March 21st

I just wanted to let ya’ll know that Stacy, the girls and I had a fabulous day today! God really answers prayers.

Something I forgot to mention in yesterday’s update. Stacy has an interview with DARS at 10:00am on Monday morning. I don’t understand the entire scope or chain of events but my current understanding is that the Texas Dept. of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services can help to provide funding for vocational training at a later date. This could be of great importance since we don’t know what type of outpatient therapy will be covered under our insurance plan- or for how long it will last.

Our prayer is that God keeps doing what He’s been doing and leads (or pushes…) us in the direction He wants us to go!! 🙂

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2

March 20th

Once again, I just wanted to throw out the BIG “Thank You”!

The thing about a severe brain injury is no one knows how long it will take to recover. No one knows how far Stacy will go. No one knows when he will come home.

These are a lot of unkowns. What I do know is that “I don’t know enough to assume I have any of the answers.” I do know that although, I can’t see it or understand it- God has a path for us.

Right now, our family is in desperate need of guidance and direction. Counselors and TBI survivors alike say that it will get worse before it gets better. We need prayer.

Prayer for physical and emotional healing, understanding, balance, peace, to truly feel God’s touch…

Stacy will be coming home for the day on Sunday,. We pray that it is a blessed day and that God’s presence is truly felt.

Thank You for your prayers.

(Psalms 6:2 NKJV) Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

This weekend

I just wanted to let everyone know that Stacy will be coming home on Saturday–FOR A DAY PASS. He needs to return Saturday evening.

We are very excited. Please pray for a nice, quiet day at home and for lots of quality family time!! 🙂

As always, thank you for your prayers.

2 Corinthians 9:15

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Day 54

I’m so sorry that it’s been so long since the last update.

On the whole things are going very well for Stacy at Touchstone. Their have been many hills and valleys in just the short time that he has been there but progress is most definitely being made.

Stacy seems to be truly beginning to understand that there are many things he doesn’t understand… He still presents many cognitive and comprehension issues.

I believe that specific prayer is always the best so I have some information from the doctor’s meeting that we had today.

Barriers to be overcome: limited insight/awareness of deficits, fixating on a topic, confabulatory (meaning his brain sometimes pieces different pieces of information together to create what he believes to be a true memory), word-finding and comprehension deficits, impaired problem solving skills, questionable ability to return to work…

Now, when I look at all of these things it makes me want to go to bed and hide under the covers. It doesn’t sound good—BUT—let’s look at what God has brought us through!

Stacy was in a semi-coma (responded to some stimuli- voices, touch…) for eight days! He learned to walk in 5 days! He finished acute rehab in 19 days (vs the average 28 days), he moved directly into the middle of the Touchstone program and has already progressed to the Genesis house- which is the highest functioning house at the facility. To again quote his treatment plan- some of Stacy’s strengths are his outgoing/friendly personality, strong social support network, his motivation, and that he is becoming aware of his deficits…

I would add that the most important thing that Stacy has is God working in his life. He has become quite the evangelist on campus and I feel will have just about everyone saved and ready for baptism soon! He knows that he was saved from tragedy for a reason and is eager to give God the glory for it!

At the meeting today we were given a time frame of 4, possibly as many as 8 more weeks of inpatient rehabilitation. This is a hard pill for all of us to swallow. Something that I have learned is that in the world of brain injury Stacy is making amazing progress–so when we are told “soon”, “a little while”, “not too long”– these terms are all relative. In the world of brain injury Stacy’s is a very quick recovery– in our everyday world 4-8 weeks seems an eternity.

Knowing how disappointed Stacy was- I was amazed and so very proud at how well he took the news. He says that he knows he has work to do and he wants to go as far as God will take him.

Please continue to pray for Stacy’s specific needs and for him to be built up by the Word of God and his family and friends. It is difficult for him not to feel alone in this. Please pray for the girls and I as well. It’s very difficult to keep the feeling of a complete family unit when they only get to spend a couple of hours with their daddy on the weekends. We all want Stacy’s therapy to take him as far as he can go, research shows that the more effort/rehabilitation that takes place in the first weeks/months after a TBI- the better the outcome for a successful life later on. We want the forever part of this. Stacy and I have talked and although it’s so difficult to be away from each other– in the long run, we intend on having another thirty or forty years together– so what’s a few months or even years now to gain all the rest later?

Thanks you for the prayers, the food, the letters of encouragement… once again…it is because of faithful friends like you that we see the sun shine through the clouds. A brain injury is a lot like that. Things can seem so cloudy and then in an instant something will happen that lets the sun shine though. Then the clouds may come again- and we wait for the warmth of the sun.

What we have that so many others in this life don’t –is that we KNOW the “Son” will shine through the clouds and He will be glorified in the end.

Thank you for being there. Many have asked for the Touchstone address. Notes or letters can be sent to Stacy Templeton c/o Touchstone Neurorecovery Center ,
9297 Wahrenberger Road, Conroe, TX 77304.

Psalm 72:17
May his name endure forever; May his name increase as long as the sun shines; And let men bless themselves by him; Let all nations call him blessed.

Day 44

Hi again friends and neighbors, its Amy, Jenna and Stacy’s neighbor here in Cypress.

I just wanted to give a quick update as to what has been going on as of late…

For any of you that know Jenna personally, you know that she is one of the most positive, optimistic people in the world. I truly think that this attitude shines through in all of her blog posts. She has been so incredibly strong and so incredibly unfailing in her faith throughout this entire turmoil beginning on January 16th. The past few days have been very difficult, as the roller coaster of therapies ups and downs has begun and she has asked me to fill you in.

