In January 2026, we sold our house.
It wasn't a dramatic decision — it was the only one that made sense. Jackie's recovery is real, it's happening, and the therapies that are moving the needle aren't all in one place. They're in Ohio, Michigan, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, California, and Florida — hotels, Airbnbs, and a lot of miles between them. So we packed what mattered, let go of the rest, and decided that this year belongs to Jackie's healing.
We're calling it the Year of Recovery. Month by month, a specific therapy or a needed pause — chosen because someone on Jackie's care team believed it could help, or because we found it ourselves in the middle of a 2am research spiral. Some months we return to the same place because it's working. Some months we rest. Some have exceeded our expectations. Some haven't. We're sharing all of it honestly.
Below is every stop on the journey — where we went, what we tried, and what's still ahead. When a full post is ready, you can read the whole story. When it's not, it just means we're still living it.
NeuroAnimation uses rhythm and movement to help the brain relearn motor patterns. Jackie worked with their team for the first time in January — the same therapy she'd return to again and again after seeing what it was capable of.
Full post comingJackie spent February in the University of Michigan's Intensive Aphasia Program — focused, structured speech work aimed at the communication breakthroughs that have been hardest to reach.
University of Michigan program →Some months, the therapy is simply stopping. After intensive work in Ohio and Michigan, March was for rest in Alabama — slowing down and letting her nervous system recover. It was harder than it sounds.
Full post comingBack to NeuroAnimation. The progress from January made a return the obvious choice. April was about building on what the first session started — pushing further into what the brain can relearn when you give it the right inputs.
Full post comingAnother stretch of NeuroAnimation in New Albany — and a trip to New Orleans for a nephew's graduation. Therapy and family in the same month, because life doesn't pause for the schedule.
Full post comingJune was constraint therapy at UAB's Neuroplasticity Rehabilitation Program in Birmingham — intensive work designed to retrain the body by challenging the brain to find new pathways.
UAB Neuroplasticity program →Jackie took part in a paid stroke recovery study in Charleston through the Medical University of South Carolina — another stop on the map, another chance to move the needle.
MUSC Medicine →Charleston therapy wrapped early in the month. Then a flight west for the annual family gathering near Lake Tahoe and Graeagle — before NeuroAnimation in New Albany filled out the rest of August.
Full post comingSeptember brought another return to NeuroAnimation in New Albany. Back to the rhythm and movement work that has been a through-line of this year.
Full post comingA planned stem-cell trip to the Bahamas was cancelled. NeuroAnimation in New Albany is next on the calendar for later this month — continuing the work that has defined so much of 2026.
Full post comingNovember starts a six-week speech therapy program at Brooks Rehab — the next focused stretch of communication work on the Year of Recovery calendar.
Brooks Rehab →The Brooks speech program runs into December, wrapping the week before Christmas. After that, the calendar turns to holiday travel — family time, not another therapy destination.
Full post coming