News from the International Brain Research Foundation

Finally, I got to have a phone conversation with Dr Halper from the International Brain Research Foundation. He works with Dr De Fina and he is the doctor that came out and did the evaluation and testing on Timmy.

He started off by telling me that most of the patients they work with are far less cognitive than Timmy, meaning they are in comas, vegetative states etc..  And then he told me they have new programs and some are fairly experimental.  They are suggesting we try some neutracuticals.  I will be in touch with Jason, in charge of financial, to talk more about our options with that.  And I think he mentioned that there may be other drugs that could help with speech.

I asked about what the tests showed and  Dr Halper said the results were very good.  The brain waves looked good except in a couple of spots.  He said there were some mild abnormalities on his left side and that would make sense, because that is the side where the injury occurred.  I then asked him if the tests were able to show what parts of his brain might be affected and he said that areas that involve speech were affected.

After I post this update, I will be emailing him Timmy's Kaiser doctors contact information.  He is going to try to contact them to talk more to them.

It's just so amazing to me how resilient the brain can be.  In the beginning, we were told that the original CT scans showed that the left side of his brain was dark and could not recover.  We were also told that there was a lot of brain stem damage that was not repairable.  We were told Timmy would never breath on his own... he does.  We were told his right side would be paralyzed, it's not.  We were told he'd be blind in one eye, he's not.  I guess the brain is smarter than we think?  Thank you everyone for believing in Timmy and believing in miracles.  Thank you for the many prayers that still continue and for the good thoughts sent Timmy's way.  And thank you for believing that Timmy will continue to get better.  And even if we don't get the Kaiser doctors assistance, I was telling Isaac that Timmy's come this far on his own and he can go further.  And of course, I believe we have God on our side.  We have the winning team.

Believe :)
Dawn

Doctor updates

Update anyone?  Last update, I told everyone that Timmy was to have appointments with two of his Kaiser doctors.  The first doctor being the one in charge of his physical therapy and the second, his neurologist.

We met with the Medical Physical therapy doctor a week or so ago.  The appointment opened with the question "What do you want from this appointment".  That should have been my first clue that I was going to leave disappointed.  Is it too much for a doctor to be able to tell his patient what he can do for him?  Out of the whole hour we spent there, the entire time was spent discussing why his insurance won't cover therapy for him.  About 2 minutes, at the most, was spent on examining Timmy.  I went in wanting Timmy to be referred to Kaiser Vallejo, where their specialty is brain injuries.  I was told Timmy would have to be able to tolerate 3 hrs of therapy a day, which he is nowhere near at this time.  I asked how he was expected to get to that point when he is getting pretty much NO therapy now.... then I got to hear more about insurance crap.  So if Timmy isn't going to be getting  PT or OT at the facility he's at now, he needs to come home where I can teach him the best I can and he can be part of his family again.  We discussed that and the options he came up with are:

1 - Inpatient referral to Kaiser Vallejo for short term rehab (few weeks) with the understanding that it is short-term and to prepare him and his family to bring him home.  But there is a chance they won't take him.

2 - Same scenario, but referral to Santa Clara Valley Medical.  BUT in order to go there, we would have to drop Kaiser insurance, as Kaiser won't pay for SCVM, but Tim's Medi-cal would.  But there is a chance they won't take him either.  And if we dropped Kaiser, Timmy would only have medi-cal when he came home and I'm not sure we'd be able to find him a good doctor or if medi-cal would cover ongoing PT, which I think is so important at this time.

3 - Or, the sub-acute facility can teach me how to take care of Timmy and he could be discharged from there.

As much as I want Timmy home NOW, I would also like more of an opinion from professionals that work with brain injury patients to see him and possibly offer opinions and suggestions.  AND I want assurance of ongoing therapy for him.  (A little side note.. this doctor called me again this morning to see if I'd made any decisions yet regarding bringing Timmy home.  By the end of the conversation, I got him to agree to order OUT patient therapy for Timmy, 1 day a week.  I guess Kaiser will pay for out patient therapy, but not inpatient therapy where he is now.  The only catch is, I have to transport him to Kaiser.  No problem, I can do that and I will.  At least he'll get some therapy while working on getting him home.  I pray that they may try things that haven't been tried yet and answer all the questions I have regarding what I can do to help more.