Stacy is incredibly lucky to be alive and to have progressed as far as he has in his recovery and thank heaven for that!!!!! But the Stacy that we knew before the accident is NOT the same Stacy that is now with us. The most important parts of his personality still shine through; his faith, his humor, his love of friends and family.

Stacy has suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the mysteries of the brain are such that although doctors can ‘guesstimate’ what the future holds for Stacy and his family – they can’t give a definite prognosis.

Currently, at Touchstone, where Stacy is residing, he is involved in many kinds of intense therapies including but not limited to; Cognitive, Behavioral, Physical, Occupational and Speech. His day is spent essentially ‘re-learning’ day to day tasks. To quote his speech therapy report from his first week’s evaluation: Stacy exhibits moderate to severe deficits in recall and mild- moderate deficits in reasoning. He had particular difficulty naming objects to confrontation, generating words in categories, comprehending complex instructions, recalling lengthy information and recalling information after a delay.

The frustrating thing, for everyone involved, is that when you look at Stacy, he looks like the same old Stacy.

When you have a rudimentary conversation with him, you’d never have any idea that he has suffered a massive brain injury. He is able to shoot the breeze and chit-chat just like he did before the accident…. but…. his short term memory is not engaged. He is having trouble trusting his therapists which is making progress difficult. He fluctuates between saying, “I had a brain injury… but don’t anymore” to “I know that I need help and am in the right place.” Two opposite viewpoints that indicate the struggle his mind is going through.

There is a book that I have found extremely helpful in understanding some of what Stacy and his family are currently going through and what they will probably be going through for the rest of their lives. It is called ‘MindStorms’ by John W. Cassidy – who interestingly enough started the Touchstone facility that Stacy is residing at. Here is an excerpt about how TBI can affect personality:

“Many brain-injured people, especially following severe acceleration-deceleration injuries …lost the ability to be self-reflective, to have insight into their problems, and, most frustrating of all for those who love them, to be aware of how they’ve changed. On one level, this can be a blessing; because an individual who lacks self-awareness…is spared the realization that his life will never be the same. For … the survivor’s family, however, facing this situation is a tremendous challenge, for such an individual is biologically unable to recognize his need for help and therefore may resist all attempts at change.”

Stacy’s injury is not one that can be put into a cast or sling until it heals. This is going to be a lifelong journey and until the family can get a handle on what the future holds, they are going to continue to need our assistance.

I am asking for your continued prayers for Stacy and Jenna and the girls – but also any support that you can provide whether it is visiting Stacy at Touchstone or meals for the family . Maybe just a postcard to Stacy to let him know that he’s being prayed for. There are so many things that would be so appreciated. Please see the Care Calendar at the https://stacytempleton.wordpress.com/ page for ways to help.

Thank you so much for your continued support for this wonderful family.

(Romans 5:3-5)

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Day 40- part 2

Okay–Stacy’s right. I need more sleep. I’m fairly computer illiterate and somehow sent the day 40 update while I was in the middle of composing.

So in conclusion, Stacy and I once again want to thank you all for your prayers and support. I’ve been telling him he doesn’t have to worry about us at home–so many of you have sent such lovely notes of encouragements, (like the ones I find on my desk, or in my box at school, in the mailbox at home…), I know that many of you have left prayers and sentiments on Stacy’s facebook page, ( I wish I could talk to each and every one of you), the girls teachers, my neighbors, our family, our church … the list goes on and on. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to express what you have all meant to us!

Someone asked me, “How do you keep going?” I said, “You just do. How can we not feel blessed with the love everyone has shown to us.”– That is what keeps us going.

At the end of my “first” day 40 posting I put some words to a song by Kutless- What faith can do

This morning, I did not want to get out of the car at work and I prayed that God would uplift me. “What faith can do” is what came on the radio. That song is now my new ringtone… I just wanted to share.

2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Day 40

Today Stacy said, “I am so blessed.”

It’s been a hard adjustment to Touchstone and it’s taken every of ounce of strength God’s given me not to pull up the car and just bring Stacy home.

For the first couple of days, Stacy didn’t feel that he needed to stay there, but today, he told me that he is blessed to be in the right place. He believes that they will help him and he’s happy to be there!

I can’t tell you what a relief this is to us. It tears at your heart strings to not be able to give your loved one what they want. It was explained to us when Stacy got there that for a resident like him–who is already so far along in his recovery–it often takes several days before he will see that although he is not as injured as some others, he is still in need of treatment. Well, it was a very rough first few days but once Stacy began therapy on Monday, things began to turn around. One of his goals this week was to work on his perception of things and just like with everything else–he learns fast!

Today, was the first day that I heard joy in his voice and it filled my heart. He continually tells me that he just wants to be the best husband and father in the world. He worries about the girls and me and has asked us not to visit during the week. It really hurt my feelings at first, but then he told me why. He’s worried that I’m working too hard, not sleeping and eating enough, that the girls aren’t going to bed on time, etc. All he’s thinking about is us.– How can I get hurt feelings over that??

–Speaking of eating– many of you have provided wonderful meals for our family and we have been so fortunate that you’ve done so. I would love to thank each and every one of you individually and give you a great big hug–also, the coolers on the porch are only in case we are running around (girls scouts and such). If there’s a vehicle in the driveway- please, please knock on the door–we want to see you.

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing