Hello everyone. Life has been hectic for all of us since Summer has come home. I wish I could have been updating more, but during this time we have felt called by God to do something more. We have been  trying to think of what we can do to help the next person that ends up in our families position by unfortunate circumstances. We have a project in the works that we plan to use to spread awareness about Traumatic brain injuries, share resources with people that need them, and share up to date research on brain health.   

We will keep you updated on that as we develop it, but there will be more news on that coming very soon. 

As for Summer, I am amazed by the improvement I have seen the past couple months. While some may not notice the improvements to the naked eye, the baby steps are so evident when you see Summer week to week! She’s much more aware. She tries to close the door herself when my mom brings her inside, pull my mom up a chair when they are in therapy, grab something off the ground if she drops or it falls off the side of her wheelchair. She also is using the right side of her face more. She’s getting even better at walking despite some issues that have arises (I’ll explain those in a moment) and she’s also completely eating purées 99% of the time. I’m so impressed by her everytime I see her I feel like she’s doing something new. 

Now for the not so great news. Summer has seen a lot of specialist the past few weeks. She had to see a ENT doctor who confirmed that Summers facial surgery she had in hospital was done incorrectly. Her jaw is misaligned being the main issue. She will have to get surgery to correct this but they do not want to take away from this crucial time of neuroplasticity and rehab so she will be waiting til around the year mark for that. Another issue that has come up is we learned Summer had a PCL tear from the accident that’s has been left misdiagnosed this entire time. That’s something that is keeping her from walking on her own as she can’t lock her right knee that’s already weak from the stroke as well. We will be getting more imaging on that soon and will have more info on if she will be needing surgery or what exactly will be done for it. Lastly, she visited a special doctor to Check on her carotid artery injury. This injury is what 90% of the doctors believed caused the stroke she had that had made her recovery more challenging. This artery has not healed despite us being told it would be fully healed at 3 months. They took her off her medicine for it before her neurosurgery under the understanding it had healed. But it was never checked. This is something we are concerned about but we will be finding out more
Info the next week or so after she gets more imaging done on it. 

I know updates have been few and far in-between but we cannot thank you all enough for your care and support and keeping Summer on your hearts and minds. God is doing special things in all our lives right now but especially Summers. He is healing her from within at the pace he wants to and we get the opportunity to watch it before our very eyes so we are all so very blessed. 
Please continue to pray for Summer’s healing, her to speak, and her full recovery ❤️

- Lauren