Interviews

Okay, so here's a "condensed" version of the interviews we videotaped of our most memorable moments during David's recovery. Hopefully it makes sense still :). I posted them to YouTube as well, here are the links, just in case you want to view them there. It's about 25 minutes total, and it's Dad, Laura, Christa, Mom, and Bella.

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEj4ixp0eGQ
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86SJhExy1Qo
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgyhavdKxiA

Our intentions initially were just to record this for David, so it's kinda personal... But we figured that maybe it could somehow be used to help other people going through tough times. So, feel free to pass it on if you see a need.

Love,
The Huddlestons

Tribute to David video 4

Well, I guess I need to change the music for the 4th video on Youtube. I had used How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin, but WMG says it's a copyright violation (oops!). Sorry for the quiet video, I'll fix it as soon as I can... Man, it was a great song... Any ideas for another one?? For whatever reason it still seems to be working here... Thanks for passing it along :)

-Laura

Comment from Ginny, a TBI survivor

This is a comment that was sent to me-for David- from YouTube, because for some reason it couldn't be posted in the comment section on this site. I tried too and it wouldn't let me. Anyway, I loved the comment and it's great to hear others finding hope through what God has done for David, and to be able to offer prayer and support to those who also have to go through difficult times. So I really wanted to pass it on...

To David,
I have been praying for Mark Lamberth from CA who just had a brain injury from a dirt bike injury and is in Mission Hospital in Orange County when I saw your sister Christa's post telling them about you to give them hope. She urged them to watch your video's where it documents your injury and recovery. I pretty much cried on and off through out the 4 videos.

In September, 2005, I had a TBI at work. I can tell you that I could NEVER compare my injury to yours EVER. I have had 3 surgeries to repair the damage as I ruptured all 4 balance sacs and damaged 2 centers of my brain and a portion of a 3rd. The 2 surgeries weren't that successful but the 3rd one, I was so hopeful which turned out to be a nightmare. 6 days after I had a virus on my brain and they had to put me to sleep to heal. I am told that it is a miracle and I am very lucky because even though I have some great deficits, I didn't have to learn most skills over. So I know I am truly blessed. For about a year everyone walked on egg shells with me. They want to do another surgery but that one was more than I could handle and I lost alot of hearing, so I have dug my feet into the ground and refuse. They are not pushing me but tonight the Dr said that a 4th is probably in my future.

I feel like my vision feels worse. My ears hurt all the time and the SOUND that I have to deal with is getting louder. My patience is very thin these days. Any stressful time doesn't help. The holidays I suppose arent helping. I am tired and I hate my therapies. I have cognitive 3x a week. She's a doll though. If I have to stay in bed, she just does something for me in my room and lets me lay flat in my bed. Honestly, there are days I can't pick my head up and then there are days I think, wow, there's nothing wrong with me. Until I turn and my get dizzy and almost fall.
The cold weather of Jersey I am sure isn't helping because I am noticing that I do so much better in the warmer weather.

They won't let me back at OT, Vision and Vestibular therapy and PT because I had a very bad bout of Mastoiditis - fluid in my mastoid bones because where they cut in the surgeries. I was deaf almost a week - that was clostophobic!!! But they haven't cleared me yet and I feel like I will be unable to go thru it again.

Watching your videos were perfect timing for me. I have no one who cares enough to push me. Most of the time I feel alone because I don't have the family support you do. They watch the kids for me but since I don't look like I have anything wrong - they forget. The scriptures that your family placed in the videos, the music and watching your success has given me hope. I wear a hope ring on my left hand. The hope I thought I never gave up until this week, I realized I have given up. I wish I could just lay down and sleep and not do any more therapies. I'm tired.

I am going to watch your videos and pray that HOPE comes back into me, watching your recovery. Like I said....I've been alone - It's like I needed a kick in the behind. Thanks for the kick in the behind!!

I don't share with many people because I don't want them to look at me differently or think poorly because I know I have come a LONG way. I know. I may not have the video documentation like you do. But I know how far I've come. I just forget that - Hey, we are working on that in cognitive therapy - my memory still is poor but every day I surprise even myself.

Thanks - sorry so long. I would get yelled at that I didn't take breaks!! But I forget that too!!

May the Lord continue to give you strength and I thank HIM for directing me to know you today!!

I think its just the holidays. They are hard. I feel misunderstood most of the time.

God Bless You ,

Ginny New Jersey.