Today, we met with Timmy's neurologist.  The last time she saw him was over a year ago.  She seemed genuinely happy to see him and wanted to know how he was doing and wanted to see everything he can do now.  At the end of the visit, as I left, I felt like I really didn't get any answers as far as her opinion goes, so I went back to see her again, leaving Timmy in the waiting room.  I told her I needed more of an opinion or summary from her, because there are a lot of people following Timmy's story and that other medical professionals will be asking me and I needed something to tell them.  She said that yes, Timmy has progressed and that he's alert and communicates.  I asked her if she thought there was any kind of testing we might do and she told me that she'd actually thought about that, but that she didn't think a CT scan would show much.  I then spoke from my heart and told her that I know there are medical opinions, and that I'm not saying Timmy has to be 100% (thought I do believe he can be), but that he does deserve to progress further for a better quality of life, even if it's just operating an electric wheelchair, using a remote control or even playing video games.  I added  that even his neurosurgeon, who didn't think Timmy was going to pull through, has been known to say that Timmy is going to be a miracle. She looked at me then and told me that she thought Timmy was a miracle too.  She wants to continue to be a part of Timmy's team.  But it seems that there is not a lot she can do on her end at this time.  The therapy has to go through that other doctor.

So, on top of figuring out which road to take to bring him home, I'm finding out that In Home Support Services might not be as easy as I thought it would be.  The waiting list is 2-3 months for them to come out to his home and evaluate before they approve coverage.  And I have to have a discharge date before I can move forward on that.  I know it's not a guarantee, but I was hoping In Home Support Services would be my primary source of income to stay home and be Timmy's caregiver.   By the time I finished my conversation with the nice lady at that agency this morning, I was telling her that I felt like just going and picking Timmy up in a van and bringing him home and then someone would have to figure out how he was going to be taken care of from there.  So I don't know why things have to be so complicated.  I just want some PT and OT for Timmy and to bring him home.

So a little good news.  JUST as we rolled into the neurologists office to await her visit, the doctors from the International Brain Research Foundation called, ready to consult with Timmy's long awaited test results.  So, I had to tell them I was at the neurologist appointment and they weren't able to call me back today, so now I will be talking with Dr Halper tomorrow at 330 pm.  But he did tell me that the EEG showed that Timmy's brain looks good.  What that means exactly?  Well we will all find out tomorrow.  So tomorrow, a hopefully brighter, promising update.


Thank you everyone for being part of Timmy's life and Timmy's story.  Thanks for the prayers.  Thanks to those few friends that know just what to say to me when I'm having a rough day.  And thanks to whoever told me that Timmy is not going to be a miracle, he already is.

Dawn
Timmy's mom.

International Brain Research Foundation Consult

Well, I guess a Timmy update is a little bit overdue.  But, before I get into that, I just want to say I loved visiting with Timmy tonight.  He's seemed kind of down the last couple of days, so it was great to be greeted with a smile tonight.  And then for some reason, he just kind of launched into doing all the stuff I've been teaching him, without me asking him to do it.  He started nodding his head yes and no.  Then he started opening his mouth and sticking his tongue out...  all this with no prompting from me.  We were both laughing so hard that I had to tell him to remember to breath, because he almost couldn't catch his breath.  Also, over the last week, he's been starting to bend his left leg at the knee on his own while we do range of motion.  We are also starting to see a bit more movement in trying to open and close his right hand.  Timmy's room mate's sister actually got him to reach for a ball today, which I've never seen him do before (lift his arm).  So Timmy's still making progress and I thank God and everyone's prayers for that.

So, onto the update:
Last Thurs, the 11th of Nov., Timmy was evaluated by a 2 person team sent by the International Brain Research Foundation.  They were great and treated Timmy like the human being we know he is.  The first test they ran measured his level of consciousness.  Timmy's level is at 98%.  What's this mean?  A normal level is 100%, so this means that Timmy is totally aware of everything going on around him.  Yes, most of us already knew this, but now this is proof.  They asked Timmy to do some things, which he was very cooperative with, within his ability to do them.  They also ran a couple of EEG's which we will get the results from within 10 days of the date of testing.  Dr Halper was awesome and encouraging.  He told us that he can't believe Timmy isn't getting any type of therapy at this time and that he is ripe for therapy.  And, how frustrating it must be for him to be aware and want to do things, but needs help getting there.  He encouraged us to get Timmy physical and speech therapy and that's what I'm working hardest at now.

