2nd Update on Saturday, April 13th, 2013

So, my wife got to speak with the neurologist today about Ben's condition. As I said yesterday, Ben is opening his eyes a bit, but as my wife put's it, when you look into them, "you can tell that he's not in there." The neurologist said that it is merely a response to pain, and not a sign that he is "coming to" yet.

Ben's MRI shows that he still has bleeding in the brain and that it really isn't much better than it was a week ago.

As we mentioned before, the doctor's took his skull cap off on both sides, leaving a strip of bone down the middle, so that Ben now as a "skull-fro," as I like to call it. The bones of his skull have been inserted under the skin down near his stomach for storage, until they get put back on.

In any case, the neurologist says that if/when Ben wakes up, he will need to wear a helmet for a year to protect his skull cap. The bones won't be replaced for about a year. So, as my wife put it, "Ben took off his helmet so that he wouldn't look stupid for five minutes. Now he gets to look dumb for a year!"

In any case, I've now heard from dozens of people who have gone through similar experiences, and I feel a bit more prepared for what lies ahead. I think that we can expect Ben to wake up eventually, and that he might even make a full recovery in a year or two, but I know that there can be setbacks, and that we should expect them.

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Charity Book Drive Update:

Several people have asked about getting autographed copies of NIGHTINGALE. The easiest way to do it is to follow the line below and choose "Heirloom Print Edition"

All proceeds will go to help Ben Wolverton, who suffered a traumatic head injury while longboarding and is still in a coma. (See http://www.helpwolverton.com/)

Nightingale has won seven awards, including the Hollywood Book Festival for Best Book of the Year, the International Book Award for Best Young Adult Novel of the Year, a Global E-Book Award, and the London Book Festival for Best Young Adult Novel of the Year.

From this link you can also order e-books from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, as audiobooks from CDBaby, buy the gorgeous soundtrack, or you can get the beautifully illustrated version for your iPad, which has been called "the ultimate enhanced novel"

http://www.nightingalenovel.com/#cart