UCLA Update

Still processing it all, but wanted to post an update on our UCLA trip.  

I guess I'll start with the good news.....  Michael is officially in the Clinical Research Study on the long term effects of TBI and the role it plays in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.  The assessment covered everything!  Cognition, memory, reaction speed, balance, and more!  He was one tired man by the end of it.  The areas he scored the worst on were memory/recall and balance.  No real surprise to us.  They opted not to do the neuropsych testing because they felt the results wouldn't be valid until some of the symptoms are better under control - primarily pain.  They may have us do it at a later date, but as of right now it's not in the plan.

UCLA discussed MANY different ideas for treatment and symptom management, but he was pretty honest up front and said "if there was a magic pill to make it all go away....  you would have it by now and not be in my office".  He did have some recommendations and we are going to try a medication change that likely won't help immediately, but may over time help to improve things.  We also talked to them about trying acupuncture for some symptom management, and they were on board with that as well.  All of the recommendations UCLA made are being sent to both Michael's primary care doctor and his primary neurologist here in Phoenix.  We don't have to go back to UCLA unless things drastically change....  they will communicate with the neuro here from this point forward.  

All in all we were happy.  We had a great few days just the two of us and even had some good quality time outside of UCLA.  

We came back to Phoenix Thursday afternoon and did hear from our attorney Friday.  She said that Michael’s claim status changed to Ready to Schedule on March 31, 2015.  Basically it means that we could get a call tomorrow or many months from now to schedule an actual disability hearing date.  The hearing date is approximately 3 months from the day we hear from the scheduler.  One step forward....  yes.  But frustrating none-the-less.  
Anyhow - that's the update for now.  As always...  thank you for your love, prayers, and support!!!