more aware the last few days

Britney has been more aware the last few days. When her Dad visited her a few days ago she was awake the whole time and he thought he saw a smile a few times when he was talking to her. My mom visited a few days later and was really excited because of the emotion on Britney's face when she was talking to her. She thought she saw a few smiles, and when she told her she had to leave Britney frowned. Even though progress is slow it is still progress. Even though we don't know her prognosis and can't even begin to really guess what it might be, we have strong peaceful feelings whenever we are afraid or doubt she will get better. I don't know what any of it means except to keep moving forward and showing her as much love as possible and giving her as much human contact as possible. Thank you for you continuing support and love.

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone,
Merry Christmas. There haven't been any changes, and not any change in Britney's progress so I haven't put in an update on the blog in a while. Britney is still in a coma with brief periods of awareness where she will blink if we ask if she can here us or when she will look at us. She is more awake. Her progress has been very slow and her neurologist has asked me if he could consult a coma specialist from Cornell. She is six months out and since her progress is slow her doctors are not very hopeful but she is still making progress. We still have a very strong peace that she will come back but her progress is completely unknown at this time. If there are any new updates I promise we will put them on the blog right away.

The best news we have is that the kids finally got to visit Britney on Christmas. They haven't been able to see her for 2 months because Kindred banned visitors under age 18 from November to March because of the H1N1 flu virus. We have asked many people to make an exception but have not been able to get one until Christmas when I ran into the infectuous disease doctor who asked me how the kids were doing. I told him how much they missed Britney and he said since they had their flu shot they could visit her again. Jonas cried and said it was the best Christmas present ever. He has been saving his money so Britney can go to a hospital where they would allow kids to visit. Britney followed us around the room with her eyes. She was very peaceful and relaxed.
We are still going through the process for social security disability and guardianship. We have a court date in January and after that we will hopefully be able to move her to a skilled nursing facility. For now she is still at Kindred in Denver. When she moves we will update the blog right away.
Thank you all for the incredible kindness you have shown our family over the Christmas season. We are overwhelmed at all you do. Thank you. Merry Christmas.
John

Happy Thanksgiving

I got the best Thanksgiving ever. My team told me last minute to go home for the weekend and I was able to spend a few days with Britney and the kids!! I bought one of the last available plane tickets the day before I left. I didn't think I would be able to visit for 3 more weeks with how busy my rotations have been. It was amazing. When I walked into Britney's room She was awake. I asked her if she could hear me to blink her eyes. She did right away. I asked her 4 more times to blink if she could understand me and she did right away each time. I walked around her bed and she followed me with her eyes. She made a sound but didn't move her lips. She was really comfortable. Jonas, Vera, and Anna were a blast. They had so much fun. They have really missed Britney. Because of the H1N1 the aren't allowed to visit Britney for the past 4 weeks. They cry a lot about not being able to see her and missing her. They are very resilient and are still happy. We have a meeting with social security disability tomorrow. Hope and pray it goes well so Britney can continue to get the care she needs. Thank you for all of your comments on the blog and her facebook. I read them to her when I'm able to visit. I am so thankful to all of you for your continued love and support. It means so much to all of us. I was able to meet Elder Scott, an apostle of our church, a few days ago. He was so kind, and was able to give me a blessing. He took time to meet with me even though he was in town visiting his family. He said he will keep Britney's name on the temple prayer roll of the apostles for a long time. I'll never forget it. Britney has a lot of people who are thankful to her for who she is and the amazing mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend she is. It was a very emotional week for many people. Thank you all again.

John

Hi everyone. Just a quick update. There was a little confusion with how I wrote the last post. Unfortunately Britney hasn't talked yet. I said hi to her and she looked at me. She has made sounds but hasn't talked yet. She has been much more responsive though. Her curtains were opened up a few days ago and she opened her eyes and looked all around the room like she was figuring out where she was. When people talk to her she looks at them. Her therapy is going better since she got her baclofen pump.

Britney is waking up more

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your patience between posts. I was able to go to Colorado last week after being up post call and flew home the next day. It was amazing to see Britney, and to be with our kids. Britney woke up when I came in her room and said hi and looked right at me. A few days ago she was stretching her arms and head. She has been more awake and looking at people when they talk to her. She has made some sounds but hasn't said anything yet. She is still at Kindred because we are not able to find a skilled nursing facility that will take her because of insurance issues. We are working with a lawyer to help her qualify for social security disability for nursing home care and to work with our insurance to cover her at Kindred until she can find a skilled nursing place that will accept her. In the mean time she has continued to get great physical therapy and become more responsive the past few weeks. She will be at Kindred until we get this figured out. We will post as soon as she goes to a new hospital with directions for all of you wanting to visit. Thank you for all of your support and prayers and birthday messages for Britney.

Happy Birthday Britney

Britney is 28 today. She was really sleepy this whole last week but has been awake a lot of the morning. I got to tell Her happy birthday and she blinked a lot when I was talking to her. I miss her so bad today. Lots of her friends have been wishing her happy birthday on her facebook account. Vera was sick last night and can't make it to the hospital to tell her mom happy birthday. Jonas is going to come with Casey. We may have to do a cake another day. Even though her recovery is slow she is recovering. Every time I get discouraged I get a really strong peaceful feeling she will make a full recovery, that she wants to come back and will. She isn't suffering in pain anymore because of the baclofen pump which is such a great blessing. A great birthday present to not be in pain, and to be awake to know her family loves her.

I had a great time with Jonas, Vera, and Jessah last weekend. They went back Wednesday morning. Britney is very very comfortable. She has been more sleepy with fentanyl patches for pain after her surgery. I'm not sure if the Baclofen pump is helping her wake up but she has been very relaxed. It is much much better than watching her suffer in pain. She has been lifting her legs off the bed more and more the the last few days and smiled today. I got to tell to her hi on the phone tonight. I really miss her. It was great having the kids here but I miss her really bad. I was really depressed that she hasn't been waking up more since she got her baclofen pump but every time I worry I get a really peaceful feeling like she will come back. I can't describe it but I have always had it everytime I doubt. It's what keeps us all going. Britney's sister Mckenzie got married yesterday and Vera woke her up that morning to tell her it was her day to be a princess. Vera is obsessed with princess movies. She has talked about the wedding non stop for the past two weeks and couldn't stop talking about it tonight. I couldn't make it cause of work. My call schedule got changed around. I will have a hard time getting back to Denver the next 7 weeks because of my hard rotations Trauma and Orthopedics. I get one day off a week and if I get to fly out I can only stay for less than 1 day after being up for 30+ Hours and coming back to work 12 hour days. I have already done 3 weeks like this. After this I will get to go back more. We are trying to have Jonas and Vera come back with someone else in a few weeks so they don't go too long without seeing me. We talk on the web cam a lot and it helps.