We are talking. . . sort of

Clare is making some very encouraging progress every day. Annette has been with her the past two nights so it has been some time since I have spent time with Clare. Being away for a couple of days makes all the baby steps seem bigger. Her eyes are so much brighter today than a couple of days ago. It looks more like she is in there all the time. Today marks 4 weeks since the accident. I hate to look back and see where we have been, but only when I do can I see the progress that both Clare and Kris have made.

The really big thing today is that we can get Clare to respond to us by blinking her eyes. One blink is yes and two blinks is no. Her level of awareness drifts in and out so there are times when she is more responsive to answering us. But when she is aware, she will blink and answer questions. She will even open her mouth for the nurse when they are doing her oral care. Her eyes were open most of the day. When I moved just out of her view she looked annoyed until she could find me again. Any of you that have received the “Clare Glare” know what I mean. I tried to not move too much if she took the effort to find me.

When Bethany and I were talking about her, Clare got annoyed. I asked her if it bothered her when people talk about her in the room. She blinked her eyes emphatically once. We tried best as we could to talk directly to her and stopped talking about her. This made her much more at ease. I asked her if she would like me to tell her about her injuries (she usually gets very agitated when we talk about her injuries) she blinked once. I told her generally of all that had been repaired and how she was healing and time would make her all better. She kept calm the entire time. She knows what is going on around her. Keep that in mind if any of you stop in to visit. Keep the visits short and please do not ask others to recite her condition or status while you are in the room.

I asked Clare if she would watch the BYU UTAH football game with me tonight and she blinked twice. I guess I will be keeping the TV on mute. We have her IPOD next to her bed and her own music playing very softly. Sometimes I cannot hear it over the noise of the equipment in the room, but it seems to sooth her and create a familiar atmosphere. We hung a rainbow colored butterfly mobile above her bed and tucked a picture of Jesus in the ceiling tile. She found them. I don’t know how well she can focus, but it will give her something to work on.

They keep telling us it will be a long road. I am ok with that as long as I know where the road is going.