June 12, 2006 - Late Evening

This week's picture is of the two cutest red heads we know...TAnn and Amanda at breakfast. Amanda had a good week and we had a encouraging sign. On Tuesday morning, Amand told Kurt about her dream from the prior night. (This is significant with someone that has had a TBI because dreams require REM sleep. REM sleep is a higher level of brain functioning and many individuals with a TBI go many years after their accident without dreaming. Dreams really are important!) We're taking this as another sign of her brain continuing to heal itself. The lumbar block also seemed to go very well and it appears that there has been a reduction in the pain level (she's willing to consider having a pedicure done!). The pain hasn't disappeared yet, but we'll take the reduction for now!

And from Chris O. and his 'wife' Dacia, we have the following excerpt of their visit this past Saturday,"On Saturday, Kurt, Chris O. and members of their home brew club attended the Iron Mash, a home brew competition held at Rahr and Sons, a local micro brewery. Amanda came along to socialize while the guys brewed. She looked very cute in a Texas Longhorns floppy hat to keep the sun out of her face. Mandy was very excited to be at an outing like this, and this was the first time many of the guys and gals of the brew club got to see her since early last fall. They were all quite thrilled to see her, and impressed with her progress, and with the lucidity of her conversation and interaction. She chatted with several of the brewers, and then got settled into her word puzzles while the guys worked on brewing their beer.

Dacia and her mom stopped by, and while they weren’t able to stay long because of other engagements, they did get to visit with Amanda a little bit. Dacia asked her how she was doing and she said that she was good and was “having a lot of fun here.” Dacia’s mom and another friend were with her and when she told Amanda “we had to leave because we had some other things to do” she told Dacia, “make sure you tell them ‘hello’ and you girls have fun today.”

For most of her visit, Amanda was content to hang out under the tent that Chris and Kurt’s club had set up, and had a nice hardy meal of Barbecue that Rahr’s had provided for the event. As the afternoon approached, however, the Texas heat was really getting high (100 in the shade) so Amanda bid everyone a fond farewell, and she and Kurt headed out for the day."