JACKIE.......PART 2

Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 6:54 PMSubject: Update from the Doctor

Hello all,

First I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support for Elden, Rachel, and I. We are doing OK. There are good times and bad times every day. I am focusing on having more good times than bad!!

We went to the neurologist today. They have completely ruled out any physical problem or damage. That means no tumors, stroke, or brain damage. We are definitely thanking God for that blessing. The neurologist says that I have transient global amnesia. This is not common, but also not unheard of. Usually people who suffer from this only lose a couple of months of memory, so I am a special case. I guess it is good to be special!!

They do not know what causes this memory loss, but they do know that usually you will get back over 50% of the memories lost, we just don't know when. It will happen slowly and will come back in fragments, but the good news is that some of it will come back. I am excited for that to happen, it is really hard not to have the memories of Rachel growing up.

I do have a couple more tests to do. These are basically needed to check overall health and wrap up the evaluation. I will continue to meet with the neurologist for awhile so that he can continue to monitor my recovery. Since there really isn't a set end to the recovery, I will probably be having regular doctor visits for quite some time.

We are working on getting back to some kind of a normal life, but there is so much new information for me every day that I get pretty run down very quickly. So much has changed in the past 3 1/2 years, that it is quite overwhelming to take it all in.

I thank all of you for being there this past week. Your visits, phone calls, and emails have been the best therapy. I have such awesome people in my life and I want you all to know that I appreciate your willingness to help. I also thank you for your support for Elden. It is obvious that I am going through a lot, but he is too and needs just as much prayer and support, so thank you so very much.

Jackie