Today, Cass's school was a couple of hours late in starting. Randy's mom went to the school to do some volunteer work while Cass and Randy hung out at the house cooking brownies. Randy hasn't been feeling that well lately, mostly from the pain on the left side of his head.

Randy only had speech therapy today. He showed Vanessa, his therapist, his new PDA. She liked it alot, but stressed the need to only have one area that he is keeping information at. Right now, he has a few notebooks and his planner and his PDA. He has been slowely transferring things out of the notebooks into his planner and his PDA. They also reviewed Randy's homework. They came across a couple of packets he had not yet completed. Vanessa stressed the necessity of following through with things. They also reviewed ways to improve at switching gears ~ she said he should practice doing 3 things at once and try to switch from one to another quickly. The goals for December are:

1. Improve his ability to switch tasks quickly
2. Focus his concentration
3. Lengthen his attention span
4. Improve his executive functioning, especially streamlining his organizational methods and helping him follow-up on tasks and action items.

During the therapy session the therapist and Randy's mom noticed that Randy was having more tremors today than usual. He said his head was hurting more than usual. Next week, Randy will meet with the doctor that we hope will be his new primary care physician (she is currently my primary care physician). Hopefully she can provide insight on where the tremors are coming from ~ the medication, stress, or just part of the inury.

Organization

The roads today weren't quite as bad as yesterday. I was able to make it into work and then make it home with only a couple of scary instances of having my car slide a little.

Randy was scheduled to have a driving evaluation in occupational therapy today, but the therapist canceled therapy due to icy roads. Randy spent the day getting more organized. Organization is a very important part of Randy's recovery. Getting him organized and finding organizational tools that work for him helps make him more successful. During his Good Sam stay, they got Randy started on using a planner. After Good Sam, we found a planner system that has really worked for him. At first, he wasn't very consistent on using it, but lately, he has done an exceptional job at making sure the planner is updated with all of his appointments. Since he was mastering the use of a planner, I thought it would be a good idea to try him out on a PDA to enhance the use of the planner and be used as his reminder system (it alerts him when it is time to do something). I found him a very nice inexpensive PDA. It has turned out to be a very beneficial tool. Randy has done an excellent job at updating the PDA with appointments and tasks. He spent a good part of his day really learning how to use quite a few of the different functions of the PDA, such as syncing it to the calendar on his computer. I also got him a file thing to organize all of his speech therapy stuff in so he could better track the homework he needed to do, the stuff that was done but needed to be "turned in", and then the homework that was done but he wanted to keep.

Many times in life Randy has mentioned the desire to become more organized. Now it is essential to the success of his recovery. He is doing an amazing job at implementing the tools he has been provided and has shown great initiative in trying to organize as many things as he can.

Snow Day

With the snow and ice on the roads today, we had a snow day today. Cass didn't have school and I didn't try to get into work today. Later in the day, I did try to brave the roads to try to get Randy to his Opthamology appointment because his eyes have really been hurting him, but the roads were too bad. One of the main roads by our house was closed, so we didn't get very far. Randy was very bummed. We had to reschedule for 2 weeks out.

Some Improvements for eyes

Randy had an appointment with Dr Baxstrom today (he is the opthamologist that saw Randy while he was in Good Samaritan). Randy described his double vision. Dr Baxstrom called is diagonal displacement. Images are more level through Randy's right eye. Randy has also been having some pain in his left eye along the bottom.

Dr. Baxstrom tried some other prisms to test the double vision and then checked Randy's vision using the usual method of letter testing through the regular lens machine. Dr Baxstrom says the components of the test showed that before (meaning during the hospital stay and the first out of hospital visit), Randy had 3 types of double vision going on. There have been some improvements. Randy now only has one type showing up now, but it is the hardest to correct.

Dr Baxstrom advised to have Randy wear new prescription glasses throughout most of the day and then do some therapy while wearing the glasses ~ move head side to side gently, then up and down gently, then tilted. The goal is to have eyes work together as a team. It was noted that Randy has single vision closer in, but double vision for things further out. Dr Baxstrom said this is similar to how a baby's vision works ~ they focus on things within arm's length first and then learn to focus further out. Randy will be going back to see Dr Baxstrom on a follow up visit in a couple of weeks.

Tomorrow, Randy has an appointment with the Neuro-opthamologists at Harborview. I am interested in what they have to say ~ if they will see the same improvements and what naught.

Randy also had his pool therapy today. He really enjoys going to that. After doing some of his exercises, he asked the therapist if he could try swimming. He said he did alright with it ~ not as good as he use to but probably better than I would. He said he was able to go about half-way to the other side with dog paddling and then got too tired. He also tried going on his back and he said he did quite well with that.

