It has been 31 days since I was last able to write an update about Jenny. The reason for the delay of these updates is described in my previous post. To catch up, I will be writing about two to three days worth of updates at a time in future hope of being able to write about Day One Hundred on Day One Hundred itself. There are so many of you watching and following Jenny’s recovery and I cannot wait for Jenny to one day truly understand the scope of just how many people around the world are supporting her.

She continues to push forward everyday.

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As Day Forty-Eight & Nine ends, so does Jenny’s first weekend at Riverview Health Center. The three specialized focus areas for Jenny’s rehabilitation involve Physiotherapy, which focuses on restoring movement, mobility and function followed by Occupational Therapy which focuses on developing, recovering, improving and maintaining skills needed for daily living or work and lastly Speech & Language Pathology which monitors, evaluates and assists in improving speech, communication and eating habits which are often heavily impacted following any brain injuries or accidents.

By fortune, with Jenny arriving on the night of Thursday, November 16th and Friday, November 17th being a simple meet and greet with the team members and staff, Jenny essentially had a long weekend to relax and get adjusted to her new home.

As she was being transferred in the ambulance, I was trailing behind her in my own vehicle. Jenny must have thought she was being brought home because one of her repeated questions over this weekend was

“Is this home?”

to which I would respond

“You are at Riverview for rehab.”

and she would ask

“Why?”

and I would respond

“You were in a very bad accident.”

which would shock her and she would say

“Oh my goodness I was in an accident?”

and this exact conversation occurred many more times through the weekend.

When I had a chance to meet the team members and staff who were going to be working with Jenny my reception of them was extremely positive. They were all very professional, very friendly and you could tell by their demeanors they all understood the trials and tribulations of working with people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. I had a sense I could learn a lot from them, even as just an advocate from the sidelines. They told me to start gathering some of Jenny’s gym clothes including sweat pants and runners.

It is a quiet, solemn feeling when you begin going through your loved ones belongings searching for this and that. As I try to gather articles of clothing I thought were suitable for Jenny’s rehabilitation activities I found myself talking to myself and asking “Would Jenny like to wear this? Or this?” and it hit me that I could not ask Jenny herself because she is not here and even if she were, she was not in a state where she could respond to those types of questions.

When I arrived the following Sunday morning, I walked slowly and quietly into Jenny’s room. She was already awake, left eye opened, staring at the ceiling in silence but when she saw me and she nearly propped herself up and yelled

“I’m so happy to see you! I was waiting for you!”

Which set the tone for the rest of that Sunday. We began organizing her closet with all the clothes I brought and once we were done we leisurely watched television and explored every nook and cranny of the room.

As the day ended, Jenny is still extremely hesitant in accepting this place as her new home. We spent the rest of the day discussing random parts of her memory while enjoying the beautiful view of the city from her room.