June 15, 2010 Lisa and Ginny

Dear Family and Friends,

The picture I've included is from Stephen--Joe has been working hard to get back in shape--I'd venture to say he is in much better shape than at least half of America, even after being shot!

Joe has been making lots of progress, and the biggest news is the next surgery is scheduled for July 6. The surgeon will be inserting a plate in his skull to protect the soft area where the dead and contaminated brain matter had been removed immediately following the shooting. On a lighter note, Ginny is utilizing a gift card to avoid trimming Joe's toes--yes, Joe will be having a pedicure as part of his Father's Day celebration!

The rest of this post is from an email from Ginny. Love to all and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Lisa

All good here. Day to day progress. Boys helping so much with chores, etc. When we are home, Joe spends some time doing homework given to us by therapists. I am actually enjoying having some summer time home with boys. It has always been hard for me to work in the summer and leave kids alone. So I am taking advantage of it.

Sleeping is still rough. Joe awakes so often in the night. He gets disoriented as to the time and regularily we are up at 3ish, eating some breakfast and back to bed. That is our agreement....rather than arguing!! The deal is, I help him with breakfast, he agrees to come back to bed when done....rather than staying up. Unfortunately that usually makes us up late, which in turn seems to mess up the next night. But this is soooooo much better than early on when he was waking, what seemed like every hour and was completely unbalanced, not even being able to walk to the bathroom alone. I get tired sometimes, as I still struggle with taking naps. The caffine likely my issue therefore self inflicted.

Joe's therapist are so wonderful with him. Eating has been a really messy event and now his speech therapist is really working on this issue. Only being able to open a small amount, but still thinking a tall sandwich fits, well, you get the picture. Joe uses a jaw spreader now (Dynasplint exerciser three times a day), which is working to enlarge the opening to his mouth, the muscles of which got so tight during the time wearing the external fixature. Early on he could barely open much wider than a straw.

Cognatively, and probably most importantly, Joe's short term memory is really getting better. Now he remembers current things, like shutting off water, going to Mass, eating a meal, whereas before, it was tough for him. You can imagine our relief at seeing the improvement. The boys still raise our eyebrows when Joe really remembers something small and insigificant.

More soon. Got to dash. Love, Ginny