Gabrielle Giffords's Recovery

I promised to update on Representative Giffords.

Here's this report at WaPo, "Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s road to recovery includes stop on House floor":

On Monday, the Arizona Democrat flew on a commercial jet from Houston to Washington, where she surprised her colleagues by showing up to vote — her first vote since the Jan. 8 shooting. After a meal with her staff Tuesday, Giffords boarded a plane back to Houston, where she is
still undergoing five days a week of intensive outpatient physical therapy.

The simple one-day journey provided new insights into her progress since the incident that left her with a significant brain injury, friends and specialists said Tuesday.

“In the beginning she could hardly get one word out,” recalled Richard Carmona, a family friend and former surgeon general who is not treating Giffords but has kept tabs on her recovery. Now, “she can speak and put a sentence together. Sometimes, she’s a little slower and a little more thoughtful.”

The mobility on the right side of her body was damaged, much like a stroke patient’s, he said. But she can now walk largely un­assisted. Her improvement has been “really quicker and better than anybody expected,” he said.

Giffords is undergoing three types of rehabilitation, Carmona said: physical therapy to strengthen her right side, occupational therapy to help her with day-to-day tasks such as using a knife and fork, and cognitive therapy including reading and word games. All are “meant to strengthen all the functions that were diminished or lost,” he said.

Giffords still struggles to communicate, a limitation that sometimes leaves her frustrated, friends said. But they said they do not doubt her cognitive abilities and are confident that she understood the debt issue when she voted Monday.

“I guess the most astonishing thing has been how her cognitive abilities seem never to have been affected in the first place. Her ability to know what is going on around her is complete,” said Michael McNulty, her friend and campaign chairman, who has visited with Giffords about every few weeks since she moved from her district in Tucson to Houston, where her husband is based. “She continues to have a lot of speech therapy. And she will continue to until she returns to her eloquent self.”

Still more at that top link.

Timeline of Gabrielle Giffords' Recovery

See Telegraph UK, "Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has voted in the US House of Representatives for the first time since she was shot in Arizona in January. Here is a timeline of her remarkable recovery..."

I'm really fascinated by this. She looks so alert and able. I read a lot about her surgery and medical prospects at the time. I recall just a couple months ago reports indicating the Giffords' speech was still halting. But as much as we can see here, she's chatting up a storm on the floor of the House.

I'll update if I find more information. It's truly is remarkable and a testament to the human spirit. I'm very proud and happy for her.

Unsure Medical Future for Orange County Penis-Slashing Victim

This story gets a content warning.

At Orange County Register, "Penis-slashing victim faces difficult medical choices":

The Garden Grove man who had his penis cut off faces an uncertain prognosis, local doctors say. Even after reconstructive surgery, he might never regain normal sexual function.

The victim’s wife, Catherine Kieu Becker, 48, is accused of drugging him, tying him to the bed and then slicing off his penis after an argument Monday night.

Because of privacy concerns, few details about the unidentified victim, 60, have been released, other than he’s in “good spirits” at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Hospital spokesman John Murray says the victim has not expressed interest in discussing his ordeal, and the doctor who performed emergency surgery on him has not been made available to discuss the man’s treatment and recovery options.

But experts who have treated patients in similar situations say this victim is worse off than John Wayne Bobbitt, the Virginia man who became a household name in 1993 when his wife, Lorena, cut off more than half his penis. She had claimed he’d raped her after a drunken night out. Despite his wounds, the penis was surgically re-attached, and he told the ladies of “The View” earlier this year that it functions normally.

Bobbitt had most of his penis intact. The severed portion was found in a field after his wife had tossed it out the window. It was put on ice and preserved long enough to re-attach it. But the Garden Grove man’s penis was put through a garbage disposal, so there was nothing left to re-attach.

More at that link above, and the Los Angeles Times has a more hopeful piece: "There are options for penis repair after mutilation."

See also, The Stir, "Woman Who Severed Husband's Penis: Why Did She Do It?"