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<\/p>\nThere’s been a lot of interest from readers on Shannon’s progress since her TBI (traumatic brain injury) and she and her family are visiting me now so I thought it was the perfect time to provide an update. And a photo.<\/p>\n
In October of 2015 Shannon fell in\u00a0the kitchen\u00a0of her Florida home\u00a0and suffered a terrible brain injury. She wasn’t expected to\u00a0survive the night\u00a0but I immediately flew to Florida hoping against hope that I’d be there\u00a0‘in time’. But Shannon’s always been a fighter and on my 5th day at the hospital we finally heard those wonderful words from\u00a0one of her surgeons “Shannon will survive,” although he made it painfully clear that they really had no idea how much mental and physical recovery she’d\u00a0eventually make, if any.<\/p>\n
But I’m here to tell you that with Rick’s help she’s made great strides in her recovery.<\/p>\n
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Shannon, her husband Rick and my grandson Ryan are here for the weekend and it’s been much too long since I’ve seen them so we’ve been having quite the reunion. Yesterday I took them to the new Wildlife Education Center at Farmington to show them where I’ve been photographing birds for so many years and of course to show off my bird prints hanging in the auditorium. Center Director Billy Fenimore kindly took a few photos of the four of us.<\/p>\n
Shannon’s recovery has been a long, hard road (understatement)\u00a0for her and her entire family but honestly she never lost her cheerfulness or her\u00a0optimism and a huge part of that was due to the support she’s had throughout from Rick.\u00a0They’re\u00a0an amazing team!<\/p>\n
Shannon’ physical recovery has been essentially\u00a0complete but she still has some challenges. She doesn’t yet drive and she\u00a0continues to work on\u00a0short-term memory and cognition deficits and though she has\u00a0the basics of her old spunky personality back there have been some noticeable changes that\u00a0they’re both\u00a0very cognizant of – to the point that they humorously refer to the ‘old Shannon’ as Shannon’s ‘sister’. And she’s the first one to admit that some of those changes have been for the better although others have been very\u00a0difficult for her.<\/p>\n
Her outlook is cheerful and she continues to work very hard on her recovery. All of us have been having a wonderful reunion and it continues until tomorrow when they head for home.<\/p>\n
Not bad considering the fact that Rick was told by ER doctors on the night of the accident that Shannon had “zero chance of survival until morning”.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Note:\u00a0Many regular readers are already familiar with the\u00a0sequence of events\u00a0following\u00a0Shannon’s accident but for those who are fairly new to Feathered Photography and might have the interest I thought I’d provide some links to various “Shannon Updates” I’ve posted in the past. They’re presented in the order I published them. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Feathered Photography On Hold<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n An Update On My Daughter Shannon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Another Update Regarding My Daughter Shannon\u2019s Medical Status<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m Home<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n