FALSE START

Well, thinking since the doctors said Mike was cleared to drive, we thought "no problem...we'll just take the release letter to DMV and Mike will be back on the road..." NOT! We showed up to DMV and found out we needed to go to another DMV office with a Medical Department(...who hew they had one...) We went to the new one (25 miles away) only to find out the wrong form was submitted and were given the "correct" one to take back to the doctors.

Long story short...if we get the correct forms to Kaiser on Monday morning and everything is perfect we might get the paperwork back in 10-14 days...we can then drop it off at DMV and then DMV will take another 10-14 days to review the paperwork and decide (most likely) to hold a hearing (panel review) with Mike, and then if that goes well, then they will schedule him (in another additional 10 or so days) to come back and take any combonation of Drive test, Written test and/or Visual test.

So maybe in a month (if we're lucky) he'll get his license back and then he can start driving and working. How many hoops can you jump thru one day?

RELEASED TO DRIVE :)

Okay, so Mike had his Phsycological evaluation last week and it was a VERY long day for Mike and I both...more him than me. His testing started at 9am and went until 4pm with only a 45 minute break for lunch. I met once with Mike and the Psychologist and then again at the end of the day privately with the Phsychologist. The testing covered almost everything you could imagine checking every area of the brain and it's function.

Earlier this morning Mike and I met with the Psychologist to get the results from all the testing. The doctors are releasing him to drive and return to work in early February in a part-time position. The testing is consistent with some damage they think may or may not be permanent in his right frontal lobe of the brain. Because of some deficits they want to ease him into working and will re-evaluate his work load and ability to transition at a later date. The doctors are still advising him to wait another semester until he goes back to school.

What does this mean???He's very happy to be getting his drivers license back and will start working back at the Smog shop in early February, working 2 days a week. Just having the drivers license back will give him the ability to get things back to normal...This will help tremendously with the kids.

We are very grateful this is over and we can start to move onto the next chapter in our lives.

Moving Along

Well since the last post nothing new...nothing exciting...that's a good thing. We are waiting for Mike to meet with a few more doctors in the next week and half before he go's in for his Phsyc exam / review. Mike and I are both anxiously waiting and wondering what all it will in tell. This appointment happens on January 15th and will take 6-8 hours and will determine when he can return to work and if he can get his drivers license back.

We were able to celebrate the holidays with family and friends and had a nice Christmas. We had many friends and family who made sure the kids got just what they ordered from Santa. In the photo below, Mike, Jonny, Stevie and Madie (my niece) are on a jungle gym that a close friend gave to the kids for Christmas. Mike and Tommy built the gym in about 6 hours over two days. There were a lot of screws and bars to assemble but Mike and Tommy did a great job. I think it was a great project for the two of them and I know Mike is very proud of the work. It may seem like a simple thing but this would have been a breeze for Mike before the accident and it took a little longer than he would have liked. I'm very proud of all he's been able to accomplish in the past few months.

Since this is the beginning of a new year we naturally set off to decide on what we would accomplish together. Our plans are a little different than last years goals...We will be happy to have Mike return to work, get back into shape and make his trip with Mikey to Philmont, NM (high adventure scout camp) in August. I'm hoping to get back into shape...set a little more time aside for myself and hopefully get away with Mike.

We are so thankful for everything and everyone who helped our family have a great Christmas.
Here's to a new year. Happy New Year to all.