So to start, I spoke with Timmy's Kaiser doctor that's assigned to him at the facility he's residing at now.  She knows that Timmy is currently on an "RNA" program, which needs no insurance authorization.  This means that IF the family is there to assist, we are SUPPOSED to be able to stand Timmy with the help of an RNA for about 15 minutes.  This hasn't really been happening and I told her.  I also told her that we'd like Timmy re-evaluated for Kaiser Vallejo.  We have been told in the past that the Vallejo facility is Kaiser's big rehab for brain injuries.  His doctor then told me that in order to go there, Timmy would have to be able to tolerate 3 hrs of PT a day.  I then asked his doctor how he was expected to get to that level when nothing is being done to help reach that point, especially when he's just laying around wasting away.  I also added that he hadn't had a neurological evaluation in over a year.  And I asked her for a wheelchair evaluation, as the one he's using now is borrowed from the facility and... well it's a piece of crap.  So, to make a long story short, Timmy has an appointment next Monday with a Kaiser doctor that's supposedly in charge of his physical therapy plan, who he's never seen before.  Then the first week in Dec., he has an appointment with his neurologist.  Still waiting to hear about the wheelchair eval... but I did tell her that I know people on Medi-cal that have wheelchairs and that I'd think a patient on Kaiser should be able to have one too.

So I learned a lot this week.  Monday was really tough emotionally for me for lots of reasons I won't get into, but part of it was because I wanted things to happen MY way NOW.  I wanted Timmy home before Christmas and I just want him with me all the time, because I felt nobody else was taking care of him and at least I could continue to encourage him and teach him.  For now, we've decided to give Kaiser a chance to increase Physical and Speech therapy.  We should also have the EEG and other test results back soon that will give us a better idea of where Timmy's brain is at, as well as suggestion for treatment from specialists from the IBRF (International Brain Research Foundation). 

In God's time. He's brought Timmy this far and I trust He will bring him even further.

Take care everyone. 

Dawn
(Timmy's mom)

De Fina's team is coming!

Yesterday afternoon my phone rang, but I didn't recognize the number, so i didn't answer. 5 seconds later the house phone rang with the same number and I got this feeling that the area code was New Jersey.  I jumped up and grabbed the phone and it was Dr. De Fina's assistant!  She called to let me know that the team will be here Thursday to evaluate Timmy.  We are getting everything ready, and we are so excited. This is what we have been waiting for.
I don't have all the details on exactly what they will be doing Thursday, but I do know that they will be bringing their equipment to map Timmy's brain out on the computer.  They will be looking at what is damaged, and how damaged it is.  We are excited because we haven't seen any scan since the accident, so it will be cool to be able to see FINALLY what is going on in that head of his! 
I will update everyone on Thursday after we talk to the team and they let us know whats up. Let's hope for the best!

Timmy wrote his name!

Sorry it has been a while since the last update.  The pancake breakfast was on Sunday.  It went well, and we had a lot of fun!
A couple days ago Caitlin went to visit Timmy and she had a whiteboard that she brought and she asked him to write his name.  She put a pen in his hand and he did a line down, then she moved the white board and he did a line across so it formed a 'T'! He did this until he wrote Tim.  He got so excited!!!
Tonight when my mom and I was with him we put a pen in his hand and he wrote Tim, then I was joking and asked him to write a funny word, and he started to, he wrote a 'B' and was so excited, he had a huge smile on his face! He was so proud, he answered 'no' when asked if he knew he could do that, and he was so happy that he did it!  We are going to buy him a whiteboard and work on this a lot more with him.
This was our first time seeing him since the Giants beat the Braves to go on in the Playoffs, and right when we said "hey Tim, did the Giants win?" He got a huge smile on his face.  He was so happy today! He was laughing, and joking around a lot.  I love when he is happy.
He likes to do staring contests, and when you say "okay Timmy, 1, 2, 3!" he will close his eyes until you get to 3 then just stare at you and get a smile on his face.  Today when I was playing with him I opened my mouth and went "aahhh" and he opened his mouth big like he was trying to copy me. He is doing so much more than the doctors thought he would.  I love how far he has come.

Fundraiser #1- Car Wash

Today was the kick off to our Month of Fundraising.  We had a car wash at King's Paint in Capitola; it was a success!  The day started out foggy and cold, but it turned out it was actually better to wash the cars in that weather since the soap didn't dry right away.  It got warmer throughout the day, and we had a lot of people who wanted to help us by donating :)  It was a lot of fun, and it was a really good feeling knowing that we were spreading the word about Timmy to people who hadn't heard about what happened to him yet.

We are thinking about maybe making it a monthly thing since we had so much fun doing it.

Now for a little update on Timmy.  While we were out washing cars to raise money for him, he was at his facility with our Mom watching the 49ers and Giants games.  When my mom would tell him the Giants were going to win today so that they would be the champs, he would look at the 'no' card.  After they won my mom grabbed his arm and was like "Timmy, Timmy they won!!" she says that he started laughing a lot at that point, and smiling.  After that, he thought everything was funny!  When my mom told him she was going to go home and wash his pillow, he started cracking up, laughing harder than she has heard him in a long time.  We think that he kept saying they wouldn't win because he didn't want to jinx them ;)

Fundraisers

It's almost October!  Our month of fundraising is just around the corner.  Things are coming along, and we have been working hard at getting these together so we can raise the money for Dr. De Fina to treat Timmy.

The first weekend of October is our first fundraiser.  It will be a car wash at King's paint located at 2851 41st Ave.  We will be there from 10 AM - 3 PM

On October 10th we will be having a Pancake Breakfast at the Boulder Creek Firehouse from 8 AM- 12 PM

October 27th we will be having a Benefit Concert at the Calvary Church in Los Gatos.  Doors open at 6:00, show starts at 6:30.  Tickets are available now here: http://www.hope-culture.com/ if you click on 'tour' you can purchase via Pay Pal.  I suggest purchasing them ahead of time since they are cheaper :)  For more information on the concert you can go here.

Today Timmy did something pretty cool!  I am putting in a video to show you.  He is just learning to do this again and thought it was really funny!

Giants Game

Today we went to the Giants game! It was so awesome!!  We arrived at the park and we went to the Executive Office to meet up with Nick (the guy who got us the tickets) and he had passes for us to go on the field for batting practice.  We arrived a little late, so we caught the end of it, but we were on the field, which was way cool!  We mostly were on the field with the Brewers, and their bench coach came over and said Hi to Timmy; Timmy got a smile on his face, and knew who he was.  He told Timmy that we were all decked out in Giants gear, so maybe they would give us 1 today.  We also went over and Nick had Casey McGehee come over and say Hi to Timmy (he went to Soquel High) Timmy really liked that, he got a HUGE smile on his face, and he signed a ball for him.
After practice we went to our seats, which were awesome!! We were behind home plate, but towards first base, so when we looked out we were able to see both really good.  It was awesome, I think Timmy is their good luck charm because in the first inning they scored a Grand Slam!  It was so exciting, and Timmy watched the whole time.  They ended up winning 9-2.
I can't wait until Timmy gets to come home and we can do things like this more often.  He was so excited!  He is such a loyal fan :)  Here are some pictures from the game:

All of us on the field:

Outside, waiting to go to Batting practice:

Our view from our seats :)



Thank you SF Giants for inviting us to the game, and allowing us to come on the field for batting practice!

Dr. De Fina Consult

As most of you know, today was the phone consult with Dr. De Fina.  Mom says he was easy to talk to, and let them do a lot of the talking.  He was very interested in what they had to say about Timmy.  He shared the same hopes and concerns for Timmy, which is nice since most doctors we have talked to haven't been very hopeful.
We have agreed to have a team sent out to run tests and evaluate Timmy.  There is a lot of terminology we couldn't write down fast enough, but there are several tests he has decided to run.  It will take several hours, and we will have to kidnap Timmy and bring him home for the day since his insurance is weird. The team will come, and then we will have another phone consult once they go back and discuss everything.  We are just excited to finally know what's going on inside of Timmy's head since he hasn't had any scans or tests done since about a month after his accident.
When my mom asked him what his opinion was based on what he has seen so far with Timmy's records, he said "Yes, it was a very severe injury, but they have helped worse" :)
Today we also found out that we get to go on the field for batting practice at the Giants game this Sunday!  When mom told Timmy he got a big huge smile on his face!  We are so excited for this Sunday, it's going to be so much fun! We will make sure to take a lot of pictures and post them on the site.