October and November, 2008

…Notes that I wrote during the time that I didn’t have anything posted....this blog HAS been on my list of things I needed to do! So, I have been taking notes on what I've been doing in each therapy for you all to read. That way you feel more “in touch” with the progress that I continue making...

10/08/2008
Alive Day - My family had a party for my one-year anniversary. It was amazing to see how many people still cared, and came to show their support. (Even though I haven’t been posting stuff on the blog!) My sister made a movie of my past year. We showed it on the big screen in the family room. It was an eye opener for me to see where I came from and how “pathetic” I was back then. I just hope that it gets out and gives other people with TBI hope. No matter how bad you are, there is still tomorrow, and there’s always a chance of getting better than you are at the moment.

10/17/2008
Meeting with Dr. Kim - My mom doesn’t think that I should move far away. She doesn’t want the situation of me going to Turkey to repeat itself. My mom says she wants me to be on my own, but thinks that we have all learned a big lesson by Laura and Brian moving away from the family. We miss them, they miss us, and would do anything to live by their family. She thinks that I could move to Loma Linda or Redlands, buy a house for the same payment as Palo Alto’s rent, and do outpatient therapy at LLVAH. It would be cheaper and closer to family where I can get some support. Later, when I am through with rehab, I could move anywhere I want.

10/24/2008
Cognitive Training - We reviewed one thing that I did yesterday. Checked the to do list and schedules
Took a quiz on a movie called “Peaceful Warrior”.

10/24/2008
Meeting with Dr. Kim - Dr. Kim says I need to change my way of doing things. I need to have more structure in my daily life! I thought I realized this. I wasn’t coerced into thinking this AT ALL!!! I’ll be getting twice as much done if I do this!

10/28/2008

Healthy Transitions Class - Almost fell asleep, did some progressive relaxation techniques. You close your eyes and count to ten. Or you imagine doing something that is really calming for you, like going to the beach. It is a way to teach yourself how to be completely relaxed when you get stressed. Or as I think of this, a way to have an acceptable reason to fall asleep in class/therapy!

10/31/2008
Cognitive thinking - We started writing a letter to the head hauncho guys in engineering to let them know what needs to be changed at the hospital. For instance, it is very confusing trying to find your way around the hospital if you’re just arriving there! Now that I’ve been around for a while, it isn’t so confusing anymore, except for building 100. Which I STILL find myself getting lost and turned around in! BUT what’s the good thing!? I can always find myself a way out! There’s something (just about everywhere) that in some way looks somewhat familiar to me! So I’ll just keep following the similarities until I get to a point where I know right where I'm at!!!

11/10/2008
Veterans Day - Visited my mom’s school and talked to a couple 5th grade classes about Veteran’s Day. I felt like a movie star, dressed in my uniform and everyone staring at me. It felt really cool but really weird to have people pay so much attention to me. I’m not used to people paying attention to me like that! I’m not one of those guys who just crave attention and live off it. But at the same time it was pretty cool to have that happen and I can see how people think it’s cool and get addicted to it in the end. It's a pretty powerful feeling to have.

11/11/2008
Recreation Class - Talked of plans for the holidays. Discussed our ski trip, dates, and who we were bringing. It is the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…Veteran’s Day. Being that, now I'm the ROQ (recreation officer of the quarter) I am having to do A LOT more stuff than I normally might have been doing. This is one of the “leadership roles” for the PTRP program. The other one is the POM (personal objective manager). I have no idea what it stands for. All I know is what you are supposed to do while you are it! You’re the one who leads the “community meetings”, where all of us “trainees” get the chance to talk things over with the staff. I'm also supposed to keep the room pretty quiet while other people are talking. At first the staff didn’t think it could be done very well, mainly because nobody else has done it, ever! But I just took that as a challenge to be the first!

11/14/2008
My presentation - Dr. Scott asked me to share my sister’s movie about myself. I showed the movie to the staff and families on 7D. After it was over, an Air Force girl with a TBI came up and told me that it had really touched her and gave her hope. Which REALLY IS the only reason why I agreed to let it be made and why I agreed to show it to everyone in 7D! I don’t know why they have been calling it a presentation! It's not like I was making a public presentation of anything special or anything that people could buy or anything! But if it gives someone hope that they could make something out of the rest of their life, and can produce some sort of hope/dreams in people, then I am completely sold on doing this!

