History

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Friday, June 13, was 'D' day for Brady. He was dismissed as an outpatient at Madonna, proclaimed ready for life without scheduled therapy, 3 years and 9 months after he was injured. Of course, he was dismissed with the assignment of doing leg strengthening exercises at home and a gym to keep trying to buff up the right calf and loosen the tightness of the right leg muscles. Brady, Tom and I went to therapy that Friday, and Brady was immediately greeted with a Goodrich malt by his therapist. He did some leg and ankle stretching while sucking down the malt, and then got on the electrically-controled balance board. This board randomly moves forward-back-right-left, and Brady is to keep completely upright and let his legs and hips do all the controlling balance. He's gotten to a hard level and had a goal of 2 minutes. He was 10 seconds shy of that at his best, after working on this for many months. That right leg and hip just aren't flexible enough to make that goal. Brady's PT (who was both tough and wonderful) told Brady he had come a long way in the three years she had been with him. She also said she knows he still has great recovery that can come. As far as his goal of jogging someday, Brady knows it will happen. You can see how tight his right hip and leg are when he walks. We'll just have to see how much more healing, and loosening of that area will come to help with the leg control. After therapy, we took cookies to some areas of the hospital that were so familiar to us - one special place being the brain injury unit where Brady had been a resident for 2 months. We chatted with the TBI social worker and she actually told us that no one on the unit would have guessed he would have made the recovery he has made, judging on how he was when he left the unit. She gave glory to God for his healing that has progressed.

Brady is in full swing in the summer session at SCC. He has two classes and his clinical at Tabitha again, for the next 9 weeks. School still doesn't come easy, and Brady will be the first to tell you he has daily 'brain farts' of forgetfulness, etc. This quarter, he has added being the Wellness Coordinator for the Student Senate. He has been a member of the senate since last summer, and this time ran for an office. He will hold the job for the next two quarters. He attends the Senate for Monday meetings, has office hours from 10-12 on Friday, and then helps out at wellness and other Senate events. I was kind of surprised Brady is doing this, but he is such a people person, I'm sure this is just kind of another social event for him.....

Brady still has his goal for graduating from SCC next spring with his degree in Human Services. He then wants to try working as a motivational speaker. Usually every couple months an opportunity comes up for him to speak somewhere, and he just loves doing it. He tells his story of what happened to him and the long road of recovery. Brady talks about how after he slowly came out of his coma he had to work to relearn everything. He tells how right before he left Madonna on December 23, 2004, the psychiatrist gave him a test to measure his IQ. He didn't get very far, there wasn't much to measure. Brady was probably at the level of a first or second grader in intellect at that time. Brady continued to work on therapy, was able to go back to high school, and then in the spring of 2006, he was given the test to enter Southeast Community college. No one thought this would ever be a possibility for him to enter a college, but his scores showed he was able to start the community college. When he speaks he talks about those events and other challenges he faced. He then goes on to tell how he made and continues to make it through, by staying positive and praising God for every day. Brady loves sharing his story, and with his quick wit is pretty entertaining. He has even gotten a couple of standing ovations several times. We have all been very blessed, and it is totally because of God's grace, all the prayers and caring that you have given. May God bless you, as we give thanks for all the help and support we received all along the way.

Brady will go back to Madonna to be reviewed by his PT in middle October, so I probably won't give another update until after that. Brady has a poster in his room that we found at The Family Christian store. It shows a hand with a tattered and dirty football glove holding a blue football helmet. Predominantly down the side is the verse..... Never, never quit. "Blessed is the man who perseveres until trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him." James 1:12 This verse has been very important to him, and to think it was on a poster with a football theme was equally amazing. Brady knows he will be playing football again...in Heaven.

Thank you again for all the prayers and caring,
God Bless,
Tom and Carol

Just another update.....Brady is still doing eye therapy at his eye doctors office, weekly. The eyes are still working on coming together to the goal of no glasses someday
.....and yes, there is an important birthday next weekend, Brady turns 21. He is excited about that to say the least.....Will he party? Tom already told him he doesn't have enough brain cells to waste, so he better be good! HA!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 10:04 PM CDT

These last couple months Brady is getting more independent in life. He used to come home from class and then maybe go to a Bible Study, have someone over or stay home. He is now beginning to have more of a life, and not coming home after class, but going out to supper with friends, or doing different things in the evening. We're happy for him beginning to have this independence, but of course, Tom and I always kind of still worry about him. Thank goodness we know God is in charge!

Eye therapy is still going good. They took some more prism out of his glasses, and are continuing to work on him getting his eyes to see one. He can do it more and more when his glasses are off. It might only last a minute or so once a day, but it's a great start. For therapy at home they have him working on bringing his eyes together when he is looking down, staring at a bead on a string. He will need to work on bringing them together in every direction he looks, not just straight out. One day he took his glasses off to show someone how his right eye can get out of line, and he couldn't do it. It just focused correctly with the left eye. YEA!

We had some exciting news last month when Brady went to get another round of botox. The doctor had him walk the hall without his brace, so he could see how Brady's leg was doing. When he came back to the room he looked at Brady and said, "I'm not going to do botox. You are starting to get some movement to your ankle and let's just see how that keeps going." We hadn't heard that before when we went in. The movement to be able to pick up the foot isn't translating into walking yet, but just to finally hear there is some recovery in being able to move the ankle is exciting. Brady's PT has suggested that he stop doing PT in early June. She feels that what he needs to work on the most is getting strength to his right leg, especially the calf, and muscles above the knee. She feels that he could do that by regularily going to a gym to work out. It was kind of a shock to Brady to hear that he might actually be ending therapy. I think he probably just figured that Madonna would always be a part of his schedule. She did say that maybe in the future he would need to come back to pick things up again. We'll just take it day by day and see what happens.

Brady did pass his classes last quarter, and is now taking multicultural competency, crisis intervention and clincal at Tabatha Rehab and Nursing Home. One day Brady called me after he left for Tabitha. He was lost. He had turned the wrong way on the way to clinical. After he told me where he was, and I told him which way to turn, it wasn't hard for him to get his bearings and get on the right road to go to Tabitha. His sense of direction is much more of a struggle for him than it was before he was hurt.

There are so many encouraging people that have been so much support to Brady. He does have a couple of men who are encouragers to him helping him focus on his future. They have told him he has a story to tell, and Brady really wants to get out there and do that. This spring during break he wrote down his goals, and his first goal is to get through Southeast Community College with his Associate's Degree in Human Services. That should possibly happen by next spring. Brady then wants to work on doing public speaking. He wants to share his message how God saved his life. He also wants to show people that having a positive attitude is a good thing. He has spoken at a couple churches in Lincoln, and loves doing that. One pastor was chatting with him about being in a coma for five weeks and losing 35 pounds during that time. Ya, Brady said that's right. The coma diet.....I really don't recommend it. He always keeps that sense of humor. Thank you for your caring and prayers,Tom and Carol

Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:51 PM CST

Physical therapy has been going good lately, and his PT keeps remarking that she is seeing some good improvements in his leg strength. If you compare the right calf to the left calf you see the right calf is smaller, flatter and not much definition. We're starting to see that change and it's gotten a little more definition to it. Brady's is also doing more on strengthening machines (flexibility-wise) than he could just a couple months ago. It's fun to go watch PT, because for the first couple years it was like watching a brain-injury person relearn the daily activities of life. He pretty much has those simple activities mastered, so now I see a regular person just trying to get stronger and more agile in daily activities. Brady is able to go up and down steps with a backpack full of books, not holding on to the handrail. He is practicing on carrying things up and down steps, like boxes with items in them. Holding the box shifts the weight enough to throw off balance, so Brady has to learn to deal with that. He has also gotten good at stepping up a step that is about 18" high. This is like stepping on a high bleacher, or into a truck. After over two years working on this, he is able to do it without someone close to catch him if he loses his balance. Sometimes they have him going down the hallway doing lunges with both legs to get back strength. It looks like he is back at football practice when I see him doing those. In January, the physical therapist talked about giving Brady a break and stopping therapy. After all, it's been 3 1/2 years. Brady doesn't want to stop, because he knows the improvements are still happening. Balance and strength are noticably continuing to improve, and the therapist has commented on that quite a bit lately. If Brady could bottle and sell his positive attitude and drive to get better, he could be living high!

We did decide to go ahead and purchase the Bioness leg brace, even though insurance called it experimental and didn't cover it. The brace has been out for a little over a year now, and people are seeing good results from it. The brace is a 4" strap that goes around the calf right under the knee. Then there is a insert that goes into the right shoe. Brady keeps a 2" x 3" control unit in his pocket that sends a signal to the brace to give a shock to the right leg with each step that brings up front of the right foot. This will help retrain the brain to give back a normal gait and walk. Right now Brady is in the break-in period, but in a month he will be wearing it full time. If you see Brady, ask him to see the control unit, press the buttons and turn up the shock all the way......he'll never forget you.......we like to tease him with that.......don't worry, he teases us right back.

The eye doctor and her therapy that is helping pull Brady's right eye into normal alignment is also really happy with the progress she has seen in the last couple months with Brady's vision coming together. Last fall they thought about quitting therapy, because things were moving kind of slow, but this winter it took off and she is going to remove some more prism in the glass, working toward the goal of no glasses possibly by this fall or so. The doctor had recommended a very healthy fruit nutritional drink that Brady has been on the last few months that might be helping his situation, but I'm also sure that prayer and God's healing have been a great part of this.

The winter quarter will be over by Easter. Intermediate algebra had been going good (until the last test). Lifespan human development has been a learning situation. The learning is that he needs to study more as a college student than he did in high school, but I told him that's the way it is for all college students. I also know a big part of it is that the memory isn't as sharp, and he loses things that the teacher talked about in class, more so than other students. He can remember social occasions he set up with friends though!! HA!

Thank you all for the caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:51 PM CST

Sunday, February 24, 2008 8:06 PM CST

The news is still going good on Physical Therapy. His PT just is real happy that she is seeing Brady's right calf get stronger. When you compare his right and left leg calf muscles you can visibly see that the right calf is flatter and not defined. There is a little definition and strength coming back to it, and Brady's right ankle is gaining a little more movement. It's slow in coming, but progress is being made. It's fun to see Brady in PT. He is doing lunges in the hallway, and a lot of work with balance. After several years of seeing Brady as a brain injury person who was trying to learn how to get through everyday life, I now see him as a person trying to get stronger and better at the simple things he has worked to master. He can finally go up and down steps one step over another and not holding unto a handrail with a backpack on. Now he has to really work on carrying something up and down steps, but that is starting to happen. He has also worked over two years on steping up about 18', like he would be stepping up on a high bleacher step. He can pretty much do that now with no one holding him in case he falls or loses balance. There are so many things we take for granted which Brady has had to work really hard on. He has been a trooper on doing all that, and doesn't want to quit PT now while he still sees progress going on. If we could bottle his attitude and sell it we could be living high!!

We did decide to go ahead and get the Bioness brace although insurance didn't want to cover it because they call it experimental. It has only been out for a little over a year, but people are having good results from it. Brady straps a 4 inch strap around his calf and puts a small insert in his shoe. He carries a 2 x 3 inch unit that has the battery pack that controls the shock he receives as he steps. The shock helps him lift the front of his right foot, and will help retrain him to get a more normal gait back. Brady is in the break-in period now, just wearing it several hours a day, but in a month he should pretty much be wearing it full time. If you see him and ask him to look at the control unit, just push the button, and turn up the electrical shock. He'll never forget you........we love to tease him about that......

Besides the good news about the leg getting stronger, Brady's eye doctor is seeing good progress in his eyes, lately. She is going to soon take more prism out of his glass, and keep him working to the goal of no glasses. The right eye has made a good amount of progress lately. Last fall they were about ready to give Brady a break, because things were not really changing, but this winter has seen good results. Brady's eye doctor also recommended a healthy fruit drink he started last fall, so I'm sure some good nutrition is great in his healing. We also know the prayers that have helped so much are a real big part of recovery, also.

This school quarter in on until Easter. Intermediate algebra has been going okay (until the last test), and lifespan human development has been a learning situation. The learning is that he needs to spend more time studying. I kind of remind him that all kids have to study more in college than they did in high school, so get used to it and accept it.......Somehow he pulls it out, but he also has the class drop date in his planner. The frustration for him is that he doesn't have the greatest memory for all the facts they learn in class. He's good at remembering social occasions, however!

Thanks for all the caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 11:11 PM CST

I havent't been updating as much lately, because Brady pretty much does school and therapy and the healing isn't as pronounced as it was in the early stages. Of course, healing in the brain is still happening and those tiny little connections are still being made. The repetitiveness of physical therapy is trying to make that happen, by forcing the areas of the brain that were heavily injured to 'wake-up' and form new connections, and help the right side weakness to make progress.

I went to physical therapy today to talk about the delay of the new brace apparatus we are getting for home use, (we are still waiting for insurance to decide if they will cover it) and talk about how much longer PT will go on. His PT said that in the last two months she has seen some great progress in gaining a little movement of the ankle and much more strength coming back to the right calf. For over the last two years they have been working hard on that, and I asked her why is this finally happening that she is seeing such results all of a sudden. She gave several reasons.
1. It could be that the connections are finally reaching into the part of the brain that controls the ankle and calf muscles (this area was severely injured the night he was hurt) and little lines are beginning to form and connect in this part of the brain to start this strengthening.
2. It could be that all the exercises they have been working on in PT and really pushing calf strengthening is starting to kick in.
or
3. wearing the Bioness leg brace during PT is helping to give some strength and a little bit of more movement to the ankle.
When she was done giving her reasons for finally seeing some improvement, she walked away for a moment to work on something else. After she left I told Brady that my Thursday morning Bible Study group (of which I have been part of for 25 years) has been praying for him for the last 3 months. The prayer that they are praying is for movement to come back to the ankle so he can run again. Brady didn't know that I had asked them to do that. He was kind of impressed. Prayer is powerful, and our God is Great!
Hopefully it's not just a fluke, and Brady can continue to regain strength in his right leg. He has really been trying to work hard in PT lately. It's not easy. His right leg usually ends up shaking it is so exhausted by the time they get done.

Classes have begun. We'll see how it goes??!!

God Bless you and thank you for all the caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Saturday, December 15, 2007 4:20 PM CST

I've waited way too long to add an update. I think I've been a little melancholy about Brady, his injury and recovery. There are several reasons why. For one, Brady probably had his biggest struggle with school so far this quarter at SCC. He had the same teacher for 2 of his three classes and how do you politely say that was TWO much of a not good thing. Brady didn't like his style of teaching (where he talked a lot about his personal life (cats and fishing stories) instead of teaching), and the teacher thought he was going to change Brady and break down his personality. A couple times Brady came home ready to drop his Behavior therapy class, but he hung in there and ended up with a C . By the last two tests it was finally coming together, so he felt much better about the whole class. In fact Brady felt like if he could survive that teacher and class he could make it through a 4 year college someday. The good news about this quarter is the class I was most worried about, beginning algebra, went pretty well for Brady, and he passed with no problem. He is going to go and take intermediate algebra this winter session, even though a counselor at SCC asked him why, because he doesn't need it for his associate's degree.

I also am feeling a little melancholy because I've been thinking of the things that have changed in Brady's life. He isn't able to go sledding, skiing, and those winter activities. When he gets on a stationary bike at Madonna, his right foot keeps slipping off, let alone try and balance on a non-stationary bike. No contact sports, tennis or anything with a lot of movement. He wouldn't have great balance for that. It's kind of hard to see when sports were so important to him. (I know God is telling us that HE is more important than any of that!)

Also, in November it came out in the Lincoln paper that we had dropped our lawsuit. The lawsuit was never anything Tom and I were real eager to pursue, but our main concern was why the Lincoln Public Schools didn't have an ambulance at the football game. When ambulances were cut out of LPS budget, a group of orthopedic doctors offered to pay for ambulances to be at all of the Lincoln schools football games. The Board of Education turned that free offer down. We just wanted to know why. In head injuries seconds count to get to a hospital. We will never know if Brady getting there any sooner would have made a difference, but we sure would have felt better for him to have had the chance. As he lay there waiting for the ambulance, blood was pooling out of the main vein and pushing his brain to the side. The lawsuit was dropped, because it would not have been able to show proof that getting to the hospital sooner would have made a difference. The lawyer for the board never did say why they didn't go for the offer from the doctors providing the ambulances. Right now, after Tom went before the schoolboard in the spring after Brady was hurt, the school board finally allowed a radio sportscaster group to pay the $3,750 for ambulances to be at all football games in Lincoln. Tom and I will always make sure that an ambulance stays at a game. I know the odds of a player getting hurt like Brady did are very, very, very small, but it is very reassuring to parents and coaches to protect and provide for this contact sport.

I guess I also wonder what the future holds for Brady. What type of a job he could pursue? His attitude will carry him far, but he will have physical and memory issues that he will have to work with. God couldn't have blessed us with anyone with a better attitude than the one Brady has. He will call himself a cripple, and accepts his challenges. I received an e-mail today that really hit home. The end of it said, "Life may not be the party we hoped for ,but while we are here we might as well dance." About every person has a trial they have to go through and live with in this life. Everyone faces a show stopper in their life. I think the key is accepting it right away and learning to pick up and move on. God will show us the whole picture someday. Brady also keeps reminding us that life will be so much better in Heaven. I think it's okay to be melancholy at times. Everything is a gift from God, and we can treasure the good times, besides accept the hard times.

We placed an order for the electric shock device that Brady wears on his leg during therapy. They are seeing some good results from it on people who wear it 10-12 hours a day. They do sell one for home use, so hopefully it will come by Christmas week. Then Brady can put his plactic leg brace aside and wear this band around his calf. When he takes a step a small current impluse sends a signal from the pad he wears in his shoe up the leg which causes him to lift the front of his right foot, instead of the drop that it has now. Brady is happy about getting rid of the plastic brace to try this.

God Bless Your Christmas and Keep it Safe and Special,
Tom and Carol

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 11:23 AM CST

Brady keeps busy, and pushes his stamina to the maximum. Usually by Thursday night and Friday (tiredness has set in) we can tell he is walking with more of a limp, and not as quick in his thinking, but it doesn't stop him, and on the weekend, he kind of catches up. His school schedule is very busy. The clinical which he does requires him to spend 16 hours a week in a situation where he is helping a service organization working with a needs based clientele. This quarter he is learning to help out in the classroom at Madonna, where he had been a patient. He is learning the rules of HIPPA and being on the serious professsional end of every situation, which is a change for him, since he sometimes to find humor and fun in life. It is a good balance and learning situation for Brady. It is time to start thinking of where to do his clinical in January, and since he likes working with children, he is thinking of choosing Cedars Home for Children for his next experience. He does get graded on these clinical situations. His advisor comes out weekly for an hour meeting where goals are set on what to accomplish for the week. Nova, his speech therapist at Madonna is his on site supervisor who he is working closely with. She is awesome, and she keeps reminding Brady to be professional, even though Madonna is like a home for him.

As far as classes go, that is kind of surprise. Brady was concerned with taking beginning algebra again, since he liked math before he was hurt, but had trouble with it a year after the injury. The beginning algebra class is going well. He still has some struggles with it, but he is doing good on the tests, and is thinking of taking intermediate algebra next quarter. He actually admits he kind of likes math again. (though not too loudly)

His other class, Human Behavior is much more of a struggle for him. There are so many new concepts to learn about behavior, and several times he has thought about dropping the class because his tests aren't going good. I've convinced him to hang in there and keep trying since this is one he should have for his major. He has, and it's kind of starting to come together a little bit. I told him to learn as much as he can now, and if he has to repeat it , that's not a big deal. We'll see how it goes. One of his therapists told him that "C's get degrees!" so Brady is adopting that for his motto! If he gets a C, it would be lucky.......stay tuned.......

Brady just loves to stay busy. He is involved with Campus Crusade at SCC, and now joined the SCC Student Senate. He amazes me how he keeps going and trying so many things. Tonight he is speaking at a Campus Life rally at Southeast High School, telling his story of the injury and recovery, and telling kids to stay positive when times get tough. He loves talking to others.

Physical therapy is still going on with some good days, and some oops days. He still wears the electronic brace on his leg quite a bit in therapy and works out with that. Eye therapy continues and he see his eye doctor tomorrow to see if more progress has been made. God has so blesses Brady and us, and may all of this recovery be to His glory.

May God bless you with his peace and love,
Tom, Carol and Brady

Monday, October 1, 2007 4:40 PM CDT

Last week was the third anniversary of Brady's football injury. Each year Brady contacts Coach Gingery and Dan McEntarffer and spends some time with them on that day. That means a lot to Brady. It really brings everything back to mind. Last week, three days after the 24th, a football player in Omaha collapsed on the sidelines with a head injury. We sure pray for Eric and his mom and family.

Wednesday was the Madonna Goal Award Luncheon. Madonna did a video of each of the four goal award winners. Joe put Brady's video on Youtube. If you go to www.youtube.com
and then do a search for - Brady recovery - you can watch the Madonna video that shows how bad he was in the beginning, and how he is today. They did a good job of telling his story.

Classes are starting this week at SCC. Brady is taking Beginning Algebra, Behavior Therapy and his clinical training will be at Madonna. Madonna thought maybe he would like to work with kids who are in the TBI unit, and the Madonna school classroom.

The botox has kicked in and Brady is walking a little better and getting some movement again. He's got to keep stretching and trying to try and keep that ankle flexible, but it's easier said than done. Brady did say that one time when he had his electrical impulse device on at Madonna, which helps him get a better step, he did try running. It was ugly, Brady said in his own words.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, September 6, 2007 10:41 PM CDT

The quarter at SCC will be ending in a couple weeks, and it has gone okay for Brady, but he sure will be glad to have the computer class over. He hates doing the busy work they have to do for it, especially when he did his whole assignment last night at the computer lab, and then the computer froze up when he went to print it and all of it was lost. Relaxation class has been a good class for him. He feels he has learned how to get to sleep a little easier at night. He has enjoyed his clinical experience at The Legacy. They work in the assisted living part of the day, doing games and visiting with the residents, and then they go to the alzheimer's unit the other half of the day. He has to have 5 clinical quarters before he can get his associates degree. When I asked Brady what classes he wanted to take this fall he said he was ready to take a math class again. He signed up to repeat his 10th grade advanced algebra a year after he was injured and he had to quit a month after he started it. He couldn't focus and understand it. I'm amazed he thinks he is ready to try math again. The counselor recommended starting with beginning algebra. That will be a good challenge for him to see if he is comfortable with math. Before he was injured math was his favorite subject, but he laughs about that now, since that isn't a possibly any more.

On the 17th Brady goes in for botox to the right leg and ankle again. His PT sees that it again is tightening up a little, so time to get shot up. She feels the new electric shock machine that he wears on his leg once or twice a week for therapy is helping his step a little. Madonna also has purchased a new balance machine that Brady gets use also. He steps on the platform, and the platform moves in a random pattern, tipping slightly left, right, forward and backward. He has to remain balanced while the machine keeps randomly tilting. It's really a neat thing. I watched him at PT last week, and he still does work going up and down stairs. He told Daina he had carried a file box down the stairs for a teacher at SCC. Daina said she wasn't really comfortable with him doing that yet, so it sounded like she will still be working him on the stairs for a while yet. It's amazing how slow recovery is at this point, but we still see that everything is better than it was a year or even six months ago.

Brady got his new lenses in his glasses. From time to time he can pull his eyes together and focus and see one for a few seconds without his glasses, but otherwise he completely sees double. Wearing the glasses with the little bit of prism helps to bring the eyes together so he can see one. That's why he wears them all the time. The doctors still think he will be able to get out of them someday, but it will be a while, I'm sure.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, August 9, 2007 11:09 PM CDT

YEA! Today we celebrated 20 years of life with Brady. What a blessing God has given us to keep him alive through his teen years, especially that one football game night. Brady is not shy about letting everyone know it's his birthday and so they even had a cake for him at The Legacy today when he was doing clinical practice there.

School is going okay. Brady is having a llttle trouble with a computer class. If if has to learn something that he won't ever need to use in the future, it doesn't stick in the memory. Since it is summer, he doesn't feel like he has to put in too much time studying, so.... I'm sure he'll be fine, but it's a tiny, tiny bit frustrating to him that he can't do classwork like he could before he was injured. Don't worry, he doesn't let it bother him, he'll get it figured out.

Brady had the opportunity to do some public speaking a couple weeks ago to tell his story, and get the point across that even if your life doesn't go as you have planned, you can survive and make a new journey. Tom and I were there to listen, and it went pretty well for his first time to do a whole presentation of his injury, recovery, future and words of wisdom. Brady loved it. He's not afraid to be in the spotlight, especially if he can share his message of God's grace and Hope.

It was time for another eye exam this week. They were able to take away another bit of prism in the glasses. When he started he had 24 units of prism and now he is down to four units. The prism helps keep the right eye working in continuity with the left eye. Although recovery for the right eye is going slow, it is still progressing, so that's good. Brady never complains about going to eye or physical therapy. He knows it might be a couple years yet that he will probably be going.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Saturday, July 14, 2007 8:05 PM CDT

Monday, July 9, Brady went to his weekly eye therapy appointment. Before therapy they take off his glasses, put tape over the left glass so he can't see out of it. Then they tape a glass prism to his right eyeglass lens that really works the right eye during the visual exercises. When they took off Brady's glasses before the session Brady could see everything as one. Usually when he takes off his glasses he sees two of everything unless he shuts off his right eye. The injury damaged an optic nerve and for that reason he can't bring his eyes together to work together to see one. But, for one minute last Monday it happened! Brady said, "It felt so good to see normal again and not see two of everything." Ellen, his visual therapist told him they were working hard to get him to that point again where everything is normal vision. When he wears glasses he has prism in his glasses that brings his eyes together to see everything normally. Between decreasing the prism in his glasses every three months and working the eyes weekly they hope to have Brady out of glasses someday with no more double vision. Since then he has found if he works real, real hard he can bring his eyes together to see objects again as one. It is an encouraging start that I'm sure will give Brady extra incentive to hope of regular vision again.

A couple weeks ago we visited with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Tomes, who operated on Brady the night of his injury. We talked to him about what happened in the operating room the night of the surgery. We also asked him about the ankle and why the movement isn't coming back to that yet. We wanted to know if that was due to the initial injury or if that was from the blood clot in the brain the following weekend. He told us that the foot and ankle control area is located toward the top of the head right near where the blood vessel broke that night on the football field. He attributes the lack of control in the foot area to the initial injury and the blood pushing on that area of the brain for being the reason he doesn't have much movement in that area. The doctor is such a wonderful man and excellent doctor. He had just moved to Lincoln only 3 weeks before Brady was hurt. He gave credit to the great team of three other doctors working with him that night to do all they could to stop the bleeding, but yet keep the blood flowing through the vein. We like to see him every year, just so he can keep up on Brady's progress. He said he keeps the 'Brady Bunch' t-shirt we gave him still displayed in his office. While we were talking about his right leg, Brady did inform the doctor that he WILL run again. He keeps working on getting that movement back and better balance in PT.

After five weeks off summer quarter has again started at SCC and Brady is back full time with some 'hard classes.' Methods of Relaxation is one of them. The others are a computer class and clinical where he is spending 2 days at the Legacy retirement center working and visiting with the residents. Actually the methods of relaxation class will be good for him. He has a hard time winding his brain down at the end of the day, and this will be great help to him to learn to calm his head and relax his thoughts to help him get to sleep better. His teacher could tell the first day that it wasn't an easy task for him to completely relax his body, when they were learning how. I can't wait to see what the tests and final consist of in that class?????

I hope everyone is having a good summer. Through all of this we have learned that God doesn't cause bad things to happen, but He is there with us and gives us our strength when we are going through the hard times. May the peace of God be with you.
Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 9:37 PM CDT

Last week I was going to compliment Brady that he was doing real good, and things were really coming together in thinking skills, etc. Then, starting about Friday I decided I was glad I hadn't done that yet. Things weren't clicking quite as good as they had been. He was asking about things he should remember, and his walk and stride were a little more gimpy. Being the 'nice' mother I am, I told him he had been doing good, but now I was questioning his thinking reactions. He laughed and said, "Don't you know my brain is on break, and my body, too." That's okay, it's a short break until school starts again. Classes for the summer quarter start on July 11, so Brady is enjoying the 5 weeks off. They will go fast, I'm sure.

Madonna has purchased and is using a new device that attaches to the leg of patients who are having foot drop when they walk. It is a band that goes around the knee, and has a remote that the PT carries along by the patient. The band shoots an electrical bolt to the nerves down the leg right after the heal strikes the ground when taking a step. This bolt picks up the front of the right foot, to keep it from dragging on the ground. It is new and amazing technology. The object is to retrain the foot to not drag the toe on the ground when stepping and walking. They can turn up and down the voltage individually to each patient. Just yesterday was Brady's first day to try it, and he used it again today in therapy. Tom and I were there watching on Tuesday and everyone could see his walk was much better when using the device. Brady's left leg can swing out and look like he is getting on a horse (Tom says) when he walks. This was gone when he had the device hooked up to his leg. Toward the end of his retraining Brady started teasing and getting 'mouthy' with his PT. She just laughed and said, you start bugging me and I'll turn up the juice on this unit. Brady has been behaving and working hard ever since. His PT is so good for him. She never lets him one up her.

