January

To any of you who may still be reading this blog, bless you. I'm sorry that I've been so bad about updating. In the bustle of life, updating this blog often just seems like one more thing to do. But you all deserve to know what's going on with our story, especially since you've come this far with us. That's why I am officially promising to begin updating at least once a week from here on out. Sunday evenings are the most likely culprits for me to have the chance to update, but that may deviate over time. Just check in once a week; I promise you'll stay up-to-date.

Stroke News:

J.J. went for his six month checkup with the cardiologist on Thursday. His ejection fraction has improved to 52% (normal range for a man of J.J.'s age is 50-65%, as compared to J.J.'s ejection fraction of 23% the day after his stroke). His weight has continued to come down, and he'll be reaching another milestone weight soon. The cardiologist has indicated that he will discontinue J.J.'s Plavix when he loses another 50 lbs., but will keep J.J. on daily aspirin therapy for the rest of his life. Plavix is the most expensive of the drugs J.J. takes, so getting this one discontinued would be very good. The cardiologist also gave the green light for us to talk with our family doctor about discontinuing J.J.'s simvastatin, which is a cholestorol-lowering drug. J.J.'s most recent total cholesterol was 117 (under 200 is good), so it doesn't seem that he needs this one anymore. Once Dr. Roberts comes back from maternity leave, we'll check in with her about this. All in all, it was a good cardiology appointment. J.J. will go back again in August.

Also on Thursday, J.J. was evaluated for speech therapy. We changed health insurance companies this year and J.J. now qualifies for additional speech therapy sessions. We should hear from someone this week to set up J.J.'s first appointment.

J.J.'s language abilities are still improving. Last night I asked him to verify my spelling of a word (glamour; I was reading a book that had it spelled "glamor" and I was doubting whether I was right or the book was) and he was able to spell the word aloud. He still has some trouble with numbers, leading me to sometimes have to make exasperated exclamations like, "3! 3! It's the one that looks like a backwards E!" He was, however, able to fill out his own FAFSA form yesterday. There's no indication that this trend of improvement will be stopping anytime soon.

The big stroke anniversary is coming up on 2/15. I'm soliciting ideas for what we should do to celebrate, so if you have suggestions, please post them or email me at erinrobertson at sbcglobal dot net.

Family News:

Very little. Kids are terrific; we seem to have gotten a handle on the bullying problem Eli was encountering at school, although we're still looking at changing schools for next year. He's getting ready to restart drum lessons and we're looking into gymnastics classes for him (he's fascinated with the pommel horse). He'd really prefer to start wrestling, but I'd like him to be at least 12 before he starts that. We'll see who wins. Leah is getting ready to start swimming lessons again later this month. She swims like a fish already, but it's great exercise and she loves it so we're continuing with it.

That's enough for tonight.

I'm not feeling well (I've had a kind of mildly upset stomach for the last couple of days), so I'm going to try to get to bed early tonight. Hope it's a good week for all of you out there in cyberspace!

First Step

Today I took the first step toward what I hope will be my future career.

Some of you may know this already, but for those of you who don't, I am preparing to go back to school to study speech/language pathology (SLP). This is a field I knew nothing about at this time last year. Obviously I've become well acquainted since then.

I am famous for going to school. I have spent only about three years since I was 5 years old not enrolled in some scholastic endeavor. When I started to get that familiar longing in June, I decided that I'd take some classes in SLP so I could learn some techniques to assist J.J. Our previous insurance rocked in many ways, but it covered only 20 sessions of speech therapy once J.J. was outpatient, so within about 2.5 months of his stroke he was done with these. He still had (and continues to have) quite a ways to go on his recovery journey. Being who I am, I decided that if I couldn't get speech therapy for J.J. through any other method, I'd have to do it myself.

Something has changed since June. This isn't about just helping J.J. anymore. It's about helping all those other rehab patients who are recovering from stroke or other types of traumatic brain injuries. As wonderful as J.J.'s therapist was, she didn't know what it felt like to sit on the other side of that table and to cheer on a loved one while holding their hand. I do. That's got to count for something.

After taking several months to research my options, I selected a distance education program to which I will make application. And I scheduled to take the GRE. I've actually taken the test once before, but it was a little over 10 years ago and I'm sure my scores don't even exist anymore. I've taken the GMAT more recently, but that's not going to help me in this field. So last month I scheduled the test for today, knowing I had the day off.

When the alarm went off at 4:30 this morning (honestly, can't they schedule these things later in the day?) I instantly regretted my decision. But somehow I managed to get myself ready and to Prometric on time, and at 6:51 a.m. I signed in for the test.

The nicest thing about computer-based testing is the instant gratification of knowing your scores before you leave the testing center. The verbal and analytical sections of the GRE are scored out of 800. I received a 660 on the verbal section, which places me in the 93 percentile for test takers in the last year. I received a 700 in the analytical section, which places me in the 70 percentile and reassures me that I'm not becoming one of those "numbers" people after all!

I'm fairly happy with my scores, especially since I did almost no preparation. Next step is to write my personal statement (this should be easy--I think I've been writing my personal statement since I started this blog). With any luck, I'll start my program in the fall, and in about five long years I'll be ready to start working in the field.

But I'm not going to think about all the steps I still need to take. For now, I'm going to enjoy the one I've completed.