11/17/2008
Hippo-therapy – Sharon (my hippo therapist) kept telling me to keep my left heal down, which is a problem for me. It doesn’t want to go down. She reminded me repeatedly of my posture and wanted my hands to be even from my elbows to the bit. She made sure that, my wrists wouldn’t get out of line, by putting a dowel rod between my wrists in each hand, and told me to try to keep it steady and straight. Cowboy, the horse, had a mind of his own today. He kept doing things that I didn’t ask him to do… When I told him to turn left, he just kept walking straight. He is a stubborn little horse! My therapist wants me to always ride Cowboy because she thinks it will teach us both a lesson. Cowboy will learn to do what the rider wants, and I’ll learn that things won’t always go my way! …Which I refuse to admit!

Speech – We talked about my distractions, which are: open windows, doors, anything that makes noise and distracts me. We talked about ways to stop them, like closing the windows or doors, and asking people to stop making noises.
We talked about me sharing my movie with counselors at De Anza Community College. I might do this, just to give them some background information on how the T.B.I. works, more like just a baseline...
Also talked about showing the staff/therapists the Kurzweil program. But the CD does just as much teaching as I would do, so they might as well watch it.

Speech - I read an article to Marlene, Speech Therapist, with a paper as a guide for the line that I should be on. The paper helped but I don’t need it much. It took a couple of seconds off my time but not much.

Cognitive Learning Class - We learned Paired Association to memorize words:
It is easier to pair 12 words together, and associate the two together, than to memorize 12 random words. Because then if you hear one of the words you were trying to remember, it’ll give you a hint at what the other word is! For instance, orange and bowl. You could picture the football game tournament, the “orange bowl”. If you can remember one of the words in the pair, it is more possible to remember the other word! So it’s easier to remember six pairs of words than a list of 12 words.

11/20/2008
ARG (Adjustment Rehab Group - We gave examples of times we should have used “assertive behavior” (in-between when you should have been passive and confrontational in a conversation). You express your true feelings, but don’t let others take advantage of yourself. You state the problem and what you want. Or as we learned it with the acronym: EPW= Enemy Prisoner of War = Empathy Problem Want. The reason why this acronym worked out so well for our group is because we were all in the military!

11/21/2008
Hippo Therapy - My hippo therapist is always telling me to keep my shoulders back and up, and sit to up straight. This time, she didn’t have to tell me at all! I showed her!!! AND ME!!!

Healthy Transitions - Before my accident I used to sleep less. I guess in a way, this was “less healthy”. I didn’t have a “set” time that I would be in bed. I didn’t have the “want” to wake up early, or the ability. IF I woke up early, then I would feel like my day would be ruined.

2 Interesting Facts:
1. Even mild TBI’s lead patients to have less restful, lighter sleep, often affected by awakenings
2. Sleep problems can make rehab harder, and time consuming.
(and WHY would we want that! Rehab is already the HARDEST thing I've done in my ENTIRE life!!!

November 23, 2008

November 23, 2008


I am continuing at the polytrauma rehab program in Palo Alto. I'm in phase 2 now, and in the next phase, I'll be able to move out on my own. One place I'm considering is at "Shenendoah", a military housing place about 15 miles away from the VA Hospital. I would be coming back for outpatient therapy still.


Right now, I am working with the therapists on the driving simulator, and that is going pretty well. They say that I still have left-sided neglect, and that I keep slowly weaving to the left side of the lane. I can't figure out why, but I am trying to compensate by driving closer to the right side of the road. Hopefully I'll be able to drive soon. Yippee!


I have been working with Smita, the OT, on learning how to get around town and to the airport on the bus. This last week, she was off so I worked on "hippo therapy" again. Those two therapies are on the same day so they conflict and I have to trade off between the bus and the horses. "Hippo therapy" is actually on horses not hippos as someone would think! At hippo therapy, we ride on horses, and weave in and out of cones on the track. We work on balance. One time they had me ride up to a cone, pick up a heavy ball, then continue weaving on the track, and place the ball on the third cone down. One person walks with me, the side walker, who's always there. The therapist stands a distance away and tells you what to do. I ride for about 45 minutes twice a week. It is really fun and relaxing! It's really nice to be outside too.


In Speech Therapy I have been testing a lot.


Physical therapy is in the am. at 7 AM. I tend to be the only one who attends! Usually I do a cardio workout for 20 minutes or so. Then I work out on both legs and stretch out my left arm on the door. I put my left arm up on top of the door and sink my hips down as far as I can. My left arm is slowly getting better. I also carry around a "grip squeezer", that I had from Loma Linda OT, and work on it with both hands. I've been bike riding a couple of times, and am cleared to ride on campus with a therapist, but not by myself yet.