Colin's 3rd Birthday

Colin turned 3 today!
It was a really great day.  The party was at the park that's within a 10 minute walking distance from Timmy's facility, so he got to come.  It was really cute.  Last week my mom was visiting him and asking him if he wanted to pick out a present on toyrus.com and he looked at his 'yes' card.  He wanted to pick out a game so that he could play with Colin, so he picked out 'Hungry Hungry Hippos.'  He also got Colin The Muppet Movie, so they can watch it together too.  Timmy was very specific, he wanted that game, and the wrapping paper to be green, so of course my mom went and got those things, and she brought it back to the facility so Timmy could help wrap it.  When they were doing the card Timmy had a huge smile on his face when the pen was in his hand ( his left since his right hand isn't as controlable as his left) when asked to do a 3 on the card he got a huge smile and started laughing because he was trying so hard and did a little of a backwards 'c' :)
Today when we got to the park I had the present and I told Timmy , in his ear since it was a secret, that I had the present and Colin was going to open it.  He started to smile and laugh.  It was so cute how excited he was that he got Colin a present.  Last year was tough since he wasn't able to leave the facility yet, so he had to miss it.  This year was really fun since he got to be there. He even got a taste of some frosting from the 'Caillou' cake.
Yesterday the anonymous donor dropped off the $10,000 donation! We now have enough for the deposit for Dr. De Fina, but we still need to raise $75,000 so please spread the word about the fundraisers coming up.  One is this Tuesday at the Los Gatos Pizza My Heart between 4&9 pm if you go in and say Hope Culture sent you, 30% of the proceeds will go to Timmy and Hope Culture to help put on the Benefit concert on October 27th at the Rio Theatre, which will be amazing! The bands are all really good!  The bracelts are for sale on the right side of the page.  If you live close to us, we can arrange a time to drop it off ( just email me friendsoftimmyhatch@hotmail.com), but if you would rather order through Pay Pal, I will send it to you :)
Thank you everyone who keeps Timmy in their thoughts and prayers, who spread the word for us, and who read our updates.  It means so much to us!  We tell Timmy all the time that he has thousands of people praying for him.  Thank you!

October Events!

We have 3 of the 4 events booked for October (we are working on the fourth.)  We need volunteers for all of the events, so if you can help out, please contact us at friendsoftimmyhatch@hotmail.com You can go here for the official event site.

The events are as follows: Sunday, October 3rd from 10 AM - 3 PM there will be a car wash at King's Paint located in Aptos.  Sunday, October 10th from 8AM- 12PM a pancake breakfast at the Boulder Creek Firehouse.  Wednesday, October 27th at 7 PM Hope Culture Presents: A Benefit Concert for Timmy Hatch, the line up for bands are: I am Empire, The Material, Blood and Water, The Taxi Project, and My Jeremiah.

The event that we haven't booked yet is still in the works, we are thinking about a movie night at the Scotts Valley Cinema, but I need to talk to them some more, so if you have any ideas, please do share in case it falls through.  Thank you everyone!

Remember, if you want to volunteer, which we need A LOT OF, please email us at friendsoftimmyhatch@hotmail.com

Thank you!

Pizza My Heart

The guy, Connor, who is putting on the benefit concert for Timmy in October has set up a day where you can go into Pizza My Heart in Los Gatos and 30% of the proceeds will go to Timmy and Hope Culture to help put on the event.  You can click here for the flyer.  I am so happy that this guy is helping us out, he is doing a lot for us, and it's out of the goodness of his heart.  Please spread the word. 
Timmy was in the Santa Cruz Sentinel today!  I am very happy about the article, the guy did a really great job!  The link is on the right side of the page under 'Newspaper Articles'.
Thank you EVERYONE who is helping us out.  We could not be doing this without.  It's so wonderful to see so many people helping to give my brother is life back.  Thank you!!

Consult Postponed

Hey guys, I just wanted to do a quick update, the meeting with Dr. De Fina was suppose to be tomorrow, but when I called the office today to make sure they got all of his files, they told me that we needed to reschedule....so now we have 2 more weeks.  But the good thing about this is we have more time to raise the deposit!  We need to raise $25,000 for the deposit, and I really don't think it will be a problem.  Remember we have the anonymous donor who will match donations up to $10,000!  Spread the word, that offer will go on after the week of fundraising.
We have our month of fundraising in the works for October.  In this month we will be have a fundraising every weekend except for the last weekend (Halloween)  The date for the last one is set for sure! October 27th at the Rio Theatre.  Hope Culture Presents: A Benefit Concert for Timmy Hatch! The concert will have I Am Empire headlining, they are really good!  I will have the details on how to purchase tickets in the next couple weeks.  I have been in contact with a very nice man who has put it all together, he is so great!  We are thinking of a pancake breakfast, and I am contacting a movie theatre  to see if we can have a movie night.  So these will be some fun fundraisers!  We will keep you posted.
Also, the bracelets should be in next week and I will be putting them on the site to sell.  We are also having t-shirts designed to sell  online and at all of our events:)  So keep checking back in!
We need volunteers for our month of October, so if you are intersted, please don't hesitate to offer! Thanks guys!

