She's come so far, but she still has such a long way to go.
That's the overriding message of the book, to be released today, about U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' recovery.
In the early days of Giffords' recovery from a gunshot through the brain, doctors described her progress as "almost miraculous." But the book makes clear that they were comparing her with other people who suffer traumatic brain injuries - "95 percent of whom die almost immediately, and with the few who survive, most are seriously impaired for life."
The overwhelmingly positive reports early on led many to expect Giffords would be her old self soon. But her journey is a long and difficult one, marked by long hours of therapy, frequent exhaustion and moments of crushing frustration.
Mark Kelly, who penned "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," with journalist Jeffrey Zaslow, confirms in the book that Giffords has aphasia, a sometimes baffling condition that makes it difficult for patients to express themselves. Her comprehension is near 100 percent, Kelly writes, but she struggles mightily to communicate by speaking or writing.
Giffords herself writes the book's final chapter - a single page of short sentences.
Seeing his determined wife make baby steps "was not easy for me to accept, especially in the early stages of her recovery," Kelly writes. "I was demanding of doctors, always trying to determine the best treatments and the fastest paths to recovery. But eventually I adjusted to our new reality."
Despite a frank description of the challenges Giffords faces, the book offers great hope for her future.
This summer she underwent an entire day of testing by Dr. Nancy Estabrooks, an expert in neurological communication disorders at Western Carolina University. (Giffords recently spent two weeks in North Carolina for intensive therapy.) After that initial testing, Kelly writes, he asked Estabrooks whether his wife would be able to return to Congress.
"Yes," she answered. "I think Gabby will be able to do whatever she wants, and I think she has good judgment. Whether she should return to Congress, whether she should run again, when the time comes, she'll know."
She'll have trouble with debate; her remarks will come more slowly, and quick, snappy retorts are unlikely, Estabrooks told Kelly, but she could "absolutely" return to work and be an effective lawmaker. "But for now," she advised Kelly, "like a lot of people with health problems, she needs to take things one day at a time. Give her each day, one at a time."
The book details the small triumphs and setbacks of Giffords' recovery, and shares how she learned, bit by bit, about the events of Jan. 8, when six people were killed and 13 were injured at a Congress on Your Corner event she organized at a northwest-side grocery store. At first, doctors didn't want her to know too much because they feared it would be too much for her to process since she initially couldn't ask questions. Once she did start asking, she took in the information slowly, and very painfully.
In July, after Kelly finally told her the extent of what had happened and who had died, she cried and couldn't talk. That night before bed, Kelly writes, he asked her how she was feeling.
"I'm sad," she said. "Sad, sad, sad."
The book is surprisingly intimate, revealing that Giffords and Kelly were undergoing infertility treatments before she was shot, and that she was scheduled for in-vitro fertilization on Jan. 10. Kelly also writes of his own prostate cancer, and that his two daughters hadn't warmed to Giffords before the shooting, although their relationship has changed immeasurably during her recovery.
One thing that hasn't changed, Kelly writes, is Giffords' love for Tucson.
By March, she started saying repeatedly that she wanted out of the hospital. When her mother asked her where she wanted to go, the answer was always the same.
"Tucson, Arizona!" she'd say.
Throughout the last 10 months, Kelly writes, when making decisions about his wife's care he often thinks about what she would want if she could express it herself. Of this, he writes, he is certain:
"Someday up the road, sooner than later, she'd want to find her way back to Tucson, healthy and whole. She'd want to return to the Safeway at the southeast corner of Oracle and Ina. She'd want to set up a table and put out a flag and reach out her hand. She'd want to host a Congress on Your Corner to say thank you to her constituents and to ask them what was on their minds."
Gunman has no place in book
Two words you won't find in "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope": Jared Loughner.
Although the man who shot Giffords and 18 others on Jan. 8 is mentioned at least five times, it is never by name. He is called "a very troubled young man," "the shooter" and "the gunman."
"Hundreds of thousands of those entries online that now mention my wife also mention this man," Mark Kelly writes in the book. "So there is no need to give more space to him here."
Kelly will speak here in December
Mark Kelly, husband of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, will discuss their new book, "Gabby: A Story of Hope and Courage," Dec. 6 at Centennial Hall on the University of Arizona campus.
His appearance, part of the Tucson Festival of Books, will begin at 7:30 p.m. Ticket information and other details about the evening will be available soon. Kelly will sign copies of the book after his presentation.
The Star received an advance copy of the book from publisher Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster. Contact the Star's Jill Jorden Spitz at jspitz@azstarnet.com or 573-4177.