Friday will be Brady's last day with speech therapy. He will then be on his own with doing organization for schoolwork. I know it's time for him to be doing that. We'll just see if he sinks or swims! Speech therapy has been such a great help for Brady at Madonna. When he started after he was hurt, he had lost his ability for word recall, and lost his ability to read. I think the technical term for that problem is aphasia. The speech therapists worked so hard with him to bring back his reading ability. In the beginning they didn't make any promises on whether it would happen, but today he is able to read his college level material. It goes a little slower than reading used to, but he has learned techniques to help with that, as concentrating on chapter and paragraph headings to get the just of the material, etc. Brady's word recall is also doing pretty good, with just once or maybe twice a month asking what a word means.

Thanks for the caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Saturday, June 2, 2007 11:18 PM CDT

Just a few more days this next week and classes will be done. Then Brady is on a five week break. I don't even have to ask him to know he is looking forward to that. Especially since the 4 year colleges have been done for several weeks already, and Brady's high school friends are home. Last Monday night a few guys he graduated with came over to watch a movie. Brady had done his homework for Tuesday on Monday afternoon, following the instructions he had written down in his planner. He keeps a planner to help his memory on his school assignments. The movie was over at 10:30 and everyone left right away. While Brady was getting ready for bed, he opened his notebook for pre-clinical he is taking at SCC. He was curious as to what they were going to be working on for Tuesday, since at the first of the quarter the teacher gives the daily syllabus for the whole quarter. Brady looked at it, and then looked again.....it said Tuesday, May 29, FINAL EXAM. Here it was the night before at 10:45 and he was going to have a final at 9:00 the next morning that he hadn't written down in his planner and hadn't even thought about over the weekend. This class is a P/F class that prepares you to go out to work at job sights for clinical experience in working with people and doing activities and counseling. To pass the class you have to pass the final, and you can't go on to take clinical unless you pass pre-clinical. This is his field of major, so that wouldn't be a good thing. Brady started to break out in a sweat and started getting a little nervous. He declared it a Tylenol PM night (If he has trouble sleeping he takes Tylenol PM) , and asked us to turn the air conditioner cooler because he was getting sweaty thinking about this situation. He decided he would get up at 7:00 and look everything over in the morning. He also decided he would keep a positive attitude and just think that he was going to pass. I took him to school that day so he could study on the way to school, and I asked him to call me at lunch and let me know how he did. He called about 11:00, and the test was over, but hadn't been graded yet. He was 66ure he had passed. After lunch the teacher had names on the board of those who had passed, and another column of those who hadn't passed. There were quite a few names in the did not pass group, and Brady's was one of them. He was sick......after a few minutes the teacher told the group to find their name on the board. She then said, just kidding, you have all passed the final. Brady, being the not shy kid he now is, stood up and told the teachers that they were unethical (they are studying ethics in councseling) for lying about whether they passed or not. The teacher said, "Brady, we were lenient in grading your final and you should just sit down." That shut him up. Actually he did get a 76 and passing is a 70. Most of it was essay questions and 'Chatty' loves essay questions, so he was very relieved. On Thursday he had his final mock counseling session and he passed that too. They had an 'actress' come into class and make up different situations she needed counseling on for their one on one couseling tests. Brady even got his 'client' to laugh at the end of the session, so he was happy with that day, too. If he does pass pre-clinical (which it looks like he will) he will have to do 5 quarters of clinical going out to different locations in Lincoln and working with people. The first place they go for the quarter that starts the third week of July is The Legacy Retirement Village. By going to different places like nursing homes, drug and alcohol rehab facilities, youth centers, etc. they can get a taste of where they would best fit when they get done with their associates program.

Yesterday Brady, Tom and I were invited to a luncheon at Madonna. We weren't exactly sure what it was about until we walked into the door of the eating area. Standing in that room were all of the therapists Brady has had since he arrived at Madonna, October 30, 2004. Actually there was quite a bigger group than just that, but when Brady and three others went through the door, it was announced to them that they were the 2007 Gold Star winners for Madonna Rehab Facility. When we first got to Madonna several people told us to go to their hallway by the gym and check out the wall of patients who had made recoveries that were honored over the last 11 years. We of course saw the wall and read the miraculous stories that each one had, but as sick as Brady was when we were inpatient at Madonna, I never even could imagine he would be considered for such an award someday. About 4,000 patients go through the doors of Madonna every year and 3 - 4 are picked to represent these patients. The winners are picked because of their outstanding effort or exceptional courage they have shown in their recovery. I think they like to show patients who have made recovery enough to meet some of their goals back to 'normal' life. Brady going on to college is a huge step from the patient he was when he was wheeled through the doors 2 1/2 years ago. This summer they will come out and shoot some film of Brady as an active person, and put together footage to tell his story. Then on September 26, the four honories will have their stories presented at a Madonna luncheon at the Embassey Suites. Can you imagine the kleenexes that are used on that day! Anyway it was a humbling honor, and to God all glory be given. And of course, to the wonderful staff at Madonna too, for all their knowledge and steady pushing they have put into Brady. We wonder if when Brady's picture is in the hallway if it will have a big title of SLACKER/STALLER over it???

Thanks for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol & Brady

Saturday, May 12, 2007 8:28 PM CDT

All has been going pretty much same as usual, but this week was time to do botox, again. They recommend it about every 4 months. His PT is hoping this might be the last one, but of course you never know. The doctor doing it asked Brady to move his right toe before he started, and Brady moved it up and down a couple times. That is new....he has never been able to control it before. Sometimes he could move it up, but not back. So, Brady is getting some movement to the right ankle and toe! Going through botox is hard. When they do botox on the face for wrinkles they just slightly put a small needle in to kill the nerves. In Brady's case, doing it on the leg and foot, they want to get to the muscle, so they stick the needle in about 3/4 of an inch and have to move it around and search for the area that contains the most tone, and then they slowly shoot in the botox. Botox even has squeezy balls they give out to squeeze for the pain while they are doing this. (Do they really think that helps??)

Memory is Brady's biggest battle in school work. When taking tests, it goes well on the main items he learned, but the little things that were just briefly mentioned in class or the book are hard to pull from recall. There is a doctor at Madonna who does some electical brain wave stimulus work to help get more blood flowing to the areas that work on memory. This will go on for at least this year. The doctore and Brady have a good time teasing each other while they do their work if nothing else.

I've noticed that Brady is needing less sleep than he did six months ago. Doctors said for every day you are bedridden (like he was in the coma and for a couple months after) it takes about a week of recovery. We kind of had it figured that he had about 2 years worth of catching up to do. He still tires out by the end of the day and week, but it is more of a mental tired and not physical tired. Brady does PT 3 times a week and goes to the weight room 2-3 times a week. Over time we will have to make sure he can bike again and have some kind of physically active life. I'm sure he has a couple years of PT left, though. They are doing some new things with balance that is different right now. Patience..... God has been gracious through all of this.

Brady also had his eyes tested this week and they were able to go just a little weaker on the prescription. YEA! He still goes to eye therapy once an week and it's neat to see that is still helping! He will have his eyes checked every two months this year, and we hope it keeps improving a little bit each time!

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Sunday, April 15, 2007 2:17 PM CDT

More exciting news! A couple weeks ago, Brady was sitting talking to us toward the end of the day. There was a lull in the conversation, so I asked him to move his right ankle. Just like that without him really thinking about it, the ankle moved and brought the right front of the foot and toes up off the floor, just like a normal ankle should do. We were so surprised. When he tried to do it again, it didn't happen. It has happened a few times since. Usually when he tries to have the ankle kick in, he can only bring up a couple toes, and none of the rest of the front of the foot. In physical therapy they are noticing the movement coming back, too. It is hit and miss, and not translating into his walking yet, but something we have been waiting to happen for 2 years now. I know a lot of wonderful people have been praying for this to happen, and for Brady's hope to run again. This is a start. It's all in God's time and blessing, and wow, healing is still coming in a lot of areas we are still noticing.

The last few weeks he has had a new PT student (about ready to graduate PT school) working with him. She is a beautiful girl (maybe she is the incentive behind the movement, HA!). The cool part about these students who come and start working with Brady is they don't realize how sick he was and how far he has come, and they show no mercy and just start working him a little harder. His regular PT works him hard, but each student steps it up a bit and he responds. Some of the things he has been doing is sitting on a rolling stool, putting his left leg on a leg of the stool, and moving the stool (with him sitting on it) down the hall with just his right foot doing all the work to guide and pull the stool. That has been going much better than it used to. It takes a lot of work from the whole right leg to do that. Much of the work that PT does is to build up the weakness in the right leg.

School is going good. Each semester at SCC, the classes he adds are just a little more demanding, building on each other. Right now one of the classes he is taking is a pre-clinical class (for the counseling department) that meets 5 straight hours two days a week. This week he even had to go to a 5 hour class on Saturday to get his CPR certification. The first week you could tell that sitting in a class for over 4 hours tired him out, but that is getting a little better each time. Probably the hardest part about it is they have to be at school by 9:00 and not a minute late, so he has struggled with that considering some of us here are not morning people. He learned he is going to have to be leaving the house a little earlier. This class is preparing them for their clinical classes where they go to different sites around Lincoln and work closely with counselors and various service organizations. Now they are learning to dress and act professionally and are starting to work on their counseling skills dealing with people. Thursday he had an oral counseling situation test, where the teacher presented a problem, and he interacted with her as a counselor would be trained to. They are taught not to judge or give advice, but to draw out the patient to help the patient find the best solution for him or her. We had fun helping him practice at home for that!

Thank you so much for all your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, March 23, 2007 9:59 AM CDT

Here's some really BIG news Brady wanted to share with CaringBridge!!!!! He broke 100 in bowling! Sun Valley Lanes had $2 Tuesdays, and Brady has been going every week since last August. Before Brady was injured he was in a youth bowling league and it was rare he scored under 100 on each game, but...Brady doesn't mind, he goes for the fun, now. Anyway, Tuesday night he got a 105 game! YEA! Getting bowling shoes is a challenge,too. I think he ends up with a 13 on his left foot, and a 15 on his right foot over his brace. He never misses though, because a lot of college age kids are there and he has a great time.

Spring break is on for Southeast Community College this week and Brady is enjoying every single minute of it. Brady worked hard during the quarter after he figured out he really had to put a lot of time into studying, and his grades turned out really good. It looks like SCC is a good fit for him, and he will keep moving on, trying a little more variety each semester. This is just a miracle and such a grace from God. When Brady left Madonna as an inpatient in December 2004 they ran tests that tested his IQ and he was at a very remedial level, not understanding much vocabulary words, or being able to read. Several months after that the therapists said the physical strength was improving quickly, but not the cognitive. Both times they told us they didn't know if that would improve at all. Well, through the grace of God's healing hand, and much hard work from Brady working on focus and relearning, there has been HUGE improvement and we still see it each quarter of school.

UNL Speech therapy department is working on training speech therapists in the area of brain injury, so they can go out into the schools after they graduate and be educated on the type of help needed to those suffering from concussions ranging from mild to severe and other injury factors. Brady gets to be matched with a student for the next couple years, so she can learn from him and also assist him in needs he might have. They will probably meet once or twice a month. We got to meet his student last week and had such a fun time telling her the story and her sharing her background and goals. This week Brady went to meet one of her advisors who helped to get this grant. She is a counselor, but also suffered a severe brain injury 15 years ago, and had to overcome that and go on to get her schooling and masters in counseling. It was so inspirational to talk to her, and hear her struggles she had to overcome. She said felt like she was in a fog for the first several years. She had been at Madonna for the initial stage of recovery, but going back to college was probably one of the best things she did to help pull herself back together. She found a great graduate school to go to for her masters, but was afraid she didn't have the scores to pass the tests to admit her. Luckily that school went a lot on background and interview to be admitted and that helped her get in. Brady's goal right now is to get a 2 year associates degree at SCC in Human Services and then go on to try for a bachelors. We have just had to learn like they do in AA, to take one day at a time and praise God for each day! So, when Brady is asked his goals in what he wants to do, he says;
1. Counselor
2. Motivational speaker, sharing his story of God's grace and prayer in his recovery.
3. Male model
If nothing else I say, he could be a used car salesman!

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, March 2, 2007 9:22 PM CST

Today was a good day for Brady. He got a call from the Barkley Center at UNL, where they train speech pathologists. They have a 4-year grant to start a program where they can train the students going through the speech pathology school to get accredited with traumatic brain injury training. When Brady went back to school six months after he was injured no one in the public schools really had any training in working with TBI's. In training the UNL speech pathology students about kids with brain injuries they could take their knowledge to the schools after they graduate. They would help educate the teachers and staff on the learning and needs of students who have been through TBI situation. Brady will be paired with a SP student in training. The student will work with Brady on needs he has in the studying area, and Brady will talk to them about the recovery of brain injury people and what they face in acclimating back into student life. It sounds like it could be a great situation. Brady has a lot to learn about how much more he needs to study and what types of learning methods will most help him remember what he has learned. A student mentor can learn from him but will also help him to meet his needs and goals. At the worst Brady will have a new person to 'entertain' with his stories.

This week Bob Woodruff has been on several different TV shows. He is the ABC reporter who was injured last year in Iraq and had a traumatic brain injury. It was so interesting listening to his story and the similarities and differences. Bob was also in a coma for 5 weeks. He woke up from his coma during the night he waited for his wife to come in and asked her where she had been. Brady did not just 'wake up' one day and start to talk. He came out of the coma much slower and pretty much had to relearn everything. One thing interesting that was when Bob talked about part of his skull being removed to allow the brain to swell and not be crushed. This was also done on Brady. Of course in the initial surgery they had to remove a portion of the skull to get the the vein to stop the bleeding. They left the portion off for a month and placed in just under his skin to the right of the stomach. They used to freeze the skull until it was ready to be put back into place, but they found that they would shrink, so they like to keep it moist in the body. Since Brady had an infection in his stomach they had to surgically remove the skull from the pouch and examine it before they put in back into his head. If they would have found it didn't look useable they would have had one made from a computer analysis drawing (made from plastic) that would have been an exact fit. (It sounded like Bob might have had that done) Before Brady's surgery to put the skull back on Tom asked the neurosurgeon why they don't just have a synthetic skull made and waiting in case the bone skull wouldn't work. The doctor said that the replacement one costs around $30,000. Enough said. It looked like Bob also had trouble with word and name recall which Brady has trouble with. Bob's recovery story was fascinating since we knew and could compare what he had gone through, but the sad part was he called himself lucky and didn't give any credit to God for blessing of his life. When David Letterman asked him if he thinks there is life after death, he said he didn't know but he hoped so. We'll have to work on Bob!

We're still seeing improvement in getting a little more strength and movement to the right ankle. I also told Brady that each paper he writes for his English class gets a little bit better. It's all going to take a lot more time and work, and Brady will never be back to 100 percent, but we're all still hanging in there.

Thank you for your prayers and caring,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, February 8, 2007 10:01 PM CST

I wanted to be on a schedule to update this website every two weeks, but that is turning out to be about three weeks instead, which might about how often I get it done for a while. I spend a lot of time in the car driving both Brady and Joe to their different activities. I've let Brady drive a little, but with the snow and cold we have been having I don't think he minds being dropped off in front of the school. I also don't have to worry about him being on the slick roads when we've had random snowfalls.

I think Brady has met his match this quarter of school. Things were going pretty smooth the first few weeks, and then last week he was sick with a sore throat and cough for a couple days. Then he had a psychology test on Friday that he really felt that he had bombed. When he got it back today, yes, it bombed...a 60%. :(
I think he learned he is going to have to use some new studying strategies, and when class is done he will try to go over his notes right away within a few hours to help to seal what he has just been taught in his mind. Human Sexuality is going good, and English is going fair, so he'll just keep plugging away. I told him if he doesn't pass a class he can just take it over, but he said, "That's not Brady's way to not pass." So he's just going to try and work a little harder. But, in the next breath he asked it he had passed the drop a class date?

With the snow we have been having Brady has been able to get some shoveling time in. The cool part is he has had enough energy to want to go out and help, as opposed to last year when his balance wasn't strong enough and he was just to tired to think of that. Balance and doing steps still have a ways to go, but PT is pretty intense 3 times a week, so I know with TIME things will still get better.

Brady continues to be a role model to me. He remembers to pray before every meal, and keeps us in check for that. He doesn't complain about having to go to therapy or being driven around, etc. He was in mourning this week when "his" Bears lost the SuperBowl. It took more than a few days to get over that, if he has yet. His Urlacher jersey now hangs at the back of the closet. Maybe next year......

Thank you for all your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Tuesday, January 16, 2007 11:05 PM CST

Christmas break went fast, and school was back in session for Brady on January 4th. He is taking Composition I, Human Sexuality, and Psychology. So far it's been okay, and Brady is working hard on organizing himself for his classes since Madonna speech therapy is pretty much just watching to make sure he is keeping on top of his classes. One of the areas Brady struggles with is memory. I relate it to saying he has the memory of a 60-70 year old man. Facts that don't mean that much can get lost easily, so when it comes to taking tests he doesn't remember things he heard about in class or read like most 19 year olds would. I have noticed that when I talk about something that happened 4 or 5 months ago that was kind of worth remembering, but not super important, Brady has a hard time remembering and I can see him searching his brain to try and recall, and often he says yes, I remember. (But, i'm not sure if he really does or if he just is appeasing me.)

Another area that really is hard for Brady is fatigue. I could tell that by the end of the quarter right before Christmas Brady was really tired. Not sleepy tired, but more mentally tired. It was so good to have the 3 weeks off to rest up. When he is tired his thinking skills aren't as sharp, and he mixes up words, etc. It's funny how some days he seems like everything is working in great order and then some days it seems like we have a long way to go yet, in recovery.......No matter what, God is Great, and we know He has blessed us so much!

On January 2nd, Brady received another round of botox shots in his leg and ankle. It's been slow kicking in, but today in physical therapy his PT could really tell that he is getting a lot more ankle movement and control. The key is to really stretch that ankle while the nerves are 'off' for the next couple months, to try and bring this movement back permanently. I think the doctor used 5 vials of botox this time when he did Brady's leg, as compared to in September he just used 3 vials. Are you ready for this...the cost of one vial of botox is about $600. I sure hope this helps him get some more range of movement.

Thank you so much for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, December 21, 2006 1:11 PM CST

Finals finished up last week, and Brady was so glad to be done. He definitely was tired and felt he had worked his brain as much as he could. He had two classes pass/fail and passed those, and then got a B+ in his Counseling class, which he really liked, and is doing another class like that next quarter. I think college would go well if he had all middle-age female teachers who have a soft heart. He can charm them all the way through, as he did in his study skills class, even getting a ride home from the teacher on a couple days. But, since that might not be the case in every class, we'll just have to see how school keeps going in the future.

This week Brady had an eye doctor check-up as he does every few months to see the progress in the healing of his eyes. The doctor was so pleased because his eyes have healed enough that his pupils are back to normal size and his eyes are both about 20/20 vision. When Brady came out of the coma two years ago and we looked at his eyes it was shocking to see the size of his pupils. They took up almost the entire area of the colored part of the eye, and the right eye pupil didn't respond to light. No one we asked about knew if they would go down or back to correct size. Now that his eyes are better, Brady asked if he could get rid of his glasses, and she said no, he needs the prism in the glass to help pull his right eye in, because it wants to turn out which causes double vision. When he started wearing glasses his prism (that lines up his eyes) was at a 20, and now it will be down to a 7 on the glass on this new frame he will be getting. We asked if he will ever be out of glasses, and she said if he keeps working hard, he could be out of glasses in one year. That probably means a year and a half or two, but hey. She thought in the future for driving it would be fine, but for close up reading he might always need glasses to help help keep his right eye to a close focus with his left. His right eye will never be back to perfect, but how exciting to see how far it has come. This optometrist has been a real blessing to Brady's recovery. I think she is the only doctor in Lincoln who does eye therapy, and this doctor cares much more about helping patients to better vision than making lots of money. She spends a lot of time with each patient explaining about complete eye health and how to maintain good eyes. Brady's vision problems were not from a hit to the eyes, but damage to cranial nerve 3 which causes this double vision.

I think Brady will take a break from therapy the week between Christmas and New Years, and then right after New Years he will get some more botox in his ankle, start back with doing his brain wave studies again, and then back to classes on the 4th. I hope this isn't going to be too much for him. I can really tell that he had been real tired at the end of the quarter. We'll just keep plugging away though!

God bless your Christmas, may it be a special time for you and your family. We thank you so much for all you caring and prayers, and we pray that God hears your needs.
Tom and Carol

Monday, December 4, 2006

Last year in the fall months, Brady's PT set a goal for him to stand on just his right leg and keep his balance for 30 seconds. (Goodrich malt as a reward) This takes the neurons from his brain to be sending the right amount of signals to his ankle to help him balance to hold him up. Last year at this time, Brady was able to balance for about 3 or 4 seconds and that was all. His PT times him on this about every two weeks or so. It has been holding steady at about 5-6 seconds for the last few months. Last week Brady held himself on rightie for 9.3 seconds! YEA! They were kind of shocked, but the next few times were around 7 seconds, so it looks like he's making some forward movement there! His PT has been really working him in strengthening rightie and working on balance. Brady goes to PT for 45 minutes, 3 times a week. Each time I pick him up his right leg is still shaking a little, because they have worked it hard. His PT and I love that.

School doesn't come as easy for Brady as it did before he was hurt, but he is doing good at keeping up with the homework and really trying to get homework done for his three classes. We were kind of concerned that taking a full-time schedule would be too much, but it's worked out very good. (Thank goodness for a little Thanksgiving break for down time) None of the classes have been too hard, but Brady has signed up for next quarter and is taking a psychology class then, so that will be a good judgement on his memory and doing a little bit harder work. He will be taking an English and another counseling class, too. Those will start January 4. This quarter will end on December 15, and Brady will be happy to have a break. Last week Brady got an 82 on a test in counseling. It was kind of a shock for him. He had gotten a 90 and a 92 on the other tests, and this is a kid who was blessed in school (growing up) with mostly A's and B 's, so he was even kind of depressed about it. (short-lived) We reminded him that he is in school full time, going to therapy 3 days and week, and even building a social life with a new group of friends at SCC, so he's not doing too bad, and definitely handling a lot more than he could a year ago. After thinking about that, Brady moved back to his usual happy self. In reality, everyday is just a blessing from God, to have Brady here with us, so we're not going to complain.

Last week we saw the doctor that did the botox on Brady's ankle. The PT thinks it has helped, so they will do some more botox over Christmas break. It deadens the nerves for 3 months to help get more movement to the ankle, which hopefully someday will bring back more range. When the doctor was done consulting about the ankle, I asked him about recovery and if we can still expect more progress for Brady in getting better overall. He asked if we felt Brady was better than he was 6 months ago. I said yes, I could see improvment, and he said than in a year from now we could expect to see more improvement, and there has even been documented improvement on brain injuries for up to 7 to 10 years. The doctor said there are just so many millions of neurons having to remake pathways in the injured areas that it takes a very long time. Talk about a lesson in patience!!

You won't believe this. The 'wonderful special' brace Brady waited two months for while it was being made lasted a whole month before it broke over Thanksgiving weekend. That was so frustrating. Now it has been sent back to Oregon to be remade. Can you tell we're a little upset. AGH! So, Brady is again gimping around without a brace. The reason this brace was recommended is because the company lines up the axis of the ankle to give a good natural bend on the brace. The company that does it mostly has growing children for their clientele, so the brace wasn't strong enough for a 6'1", 180 pound guy. (Oops, Brady just read what I wrote and let me know he is almost 6' 2", about a buck 85, and perfectly chiseled) They hopefully will make the next one a little stronger at the joint areas. Another huge test in patience!

God blessings and thank you for all your prayers and caring, Tom and Carol

Saturday, November 18, 2006 11:46 PM CST

This week Brady came home from PT and said, "Guess what, I did the 18" step by myself, keeping my balance and looking good. For a year and a half now Brady has been practicing stepping up and then back down on a step of about 18". This all came about when he first went back to school and was attending soccer games and tried to get up on metal bleachers and had to be helped. His PT then started working on him being able to do it himself. They probably practice this about once every week or two, and finally 18 months later Brady feels comfortable with it. It takes balance and leg strength to do this step, and rightie just wasn't strong enough for Brady to depend on him. It also took a lot of repetition for the brain to relearn this. They won't be done. Brady will keep working on it, but he usually doesn't share a lot from PT unless prompted, but he was happy to give this report!

Wednesday this week I dropped Brady off at school and did it at a different entrance than usual. He had to walk up some steps to get to the outside door. There were nine steps in groups of three with a small landing between each group. He turned around and smiled at me before he started up the steps, and he did them all with his backpack on his back, and no hands on the rail. Remember last year at this time he fell going up our basement steps. He works on doing steps every week at Madonna in PT and although this still has more repetition and polishing to do to accomplish a whole flight straight up and down, it was awesome to see it work on this SECC stairway. It was a beautiful sight!

This week we got a call from Debbie, the mother of an 18 year old girl who was hit by a car two weeks ago and is in intensive care at BryanLGHWest. (where Brady was) Her daughter (Jena) is still in a coma and she had remembered Brady had been there too in a coma and just wanted to know what we had gone through. I told her that Brady had been in a coma for 5 weeks, and was pretty much completely unresponsive during all of those 5 weeks. She asked questions like when he came out of his coma was he angry and I told her he never has been angry or mad at any point in his recovery. Anger often happens to brain injury people in that they have frustration over not being able to do what they could do in the past. At one point we were told that over 90% turn to alcohol or drugs to help them cope. Brady has just been such a blessing in not having that struggle, and it was so nice to be able to give Debbie, Jena's mom, hope not to give up. She was a very positive person and it was so nice to meet her, and we just pray for Jena and her recovery.

Brady has been able to do a little bit of speaking to groups telling his story this fall and he never passes up a chance to share his message of hope. As much as Tom and I aren't ones to get up in front of a crowd, Brady has not inherited that and really enjoys sharing his story and his love for the God who saved him.

As we approach Thanksgiving we are so thankful for Life, and for all of the prayers said for Brady and all of us, and all of the caring. Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

God Bless,
Tom and Carol

Friday, November 3, 2006 8:05 PM CST

The brace finally came in and although it is a little different from his old brace Brady is happy to have one back. His right leg is pretty weak, and he really has quite a limp without the brace, but the brace helps give him support and the limp is there, but not as pronounced. Brady's PT informed me that she has stepped Brady's physical therapy up a notch, and she often has his right leg shaking by the end of each session. (We love it when rightie shakes, because it means he has given it a good workout, to help to make it stronger) One thing new in PT they have Brady doing is he gets on a treadmill that is moving. They stretch a band about waist high across in front of him. He then has to high step each leg and try to have his knee hit the band. I haven't seen this yet, but it sounds like it would be great for both balance and strength. They have also had him on the total gym several times lately where he lies on an incline (that can move back and forth) on his back, and kind of does a running step alternating pushing off with each leg. I have seen that in action, and that is really neat to see him work so hard. Brady atill has a goal to run again, and this week he informed me that when he finally can run he would probably do a marathon. He is looking for a marathon in the 1 mile range, however, because full and half marathons would be way too much for him he said. (He never did like running too much)

Last weekend SECC Campus Crusade went off for an overnight retreat, and Brady planned to go, but I really wanted him to come back Friday night. Matt, Brady's older brother told us it was time to let go, and so Brady got to go, spend the night (they 'slept' in a church in Seward), and all of us survived. He didn't even seem real tired, but I know it does effect him overall in all his tasks when he is tired. He had a great time, and I'm glad we let him go through with the whole weekend. We were going to have Brady start driving some again when he got his brace, but with all of his schoolwork, therapy, and extra activities, he is not really ready to take the time to get behind the wheel yet, and we aren't going to push it until he is confident, so he gets a chauffeur (his mom or dad) to the places he needs to go.

In speech therapy they have been working with Brady on planning ahead and setting time every day to do the school work that he has due. He writes what he needs to do everyday in his school planner. They try to show him to think through scheduling what to do when to get everything done in time. They are now starting to turn it over to him completely to see if he can plan out his study schedule and strategize to plan his week. The classes he is taking this quarter aren't too hard, and have gone pretty well so far, it's just that he is needs help in figuring out how to figure a plan to get everything done. They have been such a great help to him in getting him to look at the syllabus the teachers hand out, and think through how to go about doing what needs to be done. Madonna Rehab is such a great place!

