Sunday, June 9, 2013

living life

So it's been an extra long time since we've last updated...guess as it warms up we all get a little bit busier. Dad has been busy too gardening, opening his pool, spending time with his family, rehabbing his shoulder, and doing evaluations (which he is tired of - he just wants to be with the people that accept him for who he is now).
He finished up his therapy May 10 then went for a two week job training evaluation to see if he is ready for work...the evaluators saw a lot of the same things that we have seen - frustration, attention, vision, exhaustion... - they could pose problems in the work environment. Dad's never been good with constructive criticism so this was a tough meeting for him to take especially since it wasn't presented very well...but hes moving on. We are trying to encourage him to follow through to the next step but right now he doesn't want to.
He also went for another cognitive evaluation that was an all day affair full of tasks to see how his brain was working...he likes to "ace" any test he is given so he did dwell on a few things he had trouble with. But the results were pretty cool...without knowing any of his injuries the results were able to tell where he has head trauma was and where it was more severe. Basically they said that his verbal ability is almost above average so he is able to compensate for other problem areas. Most people that see him for a brief amount of time may not even know that he had severe brain trauma. For him this has been a really difficult thing to deal with. He was really proud when they said that he scored above average on the most difficult tasks. So they recommended that he do cognitive therapy that concentrates on where is showing that he needs improvement and that he see a neuro-psychologist to help him cope with changes, problems, dealing with his injury, etc. They also recommend that he get an IPad to work on...so look out Jim's getting tech savvy!
So basically Dad's just been enjoying time outside and playing with his grandkids and spending time with his kids and wife. Give him a call or come over for a visit, he would really love it.

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