Kevin Pearce

Have you seen this story? I didn't know about Kevin Pearce until watching these winter Olympics, but his story and his family have really touched me. Traumatic Brain Injury is so near and dear to my heart and I truly feel blessed that I get to work with and help survivors on their long road to recovery. I have met so many families over the past five years whose lives have been completely turned upside down by TBI. Of course I wish this accident hadn't happened to Kevin, but I am grateful that TBI is finally getting some big time media attention.

Did you know that public funding (allotted per person per year) for Breast Cancer is 115 Times that of TBI, and yet the number of people living with disabilities from TBI is almost double the number of people living with breast cancer? And it is basically the same thing for HIV and AIDS, and even mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Obviously I realize those issues are just as serious, but I do think our country needs to understand how common TBI has become.

It is often referred to as the silent epidemic, because many times people do regain their physical abilities and look ok, but cognitively, they are never the same. However, insurance companies see that they can eat and walk and get dressed and so they stop paying for anything from there. So you have a person who can't remember what happened this morning, can't safely drive a car or manage a bus route, easily gets confused or lost, and is unable to return to their old job or learn skills for a new job, even if it's a "step down" from what they did before. And we expect them to just "return to society." And this is a favorable outcome! We have just as many patients who never regain the ability to walk, eat, communicate or dress themselves. And then their families are left picking up the pieces. They can't live alone or even be alone during the day. So now we are talking about full time caregiver. Lives turned upside down. It's just a mess. I know there are a lot of messes out there to be dealt with, but this is the one I live in.

We have tons of patients cycle through our hospital here in Dallas who just have such poor options (for therapy, housing, return to work, etc.) because there is not enough money. Or their case gets delayed. But they need aggressive therapy in the first year post accident, when the brain does it's best healing. And sometimes there is so little that can be done for them.

Ok, obviously I am on my soapbox...and you may have stopped reading a long time ago. But I just know that all the therapists and doctors and nurses who work with these people would agree: there needs to be more awareness. So, here's a little blog post to do that. :)

Also, here are two GREAT books written by loved ones of TBI survivors.


This is a sad but humorous story about a man who was injured in a boating accident and his recovery. He goes through Rancho IV which is a stage in recovery that is really quite...fascinating. Written by his wife.


This is written by the mother of a 15 year old boy in a near drowning accident. It is sort of her spiritual journey as she is told her son will die, then he recovers, but obviously not to be the person he was before. He was actually a patient at Baylor with some of the doctors I work with!

silly saylor

I want to try to remember all the silly things Saylor's been into lately. She has been making us laugh constantly and changing so quickly!

She's been really into taking her toys from her basket over to Harry's bed and playing with them there. She also loves to throw herself onto his bed in total exhaustion after running around the room in circles for 30 minutes, usually carrying several random objects in her hand while doing so.


I mean, what is wrong with this picture?


Here she's trying to give Harry a bite from her green plastic spoon. She is quite generous and will pretty much give anyone a bite and make the "mmmmmm" sound effect for them. Despite his typical appetite, Harry was not interested in this.


Cottage cheese run amok. Please don't ask me how I let it get to this point or why she isn't wearing a bib...obviously a lapse in judgement. She loves feeding herself and sometimes makes funny little piles on the highchair tray.


One day last week I was attempting to vacuum. Saylor was really into this and had to not only be right by the vacuum but also have her hand on it the whole time, like this. You can imagine how efficient that was. :)


Still LOVES playing in the pillows on our bed and getting tickled.


Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this weekend. Grandma bought Saylor this cool bouncy ball that lights up and it might just provide hours of entertainment. Here she is showing it off.


The 3 of them had so much fun!


You can see from these two pictures how many great smiles she's been giving us when we attempt to take her picture. Could that be anymore of a blank stare?


In the past few weeks she's been "saying" so many words (mama, dada, say-say, baba, ball, dog, kitty cat, more, up, night night, woof woof, moo, milk). It's so crazy how fast this has happened! She will really attempt to repeat so many things we say to her (even her friend Harper's name, for example). It's fun to see her try to make the sounds and how they come out. And fun for me to recall all my grad school knowledge about which sounds are easiest and hardest to make, and how they get approximated. She has gotten quite vocal and can really make her wishes known. For example, if you put your hand in the stream of running water while the bath tub if filling up, she imemdiately pushes it out of the way. SHE wants to have HER hand and toys in that stream...NO ONE else. :) She even wagged her finger at me and said "nonono!" It's funny to see her be opinionated like that (and fortunately any melt downs when she doesn't get her way don't last too long...yet)!