Thank you all for your caring, concern and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Friday, October 20, 2006 12:19 AM CDT

So far, Brady is able to handle his full time schedule at SECC and continuing therapy at Madonna just fine. It's really been good for him to teach him to balance his time. He has also been going to the University Lutheran Chapel for freshman night on Wednesdays, and also has started doing activities with a Campus Crusade group that is organizing at SECC. Of course, I am playing chauffeur to him during all of this, so I didn't have a lot of extra time to update the website last week as usual, and will probably just update every couple weeks now. I definitely feel like there is still much progress being made. I can tell that Brady is able to focus longer on school work. He really likes his counseling theories class he is taking. They had their first test Monday, and on Wednesday he got back the results. He was so excited, he got 90 out of 100 right! That is awesome, since he had to do all the studying and memorizing by himself! He did ask a girl in the class to copy her notes to add to the notes he took to study by. He was even excited, because he wasn't the last one done with the test on test day. (He was second to last) He really likes this counseling class, much more than his English or study skills. Anyway, I know last spring he wouldn't have put the time in, or be able hold his concentration for studying like he did last weekend. Of course it helps that he is coming home to a pretty quiet house to study, and not living in a dorm where he would find a lot of excuses not to get on homework until down to the last minute. Reading still goes slow, but he is having to do a lot of it, so that won't hurt!

FINALLY we have an appointment to pick up the new brace next week. I think going without the brace for a month and a half has made his right leg a little stronger. Of course, there is still a lot of limp, since there isn't much ankle movement, but PT still works on all of that. This week they put Brady on a mini-tramp and had him doing little running steps in place. He said rightie was really being a 'tough guy' at times and not always cooperating, but what great practice. It will be interesting to see what Brady feels like when he is back in a brace. He hasn't complained at all about being without the brace, or not driving at all. We will start back slow on the driving after he gets used to the brace for a couple days.

God Bless, and thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, October 6, 2006 11:01 PM CDT

It's been a very busy week for all of us. Brady has started full time at Southeast Community College this week, and with that came meeting new friends and new activities that he doesn't want to miss any moment of. During all of this he still isn't driving, so I am taking him everywhere until his brace comes in and he gets a different car. The brace place called today and they finally received the new one, but it was done incorrectly, so it needs to be sent back to Washington State to be redone. I think they are planning to put a rush on it this time. So, there is no hurry in finding a car since we don't want Brady to drive until he gets his new brace.

Brady's classes are Student Success to learn about the best techniques for study skills, and English and Counseling Theories, which was recommended to him by his counselor since he is thinking about wanting to be a counselor someday. There will be a lot of reading in these classes, so Madonna has advised him to make sure and break it up and read proportionately daily, and not wait and just cram right before the class, which the old Brady would have done. Reading goes slower than Brady would like, but he doesn't struggle hardly at all with recognizing words like he did when he was relearning to read.

PT is still working a lot on balance and stairs and stepping up an 18" step. They are doing an activity where he double steps around four squares, and then works his way back. They time Brady on this. He started out at 7.8 seconds and now is at 6.9 seconds. His PT has promised him a Goodrich malt at 6.5 seconds. Since this student PT is leaving in two weeks I think he is really going to push Brady to make this goal! Brady told me this week it would be okay if I would ask his regular PT to put him back on the treadmill if it would help him reach his goal of running again someday soon. He is really anxious for that one. It's ironic how life works, isn't it? Brady never really liked to run when he was growing up. He would tell people he played goalie because he didn't want to run on the soccer field. Now, running is a goal he dreams and prays about reaching. Just like for all of us, it's sometimes hard to appreciate something until we have to live without it.

Thank you for all your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, September 29, 2006 11:55 AM CDT

Sunday, September 24, was the 2 year anniversary of the injury. We knew it was coming, but on that day we really hadn't even thought about it until our DCE at church reminded us. That afternoon, Brady called a teacher who had become a good friend after he was hurt, to take him over to Seacrest and pray with him on the field. Tom and a couple coaches ended up joining them. It meant so much to Brady and Tom.

We found out today that Brady's brace won't be ready for another couple weeks. He can get along okay without it, but he feels much more comfortable with a brace on going over uneven ground or walking long distances.

Brady has thoroughly enjoyed having this week break, but next week the fall quarter of classes starts and he is signed up for three classes. That will be a busy time, with continuing PT, Speech and also doing the the brain wave retraining at Madonna. I don't know how that will balance out?? This week he had been good about going to work out at the gym which is really good for him, so it would be nice if he could fit that in, too???? If he has too much going in a day he gets pretty tired, and that's no fun!

We thank you for all the prayers that were said for Brady that so helped him gain back life, and all the support and caring shown to our family that carried us through.

Tom and Carol

Friday, September 22, 2006 9:54 AM CDT

I guess things had been going a little too good, and then Monday comes. Brady had a car accident. He hit a car that was stopped behind another car who was stopped to turn. He was coming home from physical therapy at Madonna when it happened about 10 blocks from home. Brady wasn't hurt and everyone was okay, but the woman in the front car was quite shook up. That night Brady was discouraged and said, "I really felt like things were coming together and I was really doing good, and then this happens." He is now without a car for a while, but being the Brady he is, is handling that okay, while we are driving him around.

Yesterday Brady had his last public speaking class to end the first quarter. They had their final. When I picked him up and we were talking about the final on the way home, I asked him how it was and how he did, and he said it had been hard, and he thought he might have missed 7 or so out of 50 questions. I asked him how the old Brady would have done on the final. He said on some of the questions he would read them and kind of remember studying that, but would have to kind of guess or wasn't exactly sure about the answer. The old Brady would have been able to recall reading it before the test easier during the test and would have been pretty sure of the answer on those questions. I guess that goes back to memory issues. As the night went on Thursday night, he was glad class was over and he now has a week break before the next quarter begins.

During his week off his PT wants him to really work on doing a lot of stretching of his right ankle, since he had the botox last week. We are still waiting for his new brace to be done and hopefully that will be back sometime soon.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:32 PM CDT

There were a couple things Brady did this week to get excited about. The first happened at eye therapy on Monday. This eye therapy has been a long process, and
v-e-r-y slow going. He works for 45 minutes every Monday and works his right eye very hard to get it to be stronger and work together with his left eye. His glasses help push rightie to work with his left, but the eyes still have a hard time coming together to a deep focus, so he has a hard time distinguishing depth when looking at an object. Well, Monday he was able at the end of the session to start to distinguish clear depth in one exercise he had never been able to do! It's hard to explain, but he has been working on trying to accomplish this for a year and a half, and it finally happened. The exercise was to hold a yard long string straight out from his nose. He would hold it tight to his nose and someone would hold the end. There would be three 1 inch beads spread out on this string. When he would look at the middle bead he was to automatically see two of the bead in front, and two of the bead in back. This is what anyone with normal vision sees. Brady could never see the back bead double. It would so frustrate him, so when it happened this week it was a huge celebration! There is still a lot of work to be done, but it was so exciting for him to finally have his eyes work together normally. It might have been a momentary, fleeting thing, but it gave him hope to continue working hard.

Brady worked over last weekend and this week on writing his paper for his motivational speech he gave tonight. I think Monday or Tuesday he kind of had it done, and I came in the computer room to look at it, and I was so suprised. It looked good. When he wrote his other speeches and I looked at them, it was scary, because there were so many spelling errors when he was done with the speech. He would take time later to go through spell check, but that was pretty tedious. When he wrote this speech he was careful with his spelling out each word as he wrote, and would spellcheck the words if they highlighted wrong as he wrote, and would correct them right away. I was thrilled to see him think that out as he was working away, and his paper looked so much better when he was done with the first draft then it usually had. Spelling has never been a real strong suit for my kids, but with Brady's word center of the brain being hurt, it had been quite a struggle for him, but it is neat to see the improvements he has made in that area. We also watched the previous speech he had given on a VCR tape, and watching him read and deliver his speech was amazing, thinking back that just a year and a half ago he was totally struggling reading simple sentences. You just know that only God can create a brain so highly complex that it takes several years to heal. No evolution on that! No, not everything will come back, but there is still progress being made!

Tuesday was botox day. He got about 7 shots in the calf and foot close to the big toe. PT will spend a lot of time working on stretching of the ankle to help get more movement back to the ankle. It's been kind of hard with still no brace (hopefully it will be done by the end of next week, or so) and the nerves in the lower leg being killed by the botox. He's limping through it all, and uses this as a good excuse not to mow, but that's okay!

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, September 7, 2006 10:29 PM CDT

I see another weekend of cramming for Brady, as he will be writing a motivational speech, using his topic of 'Why Prayer Should be Brought Back to the Public Schools.' He has to deliver this speech on Thursday, Sept. 14th. Brady had a hard time memorizing his last speech and ended reading a lot off of his notes. This next speech also has to be 8 to 10 minutes, but since the topic is the same as his persuasive speech, the speech just needs to be written in a more energetic format. We'll see if his memorization skills get a little better this next time. Brady also gets help on his organization of his classwork twice a week for 45 minutes each session from his speech therapists at Madonna. These therapists are the ones who worked with him after he was injured to help him regain his ability to read when that skill was lost. They are now helping him with his cognitive thinking to help him organize himself, think through the steps to carry out assignments, and have success for this class and learning for future educational situations. They have just been a great help to him in the learning strategies they have given him. One of the skills he uses that they have helped him with is to sit in the front of the class so he can put complete focus on what the teacher is saying and not have any distractions. A couple weeks after his public speaking class had started Brady was talking about a couple girls in the class that were pretty cute, and I asked him if he was sitting by them when he went to class. He said no, he was sitting in the front like his therapist had suggested. I was shocked and amazed that he was choosing learning skills over flirting skills. Whoa!

Tuesday we went for a casting for a new brace, but it will probably be a couple weeks before it is ready. Meanwhile Brady is limping along without a brace and is doing okay with that. The only complaint he had is when he was mowing our yard this week, he was having trouble on a decline and his ankle rolled on him a couple times, so he came in to complain about that. I'm sure the motive behind was we would say, "Stop mowing." I thought possibly putting the brace on would help, so he did that instead. The alignment is off a little on the old brace, and it makes a terrible noise, but it did get him through most of the lawn, until he had to quit to go to therapy. Here's the part where we can give him sympathy for having to mow, but Tom and I look at it as a chance for aerobic exercise instead, since his stamina isn't what it used to be.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol Beran

Friday, September 1, 2006 5:05 PM CDT

Last Saturday night, Brady got to speak at the Champions for Christ rally. It went well, speaking in front of about 1,500 people. Tate, a school bus accident survivor, spoke first, and then Brady. Both gave full credit to Christ for saving their lives, and acknowledged Him for daily living. They got a standing ovation when they were done. The final speaker was Crystal Miller, who was in the library of Columbine when the shooters went through, sitting at the only table where no one was shot or killed. Crystal said that in the days after Columbine she wished she was dead the heartache was so bad. She then gave her life to the Lord, and spoke about having Hope to get through tough times. It was a good, inspirational night.

Moving on back to real life, Brady's video game system broke three days ago, so he is actually spending his free time doing some reading, and home eye therapy and home PT. Shocking!

Brady's brace broke a few days ago also, (it's been one of those weeks) and it makes a severe clomping sound when he walks. He finally took it off today and is going without it, and kind of gimping around. He has an appointment Tuesday to see about getting a new brace, we'll see what they suggest for him. When we were talking about where to go for the brace I said to Brady, let's look at other places for brace, since you won't be at Madonna forever (there is a brace store in Madonna). He looked at me and said, "Oh really, you don't think so?" It does kind of seem like he might, but it has been a wonderful place, and they wouldn't keep him if he wasn't making progress.

Thursday, Brady gave his persuasive speech on school prayer. It was a lot of work to pull that together since it had to be an eight to ten minute speech, but he did get it done and given, and he was happy it was over!

In PT Brady is still working a lot on balance, getting on a balance ball, and doing some stationery in place running (the feet don't leave the ball) He does this between parallel bars, so he has something to grab, and his PT stands in front of him to make sure he is standing upright, and not leaning too far forward. Going up and down steps without a brace and carrying some weight continues to get better, but as with everything it is repetition, repetition, repetition to do the retraining.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, August 25, 2006 12:15 AM CDT

A lot of Brady's friends have left for college, and are starting new lives. Though he misses the get-togethers of playing cards and movies, he is really happy for them and likes hearing of their new experiences. He went to the University Lutheran chapel for freshman night this week, and a Halo video game tourney at Southeast to get out and do some new things.

In physical therapy this week Brady's PT did work walking behind him holding his hips level and steady. When he walks without the brace he brings his right hip back before he takes a step forward, so she holds on to his hips to keep that from happening. I don't think one session quite took care of that problem, and it will be something they will be working on in the future.

This weekend Brady will be busy writing his persuasive speech. He started to do it on Ditka, wanting to talk his audience into knowing that Mike Ditka was the greatest pro football coach ever. Yesterday he changed it to prayer in the public schools and will persuade for it, thinking that would be a better persuasive speech. He has to give the speech next Thursday, so I see some cramming coming soon.

Saturday night, August 26, at Pinewood Bowl in Pioneer Park (STILL AUGUST 26th, BUT THIS HAS BEEN CHANGED TO SOUTHEAST HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM AT 7:00PM, BECAUSE OF THE THREAT OF RAIN), there will be a Chamnpions for Christ back to school rally. The guest speaker is Crystal Miller, a Columbine survivor, who now has a ministry speaking to teens all over the US. Casting Pearls (a contemporary Christian band) will be playing with a couple local bands. Brady gets to speak at the event with Tate Rief, a Seward school bus survivor. They have given Brady 2 minutes to talk, but good luck to them holding him to that. Brady wants to speak about how prayer and God's graciousness saved his life the night he was injured. He will show the picture of the circle of over 200 people praying on Seacrest field after the game, while he was going through his surgery. It should be a fun night.

God Bless, and thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, August 18, 2006 10:40 AM CDT

Brady went in for his first session on wiring up his scalp to work with his brain waves to help memory. They put one wire on the top of his head, and clipped one on each ear. He looked lovely with earrings. They could see his brain wave pattern. It is totally 'science fiction-like' to think that your brain emits different wave patterns that each need to be in complete balance. They worked on retraining his slow waves to help keep them in a more concise pattern. Brady could track his slow wave on a computer screen, and while sitting in a chair he was to relax to help get the wave pattern down to a relaxing level. A slight eye lid blink or any movement would cause the line to move all over the screen. He worked on that for about 35 minutes, and then he was to work on a wind-down activity that checked all the brain waves. During that activity we could see that his faster waves were overworking, so they worked on bringing those down to a slower level. The therapist told that is why he tires out easy, because some areas of his brain are just working too hard to overcompensate for those not working hard enough. I asked him what theis retraining could accomplish, and Roger explained it like this, "It's kind of like an oil change and tune-up." That makes it easy to understand!

Brady got his speech and test back from his public speaking class. The teacher thought the delivery of the speech was good, but he should have narrowed the point of his speech. On Brady's test he got a 40 out of 50. Brady has a low 'B' in the class, which he has had to work very hard for. The guy sitting next to him has an 'A ', and the teacher makes the class pretty easy and straightforward, giving the complete study sheet for the test and directions for the writing. I asked Brady if it bothers him that school doesn't come as easy as it did before he was hurt. He paused and thought and quietly said, 'a little', and then we just kind of smiled, because we know it could be a lot worse...he's so blessed he can be in school, trying these classes.

Brady feels like focus and staying on task are getting a little better for him. He notices it a little in his class, but more so in physical therapy. He doesn't know if it's because he has a very large 'muscular' PT student helper who intimidates him, or if he is just getting better. We'll just think that his focus is getting better, intimidation or not, and healing is still progressing!

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, August 11, 2006 9:48 AM CDT

The birthday cookie is finished off, and Brady is now officially 19! YEA! His second speech over and done. He talked about video games for all ages and the benefits of playing video games. He had an interesting fact that surgeons who play video games right before surgery get the surgery done in less time, with fewer errors. So next time you are scheduled for a procedure ask, "Doctor, are you game for surgery?" Ya, he had some other lame jokes, too. Brady said it was harder to memorize and deliver this speech than the first one when he talked about himself, but the teacher recorded it, so he gets to see it and critique it. They have their first test next Tuesday, and the teacher gave the class a study sheet, so it will be good for him to see how that goes.

Last winter a research person at Madonna approached and tested Brady for being in a memory study that had helped a couple people improve their memory. At the time Brady was busy going full time to school and therapy, so we asked if he could wait until this summer. By the time summer came they had discontinued the study. This week we talked to the man who had done the study, and he showed us that the area they had been testing in was actually an area Brady that Brady was 'normal' in. The memory area Brady has the most trouble with is in his reading retention area. It makes sense since he had lost his ability to recognize words, and had to work to regain his reading that this is his struggle area. So, from a brain scan it shows that a weakness for Brady is reading and remembering and applying what he has read. It looks like this fall he can try working on that area with some training that would help restore blood flow to that area. We were told that some of the tissue in that area may never recover, but some of it is there, just waiting for blood flow to get to it to help revive it. Yes, it's overwhelming to think they have ways to help retrain that also, and we'll know more when it starts, but from the description it is kind of like doing a video game for the retraining. Yes, Brady was game for that......

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, August 3, 2006 10:14 PM CDT

I went to physical therapy for a little while today and watched Brady. His PT has another student helper (this is a PT who is about to graduate PT school) Chris (the helper) has come with more ideas of different things for Brady to work on. I asked his PT about him jumping on the mini-tramp, and she said it was really hard for him in the beginning because that right ankle just doesn't want to bend. The jumping does a little better each time. Today they had Brady lying on a moving slant board. He was to propel himself backward by pushing off with his left leg, and then when he slides down again, he switches and propels himself back with his right leg. So, about every few seconds he is pushing off with one leg, and then the other leg the next time. Dana, his PT says all of these different exercises are to help him get the movement and motion of starting to 'jog' again. That is one of Brady's main goals in this recovery. In PT they are also working on stepping up a 21" step to replicate stepping up onto a bleacher. They have been working on that for a long time. It takes a lot of repetition and a lot of learning and patience for all of these goals. From time to time they still have Brady work on going up and down the steps. The goal there is for him to be able to completely go up and down two flights of steps using no hands and carrying his backpack with a 10-pound weight, with no brace on his leg.

Brady has not worked out on any weights since school was out. We could all tell that he needed to get back to that, so he and his brother are starting to work out together. He could feel the burn the next day after the first work-out. He just needs to keep that right side working out to give it some needed strength. Since we had a little break in the weather and it finally got out of the 100's, we asked Brady to mow the lawn. Physically it was very tiring for him, but he did such a good job we're going to let him do it again! He did leave one side undone, because he just wasn't ready to tackle that hill, but Joe was thrilled to just have that little bit to do.

Next week Brady gives his informative speech in class on video gaming. He has been working on writing it, and his speech teacher at Madonna helped him proof read it for grammar and structure. He doesn't spend much time in speech therapy, but it's nice to have them just give Brady a little support as he starts his college class. We can tell Brady is still making improvements on organization, conversing and writing, etc. When he wrote his paper he knew what he wanted to write about, he just needed some help to kind of talk it out in what order would be best. Last summer Brady would never have been able to tackle a class like this. We can tell he is still improving in his thinking, conversations, writing, problem-solving and etc. God is truly amazing to make such a complex brain that has so much wiring!

Thanks for you caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, July 27, 2006 11:21 AM CDT

Last summer, fall and winter Brady kept asking his Physical Therapist why she couldn't think of some new exercises for him. Well, she wanted him to get down the basics first and retrain on those, so whenever he whined, she just teased him back. Well, this spring and summer she has been adding new things, and Brady has stopped asking! Tuesday she had him on a mini-tramp and he was jumping. Wow! That really tests him and his balance. Brady enjoyed it, and he said rightie was just 'shakin and a bakin.' We love that when the right leg gets a hard workout? That right ankle really isn't moving any better yet. Next Thursday he will be getting some botox shots in the ankle and we'll see what effect that has.

Today is the last day of the reading camp Brady has been helping with at Madonna. He did a lot of one on one with a third grader who just couldn't sit still, and that was fun to hear what tricks the young kid would pull to get out of sitting still to read. It challenged Brady to think of ways to get the students' attention back to the book.

Brady's public speaking class is still going good. He thinks he could really like college if he could just get past this homework thing. His public speaking textbook has a lot of reading with it, and they have to read several chapters each week. He is trying to get down the skill of skimming and taking notes over the main thoughts. Right now he is doing extra research for his next speech, 'The Art of X-Box Video Gaming.'

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, July 21, 2006

Brady worked on his speech for his public speaking class this week and he presented it on Tuesday. He started out real serious talking in third person about the night he was injured telling how he was rushed into surgery with a 10% chance of surviving. He went on to say (in kind of a somber tone) that the surgeon had done this surgery three times before, but none of those patients survived. He then told how at one point in the surgery they were considering coming out and telling the family he wasn't going to live, and then something happened. Brady went on to say, "Do you believe in miracles?, Do you believe in the power of Prayer?", and then he gave a 4 minute version of the rest of the recovery to now. He showed the picture, given to us, of the playing field after the game with about two hundred people in a prayer circle. Part of his speech talked about how the positives of the injury outweigh the negatives. Although he can never play competitive sports, and school and math are much harder, he has a much deeper faith and is much more outgoing about it. He sees everyone the same, and value in every person. Brady was happy with the way it turned out. Okay, one speech done, and three more to go, with some book reading and tests. I think the next speech is an informative speech, and he informed me today he wants to talk about HALO - a video game he plays. At heart he is just a typical teen enjoying typical teen things!

Wednesday morning Brady was getting dressed and I heard him yell from his room in kind of a panic, mom, come look at this. Well, I kind of hurried, not knowing what to think and he was holding up his brace. One of the joints had completely broke off, and it was not wearable. The night before he was stepping off the side of a curb and he had felt something give. He said it was a little harder to walk, but he didn't notice what happened until the next morning when the brace completely fell apart. We took it to the brace repair shop, and it would take them two days to fix it. We were all kind of surprised how well he walks without the brace. Of course there is a limp, a little more than with the brace, but not much more. Probably the most noticeable is that since Brady doens't have much ankle movement, he comes down with a clomp instead of hitting the ground heal-toe with his foot. The brace seems to pull the front part of his foot up, so he doesn't clomp when he walks. He is still driving, even without the brace, and says that doensn't feels as bad as he thought it would, and that is going well, too. In a couple weeks they are going to try botox on the ankle again to kill the nerves and try and get more stretch to the ankle during the three months the botox is in effect. We'll just wait, and see, and keep trying.

I remember in the beginning of the recovery we could see improvement almost every day. Then it was week by week, and then month by month. There is healing still taking place, but it is about the more complex thinking, etc. When we stop and think about recovery it's more like saying, six months ago he wasn't able to do that as well as he can now. We'll just continue to be patient, encourage Brady to keep working away (which in summer is a little hard) and thanking you for all your caring and prayers.

Tom and Carol

Friday, July 14, 2006 11:24 AM CDT

Brady is an official student again, and actually loving it! Classes started last evening for him at Southeast Community College and he went to his class....Public speaking. He came home with homework and they have to give a 3 to 5 minute speech already next Tuesday. Of course he was so excited, because it's a class where he is encouraged to get up and talk. That's right where he belongs! For the first speech they have 4 subjects to pick from. One of the topics is to tell about something that has happened in your life that has made an impact on or changed your life. H-m-m-m, do we see an idea here? Since the class only meets two days a week and lasts nine weeks, it looks like they will really push them and the homework, so this will a good trial for Brady since it is his only class right now.

In physical therapy they are working on a variety of things like squats, stairs, boucle ball. They had him fake running on the boucle ball moving his arms and shoulders and upper body, but not his legs. A lot of this is for balance. The activity I was excited to hear he was doing was they have 4 canes laid out to form 4 right angles looking like this +. Brady them steps back to one square and brings his feet together, left to the next square, forward to the next square, and then right to the next. He just keeps moving around the four squares like that. I remember last summer when I would see other people in physical therapy working on stepping like this, and thought how neat it would be to have Brady at that level that he was able to do that. He has done it a few times now and his time has improved each time. It seems like a simple activity, but it means so much to think that he is improving enough to be doing this level of activity for balance.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, July 6, 2006 10:08 PM CDT

We saw the eye doctor last week. Brady still sees double if he takes off his glasses. To overcome that he just shuts off the right eye. That is why he wears glasses to help pull the right eye in, so he just sees one, instead of double vision. These glasses help him get his right eye stronger, and help him not rely on the left eye only. The doctor is going to dial down the strength on the glasses a couple notches. Next Monday, when he gets his new lenses his right eye will have to work harder, and for the first few days he will probably have some double vision, and will have to concentrate and pull his right eye in and work to just see one. This is the way they have been dealing with getting his right eye more inline and stronger. He will still continue doing eye therapy weekly which also helps him strengthen his right eye.

Since school is over, and Brady's schedule has slowed down we had him mow the front and back lawn today. The sides of our house have a steep hill, so we didn't turn him loose on that yet, but mowing the front and back was a good workout, and he came in tired from that. A quick shower and a little Powerade drink revived him, but we were proud of his help and accomplishment, and especially his younger brother who had been doing most of the mowing this summer.

After Brady got done mowing he said his right leg was shaking just a little. We love to hear that, because that means rightie has had a good workout and is tired. He also said his physical therapist worked him hard today and had gotten rightie shakin' also. His PT loves to hear that too, because the hard work makes rightie stronger.

Thank you so much for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, June 29, 2006 10:50 PM CDT

WOW, taking time off from therapy was great, but Brady seemed ready to get back to the therapy routine. Madonna is like a second home for him. They are doing some new exercises for him in physical therapy. A lot of the the exercises are for strengthening the right leg. His PT tested him on standing on his right leg as she usually does every month, and he had lost ground and was down to just 4 seconds for the best. She told him to start working on that at home. As long as Brady has been doing therapy it's hard to get up the momentum to work on therapy at home, too, but I guess we will have to start encouraging it. Tomorrow Brady goes for an eye check-up and so we will see if there has been any improvement in getting the right eye to work harder. Since he hasn't been doing any eye therapy for the last two weeks it might be a slow situation there, also. His work on going up and down steps with weights in his hand and no brace went real well this week, though.

Brady is helping at Madonna with a group of young kids in a reading recovery program. It is a group of elementary students who are having a hard time learning to read. He works one on one with a student who reads to him, and then also listens when they do group reading. He helps the kids sound out words they have trouble with. This goes on for six weeks, and he is helping his 'Madonna teacher' with it. She has done so much to help Brady in his recovery he just really likes helping her out now, too.

Thanks for your caring and prayers,
Carol

Sunday, June 18, 2006 10:32 PM CDT

We are kind of taking a week and a half here to relax, take a break from therapy and just be regular people, so since our lives are kind of off schedule I'm not even keeping up well on the Caring Bridge sight. I will be back probably on June 29th with the regular 'weekly' updates, but until then we are not even going to try to think therapy or recovery.

Wednesday Brady took the actual entrance exam for Southeast Community College. His math score was good, and as far as math goes he can start at College Level math, but he might just do an Algebra review when the time comes. His English score was okay. The English part covers correcting grammar and sentence structure. They recommended an English to take. It is not any high level class, but right in with regular level English. Brady's struggle is with the reading and reading comprehension. Of course his reading is slower, but they don't grade on the speed. Where his struggle is, is with remembering the details of what he has read. This score was his lowest on the test. Of course, as it has been all along, if he hears something he wants to remember, or makes plans with friends he has no trouble remembering it. If he reads a paragraph about something that doesn't mean anything to him, his remembering of details is sketchy. That will be where he really has to work hard when he goes on to school. Brady will really have to put extra time into schoolwork that used to very easy for him. That's why we'll start slowly in the begining and not be in any hurry. After seeing the SECC Counselor last week, and the Counselor signing him up for two classes starting in July, we have even rethought that, and will move those two classes until the October quarter, and just pick up one class starting in July. Hopefully we can get that changed and let Brady have the summer to work hard in therapy, do some volunteer work at Madonna, and visit with his friends before they leave for school. I think taking one class is good, because the next quarter doesn't start until October, and that would be too long to wait to start, but we don't want to burn him out already in July, when other kids aren't having to study at all.

It has been a hot start to the summer already. Hope everyone is well. We thank the Lord for all the blessings he has given us, and your caring and prayers are a big part of that.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, June 8, 2006 4:14 PM CDT

WOW! Graduation happened! Brady, and 403 other classmates walked and tripped (done by one for a joke) their way across the stage June 3rd and it was a great weekend of parties, celebrations and memories captured in photographs. Two of the doctors who did surgery on Brady the night of the injury came to our party and of course we thanked them for making the graduation weekend possible for us! A couple nurses who took care of Brady in the Intensive Care Unit for 5 weeks while he was in a coma came. Those nurses meant so much to us, and had shared a lot of emotions with us, but Brady was seeing them for the first time. That was a feeling hard to explain.
Then Monday, we wake up to Brady's face being on the front page of the paper as the last interview of the year for their weekly Generation '06. When the Journal called wanting to do the interview I said, "There are a lot of kids with interesting stories, couldn't you pick someone else, Brady has had a lot of press already." They thought it would be a great way to end the school year with his story, so I asked Brady, and of course, he loved the idea! Well, I knew Brady would talk about his love for the Lord, so we went ahead. Usually however these articles appear in Section C, so when it was on the front it was a little shocking, and I hope everyone's breakfast was digested before they looked at that mug of his! HA!