Vision Therapy is going pretty good. I work on a program called HTS. One game, I wear 3D glasses and look at a computer screen to find a box. I have to answer which direction the box is from the X in the center of the screen. It gets progressively harder to see and find. There is also a game/therapy where you look through power lenses, that you hold up to your eye, and figure out which direction the "C" is facing. These games both work to strengthen my eye muscles on different kinds of vergence, base in and base out. Once again, slowly but surely, my eyes are progressing.


In Keep It Cool, a group class, we learn how to focus our anger and keep our cool. When we start to get angry, we do some deep breathing to relax the tension or count to 10, (or 100)!


This weekend: Friday night, a group from the high school came in and helped us wrap som Christmas presents. Saturday, I went shopping with the a rec therapist and another patient, Mihntri, to the Apple and Verizon Store, and then to a Japanese garden in the San Francisco area. On the way home we ordered some pizza. Today, I went to church with Glenn and Sharon (volunteers at the VA) to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and then to brunch.


Sorry for not posting this sooner. I have been writing things down for awhile to update this blog and keep you all posted.



David

Tribute to David...1 Year Later

Hey! So our family has been working to collect videos and pictures of David throughout this last year, and we compiled into a (kinda) short, 34 min. video (4 parts). We used the verses you all gave to us through the blog, that helped us get through those awful days. We also used the songs from the blog too (I still can't enough of them). Anyway, please check the videos out and pass 'em along so David's experience isn't in vain. We know that God had a reason for David to have to go through this, and if it's to tell the world about His grace, love and miracles, we're not gonna pass up on the opportunity. We've witnessed a real live miracle (a thousand times over), and we thank God for David's life! You can watch them straight from the blog and here are the links in case you want to pass them on :o).

Part 1/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFd4U9W5Kq8

Part 2/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnnZ3I1DLqU

Part 3/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npDHKlkzfNI

Part 4/4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcN4qRzzAE



God is Faithful!
Laura

Tuesday September 23rd

so I know we haven’t done this whole writing in the blog to keep you guys updated in awhile… and for that I must say, I'm regretfully responsible for...but any ways, now: I’ve started back up at Palo Alto again...I’ve been here, for maybe two months, maybe!!!...but this time so far it has been great for me so far, both career-wise AND, I’ve been able to see a bunch of people back here, I think the only ones I haven’t seen are the couple of the nurses that ended up leaving here after I left...but its soo remarkable coming back up here and seeing them all again! This may be a different program I’m in, but I still get to see everyone at some points throughout the week! but, since it’s a new program, it’s like I have taken three steps back just to take the next step forward!.... because back when I was here in 7-D(the more intensive care in-patient wing)I had just about all the freedoms I wanted! Like I could go out and walk around freely and not have anyone be following me to make sure I don’t get lost! but at first when I 1st got here, the nurses had to follow me around to make sure I didn’t get lost, (which I understand, it’s just for my own safety) but it’s just really weird! And annoying! So now, I haven’t been told that I could walk around freely by myself, but I just do it any ways! but ya, ne ways, so far, I have had ALOT of fun, just seeing people that were here before and meeting new people, for instance, a few weeks ago, I met this retired coronal in the A.F. and he is going to be setting up a digital photography program and he wanted some of my help, and since I’ve taken 2 years of it high school, it may have been a few years since I’ve dealt with that stuff, but it’s kind of like riding a bike, (which I did before I came up here for the 1st time!!! That was sooo cool!!! I’m actually going to be doing a long bike trip soon! It’ll be from San Fran.-L.A. I went to aspen Colorado from Sept. 14th-19th there we’re going to go on Monday when we get there; we are going rafting down the Colorado River, which was a total blast!!! Besides the fact the water was freezing cold! Then, on Tuesday, we’re going to go to a ropes course and horseback riding where we were able to get the horses to trot before and after we went on the trail! And on Wednesday...we were doing the exact thing I didn’t then after that a few weeks from now; we’re going back down by my hometown in southern California, San Diego! When we’re down there we will do more beach type stuff, like sailing, some kayaking, and so on. But I am going to be getting my license back, I think/hope, here so that I will be able to get out a this place when I ask to leave before hand and get a pass to leave, and I also want to see if I can get a military house type thing, there’s this place called shanadoa...and there is a long waiting list for that...but, I guess if you talk to the right people, that really helps a lot! So hopefully I get at least on the waiting list for that...