Today, I am really missing him being able to drive. It has been snowing here. Normally, I can do alright with driving in traffic around here, but I hate driving in the snow. I get so nervous. Anytime the roads are snowy or icy, Randy would drive me to work. He always did a great job of remaining calm (or at least, looking like he was calm) while driving in icky conditions.

Cass is back

Randy's mom and Cass came back today. Randy's dad drove them over the pass because of the weather. He hung out for a little bit and then took the shuttle bus back over.

We spent this evening decorating our living room with all of our Christmas stuff. Christmas is my favorite time of year. We put up our fake tree (we have had it for about 8 years) and strung lights across our mantle. It was a very nice evening.

Friday and Saturday

We have had a very busy last couple of days!

Friday, Randy had therapies. We started off with speech therapy. Vanessa tested him

his categories. She gives him a category and he has to name 15 items in that category within 30 seconds. From this week to last week, his performance was about the same ~ around 78%. Her goal is for him to reach 85% by the end of this month (which means by the next session since it is the last one of the month). He and I practiced throughout the rest of the day. As we were riding in the car, I would name a category and he would name items, and occassionally I would give him hints to get his mind going.

Next, Randy had physical therapy. This session was kind of fun. Tammie made an obstacle course for him. She really wanted to work on his balance on uneven surfaces. The obstacle course consisted of different objects with different "squishy" levels. He did alright with it, but needed her to hang on to him during some steps.

After therapies, we had a few errands to run and got done just in time to head over to Jon and Kelli's for another Thanksgiving dinner. It was very nice! Unfortunately, with the new medication, Randy was very tired so we didn't get to stay long after eating.

Today (Saturday), was very nice. We both slept in ~ which was absolutely wonderful. We had intended on going out on a lunch "date" with each other, but ended up going to Home Depot. Randy and I use to drag Cass down there quite often ~ we would just walk the whole store and dream about all of the things that we want to eventually do around the house. So that is what Randy and I ended up doing for our "date" ~ we walked the store and dreamt together. It was actually a lot of fun.

Today, I also decided that I was done with my long hair. I have been growing it out to donate to Locks of Love, which is what we did with Randy's hair. Today, I scheduled time with Gene Juarez and got it all chopped off. The pic is of my new hair do. It was kind of fun. I am one of those people who just walks into a Supercuts type place whenever I decide it's time to cut my hair. It was kind of fun to get pampered a little bit. I think it is great that kids can benefit from my hair and I get a free hair cut!

I think that is it for the updates.

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year. I am very thankful that Randy is here with me on this day. We are also very thankful for all of those that have been so supportive of us over the last 5 months, for the new friends we have found and the deeper relationships that we have now.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Randy made white chocolate cheesecake and pecan pie (I helped only when needed). The cheesecake turned out well. The pecan pie was made this morning so it wasn't quite set. But all in all he did a great job.

Early afternoon, we went over to our neighbors, Ron and Virginia's and hung out with their family until later this evening. We had a great time! The food was great. After dinner, we all played a game. Randy enjoyed it enough that he wrote down the name of it ~ it was Apples to Apples.

I missed having Cass around, but I know that she was really looking forward to seeing her cousins.

All in all, we had a great day!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

It's like riding a bike!

Randy's mom and Cass left early afternoon today to head to Spokane for the Thanksgiving weekend. Randy called me quite a few times to find out what I was doing and when I would be home. During many of these conversations, I reminded Randy that no one was there with him so he really needed to be aware of what his limits were. He would say that one cannot tell their limits without trying. I would then tell him that, without someone there to catch him when he falls, trying was not a good idea for right now. He would agree, I would feel confident that he was going to remain safe and the conversation would end.

Then he calls me to tell me that he is out for a walk. I asked him to call me when he got home to make me feel better. Half hour later, I still hadn't heard from him, so I tried to call him. No answer. I waited a few minutes and tried again. Still no answer. I began to think of going home to check on him, but he then returns my call, telling me he wasn't quite home yet. I question why he was out for so long and he passes it off as wanting to go on a long walk. He called me when he was safely home and he begins talking of taking a shower. I instead steer him towards watching a movie, not feeling comfortable with not having anyone in the house with him in case he looses his balance.

I get home and he is watching a movie ~ no shower was taken.

