The Stark Family

Day 114 - Tuesday 01/13/08

Tym with sister Marty, brother Mitch, and parents Norm and Barbara

Tym is doing progressively better with his rehabilitation. His short-term memory is slowly getting better, as are his occupational skills. Last week Tym was approved by his therapists to be independent in the community (walks, shopping, visiting friends, etc.). This also means that he can stay home alone for short periods without direct assistance/supervision. This has lifted a large weight off of the family.

Unfortunately, as it seems to always happen, as soon as one weight is lifted off, another heavy and awkward weight is carefully slammed right back on. Ahead of our family lies many hard decisions for Tym’s care. We found out just as soon as Tym was cleared for independence that his Non-Residential care will be over February 1st. Although surprising and exciting, this does not mean that he is “better” or ready to go home. As you all know, Tym’s Speech Therapy (cognition and expression) is the most troubling since his accident. Tym has been cleared of his Physical Therapy and is very close to clearing his Occupational Therapy. He will be taking an evaluation to see about taking a driving test (3.5 hours) early in February. If his responses are accurate and timely he will be recommended to take the driving evaluation. Speech Therapy however, can present a life-long struggle.

We have been referred to a community college program called Acquired Brain Injury (ABI, just like Anoxic Brain Injury) at Coastline Community College. It is a 2-year program that helps students (victims of Brain Injuries) overcome their disabilities, negative emotions, and frustrations. You can read more about the program on their website:

http://www.coastline.edu/departments.cfm?LinkID=418

The program looks very good, and we haven’t found much like it around the Southern California Area. We also had the pleasure of meeting one of the professors on staff at the ABI program. He was very nice, and helped Tym and family understand the concept of Injury vs. Disability vs. Handicap. Basically, the injury has happened and is out of your control. The disabilities are a result of the injury, and you can only help re-train your brain while it physically heals for about 6 months. Minimal improvement continues until about 2 years post-injury. From now until forever, Tym’s attitude and adaptations will help him overcome his disabilities, and those things become his handicap(s). We are confident that there are many other strategies and concepts taught throughout this program that will help Tym make the best recovery possible.

We are all for Tym’s to enrollment in the ABI Program. However, the problems presented are of residence (Tym and family), transportation, and finance (mostly real estate). We will need to shuffle the living arrangements around due to availability. This shuffle will hopefully help ease the burden on our friends and family as well. As far as transportation is concerned, we hope that Tym will be able to drive safely by the time the next semester begins. Lastly, we have to consider the possibility of Tym needing this program for a full 2-years, and the cost it will be to maintain his home in Santa Maria for that time along with rent around Orange County.

Tym has enjoyed his time since New Years. We got to go to opening round of Supercross, the Family Dinner at Winways, and this weekend Tym is up near Yosemite with his parents and brother. They are all visiting with Tym’s sister that he hasn’t seen for many years. Everyone is having a great time up there. It’s clear weather, and not too cold (62ºF). It was a very special time for everyone, and it brought my Grandma to tears (sorry Grandma).

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Pictures, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.