Model Lauren Scruggs Has First Outing, Recovers Slowly Despite 'Tough Days'

Lauren Scruggs, 23, has been recovering for a little over a month following severe injuries to her face, shoulder and hand from walking into a moving airplane propeller. The fashion model and online blogger has been making a slow, but smooth recovery.

We've had a few tough days, but things finally smoothed out yesterday. It is interesting trying to balance a new norm, get enough rest, and just sit and relax for a few minutes, her mother, Cheryl Scruggs, wrote on the website CaringBridge, where she has been chronicling the 23-year-old's recovery.

Scruggs and her mother went on their first outing earlier this week to one of [their] favorite places, Whole Foods.

[At Whole Foods,] we had many complete strangers stop us, with tears in their eyes, saying they have been praying for Lo and for our family. Many have told us how the accident has them seriously thinking about how important God needs to be in their lives, or how it has helped them refocus where they have gotten off track in their spiritual walk, Cheryl Scruggs wrote on CaringBridge.

Scruggs was surrounded by family and friends over the holidays and her family says she has made great strides since her accident on Dec. 3, 2011.

The fashion model and blogger had been returning from a flight to see the Christmas lights across her state in early December when she climbed out of the two-seater plane at Aero County Airport in McKinney, Texas. She accidentally walked directly into the small plane's propeller and the blade sliced the left side of her face and shoulder and severed her left hand. She was immediately taken by Care flight helicopter to Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

Following multiple surgeries, Scruggs' face and shoulder have been reconstructed, but surgeons were forced to amputate her hand and remove her left eye.

The surgery consisted of removing her left eye, which included nerves. The doctors were excited about the surgery and said everything went as planned and unbelievably well, a statement from her family said on Caring Bridge.

Along with the pain she was already experiencing with her arm and shoulder injuries, the removal of the left eye is also very painful. We are asking again for prayer to relieve this pain, and also, as we have posted previously, pray for Lo to regain her appetite. This is crucial for her body to heal quickly, the statement continued.

A week after her accident, Scruggs smiled and lifted both her eyebrows for the first time. She began to eat sweet potatoes and hard boiled eggs and to drink juice a few days later as well.

She walked down a hallway in the Dallas hospital on Dec. 8 where she is being treated. According to ABC News, halfway through her first walk, Scruggs told her parents, 30. When they asked what she meant by the number, Scruggs replied, Steps.

It seems Scruggs is recovering successfully and has excelled at physical therapy according to her father, however it will still take time before Scruggs returns to a fully functioning, healthy condition.

Despite her accident, it seems Scruggs is slowly on the way to full recovery.

Lo has been talking, lately, about JOY.......it brings tears to my eyes as she says, 'This isn't what I would have chosen, but God knows what He is doing, and I have Joy in knowing that He has chosen me to Glorify Him in this. I am excited to see how I can be used,' Cheryl Scruggs wrote on CaringBridge.

Prior to her accident, Scruggs was the Editor-in-Chief for an online fashion magazine, Lolo Magazine. She had also worked as a part-time model and in the wardrobe department of the CW television Show, Gossip Girl. She recently interviewed Twilight star Kellan Lutz for New York Fashion Week.

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