Merry Christmas!

5:20pm

Last night we took homemade cookies to the MICU and Trauma Unit nurses at Lakeland Regional Medical Center for those who had to work Christmas Eve. We went at shift change so we could catch the day and evening shift, and got to see several of those who cared for Taylor during the really dark times.

We are also very grateful to the staff at FINR, but that facility is about an hour drive the opposite direction, so we weren't able to go there too. We do think about them often, and stay in touch with a few by email. And, we're planning a few trips there after the first of the year to visit those who worked on him for the 3 months Taylor lived there. The LRMC staff -from the ER Nurses and Doctors to the Surgeons, Trauma Physicians, MICU and Trauma Nurses - fixed Taylor medically, and the FINR nurses and therapists worked hard to fix everything else. Between the two, they did a damned good job!

At midnight, Taylor's girlfriend, Lori, joined us for Midnight Mass. Today, Taylor's aunt, grandmother and cousin came to our house for what was the best Christmas we've ever had.

Lori and Taylor

Last week Suzie sent the following letter to friends and family, mostly those who live out of town. We thought we'd post it here.

Happy Holidays!

As most of you know, this has been a challenging year for the Smith family. To shamelessly paraphrase Charles Dickens: It’s been the best of times; it’s been the worst of times.

After his car accident March 1, Taylor finally came home in late July. He’d spent five weeks in ICU, another three weeks in the hospital’s trauma unit and three months in rehab, so he was ready, and so were we! He’s well on the road to recovery now, is inching closer to walking without his cane and will return to Polk Community College in January.

Taylor still is planning to finish his core classes here then transfer to the University of South Florida in Tampa to major in engineering, probably in another year.
Watching his recovery has been nothing short of witnessing a miracle. Knowing how close we came to losing him has brought such a new perspective to our lives. We cherish each day more and discover God’s blessing at each turn.

Taylor is still facing more surgery on his facial nerve early next year, but after what he’s been through, we’re confident he’ll do well.

The early days after Taylor’s accident tested our faith, our family and our inner strength in ways that defy comprehension. But through that hell, we came to understand the wonders of friendship, love and God. For that, we’ll be forever grateful.

And our gratitude to all of you, too, who stood by us, held us up when our hearts were crumbling and prayed relentlessly for Taylor’s recovery - there just aren’t words to express our love for all of you.

So at this magical season, we wish you the joy of family, the simplicity and warmth of hugging someone you love and the happiness that comes with sharing special moments. Those truly are the best of times.

As we move into 2008, Lauren will finish her senior year at Bartow High School and graduate in June. She’s planning to pursue cosmetology, fulfilling a dream she’s had since childhood.

Suzie’s in her 24th year with The Ledger and still loves each day’s new adventures. Al’s working hard on pre-employment screenings, surveillances and other investigations.

We all traveled to Georgia in October to celebrate autumn in Dahlonega and will be Ohio-bound later this month to welcome the New Year with Suzie’s brother and sisters.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and blessed New Year, with the bounty of God’s love in 2008. And may every day be Thanksgiving at your house, as it is in ours.

DDoouubbllee Vision

6:40pm

Taylor had an appointment scheduled with the Opthamologist for the end of January to check the progress of his double vision, but he wanted to go sooner to see if he could be fitted for glasses. He starts back to Polk Community College in a few weeks, and thinks he'll have trouble seeing in the classroom.

Double vision continues to be a problem, and he has begun to compensate for it by turning his head to the right about 30 degrees to help focus when he's watching television, or trying to really focus on something.

Yesterday he saw the Opthomologist who said that there had not been a lot of progress since his last visit, but there had been some improvement. He checks his vision by using prisms to refocus the image, and records which prism gives the best results, then compares that to the last visit.

There is also some nystagmus still present. This causes the eyes to shake from left to right. When he was in the hospital and during the early weeks of rehab, it was real noticeable. But, it has gotten so much better, it now can only be identified during testing. That too should continue to improve over time.

He wrote a prescription for glasses, and we got those ordered yesterday. We're headed to Ohio on 12/27 through 1/2, so he'll pick them up on 1/4.

I was goofing with Taylor on the way there and said the glasses may make his eyes look like a cartoon character. I told him I was kidding, but he asked the girl handling the glass order if they would make his eyes look really big, so I guess he didn't trust that I was kidding. She said part of the glass will be a little thicker than the other, but they wouldn't make his eyes look huge.

We've had several people tell us that his walking/balance issues were affected by the double vision, and as that got better, so would the balance. But, when I asked the Ophthamologist about that, he said he knew of no connection between the two.

There are some days when Taylor's walking looks so normal that you'd wonder why he had the cane. And, there are others where he doesn't do nearly as well.

He's only 9 months into the recovery and the Neurosurgeon told us from the beginning that it takes an estimated 2 years for the brain to heal from the kind of injury Taylor had, so he still has a long way to go.

But, wobbly or not, he can walk on his own so having to use the cane for a while longer is no big deal.

The good that comes from bad

9:27am

Whenever someone posts a comment for a post on this blog, I get a copy of the comment emailed to me. Recently, a comment was left about this post by "Melissa" about an April 4th post regarding the first hug from Taylor following the accident that happened 8 months ago today. I waited 35 days for that hug and it was worth the wait.

We don't know Melissa, but we're glad that she left the following comment:

"I am not sure how I came across this blog, but I am so thankful that I did. The truth is, I know that God had his way in me reading Taylor's Story and yours from the family. I have read it from the very first blog to get the entire story and this entry is where I started tearing up and broke down. I haven't had any communication with my brother in almost 2 years and this entry showed me that I have to make it right, and to tell him that I love him no matter what the past was."

When Taylor was in the Trauma unit and able to communicate with us by either mouthing the words or spelling the words out on a chart, he often asked "Why me?" We told him that we didn't know, but that we knew God would make sure something good came out of what had happened to him. We told him there were some things that could happen as a result of his wreck that he might not even know about.

We've had friends of Taylor's tell us that they hadn't been real good about wearing seat belts before Taylor's wreck, but were working hard to get in the habit of always buckling up.

Within a week or two of Taylor's wreck, a former longtime friend of Lauren's contacted her and told her that Taylor's accident caused her to realize how petty their previous disagreement had been. At the time, they hadn't spoken to one another in months. Her friend told her that she wanted to put the past aside and start over. Today, they remain close friends.

Melissa is another who has realized that whatever problems develop between friends and family, it likely wasn't important enough to lose contact with that person.