Last week we talked to SCC about classes. They were happy with his testing scores, so he will be able to start there, and has signed up for two classes starting July 12. One is a class on Success in College, and the other is counseling theories and techniques. The counselor thought Brady should have a taste of counseling practices since that is what he is directing his major to at this time. He started the meeting with a question to Brady on what he wants to be. Brady told him he wants to be a Christian Counselor. The SCC counselor said, "Do you want to be a Counselor, or a Christian. You can't do both at the same time." Interesting, huh? After doing a little research when we got home, Seward Concordia does have Christian Counseling on their fields of study. Only the Lord knows what path will be the right one for Brady, and we'll just have to take it slow and see what works. I know he needs to stay in town and take classes at SECC and continue on doing therapy for at least one more year.

Therapy continues on, and today they were doing some testing on how he is progressing. Brady had been going up and down steps without a brace, carrying a backpack on his back with a 10 pound weight in it. Today they gave him a box with handles to carry and they put a 10 pound weight in that. This shifted his center of balance, but he did one flight. He said he went slow and it felt different, but it's a start! They timed Brady standing on his right leg only, and he got 6 seconds for his best. That's kind of in a holding pattern, but he'll keep working at it. They have been introducing other techniques in physical therapy, like walking backwards on the treadmill, and even sidestepping on the treadmill. It isn't the big treadmill with the harness that he used to be on, but just a regular treadmill.

We sure appreciate all the support we had after Brady's injury. All the prayers and help was and is such a lift to all of our family and we just appreciate all of the caring. Thank you so much.
GOD BLESS,
Tom and Carol

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 9:05 PM CDT

This is graduation week, and Brady is counting down the days left at East High, as I'm sure every senior is. I'm writing this a little early this week, because we will have a lot of activity as the week goes on. Thursday, June 1, we are meeting with the counselor at Southeast Community College to talk about classes for Brady for the fall. He has tested on their pre-tests and taken some Algebra tests that the counselor can look at to help gage strengths and class placement.

Graduation is early Saturday morning at 9:00. If you were around me much at all the months after Brady was hurt, you know I really didn't cry much. I just wanted to concentrate on getting Brady better as he laid comatose in his hospital bed for over five weeks. It wasn't easy going to the hospital every day, but I didn't want to waste any of my energy on crying, because that couldn't change anything that had happened. I said I would save my tears for the joyful events that we would celebrate in the future when he got better. I think graduation might have been one of those events I dreamt of, so watch out Saturday if your around Pershing Auditorium, because there might be a little bit of a flood. Graduation is something many people take for granted, but truly a fulfilment of dreams for others. God has been so good.

Brady has been going to some open houses for his classmates. He is getting better about finding his way around to houses he hasn't been to and neighborhoods he hasn't gone into before. That is truly exciting, too! We always talk about how to get to where he is going before he leaves, but his sense of direction just keeps getting better.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR CARING AND PRAYERS,
THOSE PRAYERS AND GOD'S GRACE KEPT HIM ALIVE THAT NIGHT, AND HELPED HIM IN HIS RECOVERY.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, May 25, 2006 4:13 PM CDT

When Brady was writing his long paper for Creative Writing about Madonna, his injury and recovery, he had to do some factual research, and one of the people he interviewed was his football coach. He went to Coach's house one evening and it was a very emotional hour for Brady. The coach told him how hard it was for the team to go on playing that night he was hurt, and how practices after that were always started and ended in prayer. I'm sure it was really good for both of them, but it was the most interesting for Brady, since all the stories he was hearing for the first time. Brady told the coach that the name of his paper is 'Brady, Now You Can', which is the slogan of Madonna. Brady asked the coach how he thinks this slogan applies to his recovery. "Brady is living proof that with hard work and an attitude that's not afraid to fail, you can succeed," the coach told him.
:~)

Brady also interviewed his 'teacher' at Madonna who has helped him so much in his comeback, and now helping to improve his reading and organizing himself for school. She told him that one of the first times she worked with him was right after lunch when he first got to Madonna, and he proceeded to get sick and throw up, kind of in her direction. It's a miracle she stuck with him and came back. She told him of all the things they had to start working on in the beginning, like getting him to speak. Then getting him to speak louder. Then working on getting him to speak more words and think of names of items. They would show Brady a car key, and he knew what it was, but couldn't say the word, key, so they worked on simple naming and word association. Brady doesn't remember any of that, so that was very interesting and also part of his paper. She is such an advocate and patient with all of her Madonna kids, and so happy for Brady because she is still seeing improvement in his recovery.

His 'teacher at Madonna' and speech teacher have been confering and are happy that Brady is starting to show initiative in shopping and taking on tasks he has himself thought of doing. It was his 'teacher's' birthday and he went out and bought her some flowers before class. For Mother's Day he stopped at Hallmark on his way home from school and bought me a card, without being prompted or hinted to do so. I had no idea he did that, until I was saying good night to him on Mother's Day, and saw it lying in his bedroom completely filled out and ready to give to me. It was about 10:30 at night, and I asked him if there was anything he had forgotten to do today, and he looked at me kind of funny and I held up the card. He felt so dumb for actually shopping, signing and secretly having it all ready and then not giving it to me during the day. I didn't care, at all.
:~)

Thank you for all your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, May 18, 2006 10:53 PM CDT

This week was State Tournament finals for the East Soccer team, and so the week was spent going to state games all the way to the finals in which East captured the victory!! YEA! I drove Brady to Omaha for a couple of the games, and on the way back from one game, we had a discussion on the game and what we would do if we were coaching the opposing team to East. I said I would put two goalies in the box (one actual goalie and another player even if he couldn't use his hands) to defend against our offense and Brady started talking about goalie strategy that a goalie uses. He talked about when he was a goalie and how he remembered how each player would kick against him. It was so neat to hear, since last summer when I suggested to him that he could work with training goalies someday he said he couldn't do it, because he had forgotten a lot of his goalie training. He talked about strategy, and it was so nice to hear him remember strategy and plays, and that is coming back to him.

Brady is part of a youth board for the Lincoln Police. They meet once a month, and tonight was their final meeting. The police show different aspects of their job, and tonight they took the kids to the shooting range and helped them get the feel of their guns and weapons. Brady loved it, and even got to shoot a semi-automatic. I know every mother is cringing when they read this. It must be a guy thing, because Brady was really excited about it. They also did a little target shooting at sitting targets. Brady used to love cop shows when he was growing up, so playing cop for the night was a dream.

Brady's reading is still improving in it's speed, so that is encouraging. This summer Madonna has a reading program for beginning readers who are strugglng. The teacher has asked Brady to volunteer and help her with the class. It takes a lot of one on one time with each student, so Brady will sit with a student and listen to them read and help and encourage them. There are usually 7 or 8 kids in the class that meets for an hour and a halfevery day for six weeks. Brady just loves working with young kids, so it will be a great experience for him, and will be good for him to be reading right along, also.

Thank you for your prayers and caring.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 10:33 PM CDT

Hopefully a good time was had by all at the East Prom. I know Brady completely enjoyed it! They had a great turnout, and it seemed like everyone was having a good time. Brady did some dancing, though he questioned his dance moves, but he had fun anyway! At Postprom, he played some games, ate some food, and closed it up about 4:00 in the morning. A little nap Sunday afternoon, and he was good to go this week....so far.....

Update wise, it's business as usual. Therapy is continuing, and we are thinking about the Madonna summer therapy schedule. Brady is spending his evenings working on his 15 page paper for Creative Writing which was due a week ago. He asked for an extension for his paper until next Monday. Once he decides what to write about, that goes pretty well, but he needs help deciding what topics to focus on, and in what order to put the topics. His whole theme is 'Now You Can' which is Madonna's new slogan. He is writing about his injury and how Madonna has brought him back from comatose to where he is today.

I was looking through his creative writing folder one night while he was doing some work, and found a couple poems he had written for the class. I asked him if I could put them on the update, because they really express an emotion he feels, but really doesn't talk about. The first one is a picture poem, and is named that because at the top of the page he has a picture of himself one month before he was hurt in his football jersey and pads:

Tough Guy

Number 48.
Oh how I wish I could go back to those days,
Having fun at practice and at games.
But You, oh Lord, had different plans for me.
You saved my life that night,
And just walked me every step of the way.
That night was a scary night,
I don't remember any of it.
But I almost scared my parents and brothers to death.
Lord, just help me,
Lord, take the steering wheel from me.
I want to do Your will and not mine.
Thank You for saving Number 48 that night Lord,
Thank You

That Field

Oh, how I wish I could be on that field.
With all my buddies,
Kicking the snot out of each other.
Just the smell,
Of sweat, blood, tears, grass, and fear,
To me is the best smell in the world.
The coaches yelling at you with encouragement,
Or just because you made a mistake.
Oh, under those Friday Night Lights,
With the crazy fans screaming their guts out,
And my parents,
Who are so proud of me out there.
But I think if I would go out there today,
My mom would be the first person to tackle me.
She is scared of me having to go through that close call again.
I can't play anymore in my earthly life,
But I told my coaches to watch out up there,
Because I will be coming for them in Heaven.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,

Tom and Carol

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 9:51 PM CDT

A HUGE weekend is coming up.....Prom. I'm sure Brady will be complaining his feet hurt by the end of the night from a lot of dancing, but he won't really care.

I talked to Brady's physical therapist about what her summer plans were for Brady and she said she plans on keeping him in physical therapy for a long time. She said she might not have him jogging when he leaves Madonna, but she will have his right leg stronger and him walking better. It's the constant repetitive training that helps reform those pathways in the brain, to establish improvement. I asked her who would retire from Madonna first, Brady or her (she is 34). Hopefully, Brady... Last fall Brady set a goal to be running by the 2 year anniversary of his injury, which is 9/24, so she must not see that goal happening, but it's not something he will ever give up on! When he works out on the glider at East he gets it going fast enough that it looks like he is running, so I'm sure that is a great feeling for him.

Brady is missing his Thursday therapy this week to go to the East soccer district game. (the soccer team is doing REALLY GOOD, and he loves cheering for his friends) I let his speech/teacher at Madonna know that he would be gone, and she e-mailed back and said that Brady had recently been coming in knowing what homework he had to do. Usually he would get to Madonna, and they would look up together what he had to work on that day. She was happy that he was self-starting and remembering what needed to be done.

Thank you so much for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, April 27, 2006 10:07 PM CDT

Tuesday, Madonna had a brunch and supper to honor their volunteers, as they do every year. They like to show the volunteers the recovery made by the patients even after they leave the hospital. Brady had the honor of saying a few words about his recovery to the group. The neat part was afterwards one of the women there came up to Brady and told him that she remembers seeing Brady early in his recovery, and what an inspiration he was to her. She remembers seeing him sitting at a table staring at a picture and trying to find a matching picture to it (out of four pictures) for 15 minutes. She said, He has come a long way!

This week in Physical Therapy his PT did some testing. She strokes the bottom of his right foot to see how much movement it is getting, and this time she noticed his ankle had some movement too. They were kind of excited. There was a student PT that has been working with Brady who is a male. Today was his last day, and he and Brady had such a good time together talking about guy stuff. They did work today on the balance balls, and want to try to get together to go to a Husker baseball game in the future.

Brady is trying to get his facts together working on his 15 page paper for Creative Writing. His paper is on Madonna, and he has been doing some research on Madonna and the services they offer, and is also interviewing some nurses and therapists on his time as an inpatient. He thought of some questions and interviewed Tom and I, and we told him some of the things we remember from that November and December in 2004. One story I told him was in the very beginning they were working with him and re-teaching him just to sit up on a flat surface. They worked for a couple weeks just to help him re-learn that. He had no sense of balance and had to re-learn center of gravity for the body. I remember how scary it was when they would let go and trust him to sit there just a few seconds on his own. About the second week we were at Madonna they had Brady stand at a standing table that he could prop his arms on to hold himself up. They would hang on to him to help hold him up, and he couldn't stand for very long, but they put a very simple puzzle in front of him with eight simple shapes as star, heart, moon, etc cut out. One by one he had to reach for a puzzle piece that was in a basket, and then he had to put the puzzle piece in the correct slot. This was an 'impossible' task for him at the time. He used every bit of energy he had just to try standing up, and he had no idea about matching a star piece to go into a star hole. It was really sad to see him try several times at each piece to get it correct. We just sat there encouraging him and celebrating when a correct decision was made. I had kind of forgotten all of this, so when Brady was interviewing us and we were telling him these stories that were all new to him, it was kind of like it happened so long ago, and yet it wasn't.........

Thank you for all your prayers and caring,

Tom and Carol

Thursday, April 20, 2006 10:04 PM CDT

On Good Friday Brady was in a drama at our church. He was playing Cleopas, a friend of Jesus. He did good remembering his 15 lines and a prayer, and moving around the stage. They did it for two services, and I think the second time he might have missed one line, but he won't admit it. It was so exciting to see him accomplish this. Last year at this time he was going back to high school, and was having a struggle just finding classes and trying to remember names.

One thing Brady is learning is that he has to study more for tests, and he can't get by a class on just (as Brady would say) 'his good looks and charming personality.' HA! HA! He put in his usual (before injury) study time
on a Citizenship Issues test and got a letter grade that is just one step above an F. He even said that he is learning he has to study more, so hopefully he'll remember that next time.

Brady was a little mad today that his physical therapist couldn't think of anything they could work on outside, because that is where he wanted to be. In PT he is continuing to work on going up and down stairs with no brace and no hand rail, and then a lot with balance on a balance ball. When he stands on his right leg alone he is still hovering around 5-6 seconds, just a bit short of the 30 seconds that is the set goal......

God's Blessings and thanks for your caring,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, April 13, 2006 11:23 PM CDT

We had a wonderful visit Wednesday with the Physical Therapist for the Lincoln Public Schools. She checks on Brady every couple months. She gave him some exercises he could work on at home. One is to lie down on the floor on his stomach. She then had him lift his arms and legs off the ground for a count of ten. Of course, this is really hard for him to lift his right leg behind him in the air, because the hamstring is so weak and tight. This will help strengthen the hamstring. Then she had him lift his right leg only in the air, while still on his stomach. When he was just concentrating on lifting only the right leg it could go a little higher. Another exercise is on the floor on his hands and knees, as in a crawling position. She then had him lift his right leg straight out behind him, and lift his left arm straight out in front of him. This is good for balance, and provides a cross over link in the brain while doing it. It wasn't easy, either, so just lifting one leg straight out behind him will be the way to start. Nancy had so many good ideas. She's been working with all age kids for over 25 years so she knows what works and what doesn't. She can see the tendons doing a little work in the ankle and foot, so she says with a LOT of repetitive work on the ankle movement it should retrain and come back. She suggested that Brady kicks a soccer ball over and over, but instead of using a soccer ball use something easier on the foot as a balloon. As he brings up his foot to kick, his toe comes up, and helps get movement to the ankle.

This afternoon Brady went to the foot doctor and got two ingrown toenails cut down and the root killed, so he had to keep his foot up all the rest of the day, and will be soaking it twice a day for a couple weeks. He has had a lot of trouble with ingrown nails on the right foot, probably because of heridity and also because of wearing the brace crowds his toes in the shoe. I think this is his third visit to have toenails fixed. The doctor and his nurses are kind of thinking we just like seeing them....

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, enjoy this beautiful weather, and thank you so much for your caring.....

Tom and Carol

Thursday, April 6, 2006 10:13 PM CDT

Life continues on, and Brady adventures a little farther each week. We had always been keeping the gas tank full for him, but this week he noticed he was very low on gas. He stopped on the way home from school and filled up for his first time. He said that went well, but just before he left, someone told him he needed to put the gas cap back on. Luckily it is attached with a cord, so it was just hanging there. His first car (which was a '92 Black Chevy Lumina with 190,000 miles) was nicknamed, 'Black Beauty' so he calls this big gold minivan he is driving 'The Golden Stallion'.

In physical therapy they are having him do a lot of work on balance, on a balance board. It is a board about 15 inches square, with half a ball about the size of a basketball attached on the bottom. He does rotating on the board, balancing one foot to the other, and even squats on the board. He does these between parallel bars, so he can grab the bar when necessary. I think his PT stands close to him also. He has a male student helper PT who assists his main female PT gal. Actually most of the therapists at Madonna are female, which is also fine with Brady, but he really likes having this guy. He says it's nice having Steve, because Brady quotes a lot of funny lines from movies, and Steve is about the first therapist who also watches a lot of movies, and can finish the quotes along with Brady.

In Creative Writing, besides the big project he is working on, he is also writing a short story on, "The Idiot's Guide to Stalling/Slacking". He is a master at stalling at Madonna. Even his teacher at the Madonna speech department has crowned him the king of thinking of ways to stall in therapy. Can't wait to see this paper, too.

Thank you to everyone for their caring and all the support given to us and prayers. We are just so greatful.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Tuesday, this week in speech therapy, she had Brady working on focusing. He is the king of getting off task and dropping focus, so I was excited to hear about that. They would read him a series of words or numbers and he would have to repeat them back. He did okay with that, and it's such good practice for him to help him on his listening to detail and concentration. I remember back to last year at this time. The speech therapist would ask him to name as many animals as he could in one minute, and he would maybe get four or five animals, and if he got a few more than that it was because he was repeating some. Things are a whole lot better than that this year, thank you Lord.

Today they tested Brady in physical therapy over things they had been working on the last few months. He has been doing a lot of work on the stairs going up and down without a brace on his leg and not using the handrails. Usually a therapist is right by him to help steady him if necessary. Today they had him going up and down a flight of stairs with a five pound weight in his backpack, without any therapist holding on to him, and he did it without major incident! YEA! Then he practiced getting up and down a 16" step by himself. The weakness in the right leg make all these tasks hard for him, but the right leg still will get a little stronger, it's just so S--L--O--W.

Brady has a part in the Good Friday services at our contemporary church service. He has about 15-20 lines to learn, so hopefully he can get that done over the next two weeks. He has never done any drama before, even before he was hurt, so this will be interesting....

I asked Brady tonight if he had anything to add to the journal this week, and he said just say that I'm ready for school to be done. Can we say, 'Senioritis' has hit. It's nice to know that even with missing over half of your junior year, you can still feel ready to graduate. Of course I gave him an 'upset mother' look when he told me to write about wanting school to be done.

Thank you so much for all the caring,
Carol and Tom

Thursday, March 23, 2006 1:41 PM CST

We have been sitting inside a lot, watching the public schools spring break week go by, and the ground covered with about 9 inches of snow. I think the boys went out to shovel about three times over the course of the snow, and Brady even joined them once. Shoveling went fine for him. In fact, it went so well that the next day I asked him to shovel the last couple inches that had fallen, while I had to run Joe to an appointment. Luckily for him a nice neighbor with a snowblower came to his rescue before he got outside. During this week off he has declared he wants to be a bum and he canceled all his regular therapy. For a citizenship class Brady is taking he needs to put in volunteer hours to graduate, so he did go to Madonna for that this week to help out with the adult day program. He played cribbage with one gentleman, and attended the weekly Madonna chapel service today with the group. Otherwise, at home he is putting in extra hours on his hand-eye coordination. (that means sitting in front of the TV playing video games)

Brady did put in a little time doing some personal reading this week. That is one thing I haven't talked a lot about, but after he was injured he lost his ability to read. His teacher at Madonna said that she has seen only one other young person this happened to in her years at Madonna. When Brady would look at a page he would see a jumble of letters instead of words. Brady had to relearn to read, just like starting over. No one knew if the ability would come back, but he just kept practicing, first with elementary reading books. By the time he started back to school last April he was reading at about a fifth or sixth grade level. If Brady had trouble with a word he would say each letter of the word, and then the word would come to him. At that point he probably struggled with a word in about every third sentence. Last summer he continually worked during his speech therapy and had moved to high school level by the start of school last fall. As each bit of reading became easier, they would put harder material in front of him. They wouldn't wait for him to master each level, they just kept challenging with something a little harder every time he finished an article or chapter. Each month this fall the words came a little faster, and with a little less error. Brady is now able to keep up with his grade level reading assignments and personal reading. It is probably only about once every four or five pages that he has to stop for a word and think about its meaning. Last year at this time if he read an article in the newspaper they would probably have broken it up over two days to finish the article. Now it's just so encouraging to see him able to read the articles of interest to him (East High sports, etc.) in the newspaper in good time. Of course they will continue to work on speed and keep challenging Brady to keep moving forward in regaining all he can. Of course, I know none of this would have been possible without the prayers that were said for Brady and his recovery. God has truly blessed that.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, March 16, 2006 5:16 PM CST

Tuesday was a big day to celebrate for Brady. He had his final day on the treadmill. I went to watch for the ending, and couldn't believe how focused he was. They have a mirror by his feet and he was intent on watching his right foot come down with his heal first, and his left foot hit properly after. I said something to him about his intenseness, and he said if only he had been that focused a few weeks earlier his PT probably would have gotten him off the treadmill sooner. HA! Brady has the right moves down for walking properly, it's just that the strength in the leg and especially the ankle haven't come back enough yet to let him walk with out a brace on his leg. His PT wants to give him a break from the treadmill and try other ways for him to retrain and strengthen. He will still be doing Physical Therapy 3 days a week and she will continue working on going up and down stairs without a brace on and carrying weights, standing balanced on the right leg, and etc. Brady's PT at Madonna is as tough as he is, and she can tease back just as much as he teases her, so they love to challenge each other. Brady loves to find ways to get off task and get out of work. The more he does that the more work she gives him, so they have a good time trying to find a compromising balance. Last fall I started calling her a saint to be able to put up working with him, so that is how we address her now. She calls Brady an overachiever, so we really laugh about that, too. He does try, and knows everything he does and has to do is to help him get better, but I don't think overachiever is the word.

Brady also thinks so much of his speech teacher at Madonna. She is like a second mother to him. She works on his reading and memory. When he saw her Monday of this week she had him go over everything he did over the weekend. He remembered every single detail of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Of course, it was the weekend, and weekends are important to an 18 year old. Now today, which is Thursday, he forgot and went to his 7th period class, which he only has on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This made him late for Madonna, and then at Madonna he forgot to go to his Madonna speech appointment, so he got to PT early. When he got home and was telling us about it I just told him that if he had a Palm Pilot (his other one gave out) he could keep his daily schedule in it and he wouldn't have those problems. I have put off looking for a used one, because I thought it was good for him to have to try to rely on memory as much as he could to organize himself on his own. Someday we will get that Palm and he can start using that again, but good old therapy mom is tries to keep pushing him. Sorry, Brady....

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, March 9, 2006 10:14 PM CST

We had teacher conferences this week and I was really nervous about them, but they went well. Brady is doing well in Creative Writing which is encouraging because last summer when he wrote a paper for a therapy in Madonna his paragraph breaks didn't make sense, and he was kind of all over the board on the way he put together his thoughts. That is going better now. Of course, the name of the class is creative, so maybe she's just being nice......I did read one story, and it did make sense. They do have to write one big story for this class, and guess what he chose......yes, he is writing about his accident. It is something they will be working on during April and early May.

Brady's computer teacher feels like she is seeing some memory carry-over on his work. He can lock things in that are taught that day and use them that day. She has been working with him to see if he is carrying it over and remembering it for the next few days after and she is seeing that happen. That's good!

It did seem that he had a couple missing assignments in a couple classes, which Brady never had a problem with before he was injured. Now he forgets to hand stuff in and when prompted to has a hard time remembering where it would be. Luckily he doesn't go through his backpack and throw anything away, so he will have to try and find things and get them handed in.

Brady's attitude is such a blessing. He never has really complained about life being harder now, or been upset because of the things he can't do. Last spring he did mention that there was ONE thing he really missed. (This might be an appropriate time for those prissy types to turn away, NOW) Brady was bummed because he was not able to fart anymore. I think his two stomach surgeries had changed the tubing down in the lower region, and things just weren't moving through to create that gas like they used to. Through the miracle of continuing recovery, several times now in the last couple weeks we have heard that noise that he has been hoping for and glory be, Brady has now again begun to fart. Life is so good! (You can tell that raising 4 boys in a house is a whole nother world, can't you?!)

I think on that subject we are going to end for this week.
God's Blessings to you and thank you for all your caring and every prayer. Those prayers really are working.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, March 2, 2006 11:18 PM CST

Of course after going through recovery with Brady we look at life so much differently, and rejoice in little things that most people daily take for granted. This week Brady took his cell phone charger from where I keep my cell phone charger in the kitchen and moved it to his bedroom. To most people that doesn't mean much, but it was something we were excited about. We were told from the beginning that healing of his brain injury will take several years. They also explained that when healing first starts it begins with simple cells reforming. As time progresses these simple cells make connections and more connections and the deeper level thinking comes. When Brady decided it would be better to have his phone in his room every night to charge instead of in the kitchen we were excited he was making these deeper thinking decisions. He knew that if the phone were closer to his wallet, etc, that he puts in his pockets everyday he would be less apt to forget it, and it would save steps in the morning before he left for school. Another thing he told me this week made me think his thinking was getting more dimension. He said he was a little frustrated because he forgets things that people tell him that might not be that important, but are something he would like to file away and remember. He went on to say that since he wants to be a counselor he would have to remember ALL the facts that people tell him. He has never really expressed much about his future except the basics that he wants to go to college, and he wants to be a Christian counselor or Youth Pastor. So, we were really excited to see him doing some deeper thinking on putting this all together. We celebrate the small stuff!

The miracle of healing of the human body so points to something only God can do. I don't see how people can doubt that there is a God if they really stop and think about it. We can't control what happens in life to us, and we might not understand why and when things happen, but we can know that someday, in Heaven, we will see the whole picture, and that God was always there with us.

Thank you for your caring and prayers,
Tom and Carol

Friday, February 24, 2006 9:46 AM CST

Brady decided he would wait and do the memory study at Madonna this summer and the people in charge of the study were okay with that. We asked them if there was any problem with putting the study off, and they said there really wasn't. The work that they do can be done at any time during the recovery process. They just want people who are over a year from the date of the injury. The research team said three people have done the study at Madonna already, and it increased their memory another 50%. One person was able to go back to work. One was able to go to college, and the third person it didn't help, but they had aneurism that was more serious. Brady's memory is okay, but not what is used to be. It seems to me that if it is something he really is interested in, like going to a basketball game he has no trouble remembering. East High just added a study hall 7th period three days a week to help give Brady enough credits for graduation. Now that he has trouble remembering to go to. So, it seems like it's kind of a priority thing, HA! I'm sure it's frustrating for Brady to have to really work hard to recall things in an orderly manor, so hopefully he can have some success this summer when he works at his memory.

Brady usually uses the weekend to rest up from the week of school,therapy,etc. and he does some hand therapy (video games) etc. This weekend he is going to Dare 2 Share at Pershing. There should be a lot of kids coming for that, so that should be a real high, and a lot of fun. I think several hundred kids are staying overnight at our church tonight which Brady won't do. That would really tire him out! Every week or so I notice he getting by with a little bit less sleep. That's encouraging. He still gets tired by the end of the week, and the walk has a little more limp and his eyes aren't quite as bright.

Thank you for your caring,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, February 16, 2006 9:35 AM CST

Brady's driving is going so much better. Since late December I have felt good about his driving, but wasn't really sure about his sense of directions and finding his way around Lincoln. I now am feeling better about that and this week he has found his way to the Devaney Center and the UNL campus. His memory is coming back on finding his way to houses of old friends and he is feeling confident in getting to places. He even talked me into letting him drive in the snow today, so that's a big step.

The last couple months there really hasn't been much change in Brady's right ankle movement, but this last week there has been some improvement. His PT's goal for him is to stand unassisted 30 seconds on his right leg. Twice a week they practice. Once there was a 5 second, but it usually was 2-3 seconds every time they tried. This week it jumped up to a 6 seconds and even a 7 second hold. Last night there even seemed to be a little more movement he could do in his right ankle. His PT has declared he could celebrate early and get a Goodrich malt when he hits 10 seconds, so hopefully he won't have to wait two more months for some more balance to kick in.

Brady did qualify for the memory training study, where they would see him 45 minutes 3 times a week and work with him to help him get better on remembering new things. They want to start right away, but I think Brady would like to wait until summer. Besides school and therapy he has been going to some Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings and a few Campus Life activities. It's hard to know what to do, but during the memory study he would really have to concentrate on listening and summarizing what he heard in a 30 second taped recording. I do want him to be able to enjoy the last of his high school year and this summer he really won't have much to do, but don't know what is the right thing to do. We'll think on this.