Fundraising Week Extended!

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that we have been contacted by an anonymous donor who will match donations up to $10,000!  Because of this we have extended our 'week of fundraising'!  This is so exciting for us, please tell everyone you know.  We have set up the donations to go through Active Giving now, but I have gone through and input the donations we recieved this week through pay pal and first giving.  You can still donate on pay pal though :)  Remember, if you want to donate straight through to Valley Churches United Missions the address is provided under our donations section, but please make sure you write "C/O Timmy Hatch" somewhere on your donation so they know to put it in the account made just for Timmy :)
Timmy is doing great!  he is smiling a lot lately (as you can see in the picture in the previous blog)  He has officially started speech therapy.  He has said "ahh" a few times when asked, but we are still working on it.  We are all excited about going to the Giants game on September 19th.  Timmy is going to be so happy there, we will make sure we take pictures and post them.
The consult with Dr. De Fina is on Thursday at 9:00 A.M.  Please keep Timmy in your thoughts and prayers that this consult goes well.  I have faith that it will.
Thank you everyone who has been posting the links like crazy,and telling everyone they know.  Timmy was in the paper today, I added the link under our "newspaper articles" section, if you click on the link you can scroll to the bottom of the website for the Santa Cruz Sentinel and you will see it.  Thanks again guys!

A package from the SF Giants came today

  The package from the SF Giants came today. This was Timmy's reaction when Crystal showed him his autographed Tim Lincecum baseball. Along with that they sent hat and 10 tickets for him and his family to a game on September 19th. I can't wait, we will take lots of pictures and videos. Timmy still doesn't miss a game!

Fundraising and Giants :)

As most of you know, yesterday was the kick off day for our 'week of fundraising.'  It has been going well so far, but please keep spreading the word, everyone is doing great!  Today we got some news.  One of my mom's coworkers wrote a letter a couple weeks ago to the San Francisco Giants telling them about Timmy.  Timmy was all about the Giants, if the Giants were on, Timmy was watching them, he is still that way.  Well, they wrote back and asked if we would want tickets to a game, or something autographed, so we told them that we would like tickets for the family so that we can take Timmy :)  We found out today that we are getting tickets for the whole family to go, and also something autographed by Tim Lincecum for Timmy!  Lincecum is one of Timmy's favorites, so we are very excited about that!  We get to go to the Sunday, September 19th game.
Also, I contacted the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and they will be doing a story on Timmy and the fundraising, so look for that soon, they should be calling me in the next couple of days.
A couple more things. Caitlin and I are looking for volunteers to join our team.  We need people who will be dedicated in helping us raise this 100k for Timmy's treatment.  If you are interested please email me at friendsoftimmyhatch@hotmail.com   We are looking for sponsors also.  I ordered some bracelets a couple days ago, so look for those in the next couple of weeks, we orders black with white writing, white with black writing, orange with black writing, and red with white writing.  These will be different than the ones we had last year they will be engraved and colorfilled and will say "Friends of Timmy Hatch."  We are also thinking about getting shirts made, so lots of things to look forward to in the coming month :)
I want to thank everyone who has been posting links like crazy, donated, and who have kept Timmy in their thoughts and prayers.  We tell him all the time that he has thousands of people supporting him.  Thank you once again!

Yes...or No?

Today was another great day for Timmy.  When my mom and I arrived we told Timmy that his son, Colin would be coming and he got the biggest smile on his face, just like yesterday.  He was so happy all day, laughing, and being goofy.  Throughout the day my mom was practicing with him to nod yes and no.  He would copy her when she would show him, but then he was getting really good at it, and she would ask him questions and he would answer with nodding!  I have a video of it on my phone, and I will try to upload it tomorrow.  She asked him if he wants to eat stuff and he said yes, and then she named a bunch of stuff off and he nodded yes.  She asked him his name was Christopher, and he shook his head no, then she asked if my name (his sister) was "funky cold medina" and he nodded yes and then started laughing a lot about that.  I  love that he still jokes with us.  Sometimes he will make this snoring noise, and I have to tell him to either cough, take a breath, or swallow, but today we made a game of it, and I was copying him and he would laugh about it, then i got louder, so he did too.  A little later we were playing that game again and my mom goes "okay nooooow stop!" and he stopped right away.  It was cute.

Speech Therapy!

