Blake Barrett

Deming, WA

Northwest Catastrophic Injury Fund

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Dear Friends,

You may be aware that my friend Blake Barrett fell from a ladder on September 17th and now faces an uncertain future due to his brain injury and significant vision loss. His active life and career as a crane operator and small business owner of Hoist and Haul, LLC has been greatly altered.

Blake was hospitalized for two weeks post neurosurgery and is now in a rehabilitation program in Bellingham, WA receiving intensive therapy. He communicates well, has retained his cognition, and thankfully, his wry sense of humor. His biggest challenge revolves around his vision loss. Although Blake’s eyes were not damaged, the part of his brain that processes vision was severely damaged and consequently, Blake suffers from multiple vision issues. True to form, he is working hard and making progress. With the amazing support of his family and friends, especially his wife Ruth, his goal is to return home in several weeks.

March 11, 2014

On February 28th Blake had surgery to remove the two "loose screws" that were among the 15 or so screws holding the titanium mesh to his skull as a result of his brain surgery back in September. Today's surgery went well and Blake is feeling good. They shaved his head again and he has some staples that will need removed in a couple weeks. Interestingly the surgeon discovered that they weren't actually loose screws moving around but corners of the mesh that had bent up when the previous staples were removed and thus the corners were wiggling back and forth. So the surgeon removed the corners and tapped the mesh down smooth again.

Blake is no longer taking blood thinners for the blood clot discovered in his leg back in November. It is a relief that the clot is gone and he can be more physically active. In fact, Blake turned on the "golden oldies" Pandora station last week and danced. It was a very sweet moment in time.

Blake's vision seems to be improving and we are believing that with work and time he will continue to regain more of his sight. His cognitive function is good although he needs more time to process information. I am learning to slow down the speed at which I share information!

Our love to all of you,

Ruth

January 28, 2014

Blake and I are settling in to our new lifestyle. We spend time everyday having him do eye exercises to help his eyes track correctly. These exercises are actually mostly to teach his brain to make sense of what his eyes see. Last week he couldn't catch a ball being tossed to him but this week he can. The progress can be slow at times but he is slowly improving. We have fewer doctors appointments so I am driving him to town less and we have more time at home. I'm pretty busy this month with the bookkeeping I do for other businesses as well as our own.We are big Seahawks fans and are super excited that they made it to the superbowl!! Jenica and her college friends will be out to watch the game with us.

November 20, 2013

Many of you have been asking about Blake so here is an update. He is getting better every day. He stays awake longer and has more energy. Although he is still weak with little muscle tone he can walk around the house without a walker and often does not use the walker outside. He has little to no back pain. He is becoming more independent which he is so happy about. The biggest news is that he can read! His brain is learning how to compensate for his vision loss and he is able to track well enough to read. At this point he does not retain a lot of the information he reads but therapy will hopefully help with that. We have learned that his optical nerves are swollen. Although the doctors initially thought it might be do to higher than normal brain pressure, they ran several tests and learned that his brain pressure is normal. That is super good news! Over time the optical nerve swelling will go down and perhaps Blake's difficulty with double vision, blurriness etc. will improve. At present Blake's vision loss is significant enough that he cannot drive a vehicle. We are researching ways that Blake may be able to train a different part of his brain to process vision for him and possibly regain some of his vision loss. Blake does have issues with memory that we are slowly learning about. We hope to improve his memory through therapy. All in all he is in good spirits.

Thank you all so much for your continued support!! We are so blessed to have such loving and supportive family, friends and community.

Our love and thanks to all of you. -Ruth

November 6, 2013

Blake is home now and is receiving home rehabilitation services and getting stronger. As time goes on he also hopes to do more with vision therapy. While he has permanent partial vision loss, the family is hopeful that with vision therapy he can improve the double vision and other distortion issues which make everyday life difficult. Thank you so much to those of you who have already given to Blake's medical reimbursement campaign. If you haven't given or can give more, now is a great time to make an end-of-year tax-deductible donation to help with the increased expenses the family now faces. Thank you and please forward this post to your Facebook or Twitter friends today!

October 10, 2013

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