Week 28 December 31st - January 6th

Clark Family Update: Day 202
Monday January 5th
Day 107 at home

It has been over 30 days since I wrote an update, so let me catch you up.

Chase no longer has Physical Therapy. He graduated 2 weeks ago. He still attends Speech Therapy three times a week and Occupational therapy twice a week. His speech is still progressing rapidly. You can understand almost everything now.

He is more himself every-day. He is goofy, funny, and there isn't such a big personality difference in Pre-accident and Post-accident Chase anymore. He does still struggle with emotional control. He gets angry, annoyed, or upset easily, but he does have 4 younger siblings; 2 of which mother him to death, so we remind, and correct and move on. 

The new Semester starts on January 15th and Chase will be attending school full-time. I’m much more excited about this than he is.  Chase started out his junior year needing only 8 Credit to graduate, as he had planned to take college classes his senior year. It was such a relief to realize that he will still be able to graduate with his class.

His current schedule is something like:

English
Choir (Best Speech Therapy)
History
Study Hall / Tutoring / or rest period
Home at 11:45

His new schedule won’t be adding a whole lot, but it will be a hard adjustment

English

Choir
History
Study Hall / Tutoring / or rest period
Lunch
Ceramics (Great therapy)
Online Science Class in school
Study Hall / Tutoring / or rest period

His Special Education teacher wants him to take a math class online as well. He has all the credits in math he needs to graduate, but she wants him to make sure that the neuro-pathways for his math comprehension are intact. He may add this in later on or his study hall periods if he adjusts well to the new schedule.

Being back in school means that he has therapy for an hour every-day after school now instead of M-W-F since they are only open until 5. This means he can’t do speech and OT on the same days anymore.

Chase got his Braces off Last Monday. It makes speech and eating easier. He has a great smile! After the Accident He didn’t open his mouth on his own for over 45 days, and he had a lot of calcification that built up on his teeth. Unfortunately this means that his teeth are now discolored permanently. I’m hoping that whitening his teeth will help a little as the stains are white. It’s hard to care to much about discolored teeth when everything else is so amazing.

Chase meets with the Doctor this month to discuss the IVC filter that they failed to remove last surgery and what the next step is, as well as a checkup with his Neurologist. After his neurology checkup it will be 3 months until we have to do another checkup. Hopefully by the end of this month we will be off all medication. *finger crossed*

I am heading to Bismarck this week with Boston to get a EKG on his heart from the Pediatric Cardiologist. I’m not too worried. He has either V-Tach or A-Fib, both are hard to diagnose unless he is actually experience it while the monitor is on him. The EKG will let us know if there is anything more pressing, and as he only has episodes twice a year, all I really need is to know is that it isn’t happening because of a more serious complication.

Christmas was hard this year as we had planned to join all of our brothers and sisters in Utah for a family Christmas. The accident kind of changed our vacation day availability. While we were wallowing about missing out on all the family time, we had to stop and change our point of view. We came very close to celebrating this Christmas without Chase, and suddenly spending Christmas time with just our immediate family turned into the best Christmas I have ever had.
I hope that your Holidays were as wonderful as ours. I pray your 2015 is spent aware of all the little daily miracles. May the lord bless you and keep you until we meet again. We are Legion!

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