Thanks for your cares and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, February 9, 2006 1:50 PM CST

Last week we had a meeting at East High to discuss with the school how Brady is doing and what they feel his future looks like from what they have observed. A gal who works with vocational rehab administered the Southeast Community college entrance test to him and was so happy about his scores. From her results it looks like he will be able to start at the community college next fall. He does not have enough math or english credits to get into a four year college since he missed so much his junior year and took more basic electives this year. It looks like Brady will start out taking classes for academic transfer at SECC and see how that goes, and then will go from there. Brady himself has set his goals to be a counselor or youth pastor. He is so good working with kids. As far as it looks now he'll just take it slow and see what really works for him for future plans.

During 3rd period at school Brady works at the cookie store at East where they sell fresh cookies, snacks and drinks. I've heard that you don't dare walk down that hallway unless you plan to buy something. If you do dare to walk past he will make his sales pitch and you'll have your Otis Spunkmeyer cookies in your hand before you can say, 'no'... I really think he has a future as a car salesman if nothing else works out.

Brady's classes at East entail a little more studying at home than they did first semester. I know going to Madonna is starting to really drag on him after school, and then having to come home and still do a little more homework is getting old. He isn't complaining, but he really doesn't look forward to going to Madonna like he used to. It would be nice for him to not have to do more therapy, but unfortunately he's got to keep at it to make more progression, and he knows that too. We could cut back at East, but he needs all the credits he can to graduate and get out of high school with his class which he really wants to accomplish. He will have this summer to kind of kick back and relax so that will be a big help.

Thank you for all you caring,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, February 2, 2006 11:45 AM CST

There's been some changing going on with Brady's therapy schedule. On Monday his OT told us that one of the last things she wants to work with Brady on is preparing to be on his own. When Brady is done with school and goes to Madonna he is a little tired, and when she works with him on things like planning to shop for items to live by yourself, learning to apply for a job, etc, he doesn't really try real hard, because it doesn't mean that much to him right now. Right now he just cares about getting through high school, expand his driving, getting himself to activities again, getting his eyes better and getting his leg and foot stronger. He feels no need to learn to be on his own and move on, yet. She suggested he stop OT until this summer or next fall when high school is over, and he is ready to think about being on his own. I keep reminding him he WILL want to be on his own. He laughs, why should he when he can talk us into helping him.

I think Brady was kind of relieved to stop some therapy and have some down time, but then they called him from the memory study that Madonna is doing that helps people retrain their brain for better memory and learning abiltity. They would meet three times a week for one hour, so he is thinking about maybe trying to get into that. They have had encouraging results on this memory study working with college students who have been able to increase their learning and memory after going through these classes, and now they are studying head injury people to see if it can help them. I think they actually attach electrodes to his head and watch brain activity while he works on various repetitive skills. I know he had them take a picture of himself when he did the first trial last year and he had all these wires kind of sitting on his scalp. Somehow (don't worry, there's no electrical shock) they can see the brain wave pattern and through their activities work on changing that pattern to benefit memory tasks. (I hope they make this available to the general population someday, because I know I'm needing over 50 memory help, too.) He's got to go through one more trial next week, and then decide if he wants to go ahead with it.

Last Friday he had an eye exam again. The doctor's not seeing a lot of change, so she wants him to add some more time at home working that right eye to make it stronger. It's nothing real hard, he just covers his left eye and with the right eye, focuses on a target close to his eye for 10 seconds, and then on a target about 8 feet away for 10 seconds. He does that for about 10 minutes to get his right eye really working and not being lazy.

Thanks for your prayers and caring. A friend pointed out that it's been good this winter has been mild, since Brady is working on being on the roads again. Thank you Lord for that!

Tom and Carol

Thursday, January 26, 2006 12:04 AM CST

Brady uses a palm pilot to aid his memory in keeping track of appointments, school activities he wants to attend, etc. Last week his palm stopped working, so I went on ebay to see if I could find him another one. While I was searching for used ones, he walked by and asked what I was doing and I told him, looking for another palm. He said, "Mom, I don't think I really need one, my memory is getting a lot better." I was so excited to hear that, because I had thought he was doing a lot better in the memory department,too, but hadn't said anything to him. For him to say that was good, because it wouldn't come out of his mouth if he really didn't believe it. He doesn't comment on his recovery unless he means it. I still think it would always be a good idea for him to use a device to organize himself. When he gets fatigued, things sometimes blend together, but it's so exciting to see continued progress in healing. Just for example on how far his memory has come, last March he called a good friend to ask him to come over and play cards. He hung up and and in less than 30 seconds he again called that friend to ask him to come over and play cards. He memory hadn't locked in that he had JUST called him and asked him the same thing. We don't see anything like that anymore!

Going up and down steps with a weight in his hand, one foot over another, continues to improve and he feels more confidence in that every week. His balance is coming along and when he puts a ball under his left foot and stands with his weight on his right leg he can balance for quite a long time. Taking the ball away from the left leg and just standing on the right is still just 5 seconds, not quite reaching the goal of 30 seconds and the Goodrich malt yet, but strength and balance are improving. The right ankle and foot are recovering at a slower pace, but with patience, prayer and continued practice of heel, toe walking and stretching the ankle, it will get better.

Finals and semester break are over and 2nd semester classes are in full swing. Brady is a normal 18 year old boy in the fact that he is already looking forward for the classes to move quickly, the semester to be over, and summer begin. (I'm sure his teachers probably feel the same way.) He is taking creative writing, citizenship issues, webpage programming, weight-lifting, and doing the cookie store one period selling cookies. (Note: He gets a free cookie for working the store) This is a good variety of classes to move into, and it will be interesting to see how he does in them.

Brady still approaches life with a grin on his face in pretty much everything he does. I can be caught up in my lists of things I have to get done, and I look at him and see him radiating peace and contentment and I think, yah, everything will be okay. It's not our control, but God's plan...

Thank you for your caring and prayer,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, January 19, 2006 7:11 PM CST

Sunday it looked like Brady was limping more than usual when he was walking without a brace. Tuesday I went to watch the treadmill, and I asked his PT how it was going, and she said it was a so-so day for his leg. (she guides his leg on the treadmill and helps it go heel-toe, heel-toe when it hits on the ramp) He had a cold that had been going on for a few days, and she said that she can tell by the tightness in a person's leg if they aren't feeling well or even if they are tired, so she wasn't suprised that his cold was affecting his leg. You learn something new everyday! His cold is getting better.

In occupational therapy they had Brady apartment hunting by using the newspaper. He tried to get out of it by telling them that he was going to live at home forever...BIG LAUGH! They actually had him call a couple places to inquire about things that were important to him like asking if they had a garage, apartment size and if they allowed pets. He did a good job and even asked the one landlord why he just quoted him $325 for a one bedroom when in the paper it said one bedrooms were $275 - $300. I thought that was a good catch.

Every week in speech class at Madonna they have him reading out loud, and every month there is more improvement in the speed of his reading. That's so exciting. (Between video games) he does do a little reading at home everyday and he might even enjoy that peaceful time. Before he was hurt he was always on the go at some sports practice, etc, so it's encouraging to actually see him getting into a book. He never had done that before, unless it was assigned by a teacher. From his book he always picks out a quote he likes to write down for a week. His quote of the week he has on his dry erase board now is 'Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light' (Edman)

Thank you for all your caring and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, January 12, 2006 7:51 AM CST

Since the semester is ending this week, the weightlifting teacher is having everyone max out to see how far they improved this semester. When Brady started lifting this summer his right shoulder was so weak he was only allowed to lift the bar, which weighs 45 pounds when doing bench presses. In class this week coach put plates on the bar and Brady bench pressed five reps at 135 pounds. The last couple reps were a little slower going, but he was so happy on how far that's come. I know before he was hurt he was probably lifting over 200 pounds, but this was HUGE for him! Weightlifting continues next semester, and I know this is important to Brady to get his strength back, so he'll keep going.

Before Christmas Brady had worked a little on going up the stairs with a 10 pounds weight, to simulate carrying an object up the stairs. This week he worked on carrying a 10 pound weight down the stairs. Going down is much harder than up. He did it! Step over step he carried it without holding on to the rails! It was scary for him at first, but once he did a flight, it went much better. His PT was right in front of him in case he lost his balance, but this was a HUGE accomplishment. They will keep working on that. His PT is so funny, warning him not to try this alone, yet! Since his right leg and ankle are still weak, and balance not completely back it will take time to work on things we all take for granted.

Finals are also going on this week, and since Brady and Joe(a 9th grader) have to be at school at the same time fro tests, Brady is driving Joe to school. Brady used to harass Joe a lot before he was hurt, but now they definitely look at each other in a different way, and kind of appreciate each other. It's still funny to see them together and really odd to see them leaving together for high school. I'm most happy when I see them coming back together safely!

Thank you for your caring,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, January 5, 2006 12:10 AM CST

The break from the life of school and Madonna therapy was so nice for Brady and all of us. Brady did some reading, video gaming and in a hot poker game with all of our family and relatives Brady won it all. Don't worry, our family is competitive enough we wouldn't have let him win if we could have stopped it. We started about 10:00 at night, and at 1:30 in the morning even though Brady's eyes were tired and he was slowing down he won the last large pot between the 4 players left. It's nice to see his card playing is coming back, even if he takes our chips.

Another thing we notice is getting better is his ability to analyze football. Brady always was very good in that area of seeing the whole playing field at once, either when he was playing, or observing. During the football bowl games that have been on this week he is making comments on what the teams are doing and what plays they should do next. That is so exciting because he still has such a love for the game, and to see that his ability is starting to come back to see the whole picture again is something that I know will really make him happy. I hope in the future someday down the road, he will be able to help coach kids football. I know that he would have a great time doing that. He has such an excitement and love for football that would be great to share. Just to see his ability to break down the game coming again is so encouraging.

Over break Brady finished his paper for Human Behavior. A lot of it talked about how he has changed since he was injured. He said, "God gave me a smack upside the head to open my eyes to this world we live in....ever since my life was changed that night I have got my number one goal straight. To make God happy, make him smile and make him be proud like he made me." Brady goes on to say he has a lot of other goals. One short term goal is to graduate high school. Brady will get to graduate with his class this year. He might have to get a couple more classes done after graduation to actually get his diploma, but that's not bad considering he missed the junior year. Luckily he had a lot of his core classes out of the way his 9th and 10th grade year.

Thank you for your caring and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Friday, December 30, 2005 12:57 AM CST

Brady took the whole week off of therapy from Christmas to New Years. It is really nice for him to have a break. I can tell if he is well rested he walks and just looks like he feels better. We've been having some family visiting. My sister in law likes to play Bingo, so Brady being of legal age to Bingo even went along with a bunch of us, and that was really good time and something different. We laughed we thought his therapists would really love that activity!

Brady is driving a little more. His assigned car is the minivan, since that is the easiest to move his right leg on. He has been experimenting driving our other cars, and that is always an experience to see if he can move his right leg easily from the brake to the pedal and back. Sometimes he is in the intersection a little longer than he should be getting used to how hard he has to push down on the gas to get it going, and then sometimes we start out pretty jerky and fast if he has pressed to hard. This all goes with not having full control of all his toes, ankle and foot yet. It makes for good stories when he gets back. Right now someone is always along when he is trying a different vehicle, so between the two of them we are usually laughing after hearing the whole story.

God's Blessings to you and for the New Year.
Thank you for all your caring and prayers. We keep you in our prayers.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, December 22, 2005 11:01 AM CST

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT! That was a recent saying on the front of a calender I recently received. Brady has been working on a paper for a class at East. He writes, "I think the wonderous life of Brady Beran is pretty awesome. My life might not have turned out like I would have liked it to, but I am still breathing and moving." The paper is a recap of what he has learned about himself over the course of this semester of Human Behavior. Life has really changed for him. Normal everyday tasks that we all take for granted he now has to think about before going ahead with, but he faces every day with a big smile. His attitude is something that needs to be bottled. Though many things in life have changed for him, he doesn't complain. Life IS what you make of it. Brady wrote a paper at Madonna in August, and the paper he is writing now at East seems to be going a bit better than in August. His paragraphing in August was more of a struggle, and for the paper now, his paragraphs carry more complete thoughts and aren't as disjointed as they were in the summer.

Every Tuesday is treadmill day for Brady. He puts on the harness that supports about 20% of his body weight, and as the treadmill goes, his PT controls his right foot to help him with relearning to put his heel down before his toe. The last two weeks he has kind of started to do heel-toe from the very beginning on his own. The PT still has control, but rightie is starting to do it a little bit without reminder. Brady has learned that doing a lot of stretching before he starts really helps it.

I get suprised over some things that Brady remembers and remembers to do, and then we have those brain fart hours that come up. Brady wanted to take time off at Madonna, and he scheduled being done on Tuesday, the 20th and not going back until Jan. 3. I don't think Tom knew he had done this, so Tom talked to him on Wednesday afternoon and told him not to be late to Madonna. (Brady was driving that day) So, Brady went to Madonna, forgetting that we had said our goodbyes to the staff on Tuesday until 2006. "Just when you think I was getting better," he said to me when I smiled about his endeavor.

Enjoy your families and time at Christmas, and also the Reason for the season. We thank you for all your prayers and caring.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, December 15, 2005 2:24 PM CST

A few weeks ago Brady and his oldest brother Matt had the honor of being one of four guest speakers at a men's breakfast at our church. They made a very good team. Matt filled in on what Brady went through in the hospital and early recovery (since Brady has no recall of that) and Brady talked about how his life has changed and how his faith has brought him through all of this. They talked about some of their favorite Bible verses that have helped them. James 1:2-4 talks about facing trials develops faith. James 1:12 is Brady's favorite saying "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will recieve the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him." Also, they mentioned Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him...." Brady also talked about how hard it is for him that he has had to give up contact sports. He shared that it's okay though, because he will be playing football again in heaven!!

Last Friday Brady and his OT went Christmas shopping. It went real well. He had 4 items he had to buy. He found three of them really easily, but couldn't find a book that Casey wanted. He asked a clerk and she came and looked and then checked the computer and they were out of that book. He helped his OT find a gift for her babysitter, and he also found a couple extra gifts. His OT has seen improvement each time they go out shopping together. Each time they go to a different store, but each time she feels it is easier for him to find his way around the store and find what he needs.

The icy roads have cleared up a little, so Brady is doing some more driving. Sunday he wanted to go to a friends house who lives several miles away. I was concerned that he couldn't find the house. He said it was coming back to him how to get to the house, and he explained how to get there before he left. That was exciting, because part of the problem of his driving is finding places, so if he is starting to get part of his sense of direction back that is great, or HUGE, as we say around this house.

Driving went so well Sunday he drove to school Monday. It was a big day. He had school, Madonna and then a haircut after that. I thought if he made it through all that with no problems it would be HUGE. Well, he came home about 4:20. He had forgotten he had a haircut. It's okay, because the haircut was at 4:30 and he still made it there in time. I guess we have to get better about having him really use his palm pilot, or writing sticky notes for himself in the car, but that's okay, it's coming!

Matt said the other day he's getting excited for this family Christmas, since Brady will remember it. I don't think he remembers much about Christmas last year, except that he was at home for it. He had gotten home on December 23. We hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season this year, and it's not too stressful of a time for you.

God Bless,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, December 8, 2005 1:15 PM CST

Who ordered all this snow? Just when we were getting a little comfortable with Brady driving to school and Madonna our roads get covered with this white stuff. He might be a better driver than I am in this snow, but I want him to have more practice on dry roads and I don't want to take any chances, so we're back to going everywhere together again for a little while. I took Joe to school today at 7:15, and then Brady at 8:30, and as Brady and I start out in the neighborhood I'm thinking to myself how icky it is to be out in the cold and on the roads again, and Brady says, "Isn't God's artwork beautiful," as he sees the pine trees, tres and ground painted with the white flakes. I keep him around for my attitude check!!!

The last couple days I've gone into Madonna to watch a little therapy. (I usually just drop him off and pick him up.) After going in and seeing all the patients working in the gym, I was talking to Brady last night and told him it was amazing that last year at this time he was probably the weakest and sickest looking patient in the physical therapy gym. Now he is one of the more healthy looking. Back then we didn't know what the future would bring, but with Brady's hard work, and God's graciousness, it is so encouraging. We have been told that it may take 2-4 years before Brady feels like a real person again, and will still be healing over that time. They have worked on his Madonna schedule for 2006 and have scheduled him through the end of the school year, at least. I know it's not what a students' senior year of high school normally looks like, but you gotta do what ya gotta do.

I also asked Brady last night if school was going better. He said it's gone from hard to easy squared. I don't know if his teachers see any difference, I haven't talked to them, but that was encouraging. The classes he is taking are not the caliber of classes he took before he was hurt, but we just pray it keeps getting better for him. Some days I feel like Brady is kind of getting back to the old Brady, and then some days it looks like he's stepped back a couple months. I'm sure it all depends on how tired he is, how much he has used his brain power that day, and just one of those days we all have.

Tomorrow Brady's occupational therapist is taking him Christmas present shopping. Our four boys draw names and he buys for Casey. He also has to help her with ideas for her babysitter and 90 year old grandma. I'm sure they will have good stories from that trip.

Thank you for all your caring and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, December 1, 2005 2:49 PM CST

It was so nice to take time off over the Thanksgiving holiday. Brady loves Madonna and knows he is going because it is helping him get better, but deep inside he is longing for a 'normal' life as a teenager and no amount of breaks can change that. As long as he is improving, which he is, Madonna staff wants to do all they can to help that along, and Brady knows that is just part of his life right now.

Of all of Brady's classes the class he is taking on the computer working on polishing his knowledge of verbs, adverbs, etc. is probably the hardest for Brady. He works on the material at his own pace and all the interaction is just between the computer and him. This was a little bit of a struggle for him in the beginning to self-discipline himself to do the work which wasn't that exciting, but he did tell me that it is getting easier and he is more able to focus on what he is learning. That was good to hear. I think because of the pace he was going in the beginning he is behind from where he should be, but he is trying to focus and work harder at it to get it done by semester.

As Brady's stamina is getting a little better all the time he knows he can't just sit around and play video games and veg-out in his free time so he every once and a while asks if there is something he can do to help out around the house. Last weekend we were putting up the tree and he and Joe came downstairs to help carry up decoration boxes. Brady took two normal size shoe boxes each with a few ornaments in them under his left arm and proceeded to go upstairs. About 20 seconds later, Matt came downstairs and I heard him ask Brady if he was okay. Brady had started to go up one step and fell backwards on his butt, and was quietly sitting there, his eyes starting to fill with tears. He was okay. I went over to him and said, "It's not the same body, is it." Brady said, "No, I'm just sad because I won't play sports again, and things are just harder than they used to be.......but God let me live." He sat there for a few minutes, and then shrugged it off and went upstairs with the boxes, this time holding on to the rail. On Monday when he was in physical therapy he told his therapist about the fall. She told him that just carrying even a light weight box on one side can throw off his balance. She proceeded to start practicing on that, and she had him carry a 10 pound weight in one arm going up and down steps. Yes, there is a lot more therapy ahead, but he is continuing to improve!

I hope your Thanksgiving was restful and special, and thank you so much for all your caring and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, November 23, 2005 3:37 PM CST

We hope everyone has a really nice Thanksgiving weekend. We know what we are thankful for and that is for all the nice people who have given us so much caring and support along the way. I think back to last Thanksgiving, and remember we ate at Madonna. Brady had to be held up when he stood up, and wasn't even really hungry to eat. This year he's really looking forward to lots of good food over the weekend, and will trample anyone in his way to the table.

Brady is on a Madonna break this week, just going in one day for therapy. In occupational therapy they have him following directions to build and stain a footstool. He has to do sanding and follow other steps. One of the things the occupational therapist will be working a lot on is following step by step instructions, and processing the whole picture to get to an end result. She wants him to read the directions, but learn to do things in an organized manor that will save steps and work best for him. When he did the footstool he sanded the top and then joined the pieces and then sanded the sides. She thought it would have saved a step to have him join the whole piece and then sand it all at once. She wants him to start thinking 'outside the box' and doing higher level thinking.

We saw the eye doctor last week. She didn't decrease the strength of the lenses. She wants Brady to start doing 10 minutes of eye exercises at home and really work on getting that right eye stronger. It just isn't making too much progress, because it is still letting the left eye do most of the work. Eye therapy has been a frustrating thing for Brady, so he doesn't work on it at home, but she gave an easy exercise of the right eye. He studies a close target for 15 seconds and then looks at a letter six feet away and focuses on it for 5 seconds. It's not his favorite thing to do, but she wants him to hit it hard for a couple months and then recheck his eyes again. The alternative would be an eye surgery on the eye muscles and Brady refused to do that, so this is the option!

We wish you a stomach full of turkey and dressing and a great visit with family and friends.

God Bless,
Tom and Carol Beran

Thursday, November 17, 2005 2:57 PM CST

Yesterday Brady's speech therapist at Madonna got him an old Palm Pilot that she had, to try using, to help him remember daily tasks and appointments. He had been using a small pocket calender and kept it in his pants pocket, but sometimes he would have trouble reading what he wrote in it. (Small spaces and bad handwriting combo!)
He was so excited last night about the new electronic gadget. He can type in any tasks, assignments or appointments he wants to remember, and it daily shows them organized hour by hour. Again, he is going to have to learn to pull it out and really look at it to help him remember and organize himself, but he feels like this is going to be easier to use than what he had, and we have time to get it going.

Another cool memory thing is Madonna is doing a research study that can help retrain the brain to improve in the areas of memory and learning. It has shown to help college students, and now they are going to try it on head injury participants. Tomorrow Brady is going to take some qualifing tests, and if he passes those, it will be an 8 week study. The bad part is it is 3 times a week for 45 minutes each time. He feels like he is doing plenty of therapy already and is even on a self-appointed little break from therapy now for a couple days, but he'll re-group and get back to it. They say they use a video game like system in retraining, so that could be a positive. He loves his Halo 2 (video game) time (therapy is the word he uses) he has at home.

I feel that Brady is doing a little better in the conversation area. Of course, he has been more talkative than he used to be before he was hurt, but he often talked about what would first come to his mind. Now it seems like he is starting to think things out a little bit before he talks, and is able to speak more about topics of daily relevance instead of random thoughts. It's kind of hard to explain, but I feel that he is seeing a little more of the bigger picture, rather than the tunnel vision that was first going on when he started to recover. He is starting to be able to discuss more topics of interest and have more of a normal conversation. In recovery, he has had quick wit and comebacks from the beginning, but in normal day to day conversations I feel like we are seeing improvement. Of course, the thinking process is not as quick as it was before he was hurt, and he's not able to process as much at one time as other 18 year olds, but seeing this growth is such a blessing.

We pray for you and are so thankful for all the caring and prayers shown us,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:44 PM CST

First quarter report cards for school came today. Although the classes Brady's taking are not the challenge ones he took before he was injured, he is able to do the work and get it in on time, and get good grades. On tests he is given a little extra time if needed, but Brady is able to participate in class discussions and activities. Last spring he used the elevator to get from floor to floor at school, and this year he is using the stairway, so that's improvement!

About every month I notice improvement in his walking around the house without his brace. All the work he is doing at Madonna in stretching, balancing, etc., and also the work in the weight room and training room at East are helping give strength back to the weak areas of that right leg, and helping retrain the brain to follow through in a more normal gait. Brady keeps his great attitude in all of this. Today the physical therapist from the public schools came to Madonna to meet with Brady's physical therapist so they can compare notes on the right things he should be working on right now. He loved therapy today, because most of the time they were putting their two great experienced minds together in talking over his strengths and weaknesses, and Brady just kind of had to sit there and look pretty. I'm sure his PT will make it up to him next week.

Brady's driving has been going good with me in the car, so I lost my mind and have let him drive a few places on his own. Please pray that his guardian angels help keep him extra safe. I feel okay with it, but after all we have gone through over the last year, I just don't want anything more to happen. He is so happy to feel some independence and know that we have trust in him that we just have to let him prove himself (just a little for now, anyway).

I don't know if this Caring Bridge website is the proper place to talk about this, but there had been so much talk around town a few weeks ago about us filing a lawsuit and then questions about it and nasty letters after, that even I was wondering if we had filed a lawsuit???? We have not filed a lawsuit. What we did file was a claim to give ourselves 6 more months extension so we can investigate properly. We have NOT sued and have NOT decided to sue. The claim was filed with the city and the schools so they are aware and can also examine the events of the night of his injury. We are more concerned with Brady and helping him get the most he can out of all the therapy he is doing right now that is helping him so much in trying to regain back his life. I'm sorry if all this talk has been upsetting and confusing to anyone, but it seems like more was made of it than it really is right now.

Thank you so much for all your caring and especially all the prayers said for Brady. Those prayers mean so much to all of us. Thank you.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, November 2, 2005 10:03 PM CST

Brady's thinking and memory continue to make improvements. Today in therapy he was to explain how to play the card game pitch to his speech therapist who really didn't know how to play the game. Then, after explaining it a few of us played the game and he had to answer any questions she had. His explanations were in pretty good order and easy to understand. He gave himself a 'B' grade when he was done, because he explained in good order, but when she asked him what the jick was, he kind of lost his thought and talked about dealing trying to find a jick in the deck before he came back to actually explaining what it was. I don't go to therapies anymore, so it's so encouraging when I go, because I can see definite improvements. This summer he was explaining pitch to a different therapist, and he jumped all over the place with his thoughts and explanation. Today went so much better. They are really working on helping him gather his thoughts and thinking things through in reading assignments and activities.

Another big reinforcement is organization. Right now he is dealing with a school planner, a personal activity planner he keeps in his pocket, and a dry erase board in his room to write down things he wants to do at home and other events that are important. It's just too hard to check all of these things all the time so they are recommending a simple palm pilot where he can put both his school work to do and personal planning. It's going to take a while to get all of this straight I'm sure, and to figure out the best system that will help him assist his memory. I will say his memory is getting better all the time, and when he forgets something it doesn't take too much of a hint to help with recall.....unless he is real tired.....then everything just blends together and events and time don't match real well. Tiredness can come from doing a lot of thinking activities just as much as physical activity. We'll all just keep plugging away though, to help him with all of this. God has been GOOD (GREAT)!

Eye therapy has been a real frustrating therapy for Brady, and really the only one that he actually shows frustration with. They sent us home with a list of things to work on at home this summer, but when Brady couldn't get his eyes to work well together to see depth like they were trying for we just quit doing any of these exercises at home. Last week during some eye therapy Brady for the first time saw some depth in his vision. This means that both eyes are beginning to work equally strong together. I was so excited when I heard that. I had felt like that was a time that would never come. It just happened for a short amount of time, and then the right eye got tired and let the left eye dominate and the 'depth' vision was lost, but it's a start. The eye therapist encouraged him to start practicing again at home, and when he can finally get to a point when the right eye gets strong enough to work equally with the left eye all the time he can throw out his glasses. YEA! Brady is so used to wearing the glasses I don't think he really cares, but sometime in the future it will be great. I still think it will be many, many months down the road, but that't just one more lesson in patience.

Thank you so much for your prayers and caring.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 10:01 PM CDT

We just came from East's final football game of the season and it was a great victory and a nice way for the team to end their season. Brady was so happy for all the guys. He very much would have liked to have been down on the field playing with them again, but Brady and our family are just so thankful he is here to watch and be a Super Fan.

Brady has this alarm clock which has always been kind of complicated to set. It has two alarm time choices, which aren't labeled well, and no where is it labeled what button to push to set the time. He could always do it before he was injured, but in early September when he started using this alarm again, he would ask his brother Matt to set it for him. He didn't even try to figure out how to set it. This weekend somehow the time got messed up and Brady grabbed the alarm and proceeded to set it to the right time. It was so exciting, because 1 1/2 months ago he wasn't able to figure that out at all.

In physical therapy, a lot of rehab is being done to get the right leg muscles stronger. Right now if he stands on his right leg and not holding any rail with his hands he can balance for about 5 seconds. His physical therapist has promised him a Goodrich malt when he gets to 30 seconds on the right leg, without holding onto anything. She sure knows him well! That is a great incentive for Brady. I still think it will be a while before he gets there, but I love her way of thinking. Those are his favorite.

Thank you for all your prayers and caring,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, October 20, 2005 8:37 PM CDT

Of course, short term memory recall is something Brady struggles with. Late last spring and summer that came a long way, but his teacher at Madonna always wondered if he was holding on to new information for more than a couple days. Monday morning before school he told me he needed lunch money. They had told him on Friday at school, and he thought of it Monday morning. I was so excited because he had retained that information over the weekend, and then recalled it at the appropriate time. I know it was about food, and food is an important part of his life, so that's not fair, but hey!