Today we had planned to have a family bbq at Timmy's facility, but when we were about to leave we got a call from the speech therapist at Timmy's facility and she said that she just got the order in to do a swollow test.  We told her that we would like it if she waited until we all got there, and she said yes.  We have been waiting for this order to go through for a while now, so we are very excited about this.  Secretly we know Timmy can swollow; he guilts us into giving him a taste of water every now and then, but it's a secret :)
When we got to the facility Josh and Crystal were already there.  My mom, Isaac, and me walked into Timmy's room and he had the biggest smile on his face.  He was the happiest I have seen him in a long time and he could not wipe the smile off his face, he was laughing so much that you could hear his voice in it.  We all stood around him with the same smile on our faces.
The speech therapist came, and first she used an oversized cotton swab with a hint of lemon taste to it, just to see if he could swollow, which he did.  So then she went and got thickened water which looked a lot like thin pudding.  Timmy liked that.  He kept opening his mouth for more, and when she said "do you want more?" he would stare at the cup and spoon.  She also gave him a little apple sauce, and when she asked him to swollow it he was joking around and wouldn't swollow, but would start laughing, then swollow.  It was so great to see him so happy.  During the assesment the Therapist mentioned that she came in before any of us got there, and Timmy smiled at her and she said "Timmy open your mouth and say 'ahhh'"  And she said that he followed her command right away.  Later when we were with her though he wouldn't for us, but I think he was just being shy since we were all staring at him.  He might have just been showing off for his therapist though.
On another note, we have everything ready to send to Dr. De Fina tomorrow.  We have all of Timmy's medical records, CT and MRI scans.  I am so excited to hear what he has to say, and the 2nd can not come soon enough. 
Please keep spreading the word about the week of fundraising it starts on Monday, and we need to raise $100,000 so that we can give Timmy this opportunity at what could be his last chance for treatment.  We also have a benefit concert in the works for the end of October, and I will keep you posted on it.

A fun day with Timmy

On Wednesday Sierra and I (Caitlin Hatch) got to spend a great day with Timmy.  We like to bring board games and Sierra and Timmy play them together.  First we played Connect 4, I place the game piece close to Timmy's hand and he closes his fingers, holding it and then he lets go when the piece is in the right place. He wasn't as into this game as he has been in the past so we went on to playing Monopoly Jr. During this game Timmy is able to hold the dice when I place them in his hand and then he rolls when he is ready. I move his player and ask him what move he wants to make by using the "yes" and "no" cards so he can answer my questions. I also read  "The Monster at the End of this Book" to Sierra because Dawn has said that Timmy loved that book when he was little. When reading this book Sierra turns the pages and laughs historically each time, during witch Timmy was laughing at her the whole time.  Although all this was fun, the best part of the day was when I was talking to Timmy and he was answering with the cards. I asked him if he can tell that he is getting stronger and better and her responded by looking at the yes card. Then I asked him if he believed he would get better and be himself one day and again his response was yes. I told him that he was right and he would be all the way better one day.  Another amazing moment of the day was when I held Timmy's hand in mine and asked him to squeeze my hand and so he squeezed. Then I told him that he could tell people that he loved them by squeezing their hands two times and I squeezed his hand two times and said, "I love you". To this, he responded by squeezing my hand two times and giving me a huge smile. Timmy is getting stronger all the time and days like this are to show for it.

Family Reunion

Yesterday was an amazing day!  We didn't want to tell everyone because we wanted it to be a surprise, but a few people still knew.  Timmy came to our family reunion in Santa Cruz!  When he arrived I grabbed by camera and ran over to the shuttle that brought him.  When he was out of the shuttle I said "Timmy!  Look, Josh is here!"  Timmy immediately looked over to Josh and got the hugest smile on his face.  He stayed for about 2 and half hours, and he seemed happy.  He laughed and smiled, and stayed awake the whole time.
Everyone was so happy to see him, and it felt like it completed the day.  Usually at events like this I sit there and think "this would be perfect if Timmy were here" and this time he was :)  We took a picture of the whole family behind Timmy, and I posted it on this website.  Bringing him over for the reunion just made us feel like if he came home we could do this every weekend.  Taking him over was so great for him, and he seemed to really enjoy himself.  He was making sounds like he wanted to tell us something.
Here are some pictures from the family reunion.  One is with Timmy, our brothers, and Dad.  The other is of Timmy, our brothers, me, and our mom.

