Update on Alexis' Progress

Alexis has a CarePage for updates on her progress..  Her dad, Brandon, recently shared her two year progress:

"Last Saturday marked exactly two years since Alexis was injured. Tiff and I talked several times during the day about what was going on at each specific time on 4/3/08- most of which concerned whether or not Alexis was going to survive that day. Fortunately, we were blessed enough to have her fight through it, and we are so proud of who she is today.

It’s been a while since we’ve told everyone where she is with everything, so let’s get to it.

Mobility is still a struggle for Alexis. She’s taught herself to scoot a little on her rear end, but is still unable to crawl correctly or walk. She spends about 80% of her time with someone walking her around (holding her under her armpits) and 20% in her walker. We still have to hold onto righty when she is using her walker because she doesn’t have reliable enough control of her right hand to trust it not to slip off. Her walking “form” is actually very good, and her legs definitely have the strength to do it- her brain just has to start cooperating. Long term we don’t know if she’ll be confined to a wheelchair, or need a cane or walker to get around. We think as she gets older and gets better control over her body she’ll have a better chance, but it’s probably going to be several years before that opportunity will come.

Her right arm and hand continues to make great improvement. She’s even reached over her head in recent weeks to grab objects with it. Alexis has done a great job of finding ways to work around this handicap, she’ll often times put her dolls in the crook of her right arm and use that to support them while she combs their hair with lefty. We’re pretty confident that botox and continuing rehab work will help her be able to use righty fairly efficiently in the future.

Alexis’ speech continues to come a long way from the months after her injury. Her vocabulary is outstanding and her cognitive skills are incredible. She struggles with what sounds like a stutter at the beginning of statements. It is more of her brain not correctly processing what she’s trying to say, and getting stuck in “loops” before the right word comes out. You’ll hear us tell her dozens of times a day to use her “turtle talk”- a reminder for her to slow down and think about what she is trying to say. Her s’s and f’s have also been a constant work in progress in rehab. She has no problem saying them in the middle of words, but at the start of words is very hard for her.

She is still going to Madonna five days a week. She does PT and OT all five days, speech four days, and aqua therapy two days. We still take her to Valley, NE every week for hippotherapy (horse riding with an OT), and that continues to get better and better the longer we do it. Alexis also goes to a preschool for one hour every Tuesday, which helps expose her to the social environment of school.

At home, Alexis is always full of energy and a blast to play with. She loves to play with her dollhouses, work on her dolls hair, play with our dogs, and have lots of tea parties. Her imagination is fantastic, she’ll make up complex storylines for all of her dolls and what they are up to when they are playing. She still loves books and will sit and listen to them for hours on end when we are on long car trips. At nights, we lay in bed and tell her stories before she falls asleep, and I love watching her facial reactions to what we make up (she especially likes being “the hero” in stories like the Three Little Pigs). Her sleep is a million times better than it was a year ago. She rarely wakes up at night, which has been a huge help to Mom and Dad. We’re 50/50 on her sleeping in her own bed vs. ours, some nights she’ll say that her bed is “too hard” and she needs to sleep in our bed (she must get that from the Goldilocks and the three bears story). She tends to sleep glued to me, which is just fine outside of a few backaches in the morning.

We have so many people to thank for where Alexis is now, that it’s hard to even know where to begin. First of all, thanks to all of you for the prayers and good wishes for two full years. We’ve heard several times from doctors that when looking at her brain scan there is no way Alexis should be doing what she is- our only answer is the power of prayer from the thousands that read our posts on this site.

Madonna continues to be the greatest of blessings for us and Alexis. We can never say enough good things about what their staff has done and continues to do- it is undoubtedly a place of miracles. They have also been tremendous partners in our business, just one other way we will be indebted to them for a long, long time.

The Coach G Foundation (and all of you who gave at all of the various fundraisers throughout the country) has been unbelievable. For two years, every copay, piece of rehab equipment, therapy device, etc. has been paid through Coach G’s foundation (and his incredible wife Terri, who somehow finds time to process all the payments) and you have no idea what a relief it is that we can pursue all possible medical solutions, without worrying about what they will cost. This generosity has relieved the biggest of burdens from us over the last two years, and the words thank you will never be enough.

Last but certainly not least, thanks to our families. It becomes more evident every day that there is no way we could ever be going through this without them. Tiff and I have always been the type of people that just dread placing any burdens on others, but we’ve had no choice but to do exactly that on our families. They have always been there to help without any complaint, and we are so lucky to have that support- it would be impossible without it.

On May 2nd, more than 20 runners will be running in the Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon in honor of Alexis to help raise money for charity. As part of Runners With A Reason, each of the runners will be raising money to will benefit both the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital and charities affiliated with Runners With A Reason. The runners will be wearing shirts that read “I run so that one day Alexis will run too”. If you would like to donate, log on to:
http://www.firstgiving.com/brandonverzal

Once again, thanks to everyone for helping us get through the last 733 days. It is tragic that one person, in a moment of rage, can affect the rest of a person’s life so significantly- but we believe it is a burden that Alexis was meant to carry (for whatever reason). She is a beautiful, fun, silly, energetic, caring, hard-working and creative little girl, and we can’t wait to see where she’s at in two more years!

I heard an old country song on the radio yesterday and thought one line was appropriate: “In God’s eyes we’re all the same, one day we’ll all have perfect wings”.

Tiff added some new videos on youtube of Alexis the last couple of weeks:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tiffylinn

Lincoln news station report on Alexis from last week (yes I need a haircut):
http://www.1011now.com/home/headlines/89476642.html "

If you'd like to follow Alexis' Progress updates you can follow her CarePage and I encourage you to take a look back and see some of the smaller, earlier progress.  And please continue the prayers