at all possible. Before she went back into surgery she knew at least 12 words, but she has yet to say the word; dad. For some reason that one word is hard for her to say. She has no idea how much I want to hear her say Hi dad! But you know what she can take her sweet time.

Well I returned to San Diego at the end of August and three days later tragedy struck again. Kendra became very ill with a high fever and they diagnosed her with a brain infection. She had another brain surgery in early September to remove the infected brain matter and fragments. So I flew back to Norfolk and spent several more days in Norfolk until she got out of ICU. More complications incurred since that time but the end result is that Kendra is now back in physical therapy. Infection is gone, blood clots are gone and we have been celebrating this new miracle ever since. Whew. What a woman.

The grand kids are doing fine and we are coping as best we can.

Thanks for the support!

Hey this is about the best I can report after a Newport drinkex. So edit accordingly. LOL

Swosanity.

So there we are - there's progress, but there is still a long road ahead for Kendra and her family. You can still make donations to the Kendra Johnson Fund by clicking on the button on the top right of the blog.

BTW, her Dad is still a smartass. Zinging me about the Newport Drinkex!!!!!

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