One bummer lately is that I am really struggling with her nap schedule...can't figure out if we need to go down to one mid day nap or stay at 2 morning and afternoon. She is giving me such mixed signals and I really don't know what is best for her...we are in such a state of limbo with this! She often skips her afternoon nap completely (not always) but when I try to make her hold out till 12 or 12:30 it is so hard for her and she is so unhappy. This has been going on for probably 2 months now...ugh. If anyone has advice let me know...!

But napping aside, we are having so much fun with her these days and trying to soak up every minute because we know it's going to go by so fast!

More Snow

The snow kept on coming way past my last blog post on Thursday. DFW got a record 12 inches of snow. It was crazy! Here are some pictures at our house from Friday morning:

our street

our crepe myrtles in the drive way

trees in front yard


My friend D and her son Gavin spent two nights with us because they had no power and her husband was stuck out of town. It was almost like Saylor had a brother for 48 hours! They had so much fun together and she already seems a little bored without Gavin here. (Sadly this is my best picture of them - boo).

Today, Matt, Saylor and I drove around our neighborhood for a tour of the Snowmen...they were everywhere! Many were melting away but we did see some good ones:
Regular Snowman

Cowboy Snowman

Dirty Snowman

Hawaiian Snowman

Adult and Child Snowman

Snowman doing the Limbo

Two Snowmen got in a fight

Two Snowmen out for a walk

A Snowman and his dog

Snowman on the roof

Creepy Snowman (hide your children!)

Baby Snowman (there's a pacifer in her mouth)

Snowman in a bikini (where are her bottoms????)

Lake Highlands Snowman

LSU Snowman drinkin it up

Longhorn Snowman lost his head after losing to Alabama

Longhorn Snowman next to Aggie Snowman


Ok, clearly all this snow has gone to my head and I need to stop blogging and instead do something productive! But aren't the kids in our neighborhood creative? I bet kids in Boston and New York never spend this much time on Snowmen!

Happy Valentines Day! Love, Saylor

Snow Day

The weather prediction was right! This is what we woke up to this morning:

This is the most snow I can remember seeing in Texas in my 17 years of living here. I forgot how pretty it is! Especially very first thing in the morning before everyone gets out and about in it.


We all trekked outside to enjoy it.


Saylor just stayed in her flannel pj's and we worked hard to cram her footies inside her boots. :)


Unfortunately, she wasn't much of a snow fan.


Definitely did not want to walk in it!


Harry didn't mind it though. :)


Much happier once back inside eating breakfast.

Oh well. Maybe we'll try again later today. It's supposed to snow into the afternoon!

This has nothing to do with the snow, but just thought I'd show you what Harry did to an empty can of soup he found on the kitchen counter yesterday. Lovely.

This week

Nothing too exciting happening this week at the Smith house. We're supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow in Dallas...that will be fun if it really happens! Saylor hasn't ever played in the snow so maybe if we feel up to braving the cold I'll take her out in it.

Here are some recent pictures:

I found her like this after her nap yesterday - she had taken her pants off...hmmm.

Her new favorite game is climbing around in all the pillows on our bed or couch. So much fun.


Sorry this is terribly blurry. I snuck in the other night after I saw her sleeping with her bunny and monkey all lined up in a row next to her.

Hope you are having a great week!

Future Matt and Me?

Have you seen this video? It made me happy. :)

"An elderly couple walked into the lobby of the Mayo Clinic for a checkup and
spotted a piano. They've been married for 62 years and he'll be 90 this
year. Check out this impromptu performance..."

Check out her new moves!

Well, Saylor has officially reached a big milestone! For several weeks she had been taking baby steps from my arms to Matt's. But this weekend she got brave and is now having fun walking all over the house. Still a bit wobbly, but she appears to be quite proud of herself. :) And we are proud of her too!