Day 947 - Jan 1, 2011

Well, it's a new year. A time to reflect and a time to begin anew.

Reflection: Last year was a bit rough. Not rough in the acute phase, but still rough nonetheless. Lots of surgeries, major infections, overdoses, pain and battles with the VA. On the flip side though - Kevin has progressed cognitively to an amazing extent. The fact that we can more than likely get him declared competent in court is nothing short of a miracle. He just knows so much and is so normal in so many ways. He's needy though, but I think (hope) that even that will be changing soon.

His physical changes are amazing as well. He really looks good for someone that has went through what he has. No, he doesn't look like he used to, but his burns are starting to lighten and and each cosmetic surgery makes a huge difference. I am hoping to start the burns laser therapy soon and that will help too.

He is also walking so much better, being more active and having much more stamina than he did last year. His arm is slowly (very slowly) coming down into a more normal position and that will also make a huge difference.

All in all, it was a somewhat decent year that has enabled us to look forward happily to 2011.

To begin anew - I really hope that this year brings even more 'normalcy' to our lives. I want Kevin to be able to just 'be'. I want him to just be a person - not a patient. Just be a young adult - doing young adult stuff. I want him to make friends and get out and about with them.

I also want him to be able to do things more on his own. I have started the process in getting him into some sort of part time job or volunteer position to help him become more independent and give him a sense of responsibility.

He is now also in charge of taking out the garbage and recycling on their designated days and has an alert on his phone to remind him. He also has to fold all of his clothes after I launder them (too hard for him to carry his basket of clothes upstairs so I do that part). This is the year he is going to start doing more around the house to help me - and himself.

I want him to also be able to be alone more than a few minutes at a time. This will require figuring out how to communicate in the event of an emergency. Something I am not going to worry about the first quarter of the year.

And I know that I want him to feel better about the person he has become. This is going to require some therapies in learning how to accept the changes totally, but I think in time he can do it. He has made great strides in this area, but he still has issues and maybe in the second half of the year we can work on them.

All in all, it's going to be another very busy year. I sincerely hope that Kevin can remain in the more elevated medically stable position that he seems to be in right now, but I do know that there are no guarantees and we will obviously deal with whatever life throws at us.

I am feeling confident though that this will be the best year since our lives all changed so drastically. Positive thinking, right?