After school Brady works out on a wonderful glider machine in the training room before he goes to Madonna. It gives him a real smooth running-like motion with no jarring. He determines the speed he goes but, but the trainer sets the resistance. Since he started this machine in July they have had to tie his left foot to the pedal so his ankle made a normal bend and didn't come off the pedal on the glide. This week the trainer stopped tying his foot, and he is able to have a normal bend on his own ability. It doesn't quite stay down at the very start, but after a few minutes it stays down just like normal. The trainer at school would like to see him work on starting to run again, but his physical therapist at Madonna isn't ready for that, yet. She is afraid of injury to the knee if he would start running right now, because the strength isn't there yet in the leg muscles. Brady has set his goal to be running by the second anniversary of the injury which is 11 months away, so he's very patient about all of this.

Brady's speech teacher at Madonna is a whiz at ideas on helping kids with their reading. She thought she would try a new method with Brady this week that she has used on others, to see if she can get his reading speed up. She moves her finger along each line, right to left, at a normal reading rate, so he isn't looking at it word by word, but looking more at it as a sentence. It worked. When I heard him he was reading at a normal reading rate. I asked his teacher if he could do that himself, and she said no, someone else has to do it for him so he can concentrate on the reading alone. She will be working on this method more, and was so excited about what she heard, too. All of this is about repetition to get the deficits working better. It's just so exciting to see that even as long as it has been since he was injured improvements are still coming so well. All glory be given to God.

Thank you all for all your caring and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 8:22 PM CDT

Part of Brady's therapy at Madonna is learning strategies on how to overcome the problems he faces. Of course, memory is a weak area. It seems like if Brady has plans to do something with a good friend there's no problem in remembering that. Anything to do with other scheduling such as things to do for school or home place a lot farther down in the memory area and are easily forgotten. He uses a planner at school to write down school assignments and due dates. He carries a small date book in his pocket to write down any personal meeting or activity he has. He has to do that, because if he set up something to do a few days before it would happen, he probably wouldn't remember setting it up when the event finally got there. Today at Madonna they suggested putting up a dry erase board, or note center in his bedroom so he can write down things he wants to accomplish around the house. Of course, the trick in all this is checking the planners during the day so he can be on top of what he is supposed to remember. (Laughter inserted here, because that is a problem!!!)

We had conferences at school today. In one class all of his work is done on the computer. Each student in the class is doing a different subject, so each student works self-motivatingly at his own pace. This computer is on a glass wall which is right by the door that sits on a main hallway. The teacher has compared him to the Wal-Mart greeter sitting by the door, saying 'Hi' to the people who walk by. It's English he's working on at the computer...so I'm sure any break is a welcome one. Other classes seem to be going okay, and talking too much is not an issue in those. That was great to hear. It takes him longer to do his work, because his reading and writing ablity are slower, but he is understanding class concepts.

Several times Brady has taken the car out by himself for short distances and that's going good. He drove alone to school one day last week, and to Madonna alone today. I have really seen improvement and more confidence in his driving. He drives our mini-van since that is what he has been practicing on since he started behind the wheel. He drove our '92 Ranger pick-up to school yesterday with Tom, but Brady said the van pedal worked better for him, so I think we'll be having him drive the van for a while until everything gets real comfortable for him. We just want to take all of this slow. I don't know why?!?!?!!!?

Thank you all for all your caring and prayers.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, October 6, 2005 12:40 AM CDT

Some days Brady's walking looks good, and somedays I feel like he's going to have a huge limp forever. Who knows what the future holds, but he keeps working on what he can regain. His physical therapist always has him working on balance. She often has him stand on one leg (with bars on each side if he needs to grab them) and he throws a ball into a rebound tarp and it comes back to him and he catches it. Or, he stands on one leg and lifts the other leg a few inches onto a sliding board and moves the raised leg back and forth. He also does a lot of leg and ankle stretching and stands on both feet and lifts up to his toes. We don't go with Brady to therapy anymore, but the couple times I have watched it looks like he could be in a ballet class where they are learning basic lifts and moves. I told him I would have to get him a tu-tu to wear, and his therapist loved it. His therapists love to give him a hard time, because he gives it right back to them. Working on balance is important key issue. Sometimes they put him on a chair with wheels, that has no back. He has to maneuver around obstacles in the gym, pulling the chair with his legs, and maintaining a straight upward posture. This works on both leg strength and balance.

Before Brady was hurt he had a job serving meals at The Legacy retirement center. The money he earned went into his checking account and he had a debit card to use if he needed to take out money. After he was hurt he couldn't remember the pin number on his debit card, so this week his occupational therapist had him working on getting information on how to get a new pin number and getting his debit card into operation again.

Since Brady needs to work on getting his reading ability and speed up Madonna has encouraged him to read whatever books interest him. Right now he has chosen to read 'The Purpose Driven Life'. It is a book that you commit to read and study over 40 days. I'm sure Brady will be able to spread it out over at least 100 days being a teenager who can think of more things to do than read, but it is an enjoyable book. He finished Chapter 2 which talks about we are not an accident, God knew us before we were born. There was a great poem at the end of the chapter which sums that up, and Brady wanted me to put this poem on the website because he like it.

You are who you are for a reason.
You're part of an intricate plan.
You're precious and perfect unique design,
Called God's special woman or man.

You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You're just what he wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones he chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God's plan in mind,
And they bear the Master's seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy,
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into his likeness you'd grow.

You are who you are for a reason,
You've been formed by the Master's rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God!

by Russel Kelfer

"I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born." Isaiah 44:2 (PDL Chapter 2 theme)

Thank you for all your prayers and caring,
Tom, Carol and Brady

Wednesday, September 28, 2005 10:19 PM CDT

September 24, 2004, 10:00PM - Brady goes into a surgery he has a slim chance of surviving, after collapsing on the football sidelines in front of the East Student body.

September 24, 2005, 10:00PM - After a year of miracles, major therapy and recovery, Brady is crowned Homecoming King in the East High gym in front of the East Student body....

....And what a year it has been. God has truly held us the whole way, and we couldn't have gotten through any of this without all the wonderful prayer warriors and so many who took such good care bringing food, meals, sending cards and all the support when we were in such crisis. Recovery is not over. There is still a lot of work to be done, but Brady is back at Madonna after his week off last week, and is having a good week of therapy this week.

Brady is starting to be able to flex his right ankle on his own. When he does, he foot tends to turn in, so they will be working on getting it to come down straight instead of turning. All of this work is done to help him into someday (with God's grace) not have to wear a brace on his right leg. I was talking with him tonight asking him about being able to move his ankle a little more, and what he thought about that. He said he really didn't think about it a lot, and summed it up in his usual Brady manner. Mom, I'm just happy to be alive!

He has been doing a weightlifting class at school and he then goes into the training room and works out on a glider machine which also helps him with his stamina and getting back a more natural gait. When he started doing the glider this summer in late July it was a big deal for him to do 5 minutes. He today was on it for 20 minutes, a new record. When he gets off of it, his right leg is just shaking. It's still weak and those muscles are having to relearn and try to get working correctly again. Brady's therapists have worked with the East trainer and weightlifting teacher to get all of this coordinated so both facilities are on the same page for recovery, and it's been a real help!

He has been doing a lot of work on his eye therapy, and he feels that his right eye is getting stronger. He is sometimes starting to go without his glasses, and isn't having a problem with that, but will still need to keep wearing them for probably a year or so, until the right eye is as strong as it can be.

Oh, and about being King. East speech and debate (the dance sponsor) gave the king a nice pocket watch. The front is plain, but I think it would look real nice with some engraving of his name and date on it. If only those looking at the watch years down the road could know the real meaning of September 24, in Brady's life.......

We so appreciate every single prayer and all the caring that got us through this first year. Like Brady said, "It takes friends, family and Faith."

Tom and Carol

Thursday, September 22, 2005

September 24, 2004. East High was playing Southeast, and Brady was injured in the 3rd quarter. Saturday will be the one year anniversary of the injury, so this is kind of an emotional time thinking back to what was going on one year ago. Brady, of course, is more concerned with being an 18 year old, and thinking about the Homecoming Dance which is being held Saturday night.

Brady has been doing therapy since the day he awoke from his coma he has not taken any time off. His therapists could tell that going back to school and doing therapy was starting to be a lot for him, so they told him to take a couple weeks off from therapy. He decided he would take one week this week since he wanted to go to football practice. He ended up getting a cold on Monday and not doing much this week, but it worked out good to be off. Having the cold has made him a little more tired, so he hasn't been driving too much, he just lets me drive him to and from school. Driving-wise he is doing good on the roads, but I still haven't let him go out on his own. I'm concerned that he will drive to school, and then be tired and the end of the school day, and not at his best when driving home. I'm hoping in another month or so to be able to get up the courage to let him go on his own. I know he really wants to, and really wanted to be driving by Homecoming this weekend, but it's going to be hard to see him drive off the first time. That's just his overprotective mother coming through.

In school Brady had taken Advanced Algebra D his sophomore year. He wanted to repeat it this year since he really liked math before he was hurt. He doesn't need the math credit, and he knew that it might be too early to try any deep processing math like that, but he gave it a try, anyway. After getting back his first test he realized it just wasn't coming as easily as it used to. He was dreading looking at math homework everynight, compared to how he used to not mind doing it. He decided to drop the class, and is picking up a FCS class in it's place that he won't have to do any catch up work to get into. Now he won't really have homework every evening so he can get more time in playing HALO 2,... I mean he can spend some more time working on his reading abilities.....

Brady wants to thank everyone for all the prayers given for him that have helped him in his recovery. Especially those given the night he was injured that saved his life.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Since the picture on the website hadn't been updated since last April it was probably time to do that. Coach Squires (Brady's 10th grade football coach) was kind enough to contact the University to see if they would be able to allow Brady to watch a practice. Last Thursday we had 3 hours notice to be at the practice. Tom, Brady and John Squires went, and it was so exciting for all of them. Everyone was so nice. Brady had a good time talking to the TBS guys who were there watching, getting ready for their TV broadcast on Saturday. Callahan introduced him to the team and they laughed when Brady told them how huge they looked.

Friday we had a good laugh. We were in Omaha watching East play Bell. West. Toward the end of the first quarter Brady told Tom and I that he was going to the restroom. A couple minutes later we see he is now standing on the sideline with the East players. He can't stand not being a part of football this year. We even saw him jokingly trying to put on a helmet at the end of the game.

Then to finish up the big weekend, Brady and his brothers spoke at our Christ Lutheran's contemporary service. The theme of the service was overcoming tragedy. It was done in an Oprah format with Pastor asking questions to the boys. Brady talked about how he has become stronger in his faith since he was injured.

School and therapy still go on. In physical therapy they have Brady doing all his work without a brace on his right leg. This week they added stepping sideway, one foot over the other. This was the first time they really worked on moving side to side without a brace.

Speech therapy time is mainly spent on helping him organize himself in the homework area so he doesn't get behind or forget anything. The more tired he gets, the harder it is for him to remember things well.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. God bless you and your families.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, September 8, 2005 2:46 PM CDT

Going back to school has been great. It is nice to be back with classmates and friends. He was so excited Friday last week to go to the East football game. It was definitely hard after the game. Brady would love to be out there playing and making plays. He would love to trade bodies for those three hours and be on the field doing the job, instead of his new role of Superfan. It's frustrating for him, but he realizes it can't happen, and says, I'll just have to wait to play football in Heaven. He got that idea from a contemporary Christian song that goes something about, 'My Father's house has a great big yard...where we can play football.'

In August Brady wrote a paper for his speech therapist. It was a topic of his choice, but he was to include research from two other sources. He chose to write on how his injury has changed his life, and talk about teenagers and Christianity (that was the research part). I want to share a portion of the paper. Writing was never a strong area for Brady, but it is much harder now. Though, his thoughts are good it takes a lot of work and help to organize them in an orderly fashion. Below is what he had to say about life....

Who created Earth? Who created mankind? Who created us? I would think these questions would be important to us. I don't think a lot of young people do anything or even think about these ideas. Ever since I have had been so close to death these kind of things have been more important. A lot of teenagers these days don't think about who created them and who is watching over them.

Ever since I was hurt in a football game, my life has been a lot closer to God. In this paper I will write about my life with God, another young persons' walk with God, and list some facts about teenagers going to church and believing in God. My journey with God has meant a lot more to me. On September 24, 2004 I was criticaly injured during a football game. I reptured a major vein in my head, and had to be rushed to the hospital. When the surgeon talked to my parents before the surgery my mom asked if I was going to meke it. The doctor said "I don't know". After the game was over the students, parents, and players made a circle on the field, knelt down and prayed. I know those prayers being said the same time as my surgery, saved my life.........

I do all things through Christ who strengthens me, (Philippians 4:13). Not only is that verse one of my favorites, but it is now one of Sarah's favorites, a girl that got hurt in a car accident. I have read about Sarah in the book "Chicken Soup for the Christian Teenager Soul." It is a powerful story about Sarah and her faith in God. Sarah was a positive basketball player......Sarah was hurt in a car accident one day. The doctors told her she would never walk again, but she was too positive to tell herself she would never walk again. After the accident she had an impact on her family, friends, the other basketball teams, and even the nurses with her strong faith in God and her strong will to recover completely. It wasn't long before she was walking. That is what a positive attitude can get you.

In a newspaper called "News for You", it has an article written about teenagers and religion. For example 61% of teens that were questioned about their faith "Definitely believe in divine miracles from God." I could say that I also believe in divine miracles from God. It is a miracle that I am writing this right now, because I was so close to death that night of the football game.

Studies show that teens with religious belief have better emotional health, more success in school, and more of a concern for others. Fifty-five percent of people that were interviewed made a personal commitment to live their life for God. I could also say that I have made a personal commitment to God. God saved my life that night of surgery........

I believe these stories and information are important because we're talking about our God.......I hope this paper has touched your life and most of all touched your HEART.

I know this has been a little religious this time. Don't worry, Brady is still a regular teen. He plays Halo 2 video game in his spare time, and is daily thinking about getting a date for homecoming. Doing both school and a couple hours at Madonna has been tiring, but not as bad as I thought it would be. It helps that we have had two 4-day school weeks, and then he usually will get Friday off from Madonna.

Take care and thank you for all the support.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 9:36 PM CDT

Tuesday was the first day of school and I think everything went okay, but I sure wish I was a fly on the wall so I knew how he was doing. Since he is so much more talkative than he was before he was hurt we made a deal on the way to school that he would try not to talk to much. I asked him how he did when I picked him up from school, and he said he thought he did pretty good at the start of school, but as the day went on he started to kind of talk a lot.

His physical therapist is excited he will be doing weightlifting everyday at school. It will free her up to do more with balance and fine tuning on his walking. She saw some improvement in his ankle movement when she tested him on that this week, from a month ago. It's not a big change, but it's such a blessing to know that improvement is happening.

Tonight was the annual pre-first-game pasta feed for the football team. Last year at the pasta feed the seniors got ahold of Brady and shaved his head after they had all shaved their heads. I told Brady about that happening one year ago. He has no memory of that. He can't remember any of the football games he played in last year (he played in 4 games) and doesn't remember anything about going to school for the month before he got hurt. He said maybe some day some of it will come back to him, but we'll see....

Thank you for all your caring and prayers. You are daily in our prayers.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, August 25, 2005 10:50 AM CDT

We don't actually mention the word school around here, because that's not a word that gets a happy response, but Brady knows it is coming up and is excited for it, mainly to get back and see all his classmates. Today he will go shopping for school supplies with his occupational therapist. They do this to help him gain independence in finding his way around stores and to use his thinking skills to locate items in the store. Going on outings is the best way for the therapists to judge how well the things they are working on at Madonna can translate in the 'real' world.

For school Brady will be taking five classes. He will start off with Advanced Algebra. This is a review of the math he had in 10th grade, just before he was hurt. He will then do an English class that will review and stress the grammar end of English. After that he will head to Human Behavior and Baking. Those will be taught by the same teacher so he doesn't even have to change classrooms. He will then go to lunch and after lunch finish up with Weightlifting. Both of his therapists have been over to the weight room at East with him this summer and have helped him establish a routine that works him on lighter weights, but more reps so he doesn't overwork some of his still weak muscles. There is a great workout machine at East called the glider, which really helps him stretch his right ankle and hopefully he will get to do that everyday in weightlifting. His day at East will end at 2:00, and he will then head over to Madonna for some PT, OT and speech. Brady has asked them to leave him free on Fridays if they can, because he wants to be able to make it to all the East football games. He is excited about his roll as SuperFan!

Brady had another eye checkup this week. His right eye is getting better and going back more to it's normal alignment, so she was able to change the glasses and take away a little more prism. He is still having a tendacy to have his left eye do more work, so in eye therapy they will really work his right eye so it doesn't let lefty do so much.

Thank you so much for your prayers and caring. I hope your summer is going well, and you are enjoying the last blasts of the season. We thank you and God for all the love and support given Brady and us.

Tom and Carol

Wednesday, August 17, 2005 10:49 PM CDT

Brady still remains positive as his recovery goes on. When his short term memory gets messed up and he forgets or confuses something he just says he had a brain fart. I'm sure it frustrates him, but he never complains about it, he just drops it and moves on.

Sunday night the East football players got together for their pre-2-a-day supper. Brady had the honor of being invited to that. It meant a lot to him to go. He had a great time. The next day he was talking about it to someone, and he said it will be a little hard not being able to be on the field with his friends. I know he will be their number one fan that's for sure!

Tuesday he had a driver's exam at Madonna. It went real well. The part that was the hardest for him was reaction time in getting his foot from the pedal to brake, but that wasn't even too bad. The examiner released him for driving, but she was in complete agreement with Tom and I that we are going to have him do more driving with us and we won't be in any hurry to have him out by himself. I don't know why we are being so cautious! HA! HA! I think we had enough excitement over the last year....we'll save the driving excitement for a couple months or so.....

Thank you so much for your prayers and caring.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, August 11, 2005 10:46 AM CDT

Tuesday was a big day. Brady celebrated 18 years of life! He went to the grocery store and bought cigarettes. Just kidding, on his birthday he did his Madonna therapy as usual, and they did a trip to the grocery store to buy food to cook a meal. Brady was in charge of buying hot dogs and buns, but it was the joke that he was legal that day to buy smokes.

We have noticed that Brady has been able to do some deeper level thinking. As the healing is taking place the brain cells are reforming. The first level needs to be in place before the more complicated levels can start connecting and working, in the injured areas. Last spring, Brady could make jokes and tease, but when people would tease him, he took it on the level and didn't realize they meant something else. For example, one day his therapist told him he would have to pay her $2 every time he got off task in his therapy. He got off task two times, so at the end of therapy he gave her $4. He didn't realize that she was just kidding him, trying to get him to stay on task in a nice way. We now see as he is healing and improving he is more able to process the deeper meaning to points, ideas, songs, etc and not just the surface ideas.

He is still doing his treadmill every Thursday, and he was so proud today, he said I'm not complaining as much about it as I used to. I reminded him that the reason why is they have slowed it down and are working more on technique and regaining a natural gait, rather than speed and stamina. He knew that, but he wanted to point out he doesn't dread it like he used to and isn't the whiner he used to be. Oh, and have we said it lately, he's happy to be alive!

We praise God for all the healing he is doing and thank everyone for all the prayers and all the caring.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, August 4, 2005 3:24 PM CDT

We’ve been kind of excited this last week. When Brady walked around the house without his brace he would slightly pull his right leg up in the air and come down in kind of a stomp fashion, since he didn’t have control over the ankle, and weak muscles in his leg. Over the last couple weeks he is bringing his right leg straight out more like a normal gate of walking when he is without his brace. It’s just a small step in moving forward to reaching the goal of no brace and with God’s grace running again, but it’s pretty to see the change. I’m sure the repetitive motion of the treadmill that he does once a week has been a good help in relearning this, and possibly also the ankle stretching he does at the weight room and home.

On Tuesday this week Coach Gingery and Brady taped a radio interview with Ron Brown (ex-Nebraska football coach and head of Nebraska FCA) and Bill Dolman (1480 radio personality). It will play on Sunday, August 7 at 9:00 AM on the 1480 Lincoln radio station. The discussion included the night of the injury, the power of prayer, and other stories stemming from that night. We think it might be replayed on Tuesday night (August 9) at 7:00 PM, but we’re not sure. Brady still loves to talk, so it didn’t bother him to do this show, and Ron is such a powerful speaker, it was a good time.

Thank you for your prayers, and we thank God daily for you and to bless you.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, July 28, 2005 11:59 AM CDT

We took off Madonna a couple days last week to do some fishing. Of course, as you remember, it was over 100 degrees on the days we planned to fish, and the fish don’t even want to do much eating on those days, but it was fun. It was a little harder for Brady to walk around on uneven terrain than he thought it would be. He had to do some slopes and rough ground. He did fine, but was happy when he was just sitting and fishing. Though his balance has gotten better over time, it still has a ways to go.

The driving gets a little better every time, but Brady still isn’t driving more than a few miles from our area yet. We still have to be with him, when he drives. In mid- August he will take a driver’s exam from Madonna and if he passes that, he will be able to drive on his own. The hardest part for him behind the wheel is moving his leg back and forth from gas pedal to brake. Since the ankle isn’t under control he pretty much has to move his whole leg instead of just the foot. There go his dreams of driving a small sports car. HA! He will be content with driving anything as long as he gets back on the road again, someday.

Brady has started gathering some material to work on his paper about the injury changing his life. He is doing it in speech class which only meets about 1 hour a week, so it will probably take the month of August until it is done, but if he has anything inspiring to say, I’ll definitely share it. A therapist of Brady’s at Madonna has a relative get hurt in a car accident over the weekend. After she told us the story, Brady asked her if he could pray with her for her relative’s recovery. He said a prayer from his heart for the doctors to help the teen, the family to be comforted, and especially for God to be with this boy. I don’t think the Brady before the injury would have had the courage to do that, but now it’s the first thing that comes to his mind. He knows that prayer is powerful and God can do all things.

Thanks for your prayers and support and caring.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:34 AM CDT

Clear the roads. Brady is doing a little more driving. He has driven to Madonna and back. He had driven on 70th Street, and to East High and back home. Every time gets a little better. One of his therapists told him she thinks he will do a good job at driving, because it is something he really wants to do. I’m sure part of the holdup will be his parents being very over-protective. We want to make sure he is very ready to be on the road. Brady is very understanding and patient with us, thank goodness.

Brady’s OT and PT therapists have given him permission to start using the East weight room to do some light workouts. This means he has to get up “early” to be at the school to do his workout. He really likes seeing the guys and giving them a bad time about working harder, etc.

His speech therapist is trying to get Brady thinking about school and she told Brady he could write a paper about any topic that would be of interest to him. He has decided to write about how the injury has changed him. Brady definitely looks at the world in a different way, and it will be neat to see how he expresses that. He remains so positive every day, though he likes to tease us that he is just having an ‘average day’, knowing that we know he appreciates every day of life so much now.

Thank you for all the prayers and support.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, July 14, 2005 7:16 AM CDT

donna therapy continues five days a week, every afternoon. Brady starts out working with the Madonna teacher, and then goes to OT and PT and every session lasts 45 minutes to an hour. One OT session this week they were working on multi-tasking. Brady had to cook a grilled cheese sandwich, while completely making a bed, putting on sheets and bedspread and all. I’m sure this isn’t too exciting for a 17-year old, but he does get to eat his cooking, so that is his incentive. His OT therapist has had him working a lot on the rules of the road for driving. That is going real well, and they have made it through a huge variety of test questions. As far as the actual driving, Brady is doing a little around the neighborhood. It will take a lot of practice to get everything coordinated again. Since the right ankle is weak he has to really move his right leg, and not just the foot. We asked the eye doctor about his eyes for driving, since the left eye likes to do more work than the right. (This is the part every 17-year old boy loves to hear.) “Playing video games will really help your eyes work together, and work on your field of vision,” is what the doctor said would help. Another doctor saying, “Play video games.” His Madonna doctor also said the same thing when Brady got out of the hospital. If they insist!

Thank you for all your prayers and caring. God bless.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, July 7, 2005 7:12 AM CDT

We had a nice relaxing fourth of July, and Brady still has all his body parts in order. Lighting fireworks was a favorite thing of his to do, and he got to do a little of it this year, though we kind of put a stop to most of it, since we know he isn’t up to regular speed when trying to run away on lighting big ones. The neighbor said it was real cute to see Casey helping to hold Brady while Brady was bending over to light an artillery shell on July 3rd. Needless to say when Tom and I were home on July 4th he wasn’t doing those things. So, as I said all the body parts are accounted for! YEA!

While getting the botox shot a few weeks ago, might have loosened the ankle just a little, it also weakened the muscles around the ankle some. When he stands on his right leg only he was able to stand for almost a minute, and now it’s just for a few seconds. The botox only lasts for a few months, so the key is to really stretch the ankle and to get the muscle flexible and stretched out, while it has the movement. So, several times a day Brady does his stretching. He also has shoulder exercises he does at home, and of course, his eye exercises. It’s hard to fit everything in everyday, so he picks and chooses, with the eye exercises usually losing.

Today in occupational therapy Brady made a grilled cheese sandwich, and that went well. He often makes his sandwich lunch here at the house, and light breakfast, too. I wish they would have him doing full meals to send home for the family, but not yet. HA!

Yesterday in OT they had him doing a drill where he places 16 small pegs one by one in 16 holes on a board with his right hand, and then pulls them out on by one. They time this drill. When Brady first got to Madonna and he was doing this it took him about two minutes. His right hand has come back so well he can get it done in 26 seconds now. When he does it with his left hand it took him 19 seconds. So, there is still room for improvement in his right hand, but that’s come a long way.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness, support and prayers. We pray that God blesses all who have done so much for us.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, June 30, 2005 2:41 PM CDT

Therapy is continuing on this summer. In speech therapy, Brady is finally
reading the articles from the newspaper that were written after he was hurt
during the months of September and October. He was thinking about what
would be interesting reading for him and decided it was time to pull those
out. I would love to hear his comments when he is reading these, but I
don't go to any therapy classes with him anymore, except once in a while to
physical therapy to see how his right leg is doing. During physical
therapy, Brady is doing most of his work without his brace on. They have
him doing stairs, balancing on a rocking board while catching and throwing a
ball (with someone close to catch him), and working on stretching the ankle
without the brace on.
We were watching the news Tuesday night and the sports were featuring
volleyball stars from the state. Brady in his joking way said, "I should
have played volleyball, then I wouldn't have gotten hurt." He then laughed
and said, "No one could have talked me out of football, besides the injury
put everything in order for me. I realize it's not about how many good
football plays you make, it's not about grades, it's not about cool cars,
but it's about one thing, God!"
Thank you for all the prayers and support.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, June 23, 2005 12:12 AM CDT

If you have to be in therapy at Madonna summertime is the best time to do
it. Brady is having a good time thinking of activities he needs to have his
therapists help him work on, and most of them end with going to Goodrich for
a malt at the end. It's not happening that much, but Brady is trying. This
week he washed our car at the carwash for OT. At the car wash he had to go
on a search to find the change machine and then figure what settings to put
the spray on. It was great thinking for him, and then a good way to work on
coordination while doing the spraying.
His speech teacher has him working on doing a lot of reading and getting his
reading up to a faster speed. He has come a long way on that in the last
six months. In December, he could be shown a car key and when asked what it
was he wasn't able to think of the word, key. He could tell what it was
used for, but for a lot of items he couldn't think of the word that it was
called. In his reading he also struggled with a lot of words and would
often have to spell a word out before he said it.In December, that probably
happened that he struggled with some word every sentence. That is going so
much better now, and he makes it through most reading items without having
to slow down for any words. His speed of reading still needs to improve,
but it has come such a long way, and he is spending his summer reading a
couple books in his extra time. The real good news is he is good at
comprehending what he has read and is able to remember and summarize
articles he reads.
As with pretty much everything, Brady has to work on getting faster at every
activity. This will come over time as the brain keeps healing and
everything is being relearned and repeated over and over.
The botox hasn't made any drastic changes, but Brady's foot has gotten a
little bit more movement than it had. Every night I ask him what tricks he
can do without his brace, and we sit there and see if the toes or ankle have
any more movement. Boy, do we know how to have fun at this house?!?!
We know Brady would never have come this far in recovery without all the
prayers being said for him. Thank you all so much for all you have done and
we pray for God's Blessings on you.

Tom and Carol Beran

Thursday, June 16, 2005 11:38 AM CDT

Last Friday Brady picked up his new lenses for his glasses. When he first put them on everything was blurry, but as he wore them over the weekend, his eyes adjusted and seeing blurry is not a problem anymore. The bi-focals are gone, and the lenses aren’t quite as thick. Eye therapy (which he does once a week at the eye doctors office) seems to be helping him get his eyes working together better. As everything, it will be a slow process, but we’re so encouraged by the improvement.

Yesterday Brady got a shot of botox in his right ankle. Yes, botox is the stuff women get shots of on their face to get rid of wrinkles. So, Brady won’t have anymore wrinkles in his ankle? Well, I guess the reason the doctor wanted to do it for Brady is to help him get more movement to his right ankle. It kills the nerve temporarily (for about three months) so Brady can work on stretching the ankle and retrain it to get it’s movement back. The shot is supposed to take about five days to kick in fully. Last night Brady had movement in his toes (something new), and tonight he had a higher degree of ankle movement than he had before. Hopefully this will work for him. It was hard to decide whether to do it or not, since it would be nice to get the movement to come back without help, naturally over time, but the doctor thought helping it along would be okay.

