Update from Dad

Just a couple of notes to “catch up.” We never did make it back to New Orleans for the Hyperbaric treatments as we wanted to. The logistics of staying there for 40 “treatment” was just not doable for us right now. However, a new alternative treatment chiropracter has come to town and also has a chamber and is doing hyperbaric. We have to be careful in terms of finding someone that knows hyperbarics for brain injury (not a medically recognized treatment), and we will but it’s another possibility for hyperbaric treatments. I’m convinced the “established medical community” may not necessarily provide the best care for the patients given the financial incentives in our system to provide medical services rather than medical outcomes. In other words, our doctors get paid for services, not outcomes. In fact, ironically enough, a Doctor can literally kill you and he will still get paid! Or he can completely botch a procedure and get paid again for the corrective procedure! So yeah, everything is taken with a grain of salt and a skeptical eye in this family. While most will say, “hyperbarics can’t hurt even if they don’t do any good,” we’ve learned that they can, in fact, bring on siezures if not managed correctly – too much pressure, too deep a dive, etc. Robert is working a brain computer interface evaluation device from an Austrian company that sounds promising to allow Chris to better communicate and have more control over his environment. More to come. We’re looking at getting Chris into an outpatient treatment program at the Shepard Center in Atlanta, Georgia, another National Traumatic Brain Injury Model System. I have visited the facility, they are very high ranked on a national scale and although an outpatient program, it fould provide about five hours of therapy per day. So that’s what we’re currently working on. And of course, I keep playing the lottery hoping for the big win to let us do some other things we can’t do limited by finances. We’re also working on some home help for Mom, she’s been going like a trooper for three years now and needs a break! Chris seems to be more aware and we can get him to smile pretty quickly after a comment or statement that he finds amusing showing cognitive abilities. We just need to get the motor neuro connections to reconnect to get him moving again. I know Chris, once he gets any movement at all, he’ll take off on his own and nothing will stop him. I’ve never know anyone with more perseverence than Chris! I’m looking at a collage of pictures we have of Chris before the accident and it brings back such great memories. What a great young man, with a warm spirit, caring heart, and a brain that will again, one day, offer us all something to be proud of in terms of his contributions to our collective time here on this cosmic rock!
All the best to you all. Thank you for your comments, thoughts, and keeping in touch.
Love, Family Giles.