Good News!

I just got off the phone with my mom. She said that yesterday at the hospital, the speech therapists were working with my stepbrother. Everyone was there coaxing him to make some sort of sound. Nothing was working.

"Why don't you try using the cell phone?" the therapist suggested.

One of my stepsisters called the other (who's away at college in Connecticut). My younger stepsister started talking loudly through the phone. My stepbrother took the cellphone, put it up next to his ear (under the helmet he was wearing) and made a groaning sound. That's the first sound he's made in the month and a half since the accident! And it was deliberate! After that, he got really agitated and started shaking and closed the phone. Maybe because the sound that he made was not what he wanted to come out; maybe because it took a lot of effort. In either case, this is a REALLY good sign that he'll be able to gain back some speech skills.

For me, this is the most important thing that could have happened. My greatest fear is that he would have been alive for a lifetime with some awareness but no ability to communicate on any level. That would have been hell. Now, I'm hopeful that he will be able to have some kind of real quality of life. He's proving all of the initial "doom and gloom" reports wrong. Thank God!

Yay!

Just finished watching the "Royal Wedding" on CNN. Off to the library now...

-hyde