Ready, Set, READ.

I thought I wrote something yesterday about sometimes seeing change within twenty-four hours. It must of been edited out while trying to stuff in every possible bit of news you’d like to hear. Here’s a good example of exactly what kind of change that is.

So before the accident, Gabe and I got into the habit of reading to each other. I discovered he’d usually look over my shoulder rather than off into space as I would have liked him to. I got used to it–one can’t argue with another’s way of imagining a plot unfold. Especially now, I position a book so he can see the words being read to him; in recent weeks, he observes the pages as they are peeled away. Last night in the mid-evening, one of the several books we’re working on comes out, and in the midst of Chapter the Eighth, I think: Can you point to the page I’m reading from?

In the middle of a page, at the end of a paragraph, I ask, “Fajita, what page are we on?” He points to the right one. Then, I reread the last sentence–”it was locked”–and ask if he can point to that. His finger moves two inches up to that exact phrase.

This is fantastic! I think, but to play it safe and be 100% sure, I decide to quiz again the next night. Fortunately I didn’t have to because today Speech Therapy introduced a similar, better exercise that tests his reading comprehension skills. The therapist held up a series of six placards, in which he was told to respond.

• Raise your eyebrows.
• Open your mouth.
• Move your hand.
• Move your foot.
• Close your eyes.
• Stick out your tongue.

He responded quickly to each one, save the last. The man is obviously brilliant even whilst nursing a traumatic brain injury, and perhaps too polite to stick his tongue out in the presence of three ladies.  For “move your hand,” he took the placard from the therapist. Standing at the foot of his bed, I hadn’t read it prior to it being held up, so asked to the air, “What does it say?” Gabe immediately turned it around for full viewing. “Oh! Thanks, Gabe!”

The man is reading. Reading gives way to writing and speaking. If you are not dumbfounded or haven’t yet pulled out a stamp, please review entire post.

-Kierie