Now for the exciting news!  I just got off the phone with Dr. Defina's personal assistant, and we filled out a form together, and she scheduled a consult!  The consult is in the beginning of September, and I am so excited for this.  I feel like we are getting closer and closer to him coming to help Timmy.  It's an amazing feeling when everything you have been trying so hard for finally starts to fall into place.
The fundraising week hasn't started yet, but we have already raised $500.00.  Please tell everyone you know about it.  We don't know when we will be needing the money for Dr. Defina, but since everything is set into motion, we want to make sure we have it when he says it's time :)  Thank you everyone who has been helping, praying, donating, just know that Timmy is very thankful to you.

Good News!

Yesterday my mom and I went to go visit Timmy before we went to pick up Grandpa from the airport.  We only stayed for about an hour before we had to go pick him up, but a few hours later we returned with him.  Our Grandpa hasn't seen Timmy since right after the accident, and all I kept saying was "isn't he doing so much better than when you last saw him?" and I could tell he was very impressed.  Timmy stood again, and did very well with his cones.  What we do with the cones is this : There are blue, yellow, red, and green, and we have him grab the cone (with help of supporting his arm) and we tell him what color we want him to drop it on.  Timmy is colorblind, but he does it really well, and when he does the wrong color he laughs like he is joking with us :)  I recorded a video of it, but my camera memory got full way too fast, but I will be posting that this weekend sometime.
I have some amazing news!  Dr. Defina's office emailed me back!  I am suppose to call first thing Monday morning, and I am so excited! I was so happy; I called my mom, Caitlin, and Isaac and they were excited too! This is what we have been waiting for.  This is what we are fundraising for.  This could bring our Timmy back to us!  We are planning a couple fundraisers for October, and everyone is welcome to come :) we will be posting more information on those once all of the details are worked out.
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been praying for my brother this past year.  I know God hears you, and I know they are working.  Timmy has proven the doctors wrong already, and there is no doubt in my mind that he won't be giving up anytime soon.

An Average Day With Timmy

Today was a relaxing day with Tim.  When we arrived he was already outside with Crystal, and they were practicing holding his head up.  When we do this, we take his head rest off and put a pillow behind his back, and count to see how long he will hold his head up. Our mom was joking with him saying "Okay Tim, lets hold your head up until we count to 1 million."  He is getting good at it, and can turn from side to side with encouragement.  Our Mom is working on getting him to nod "yes" by saying "turn" "turn" from side to side and he will do this.
I was asking him if he thinks he is getting better and he looked at his 'yes' card.  I usually joke around a lot with him with the cards, so I asked him if he thinks that a beer would make him all better and he looked at the 'yes' card.  I love that he still has the same sense of humor. I got him to laugh a couple of times, his laugh always makes me smile and fills my heart with joy.
We watched the Giants game in the room, and I showed him his new blog page.  Whenever I talked about something I wanted to do to the site to our mom he would look at me like he was really interested in hearing what I had to say about it.  He looked at his 'yes' card whenever I asked him if he is happy to see our Grandpa and brother Josh this weekend, since they don't live in the area and will be in town for our family reunion. 
Timmy got to stand today and he did really good.  He likes to stand, he usually always answers 'yes' when we ask him if he wants to stand.  Today I asked though and he said 'no' but then I asked if he knew he should because it helps him, and he said 'yes'.  He seemed a little tense today and was leaning forward a lot at first, so I mentioned that maybe he had a muscle cramp in his back, so our mom gave him a neck massage with Tiger Balm and after that he was dozing off and on throughout the Giants game.
We are looking forward to tomorrow's visit because when we get there we will have our Grandpa with us, and he hasn't seen Timmy since he was first injured in a coma at Kaiser.  I will be sure to take some pictures and post them with the next update.

Fundraising

This last month Timmy's sister has come in contact with Lisa Huse, the mother of a girl who was injured just 3 months after Timmy, and was in a similar condition.  The family was raising money for a doctor in New Jersey to come treat her, the same doctor we have been trying to get in touch with for well over 6 months. This doctor has had an 85% success rate when typically there is only a 3-5%.  We are working on seeing if Timmy is eligable for Dr. Defina's treatment, and with the help of the Huse Family we are hoping to be in contact soon.  We are doing as much fundraising as possible for Timmy so that we are prepared when we get in touch with Dr. Defina, and also for future medical expenses, also to hopefully bring him home.  If anyone is interested in helping us contact Dr. Defina his email address is: pdefina@ibrfinc.org please put Timmy Hatch- Brain Injury in the subject line.  The more emails he recieves with this subject, the more Timmy will stand out :)

If you want to read more about Dr. Defina:
Dr. Defina information