We can still say we see improvements every week. Though they aren’t quite as obvious as they were in the beginning, it seems like vocabulary is getting better, tasks are getting a little quicker to do, and thought processes are starting to kick in better. Since things are a little more relaxed this summer and Brady has more free time he is trying to help out around the house a little. It was funny last week, Brady was unloading the dishwasher for the first time since he was injured. About half way through that job, he looked up and said, “It’s all coming back to me now.” Unfortunately there some things you never forget. Kind of like when he was working with his therapist on brushing up on dancing for prom he broke into and did the whole Macarena dance.

We thank you for all the prayers and pray for all who have prayed and done so much for us.

Tom and Carol

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 8:28 AM CDT

School ended last Wednesday for Brady and he was ready. He has rested up and is ready to hit it hard every afternoon at Madonna, hopefully. He just couldn’t bring himself to go to summer school. He said on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being not wanting to go to summer school, he would rate it about 900. Do you think that means he kind of doesn’t want to go???

Today his occupational therapist took him to Hallmark to pick out some Father’s Day cards. It was kind of overwhelming for him to look at all the cards to find what he needed, but he did get to the right area, and did make some good choices. When he went to pay the clerk told him he needed to get envelopes for the cards, and explained how to do that. He said, “what a clever idea to put envelopes behind cards,” and off he went to try and find matches for the cards he picked out. He finally ‘got ‘er done’ and finished up the outing at Goodrich. A good afternoon!

We had some great news last week from the eye clinic. On his eye exam his right eye showed a 25mprovement over the last three months, so he is getting new lenses for his glasses that won’t be quite as strong. They are also going to take away the bi-focals! YEA! He had been taking off his glasses to read the last month anyway, so that isn’t too much of a surprise.

In physical therapy Brady is still doing the treadmill once a week, going about 1 ½ or 2 miles when he walks with one 3 minute break. He really doesn’t dread it like he used to when he first started, but it’s not his favorite day, either. The other two physical therapy days they work a lot on balance, stretching the right ankle to help get movement out of it, and Brady’s favorite, the neck massage. Since his right shoulder has been weaker than the left, he has thrown off his neck alignment, so the PT helps to work that into better alignment, and then tops it off with a heat wrap. Now that is his favorite PT session. Usually he has to work on the total gym with his heat wrap on, but it’s still a treat.

Brady went to a few graduation parties this weekend, and some people he didn’t know would come up to him and tell him they had prayed for him. He thanked them so much and told them they had saved his life. The prayers have done so much.

Tom and Carol

Friday, May 27, 2005 8:13 AM CDT

I remember when Brady started back to school April 4th and he was so excited
to be there and happy to be back as a student. I think the newness and
excitement wore off just a little, and he is counting the days he has left
this until his last final on June 1st. His teachers for History and Pottery
have been good. In history, Brady begin the quarter having random
questions, but by the end of the quarter he was relating the material he had
learned in previous weeks to things that they were working on that day.
Madonna had helped him with extra review time studying his history, but it's
neat to know that his memory is kicking in a little more all the time. As
far as summer school goes he really wants to have a break not take any
classes. He will have Madonna therapy this summer, so I don't blame him.
That will mean he will have to take full schedules at East next year, all
seven periods. Right now he says that's okay, but when fall comes we'll see
how it goes.
I was so excited Wednesday when Brady was doing his eye therapy he was doing
some hand-eye coordination with a peg board doing tic-tac-toe. He was
explaining to the therapist the strategy behind winning at the game, and
where to go to start and do blocks. Back in December when we played
tic-tac-toe, Brady had no idea on any such concepts, so it was neat to see
that some problem solving technics which he used to excel at are coming
back.
Next week a therapist who excels in ortho rehab will look at Brady's leg and
ankle and evaluate his walk and control. He will give some direction on
what Brady and his physical therapist should work on this summer to help get
more movement back to his right ankle. He is able to lift the front of his
foot off the ground about 2 inches when he keeps his heel on the floor. A
couple months ago he couldn't do that. Progress is very slowly coming, but
when he walks he doesn't hit with his right heel first as we are supposed to
do. Brady walks around the house without his brace. It is definitely
harder for him and slower going, but he is completely independent in getting
around doing everything inside the house. Lawn mowing will be our next
step! HA!
Brady went to Lux Thursday night to observe Joe in an 8th grade people of
history presentation. He loved seeing all his middle school teachers and
talking to them. Oh, more new people to talk to. That's his thing, now!
Thank you so much for all your caring and prayers.
Tom and Carol Beran

Friday, May 20, 2005 6:46 AM CDT

First things first. Both the East boys and girls soccer team brought home a championship, something never accomplished by any school in the state of Nebraska. Brady was so happy about the teams accomplishments! He was there in Omaha for the finals, enjoying every second of their hard fought victory. Between mornings at school, prom, and following soccer, I think his energy at Madonna is not at it's top speed, but his therapists are so patient with him, and they all keep plugging away.
Therapy at Madonna will continue for Brady all summer. His physical therapist will be working on getting that right leg stronger, balance, and physical endurance. He has physical therapy 3 times a week for an hour each session. One of those days is dedicated entirely to the treadmill. On the other two days he does various activities usually working without his brace on his right foot. The muscles are weak and having to be retrained on what to do. It is coming very slow, and it will be questionable if he can be jogging by August, but hopefully at some point he can meet his goal.
His occupational therapist is having him do activities as writing checks, finding his way from point A to point B, eye exercises, and working on getting strength to that right shoulder. He is starting to do just a little bit of weight lifting with his right arm. His right shoulder strength may never be quite what it was, but they will be doing a lot of work on strength and range to try and get most of it back this summer. He never had aspirations to be a baseball pitcher, so not a big deal. I know that Brady does want to be able to get back to the weight room someday and really work on weightlifting at some point down the road.
His speech therapists are going to be doing a lot of work with speed of reading and working on strengthening the memory this summer. It seems like his memory is better when he's not so tired. But if he has had a big day or late night, it's more of a problem.
I'm not sure if Brady will be taking any summer school class, or what will help for him to make up some credits from this junior year. He is definite about wanting to graduate with his class next year, so he wants to do what is takes to make that happen so we will have to really think that out.
Oh, prom pictures...since Tom and I are computer technically challenged, it might be a while before we can figure out how to get a prom picture on the website, but we'll see if we can get a couple scanned. Thank you for all your caring and prayers and support. To God all glory be given.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, May 12, 2005 8:02 AM CDT

Prom is over and Brady survived the night. He was so concerned he wouldn't be able to stay awake as late as he wanted to, but he made it! The group of 8 couples had pictures taken at 6:00, off to eat at 6:30 and then to the dance. Brady said he would dance one dance and then have to sit down and rest, and then danced the next dance, etc. Before he got hurt he could make it 4-5 dances without a break he said, but I reminded him that 4 months ago he wouldn't have been able to dance at all. Emily and Brady made it to the post prom night at East at 12:30, and stayed there until 3:30 when they went to breakfast after that. I think he made it home around 5:15, and he was so excited because that was his goal to stay up for breakfast after prom. He slept until 2:15 on Sunday, and then did pretty good on Sunday. I think it hit him on Monday and Tuesday, hesaid he was having some brain farts in his thinking, but seems to be getting kind of back now. Thursday is treadmill day, and so those days tire him out, so he will probably be ready for this weekend.
The East soccer boys will be in the State Tournament this weekend. He would love to be playing, but will be there to cheer them on to winning State!
In physical therapy they are having him do a lot of bending and stretching of his ankle, pulling it back and holding it to stretch his calf and front leg muscles. His legs muscles are so tight it's time to start really working them.
His occupational therapist is having him do a lot of hand-eye coordination, like bouncing a tennis ball to him and he catches it in a plastic bowl. She takes turns covering each eye to help eye strength and coordination also when he does this.
I forgot to say that Brady had a wonderful prom night. He said it was better than he thought it would be. Before he picked up his date he went to Madonna to surprise his weekend nurses that told him they would take him to prom when he was inpatient in December. That was great to see them. He asked them why they weren't ready to go. Michelle told him she had her prom dress in the car, and Brady decided then it was time to leave. Next year, Tammy and Michelle.....
We pray for everyone who has helped us in so many ways daily. Thank you for every single thought and prayer.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, May 5, 2005 6:49 AM CDT

Today Brady took a test on a computer at Madonna to show reaction time.
This test is a prerequisite to driving again. He did well on this computer
test, but it tested hand-eye coordination only, and didn't show how well his
foot would react. We will have to go to the East High parking lot to
practice that. (Since he wears a brace on his right foot it might be a
little difficult.) I guess practicing video games for the last few months
has paid off on the hand-eye coordination. When he wants to play video
games he calls it his home therapy time.
Speaking of Madonna, this week Brady is doing a little practicing of his
dance moves with his occupational therapist. She was going to bring some
music from home, but forgot, so we had to go with what she could find at
Madonna. I don't think that was the kind of music they will hear Saturday
night at the prom, but it was good for a laugh. '
We just couldn't find dress shoes that fit over his brace to wear with his
tux. The shoes have to be wide and open up almost down to the toes. The
solution! We got him some lovely black velcro athletic shoes, and he is
thrilled. Seriously, he is really excited about his velcro. Anything for a
laugh!
For the last couple months the therapist has been taping Brady's right
shoulder (the tape puts a gentle stretch on the muscle to get it stronger)
to try and get the muscle to come back. This has really helped, and his
right shoulder is strong enough to be doing a little work with weights. He
still has a little ways to go on bringing it back as strong as his left
shoulder, but they are going to stop taping and give it some rest and see
what happens. He now has to be diligent on doing his home exercises for his
shoulder to keep getting it stronger himself.
Fatigue and forgetfulness are still things Brady deals with, but he still
stays so positive in his attitude. He knows God is blessing him and helping
him recover.
We thank everyone for all their caring and prayers. God's blessings to all.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, April 28, 2005 6:54 AM CDT

Not that Brady isn't getting enough therapy, but he started a new one this
week. Once a week we are going to an eye clinic for eye therapy. They will
be doing eye exercises to try and get the right eye stronger, and working
better with the left eye. The goal of these exercises is to someday,
hopefully have Brady out of glasses, if possible. They sent exercises home
for him to do, and at some point soon he will be able to use a computer
program at home several times a week that will exercise him, and plot the
progress. It will be neat when he can start using the computer program,
because it is more like a simple video game in it's training, and Brady
would be more apt to do that, then regular eye exercises.
I did get the courage to ask Brady's therapist if she thought he would be
able to drive again. She definitely thinks that will happen when his right
foot gets a little stronger and is able to react quicker. She made it sound
like she could see that happening over the next few months. Even though I'm
sure Brady would love to be riding around with his parents for a few more
years (NOT) he was a little excited to hear the news.
Soccer season is in full swing, and Brady misses playing the game but has
taken on a new role of Super Fan for the East boys team. He is having a
great time, leading cheers and yelling to the players. He wears his Aviator
sunglasses and Top Gun hat, and has even been known to put on a hard hat to
get a few laughs.
Brady is sitting here helping me write this tonight, and he just wants to
thank everyone for everything they have done for him, especially the
prayers.
God Bless,
Tom and Carol and Brady

Thursday, April 21, 2005 7:33 AM CDT

In November, they told us Brady would walk out of Madonna when he left and I pictured him walking out and everything would be back to normal. I didn't realize that he would still need help when he walked and have to relearn almost everything. We have gotten to the stage that he is walking around the house completely alone even without his brace on. Although it is slow, and alignment of the hip and leg isn't straight yet without the brace, it is encouraging that there is a little movement in the ankle beginning. Walking along without the brace is a big step for all of us, because in the morning when he wakes up he can get out of bed and come out on his own. Up until now he had to wait until we came in to help before he could get out of bed and take steps. He so wants to be able to run again someday, so he's trying to be patient about it, but he has been praying for it to happen. The ankle really has be be moving well on it's own for that to happen.
Anyway, back to Brady having to relearn everything...right now he is working on learning to get down on the floor and back up by himself. I think going down is the hardest, just learning how to bend at the waist and knees and reach down without losing balance, to get to a floor position is a new task for him. I looked at the therapist and said, "Is this ever going to be easy and natural," and she said of course it is! It will all be normal again someday. I thought I had patience before Brady was hurt, but God is teaching us extreme patience now.
Brady is still doing the treadmill, but only once a week. He goes about 1 1/3 miles when he walks it. He does that without a brace, too, but a therapist moves his right foot in rhythm with the left. This all helps to re-train the brain to do normal walking again. Right now he has a problem with his right knee sometimes locking when he walks. He has physical therapy only three days a week now, so treadmill is one day, and the other two days he works on balance and doing a lot of up and down steps smoothly to help that right knee not to lock.
Although I can tell going to school in the morning and Madonna in the afternoon is tiring for him, he becomes a little more physically able to handle it all the time.
Do we have any volunteers on teaching him to dance again? Prom is only 2 weeks away, and he is ready to go. We got the tux rented, though we have to go shoe shopping to try and find dress shoes that fit over a brace. Brady has been looking forward to prom since December when a couple of his nurses said they would be his escorts for the night. He politely informed them that his dates have to be under 30, (sorry Tammy and Michele). He had a good time with talking about it then already.
God Bless everyone for all the prayers and support they have given us. Going to school has been good for Brady, but it's not coming easy yet, that takes patience too. We just thank everyone for all the help and understanding they are giving to Brady as he learns to be a student again.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, April 14, 2005 8:09 AM CDT

School is going okay for Brady. I'm afraid this new imagine of talking more and being more animated might not fit in with the school structure too well, so I'm sure relearning being quiet for a class period is a real struggle for him, and not something he will do well at for a while. A big thank you to all the kids who are helping Brady with taking notes, getting up and down steps and all that the students are doing for him, and especially to his teachers too.
His shoulder muscles in the right shoulder (that were getting taped with kenesio tape) are getting stronger, so he is able to being lifting some light weights with his right arm to strengthen the shoulder even more. They are still taping the top muscle, but it is coming.
When I drive Brady to school we go down Devonshire street, and the Bradford pear trees have been in full white bloom this last week. Brady loves seeing these trees and how beautiful they look. He said, "Did I comment on these trees before I got hurt?" I think he is looking at the world in a different way now.
We saw the eye doctor this week, and the right eye has gotten a little better. The doctor isn't going to change the prescription on the glasses yet. She wants him to start coming once a week to do regular eye exercises in the office and will watch the eyes and hopefully start dialing down on the strength of the prism in the glasses in 6 - 8 weeks as the exercises progress.
Thank you everyone for all the support you have given us and continue to give us. Your prayers and support have gotten us through and continue to carry us on. Enjoy the lovely spring we are having, and enjoy those flowering trees this week.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, April 7, 2005 7:43 AM CDT

Brady has three days of East High school under his belt now, and I just heard him tell someone, "I didn't used to like to go to school, but now I really like to go." We'll give it about another week and then see.....Of course, if you sit by a sophomore girl in pottery and she is helping you with your pottery project and you have Beth Butler taking notes for you in history, it might not be too bad! For Brady to take notes and try to listen to the teacher at the same time at this point in his recovery would be too much. For his eyes to focus on a board and then take time to look down at his paper to write, takes a few seconds for his eyes to adjust going from one to the other. The combination of trying to have the eyes adjust, thinking about what is being said and writing it at the same time is a much slower process right now. That will get better in time, but in the meantime listening to the teacher is what he is mainly trying to focus on now.
On Friday Brady finally has an appointment to get his new brace cast for his right ankle. This one will have a hinge at the ankle so he can move faster. The stiff brace he has right now is really affecting his walking so that his body alignment is off, so it will be great to get something that fits him better for all the walking he is doing now. The brace should be done in a week or less. Brady walks around the house without the brace in the morning before school and in the evening for a little bit. He feels like his ankle is getting a little bit of strength back. He says he is comfortable walking without it, compared to a month ago he wouldn't walk alone without someone close by if he didn't have his brace on.
Yesterday Brady had an article in the Lincoln Journal Star about his going back to school for the first time since the injury. The article started on the front page of the paper and continued to another page. When Brady heard the article was going to be on the front page he didn't want to do it, because he thought people would think he thought he was cool by having this article about himself. Brady just wants to be "normal" life again. We explained to Brady that
'while he was sleeping' Lincoln became interested in how he was doing, so it would be okay to show them what he had been doing for the last 6 months. He said he would love to do it if he could let everyone know that God was the reason he was here today, and I think that showed in what the newspaper said.
Thank you everyone for every card, thought and prayer and everything done for us. We are almost to the point where we are taking a breath again, and not in panic mode full time.....almost.

Thursday, March 31, 2005 10:51 AM CST

Last Thursday, Brady went to meet the Pink Sisters. They are a group of cloistered nuns who live in the Piedmont area, and spend their days in prayer. They had prayed for Brady, and so he went to see them. It was a great visit. He explained to them how on Friday's he wears a bling cross to Madonna and told them what bling is. ( A very large silver and rhinestone cross the 'rappers' wear. ) They were so gracious and we had some laughs while Brady explained life as a teenager, and then he thanked them for all they did. He told them how he knows prayer and God saved his life.

Brady's therapist is still taping his shoulder. The muscle is really coming back. Right now she is just taping the top of the shoulder since most of the rest of the area has gotten much stronger. He is getting fitted for a new brace for his right ankle. The brace he is wearing right now doesn't allow him to have any flexibility in his ankle. He needs some flexing for when he tries to walk fast. The brace they will make will be smaller than the one he has now, and will have a spring in the ankle area that will allow him to move faster if he wants to. That will be great for when he wants to do his 'power walking'.

Last November and December Brady was troubled with stomach pain after his stomach surgeries. The good news is he hasn't had any more stomach trouble for over 3 months. He is eating all kinds of food, and has had no pain! That is really a blessing. The has gained back over 30 pounds, after losing a total of 45 pounds during his rough times in the hospital.

School will start next Monday back at East for two classes. He will have a lot of help, to make it successful. There will be someone who will take notes for him, and the teacher will also give him notes to help with learning. Any tests he would take would have to be multiple choice, since essay writing would be a big task at this point. His attitude keeps him trying and he is always ready to work (with just a little stalling) to get better.

Thanks to everyone for all their prayers. I know Brady would like to personally thank each and everyone for all they have done for him, and the way he loves to talk and talk to people, he probably will catch you someday. THAT'S A WARNING! Take care, and as Brady would say this week as he is saying goodbye to someone, God Bless!

Tom and Carol

Thursday, March 24, 2005 7:17 AM CST

Brady went to East High for some physical therapy time and lunch again this week. He's done with going to school for practice, until April 4th for the real deal. Starting back to class, (just two classes and lunch) and he is ready. In the beginning he will have a para make sure he gets to his classes safely through the halls, but he was doing fine with that when he did physical therapy practice. His only concern is going on the steps, and going down is the hardest for him. He can do it, and hasn't had a problem doing it, but when your foot is stiff and your eyes can play tricks on you it is a hard situation. (Especially with size 13 shoes). Next week is break for the public schools, but Brady will go daily to therapy at Madonna. He has tried to talk a therapist and I into one day off, but he hasn't come up with any great alternative plan yet.......
Brady's physical therapist is real happy with how his balance is coming back. He has come a long way in that area in the last 3 months. His occupational therapist just went to a clinic in Chicago on rehab for the eyes after brain injury, so she will be really working on getting Brady's right eye to work harder with his strong left eye. It will take time, but with his glasses and a lot eye exercises we have hope.
Brady looks at life in a completely different light since the injury. He has told a couple people lately that, "I've never had a bad day since the accident. I had some bad days before the accident, but none since." Every day he says at least once "It's great to be alive." The routine gets a little old everyday, but his attitude makes it a lot easier. Of course, we owe that to all the prayers and caring we have gotten from so-o-o many. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Tom and Carol Beran

Thursday, March 17, 2005 7:53 AM CST

From what the physical therapist can see, Brady's knee and leg movements for the right leg are pretty much coming back. We're now just waiting for the right ankle to kick in and start moving on it's own. The big toe moves a little, but no others. He needs this to happen to be able to run again.

Right now he's only able to "power walk" is what he calls it. He truly never complains about any of this, and is much more patient than I would have thought he could be. In having to relearn how to do so many different things, his therapists are having him go out in the community on outings such as to the library, Quick Shop, etc.

Last week he went to Target to shop for some school items. I
told the therapist he never liked to shop so he never went before the injury, so it would be like really showing him something new. He did it like a typical man, go in, get the items and get out of the store. No fun for the therapist and I. We've noticed his short term memory is improving a little over the last week. He still has a hard time sometimes finding the right words to say when he is talking about something, but it usually comes after he thinks about it a few seconds. I don't think names will ever be easy for him, but I think that is a genetic problem he inherited too.

Brady knows God and the many, many prayers have given him his life back. Thank you all so much for your faithfulness, support, prayers and caring.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, March 10, 2005 8:53 AM CST

This was kind of an exciting week. It's been two weeks since they have been putting about 4 - 2" x 10" strips of tape on Brady's right back shoulder to put a gentle stretch on the muscle to see if it can bring back some of the muscle that is so weak. Sunday night I asked him to shrug his shoulders. (When he did that before the taping, the left shoulder would go up and the right shoulder didn't move at all.) This time when he shrugged the right shoulder went up about 1/4 of the way! It was so exciting! and hard to believe that this taping can really produce results in a weak muscle coming back to life. This is called kenesio tape. I think they will keep taping for about 6-8 weeks, so we're expecting more improvement as time goes on.
Brady's right ankle is also getting a little better and he is able to get it to move just a little. That needs to come back before he can run again, which he really wants to be doing as soon as he can. Tom and I suggested they just tape his whole body totally with special emphasis on his mouth, but that hasn't been done yet??!!Today in physical therapy he worked on getting down the the floor and getting up from the floor by himself without grabbing anything to pull himself up. He was able to do it all on his own today by himself for the first time.
Ever since we started outpatient therapy Brady has come home for two hours at noon, eaten lunch and laid down for a little nap. He is now coming home for lunch and then going right back after lunch and starting right back to therapy. His stamina is getting a little better.
It's kind of scary that we are soon coming up on 6 months of the date of the injury. The rehab people at Madonna tell us that the brain is still healing and Brady will keep getting better. Right now only God knows how the new cells are going to form and how much will come back, but there is still much time for more forward progress. Some things will come back close to completely, and some things will plateau and be different. That's where Madonna comes in to give him learning skills to deal with deficits. Right now their big push is for Brady to learn to write notes to himself in a planner so has something to refer to on things he might have trouble remembering like assignments given by a teacher, etc.
We just thank everyone so much for their continued prayers, caring, support and hearts. We pray daily for God to be with all of you.
Tom and Carol

Thursday, March 3, 2005 8:36 AM CST

Brady looks forward to the days he goes to East. This week when he went for his 2 hours he checked out his locker he hadn't touched since Sept. 24th, did steps to the basement, had school lunch and then went up to 2nd floor. Steps go okay, but slow. Brady looks at his physical therapist and says, "I think I'll take the elevator, when I really start back to school in April." We'll see who wins out, him or his therapist, who would like to see him using the stairs even is they aren't easy. When Brady goes back for 4th quarter it looks like he will be taking Pottery and US History (WWII to present). He will be going in the morning and staying for lunch, and then will go to Madonna in the afternoon for therapy. He has such good therapists at Madonna who are always introducing new things to do to keep it varied, so that helps to make it interesting. His physical therapist will take him outside on these nice days to throw a football or kick around a soccer ball. It's so funny because he can think of thousands of stall tactics on his way to do treadmill or balance boards, but if she mentions going outside he is almost ahead of her out the door.
You don't know how much we appreciate everything that has been done for us and every prayer that has been said. We can't thank everyone, enough.
God Bless,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, February 24, 2005 7:48 AM CST

Brady is actually really excited about being able to go back to school. His physical therapist is taking him there once a week to practice the hallways and getting familiar with the building, again. Tuesday he went for his first visit. He walked the first floor and classroom locations came back to him, and he could name off the math section, computer area, etc. He didn't know if he would remember that before going to the building. He still stuggles with remembering everyone's name, but he is SO thrilled to see everyone and talk to everyone! He seems to be much more of a talker now than before the injury. He loves to tell everyone how "great it is to be alive!" Next week Brady will walk around the basement area of the school when he comes and eat lunch in the cafeteria. He is even excited to get back to East cafeteria food.
Brady's occupational therapist is trying a technique to help get his upper back right shoulder muscle stronger. It is very weak right now and that muscle helps control any throwing motions he would want to do, like give strength to throwing a ball or shooting a basket. She puts a cloth tape across the area which puts a constant stretch on the muscle. That is to help stimulate it and get it to respond and get stronger. It is a fairly new therapy that Madonna is having good results with. Brady doesn't really notice the tape, it just provides a gentle stretch on the shoulder muscle. They hope to have results in about a month, if not, there are other techniques to try. As a rehab hospital, Madonna seems to cover everything!
Schoolwork at Madonna going better all the time, though short term memory problems and fatigue both really play into the situation.
Walking is going better all the time, with just a little limp right now. One thing he has to remember is to relearn to swing his right arm as he walks. It just hangs by his side right now, so we are reminding 'rightie' to get moving. It's just amazing all the little things we take for granted, until we realize that everything has to be working just right to rebuild and relearn, like Brady is going through right now.
We thank everyone for all the prayers and support they are giving Brady and us.
Tom and Carol Beran

Thursday, February 17, 2005 7:19 AM CST

We are so blessed. Brady continues to improve every week. He completely gets around the house on his own. We just have to help him a little bit in the shower, and help him with getting on his brace on his leg, but otherwise he is doing great. Brady wears a brace on his right foot and ankle since he doesn't have movement in his ankle yet. God willing that will come back in time.

In therapy they are really working on helping Brady with memory and teaching him to write down assignments and important items in a notebook to refer to. I find that if it is something he really wants to remember (like getting together with friends) he can remember much easier than classwork.

Brady had an eye appointment this week and his right eye is starting to get a little stronger and do a little more work. The eye doctor hopes that over the course of the next year she can have both eyes working equally together. (Right now the left eye is doing most of the work) She is doing this with prism glasses, that are pretty thick, so not real attractive, but hopefully he won't have to wear any glasses after all this correction is done.

We pray for everyone everyday who has helped us and prayed for us. Thank you so much.

Tom and Carol Beran

Thursday, February 10, 2005 8:15 AM CST

Daily therapy at Madonna goes on, and and after six weeks with the same therapists Brady is almost starting to learn their names! One thing about his injury is he has a very hard time recalling short term memory and a really, really hard time remembering names. He remembers faces, but names are much harder. It doesn't really bother Brady though. He still loves them even if he doesn't remember their names. Treadmill is finally going better and he isn't dreading it like he used to. He actually did 20 minutes
straight this week, took a short break, and did another 10 minutes.

Right now the therapists are working on getting Brady ready to go back to school for a class or two fourth quarter. His stamina is getting some better, and hopefully by then he will be strong enough to make it through a couple hours of school, and then back to Madonna for therapy. Right now the teacher at Madonna is trying to review past math, social studies, etc. from earlier years to get the memory to come back and ready to face high school
work.

We pray that Brady keeps on the recovery road so he can feel
comfortable back in classes. Brady loves being with people, and at Madonna Brady says "Hi" to every single person he sees in the halls or classes. This could be a problem when he gets back to East, in trying to get to a class on time, so he'll have to work on that.

We just thank God daily for the blessings he gives us. Thank you to everyone for all their caring and support.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, February 3, 2005 7:50 AM CST

Brady had such a good time going to the Southeast - East basketball game last Friday night. He was pumped to be out and back with the student body. It was so good for him. Sunday he made it to both Bible Class and church, and Tuesday night he went to the Northeast - East wrestling dual. I think it is catching up with him, as he was kind of tired and dizzy in physical therapy today, but he loves to be starting to go other places than just Madonna and home.
In occupational therapy Brady is working on trying to strengthen his right shoulder and arm. It's just easier for him to use his left hand since it is stronger, so his right arm just kind of is neglected, so we remind "rightie" to get to work and be useful. He does use it completely for writing, and his writing actually is readable. (Our family isn't known to have the greatest handwriting, so that is big). Brady's teacher at Madonna (Madonna has a certified teacher on staff) is working on a couple classes with him. That will be great!
Brady is stays so positive in his recovery. We are just so blessed with his great attitude, and we know it's the prayers that have gotten him this far. Thank you all so much,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, January 27, 2005 7:09 AM CST

Well, we were back at Bryan LGH West on Wednesday, but it's okay! They just had to do a little procedure. A few days after Brady's injury they put a filter in a vein that would catch a blood clot if it formed in the legs (which could possibly happen to people when they are not mobile). They removed this filter this week, since he is walking now. It was so nice to go back to the hospital so he could see all the people who helped him so much the first five weeks after he was hurt. Of course, he recognized no one, or no parts of the building, since he was pretty unresponsive during that time. The nurses were so thrilled to see how much progress he had made and just amazed at how far he had come since he left BLGH West. They told him how good he looked, and his answer was, "I know, I always look good," and they would laugh. That's so Brady.

