March 24, 2011 Ginny via Lisa

Dear Family and Friends,

I sudddently ran into a problem logging into the blog which Derek fixed for me. This blog was suppose to be posted before St. Patrick's Day so lot has transpired since then. Here is the entry from Ginny from March 16. There will be more updates soon.
Love, Lisa


From Ginny:

I feel badly that I have been so delinquent in providing information. It was sort of easier when Joe was regaining abilities by leaps and bounds. But as I mentioned on the phone, this last 20% of recovery is going to be rough. Frustrations with limitations and awareness of same makes for some hard times. But both Joe and I see continue progress with the help of so many professionals and certainly by the Grace of God.

So here is the post. Adjust as you see fit.

We are happy to share this photo of our family that Phil took at Christmas. You can see Joe's forehead defect and his right eye lid does not open nor does this eye have the capacity for vision. Procedures to determine the best course of action for Joe's right eye are in the works currently. Right now the plan is to reinsert the plate in Joe's forehead in mid-April and we are pretty excited about giving it another try.

Joe has set a goal to teach one class in the Fall. Lofty, to say the least but he certainly has the will to do it. The University could not be more helpful in helping achieve this goal. I am excited to see some of Joe's executive functions returning. We knew this would be the rough part as the right frontal lobe was so greatly injured. Layer this with very limited vision and boy, is it tough. But I see evidence of improvement in keeping track of things, organization, calendar management and he has even begun developing logical schedules for Stephen in track practice. I am excited to see continued improvement using a computer, especially programs like excel and other critical applications. I regularily see him doing track spreadsheets, inserting rows and columns with a format that changes from week to week. That is really cool. We work together to do some timing at the meets for our athletes, just for practice.

It has been so fastinating to witness the healing process of the brain and body. I am humbled to see the work of God's Hand. While frustration is now a regular feeling, we are constantly reminded by well wishers of just how far we have come. We are so blessed to enjoy continued recovery and even more so, blessed to have by great families and friends keeping us in their continued prayers.

So the Leahy's say, Happy St. Patricks Day.

Love, Ginny