In physical therapy, Brady is working on climbing a couple flights of stairs, and doing some side lunges. Actually, lunges tired him out much more than the treadmill. He goes about a half a mile on the treadmill now, and they have moved up the speed just a bit. The right knee, calf, ankle and foot are still very stiff, but his balance is getting better. In the Learning Center his teacher has him working on the basics of organizing and writing a persuasive paper. It's so interesting to see him actually writing topics and points out by hand, since Brady usually did all his work on the computer. He really hasn't been on the computer much yet, but I'm sure they will get to that at some point in rehab. There is still a lot of schoolwork to review and cover to help Brady catch up, but he still remains positive (though he never stops teasing the therapists) each day.

We will always say our prayers of thanks to God for His blessing of all the support and prayers given to all of us. Thank you so much,
Tom and Carol

Thursday, January 20, 2005 9:16 AM CST

Subject Update

Recovery progress is moving forward and Brady is getting a little stronger. After losing a lot of weight in October and November, the weight is finally coming back on, and he has gained about 10 pounds since he has come home. That is so exciting. His stomach pain has not been a real problem for a while, so hopefully that is healing, thanks to time and prayer. We are being careful about not letting him eat fast food, or anything real greasy or coarse, and he's just thrilled not having to eat institutional meals, so he okay with it for now.

Brady won't be going back to East for classes just yet. The staff at
Madonna feels he would be better off with therapy sessions and working at The Learning Center at Madonna until he has healed more and is more physically able to tolerate getting around school. He is at Madonna full day every day, but he does come home for lunch and a rest time at noon. Brady's glasses arrived last week. The glass is pretty thick as the glasses are trying to correct his right eye and get it to work harder. As the right eye improves he will get new lenses for the glasses that will be less thick every couple months, or depending on how fast the right eye heals.

Walking is still going good. On the treadmill this week he did twenty minutes with a little break half-way through. He is feeling more confident on moving around on his own, and has gotten up without having us by his side, although we usually still try to stay close. He is finally beginning to use his right hand some for eating, after relying on his left hand to do everything the last couple months. He is also writing with his right hand, and since he never had real good handwriting (a family trait), it's hard to tell how good his writing is.

Brady still likes to play tricks on the therapists and us. Sometimes when I help him get in the car, and shut the door, he'll let out a scream like I have caught part of his body in the door. We pray for his brain recovery to keep going good, and for Brady to keep regaining strength. By the end of the day Brady says his body is physically tired, so I know the sessions have worked him. Madonna would like to see him not have to go home and rest at noon, so he can get used to when he spends full days at school.
We thank God daily for all the people who have helped us so much and prayed for Brady. It means so much to us.

Tom and Carol

Thursday, January 13, 2005 7:15 AM CST

In The Learning Center at Madonna there are about 3-6 students depending on the morning. Last week a new kid came who was having some difficulties and had quite a negative attitude. When that person was leaving, Brady told him to 'Stay Positive!'. Brady really tries to do that, even though he tells us that sometimes the work really tires his body, and sometimes he teases the therapists that they are being to hard on him. On the treadmill Tuesday he walked for 18 minutes in 3-six minute segments, and that was exciting. Some days when Brady's balance is good, I know Brady could be walking places around the house by himself, but Tom and I still stay right by him just to make sure. We are definitely on the side of over-cautious right now. The right side is still slow compared to the left in its movements, but slowly it is regaining. Next week when the Lincoln Public Schools are on break, Brady will be at Madonna everyday. He's not real happy about that, but knows the more he works the better he will get. Some wonderful families from the Lincoln East football team got Brady a letter jacket for Christmas. He is so proud to wear the jacket wherever he goes. I think he would sleep in it if he could.

Everyone has been so good to us and we just want to thank all of you for all you have done for Brady and us. Brady especially wants to thank everyone for all the prayers given for him. He knows those prayers have made the difference in his life.

Tom and Carol

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 9:31 AM CST

Coming home has been great for Brady and he is feeling very comfortable and we seem to be getting into a routine. Walking is going okay. There are a few times when Brady has walked completely unassisted, but we still are by his side all the time yet. The right side is still pretty stiff, but that will relax in time.

We had a good talk with a team leader at Madonna and
they told us that brain injuries take a long time to heal....many months, and even after several years there can still be positive changes. Brady seems to be making positive steps every week. His visual perception of things is much better than his verbal learning.

Right now if he were told a box of kleenex were on the shelf in the corner he might not remember it, but if he saw the box of kleenex on the shelf he probably would remember that. That is because visual learning is on the right side of the brain, and verbal skills are on the left side that had the injury. We continue to pray for progress in recovery. We are so happy about Brady's positive attitude in therapies. He has never gotten down or real frustrated with any activity. He understands it will take time, but he is especially
looking forward to walking better and a little more independence I'm sure.

We thank everyone who has provided meals, prayed and supported us in so many ways.

Tom and Carol

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 9:30 AM CST

Coming home has been great for Brady and he is feeling very comfortable
and we seem to be getting into a routine. Walking is going okay. There are
a few times when Brady has walked completely unassisted, but we still are by
his side all the time yet. The right side is still pretty stiff, but that
will relax in time. We had a good talk with a team leader at Madonna and
they told us that brain injuries take a long time to heal....many months,
and even after several years there can still be positive changes. Brady
seems to be making positive steps every week. His visual perception of
things is much better than his verbal learning. Right now if he were told a
box of kleenex were on the shelf in the corner he might not remember it, but
if he saw the box of kleenex on the shelf he probably would remember that.
That is because visual learning is on the right side of the brain, and
verbal skills are on the left side that had the injury.
We continue to pray for progress in recovery. We are so happy about Brady's
positive attitude in therapies. He has never gotten down or real frustrated
with any activity. He understands it will take time, but he is especially
looking forward to walking better and a little more independence I'm sure.
We thank everyone who has provided meals, prayed and supported us in so many
ways.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 9:30 AM CST

Coming home has been great for Brady and he is feeling very comfortable
and we seem to be getting into a routine. Walking is going okay. There are
a few times when Brady has walked completely unassisted, but we still are by
his side all the time yet. The right side is still pretty stiff, but that
will relax in time. We had a good talk with a team leader at Madonna and
they told us that brain injuries take a long time to heal....many months,
and even after several years there can still be positive changes. Brady
seems to be making positive steps every week. His visual perception of
things is much better than his verbal learning. Right now if he were told a
box of kleenex were on the shelf in the corner he might not remember it, but
if he saw the box of kleenex on the shelf he probably would remember that.
That is because visual learning is on the right side of the brain, and
verbal skills are on the left side that had the injury.
We continue to pray for progress in recovery. We are so happy about Brady's
positive attitude in therapies. He has never gotten down or real frustrated
with any activity. He understands it will take time, but he is especially
looking forward to walking better and a little more independence I'm sure.
We thank everyone who has provided meals, prayed and supported us in so many
ways.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 7:46 PM CST

December 23rd was the big day Brady got to come home....after 3 months in hospitals....to say he was happy about it is an understatement. It was a quiet weekend for our family, but great. Someone needs to be by his side 24/7, but that has been working okay, and luckily Brady isn't taking any chances with doing anything risky.

He is still needing help with walking. Last night when he went to bed he was pumped, because he could straighten his leg by himself. Before that he needed one of us to push his right leg
down in bed if it was bent. He can't move his toes on his right leg yet, but that should come. Today we went to an eye doctor who specializes in brain injuries. She is getting some glasses for Brady that will help his right eye work harder. Right now his left eye is stronger and he is using it more for his vision and balance. She wants to try and train the right eye to do more of it's job, so in about a week, he will be in glasses for the first time ever.

Brady is back at Madonna this week as an outpatient,
doing therapy in the mornings and afternoons. He has a whole new team of physical therapists as an outpatient, so they are just getting aquainted with him this week. We are so thankful for having so many caring people praying for Brady and us. We have learned that this isn't an overnight healing, but a long process, and the support and prayers mean so much to us.

We pray that God will be with each one of you, also.

Tom and Carol

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 7:11 AM CST

Walking is going better everyday for Brady. As of now, just one non-professional can walk by him and hang on to him in case he stumbles. His walk is a little mechanical and not pretty yet, but his balance is getting so much better and he can stand alone now for at least 5 minutes, so everything is moving forward. Madonna therapists try to push people a little past their limits to build up strength and get better everyday.

Last week Brady decided his limit was once around the gym that day and no more. The person walking with him, asked him to do two laps and they talked him into it, but Brady decided he would get the best of them and did a fake trip on the second lap. He didn't fall or even really lean much, but just gave the nurse a big scare. As we say, his personality is still there. It's hard to believe we can count the days until Christmas on one hand. God has truly given us a Christmas miracle this year.

We thank everyone for all the prayers and support given to our family to keep us going everyday, and help Brady in his healing. There are still many months of therapy ahead for Brady, but God does give us HOPE. We hope your Christmas is meaningful and special, and we pray for blessings for all of you.
Tom and Carol

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 7:11 AM CST

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 8:13 AM CST

Everyday, a little bit more is being accomplished. The last few days Brady has been working on standing alone. He can do it for a minute or so, but someone has to stay right by him in case he loses his balance. Walking is the big thing that Madonna will be working on this week.

Right now Brady walks with just one professional by him, or two of us non-professionals. For his therapy class he gets on a treadmill set at 2 MPH and walks with a PT helping his right leg move rhythmically. This treadmill helps retrain the leg better than walking the halls at his own pace, because it gives a more normal rhythm to the walking. Considering he has been laying pretty
much horizontal since September 24th, this treadmill walking really tires him out. I think that is why they schedule it at the end of the day.

He is working on learning to write again with his left hand. Last Friday was the first time he has gotten on a computer himself. They just had him do some very simple typing.....no Instant Messaging yet!

Brady is ready to come home. He lets us know that every day. He says the bed is like sleeping on a floor, and classes are hard. He works hard in every class though, and knows he has to do the work to get better. Thank you for all your prayers for Brady. He still has some days of stomach pain, so we pray that ends, and pray he continues forward in therapy. We thank God daily for all the love and help we have gotten to make it through this.

Tom and Carol

Monday, December 6, 2004 6:44 AM CST

Brady saw the story on TV today of the taco feed his church had for him, and he just was overwhelmed and thankful for all the love and support he is getting. It really means so much to him.

Brady worked hard in therapy this last week. He is getting stronger at standing more upright and he is using more of his muscles and not needing quite as much help to stand up, but cannot stand alone yet. It is hard to
believe how many muscles have to be working together and be working just right to walk. His right foot turns in when he walks, and that is because the right hip muscle is weak, and all those muscles down the leg need work to be strengthened.

He still needs assistance when he walks, with a person on each side. Therapy is not easy when you are having to relearn everything, so Brady has found his own ways to try and get out of it. He told one of the gals he was having a heart attack and he needed to stop, and at another time
starting moaning in pain when another girl came in to get him to walk. It's lucky Tom or I are with him all the time, so we can explain to these nice people that he does like to tease. This kid keeps us always on our toes.

All your prayers are so appreciated and are helping Brady and the family. He still has just a little stomach pain, but it is much better. We just pray he keeps moving forward in his recovery. There is still a long road ahead, but God gives us HOPE for the future.

Thursday, December 2, 2004 8:33 AM CST

Your prayers have again blessed Brady, and the stomach pain has been so much better on Tuesday and Wednesday. He is getting better on conversing, and Tuesday we had a good talk about all he has been through. He asked how much school he has missed. I told him two months and he was completely suprised by that, and by hearing all that has happened to him in that time. He is becoming much more aware of daily life and what is going on. We praise God for that, and for all the prayers and caring.

They are working on getting him to stand more, and try to stand on his own. He walks once a day with help, and goes about 400 ft. before he gets tired. The struggles he has is because his right side is so weak, but it is progressing, and they are working on getting the muscles to respond properly. It's just been an exciting two days to see him feel better. His teasing is still there, and he knows how to use it. We just pray that he can keep getting stronger and have good days for therapy.

Many, many thanks,
Tom and Carol

Tuesday, November 30, 2004 7:36 AM CST

Brady is still having some stomach pain, but not as severe as it had been earlier last week. We are trying to give him 6 small meals a day, instead of 3 bigger ones, so the stomach doesn't have to process so much all at once. We hope this works to keep the severe pain down. He is so tired, but is doing well in therapy. He is starting to talk more, and still has his sense of humor and personality. He even sang to us a goofy wake up song one morning. He got the football the East team signed Monday night, and his eyes just lit up to have that in his hands. He studied all the names from the players on the football and smiled remembering everyone. Thanks guys.

Thanks for your prayers and support. We pray that he can overcome this stomach issue easily, and that he can gain some strength.

Tom and Carol

Wednesday, November 24, 2004 7:28 AM CST

You know how someone comes and tells you they have both good news and bad news. Well, I guess that is where we stand today.

The good news is Brady'sright leg and right hand are starting to move on their own. He is getting some muscle control back so that when he walks he is able to move his right
leg out on his own and they don't have to move it for him anymore.

He does still needs people on both sides to help support him as he goes down the hall. With his right hand he is starting to hold a pencil and make a few marks. This has just happened this week, so that is so thrilling. The bad news is he is having some major stomach pain. We spent last Saturday at the Emergency room with pain that lasted about 9 hours until he was comfortable again.

Tuesday he was having that same pain again, so on Wednesday they are running some more tests and hopefully they will figure out what the problem is. I asked him Tuesday night what I could do for him, and he said "Pray," so we prayed together.

Otherwise, he can't really move around or do therapy when he feels that bad, so he just watches sports on TV or sleeps. Please pray that this stomach issue can be figured out.

Thank you to all those who send cards to Brady at Madonna. He enjoys opening them since he is alert now, and can use both hands so he can open them himself.

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving, and blessings. We thank God for all the caring and love shown to all of us.

Tom and Carol Beran

Saturday, November 20, 2004 8:10 AM CST

Friday afternoon Brady left Bryan LGH West and returned back to Madonna. Saturday, the rehab teams will again be doing assessments. There are three different teams that work with the patients. The speech team, the physical therapy team, and the occupational team.

Brady settled right back in at Madonna. He took the remote control for the TV and immediately went to ESPN during a break at Madonna today. It is plain to see Brady still loves football.

We praise God we are again moving forward in the process, and pray that we
can continue this direction.

Tom, Casey and Joe went to the Waffleman fundraiser at East on Thursday night, and enjoyed their visit with people while they were there. Thank you so much to Coach Gingery, football players and all involved. Thank you to everyone for their prayers and support.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004 6:40 AM CST

Brady was tired, uncomfortable and not feeling well this weekend so they
scheduled him for an MRI on Monday afternoon this week. The results showed
there was some spinal fluid putting pressure on the injured area of the
brain, so they did surgery Monday evening to release the fluid build-up.
Everything went well, and he is in Bryan LGH West again for a few more days.
The day after surgery he was eating full meals again and looking better then
he had been on Monday morning. The therapy staff at the hospital had him
walking (with help) a couple times on Tuesday also. We are so thankful he
is feeling more comfortable and pray that healing goes well and we can
safely get back to Madonna and go forward again on recovery. The staff at
BLGH West were so amazed to see the difference in Brady from when he left
there two weeks earlier.

We run into so many people who say they are praying for Brady, and we thank
everyone for this prayer support. It means so much to us to hear this, and
we know it has brought Brady though so much. We would also like to say a
special thank you to all the families who have taken the time to make meals
for us. Tom and I or his brothers are with him all day, and most nights, so
this helps us out so much. I really haven't been able to think of cooking
right now, so I don't know what we would have done without this help.

Tom and Carol

Saturday, November 13, 2004 8:20 AM CST

Prayer warriors needed:
This was such a good week, we really feel Brady is making progress, considering he went in two weeks ago unresponsive. Joe was talking to him about the Halo 2 video game and he asked Joe if it was fun.

A couple nights we went to the chapel to pray and he said a couple lines of prayer. Yesterday he reminded me to shut off the computer after I had showed him this website for the first time. Today he was spelling some simple words.

His right hand is moving slightly, and also the right leg. As you can see this week we are seeing real progress, but the last couple afternoons he has been sick and that needs to get figured out. Please pray that they can understand what the cause is and that Brady's recovery will be able to keep proceeding forward. Of course, we lay this in God's hands again.

Thank you so much for your prayers.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 7:25 AM CST

Brady continues to be on an upward recovery, though it is a very, very long
road ahead. Eating has been going great, doing all three meals daily.
YEA! That is a great step. Hopefully soon we can sneak up a Runza burger.
Brady's right side is very weak, so when he does his walking he has a person
on each side, and one helping his right leg move. Just going a short
distance really makes him tired.
Right now his talking is coming very slowly. The few words he does say come very quietly. He does know all of us (parents and brothers) by name, and he definitely has his personality, as he has given us all some 'Brady looks'.

People with brain injuries tire more easily, and then combined with the weeks Brady was down he gets very tired. But, as always, Brady tries hard in therapy so that is such a blessing. We pray he can continue to gain back his strength and continue his gains. Madonna Rehab is truly a positive place.

Thank you all so much for all the prayers, and all the wonderful things being done for all of us. You are all truly so giving and caring. We really appreciate it, and thank God daily.

Tom and Carol

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 7:23 AM CST

Brady continues to be on an upward recovery, though it is a very, very long
road ahead. Eating has been going great, doing all three meals daily.
YEA! That is a great step. Hopefully soon we can sneak up a Runza burger.
Brady's right side is very weak, so when he does his walking he has a person
on each side, and one helping his right leg move. Just going a short
distance really makes him tired.
Right now his talking is coming back very slowly. The few words he does say come very quietly. He does know all of us (parents and brothers) by name, and he definitely has his personality, as he has given us all some 'Brady looks'.

People with brain injuries tire more easily, and then combined with the weeks Brady was down he gets very tired. But, as always, Brady tries hard in therapy so that is such a blessing. We pray he can continue to gain back his strength and continue his gains. Madonna Rehab is truly a positive place.

Thank you all so much for all the prayers, and all the wonderful things being done for all of us. You are all truly so giving and caring. We really appreciate it, and thank God daily.

Friday, November 5, 2004 7:22 AM CST

Brady is trying to get into the routine at Madonna, but the therapy classes are very tiring for him. Please pray that he can regain his strength so he can keep up with his therapy. As the days go on through the week we can see it is taking precious energy for him to keep up.

He did have a big step today. He was served his first meal this noon and it went very well. Mashed potatoes, goulash and peach cobbler. Tonight he was able to eat supper. We pray that this part of his rehabilition keeps going well, also. We so appreciate all the prayers and all the love. Please know that these prayers are helping Brady.

Tom and Carol

Wednesday, November 3, 2004 6:52 AM CST

Brady has been a trooper in his therapy sessions so far, and has tried hard in each session to learn. When he is done with classes he is completely tired out and sleeps. Physical therapy is working on getting him to walk again. With a walker to prop his arms and shoulders on and a therapist at each side and Tom in front shouting left.. right.. and Carol behind with a wheelchair if he gets tired, he moves his left foot by himself and needs help to move his right.

His right side is very weak. As you can see it is a very big ordeal just to do the walking, but he always wants to keep going as far as he can, going about 25 steps today! The doctors and therapists still ask no visitors to come to Madonna, becausehe works so hard during therapy and needs his rest and calm when not inclass at this point. We pray that Brady can keep up his stamina to concentrate in classes and that his attitude will stay good to keep making forward progress.

Words can't express the thankfulness we have for all that is being done for Brady and our family. We thank God daily for all of the prayers and love shown to us.

Tom and Carol

Monday, November 1, 2004 12:59 AM CST

Thank you all for all the prayers being said for Brady and all. Brady has finally made it to Madonna Rehab Hospital. The road ahead is still long, because recovering from a brain injury is a slow process, but Madonna is the right place for getting help.

The therapy will be intense, seven days a week.Because of that the doctors and therapists have asked that Brady have
no visitors at this time, to insure that he concentrates fully on recovery and gets his rest between sessions. Brain injury patients have a hard time concentrating with too much stimulus, so a quiet environment is a must.

The feeding is going better, but still is an area that needs some fine tuning. The great news is we are getting smiles every day, as Brady is emerging from his coma. This process will be slow, as there is so much to work on. Bryan LGH West and all the doctors were so good. We thank them all so much
for all they did.

Thank you all for so much overwhelming support, love, prayers and generousity. God's love is so present. He has gotten Brady through so much already. Prayers for Brady are such a blessing to us. We will try and update every couple days as to his activities.
Tom and Carol

Sunday, October 31, 2004 7:47 AM CST

The last couple days we have been blessed by seeing the "Brady smile" come several times. It is as cute and goofy as ever and an exciting baby step.

We still need prayers for Brady's nutrional feedings to go better. That is still an area of struggle, and an important part of his progress toward getting stronger.

We aren't real good at keeping up communication with our good friends and all during this time. We hope you know we thank God for all of you and your support every day.

Tom and Carol Beran

Wednesday, October 27, 2004 7:36 AM CDT

We are getting close to moving to Madonna Rehab Center. All we need is to have no fever. Right now Brady is running a slight fever, so please pray that everything can get under control so we can start intense therapy.

Thank you so much. Everyone is so helpful and supportive and we appreciate all the love, prayers and concern.

Tom and Carol Beran

Saturday, October 23, 2004 8:50 AM CDT

Thank you all for all the prayers. The infection is doing much better, so we are thrilled about that. Right now they are starting some nutrious feeding that is going slow. This happens with patients after surgeries. Please pray that the intestines start waking up and accepting the feeding soon, as we all know Brady loves good food, so that will really help to get that going!

The last two days have been better for Brady. He has had his eyes open more and working and moving his left side. We got a TV in the room and have turned it on to ESPN a couple times since that is the only channel Brady really needed before the injury. He is still in a coma, but we know he hears and responds to some things presented.

Again, thanks to all of you for all of your support. Each and everyone of you and your caring is a true blessing to Brady and all of us.
Tom and Carol

PS- We are so proud of the East High football players and their spirit to work hard through this difficult season. The students at Lincoln East are an amazing group, taking care of us and each other as we are all learning life lessons. Thank you to all of you for your love and caring, as well as to the community and state.

Thursday, October 21, 2004 11:03 AM CDT

As of today the infection is more under control and doing better. The doctors are slowly working on getting Brady stronger and continuing forward on healing. We have found nothing goes too fast or too easily in the healing process.
Our hearts go out to everyone for all the hard work and support they are giving to us. Thank you so much to all.
Tom and Carol

Wednesday, October 20, 2004 7:35 AM CDT

Thank you so much for all the love, support and especially the prayers. The infection Brady had all last week and through the weekend was so very serious. He is continuing to recover from that, and actually had a good day today with no fever. Our prayers are to keep away any more complications and infection to get the recovery on a forward progress. At times we are scared to even breathe while we are waiting for diagnosis and explanations.

Thank you to everyone. I don't know what we would do without everyone and their support. We do not understand why this is happening, but we do know that God does give strength to help through hard times.
Tom and Carol Beran

Sunday, October 17, 2004 9:08 AM CDT

Thank you to all for the many prayers, love and support.
Brady is continuing to run a little infection.

Please pray they can get this infection under complete control.
It has been a long, hard week, but God's love sustains all of us.
Tom and Carol Beran

Wednesday, October 13, 2004 1:01 PM CDT

Brady had been scheduled for transfer to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital on Tuesday, 10/12/2004. Unfortunately a persistent fever delayed that transfer occurring. On Tuesday, Brady’s doctors discovered his feeding tube had become dislodged and he had developed an infection. He needed immediate surgery to clean out his abdominal cavity and insert a new feeding tube. Brady had the surgery completed last night. His transfer to Madonna will now wait until he overcomes this latest hurdle.

From Carol Beran

Sunday, October 10, 2004 11:09 AM CDT

Brady is still sleeping most all of the time. He does open his eyes some and they are looking healthier. They are starting to do a little rehab therapy with him. If things stay as stable as they have the last few days.

Brady will move to Madonna sometime this week. The types of therapy they will use there will give him stimulation to make the forward progress in recovery.

Thanks to everyone so much for all their care, concern, cards, love and especially their prayers. Your prayer and God's grace has gotten us this far, and will continue us down the road in restoring Brady's health.
Tom and Carol Beran

Monday, October 4, 2004 9:51 AM CDT

From Quin:

Brady's parents (Tom and Carol) want to let everyone know that their support and prayers are greatly appreciated. They are overwhelmed with the generous outpouring of love and support.

Brady has taken a slight "side step" in his recovery process. A CAT scan on Saturday revealed some swelling on the brain. The swelling has caused Bardy to be less responsive than he was earlier. His doctors' have increased the medication that controls the swelling.

A follow up CAT scan was performed on Sunday and it showed no increase in the area of swelling, which was good news. The doctors reminded us that Brady's road to recovery will have these bumps, but that he is still progressing toward recovery.

Friday, October 1, 2004 9:09 AM CDT

From Carol Beran (Brady's Mom)

I think we all expected Brady to just jump and an say "I'm back" after coming off the sedation medicine. Well, that's not happening yet, but we are getting signs every day that Brady is making steps in the right direction. Please keep praying for him to regain his strength and make progress on the road to recovery. Our family thanks evryone for all the love and support, and especially the prayers!

Wednesday, September 29, 2004 9:14 AM CDT

Thank you to every East football player who stepped on that field tonight. I'm sure it was hard, but you made us all proud for carrying on through incredibly tough circumstances. Your character strengthened and showed. We were listening to the radio and the announcers praised the team saying this was their first step back from tough circumstances. They knew it wasn't the East team they saw playing against Millard North two weeks ago but they gave East much credit for their play tonight and said the team will only get better as the weeks go on. You are all true friends and "our boys".
Tom and Carol Beran
Sept. 30th

From Quin Kilgore:
The medications that were given to Brady to keep him in a coma have been stopped. He is making slight movements such as moving his mouth, curling a finger, and twitching his eyelids.

He seems to do these things in response to his family's encouragement. The bandage and monitor were removed from his head on Tuesday, which is another positive sign as he progresses. The plan today (Wednesday) is to take Brady off the respirator this afternoon. He is being fitted for a helmet to wear during recovery. Hospital personnel will try to sit him up today. Physical therapists are exercising his muscles.

The Beran family continues to ask for your prayers and they want me to pass along their gratitude for all the support, and prayers you have already given.

I know Brady well enough to know he isn't a quitter. Now that the medication is stopped, I'm convinced that he is fighting to wake up. Coach Hoham and I thank all of you for leaving the messages in the guestbook. We know that Brady will love to read them!

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 7:52 PM CDT

On behalf of Quin and myself, let me say that we thank all of you from the bottom of our heart for your incredible outpouring of compassion and faith! The messages that have been written in the guestbook are a testiment to our community in Lincoln and beyond. The Beran family and of course Brady's extended family, that being his friends, teammates, teachers, and classmates all appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Please keep them coming...as the power of positive thinking and prayer truly can work miracles.
Update:
Brady continues to make improvements each day. The doctors have reported that he is continuing to make progress toward waking up, and his vital signs and tests have all been positive. We will continue to keep you updated throughout the week.

Monday, September 27, 2004 8:56 AM CDT

Welcome to Caringbridge.org A non-profit place where you can go to receive updates on Brady Beran. Quin Kilgore friend and high school football and soccer teammate of Brady's, along with his high school soccer coach Jeff Hoham will be able to answer your questions regarding this website.

You may choose to read the updates, or even send messages to Brady and his family. All of the messages will be stored and updated, with the intent of showing our love and support to Brady and his family.

Update from Quin Kilgore:
As of Sunday 9/26 Brady is now out of his first surgery and it was very successful for this type of injury. Currently the doctors have him in a medically-induced coma. The neurosurgeon who performed the procedure said this is probably the best (early stage) recovery he has seen in his 20 years of surgery. More recently they thought since Brady was doing quite well for his condition the decision has been made to begin to ween him off of the drugs that put him in the coma.

As the drugs diminish, Brady is getting more responsive. There was a point where one of his brother's was holding his hand and there was a squeeze. But the doctors worry because they don't want Brady to cough because of the motion made during a cough. Brady tried to cough once, so they increased the dosage for the coma drugs.

The family requests cards and notes to the family but to refrain visiting the hospital at this time.

If you wish to make a monetary donation. An account has been set up at Union Bank. The account at Union Bank is 213-5752
You can contact Lincoln East parent Jim Zalewski with questions.

This website will continue to update you on Brady's condition.

The family and friends of Brady continue to pray for his recovery. Please feel free to post a note for Brady and his family.

Thank you for visiting this website.
It is going to be a long process as Brady's recovery process continues.

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