Then, he hands me a Thanksgiving card and instead is a gift certificate to a store a little ways away from our house. I asked him if his mom had had time to drive him there before she left because I thought she was in a hurry to get on the road. He says she didn't take him. Then it hits me - he walked all the way to the store and back. Part of me thinks it is very sweet and the other part wants to lecture him on going that far on his own. So I played up the sweet part and put in a little bit on how he probably shouldn't have done that without one of us here in case something happened. His response was "Well, if one of you guys were here I would have had you drive me!". Then, after a little while (once he realizes I am not upset at him for walking that far by himself) he decides to tell me the entire story.

Randy thought it would be a great idea to ride his bicycle down to the store. Awhile ago, when he had mentioned wanting to ride his bike, I had strongly advised against it, mentioning that his balance was still very off. He argued and argued and then finally gave up. So today, with no one there to argue with him, he dragged his bike out of the garage, bound and determined to get to ride it. He began to get onto the bike and quickly realized it was not going to work out when the he continued to fall over while trying to get going. So he put it away and walked the entire way. I think he has decided to wait awhile on the bicycle riding! I am just very thankful it was his bicycle and not the motorcycle that he had attempted to ride.

Therapy Tuesday

Randy had his therapies today. While waiting for the first therapist, Randy's mom noticed that Randy's pupils were unequal (the left was larger than the right) and Randy was groggy. He told me last night that the new medication is making him a lot more tired during the day. I am hoping that his body adjusts to it and the tiredness goes away.

During speech, Vanessa reviewed Randy's homework. She also worked on the category task. The goal is to get 15 items in the given category within 30 seconds. With the categories given, the first try, Randy achieved 78.3% and the second time he achieved 85%.

In physical therapy, Julie re-assessed today. In strength, Randy has made good improvement on his legs and feet. She suggested that he continue to do hamstring stretches at home. In the ankles, the range of motion could still improve on the left side (it had improved about 3 degrees from last time checked). With balance, she tested Randy on standing with his eyes open and closed, then with standing on one foot in front of the other. His ankles are still a bit wobby. She also tested him with standing on one loeg. It was difficult for him to hold still and balance on either leg. With walking, Julie had to remind him to put his heel down first because he continues to step on the outsides of his feet. Julie said that she sees much improvement overall, though walking is still not as flluid and smooth as it could be. The physical therapy will be ending next week, but she will arrange for an additional pool session per week (so 2 per week) beginning the week of December 11th.

For occupational therapy, Tina has decided to go down to 1 session per week, concentrating only on Randy's goal to return to driving. Today, they did a circle story activity where each person would say a word and the next person would have to add to that word to continue the sentence to create a story. The activity is a good one for quick-thiking and creativity.

This evening, Randy hung out with Brandon and Cass and I played games and read together while Randy's mom hung out at one of our neighbor's houses.

Lunch with Brother

Randy and his mom met with Randy's brother and his wife for lunch today. His brother hasn't gotten to see him since July (he is in the Airforce). Randy is looking a little better than he was back then!

Tonight, Randy and I worked on his homework assignment. He and I each had to plan our day at an amusment park. It is essentially a logic problem. It gave us a few hints, such as the time we arrived and the time we had to be home by, and then we had to plan out the day from there depending on the different "clues" we were given. Randy has had to do the assignment before. This time, he was instructed to have someone else do it and time both himself and the other person. I have always loved doing logic problems and figuring out those sort of puzzles, so I finished the task relatively quickly. Randy wasn't too far behind me in finishing, though.

As for my sciatic nerve problem, I have been trying various exercises and stretches given by my physical therapist and other who have had the same issue, and my body has refused to cooperate. My muscles just aren't relaxing around the nerve. Last night was the worst of it. I, at one point, was shaking from the intense pain. Today I gave in and went to the doctor. She put me on some steroid. I will start taking them tomorrow. I hope they begin working very quickly! Before last Wednesday, the stretches Doug had emailed me were working great and then my therapist was teaching me exercises to strengthen my muscles to prevent it from happening again. I have no idea what happened, but I am ready for it to be over!

Not Much to Report

I don't have a lot to report today. We slept in a little this morning, which was very nice! I then took Randy to the store so he could work on one of his assignments ~ the one where he has to plan a meal, shop for items needed, and make it. At the store, he and I got all of other items we needed and then I turned it over to him to shop for items needed for the taco salad he was making. He had made a shopping list (actually, I think he ended up with 3 lists). At first, he turned to me for getting started, but I reminded him that this was his assignment and I was just there to help carry things. A couple of times, he would look to me to help determine what the best deal was for products, but I kept pushing it back onto him. He ended up doing well with it and dinner turned out nice.

I revisited the conversation that Randy and I and Randy and his speech therapist have had before ~ finding a way to remind him to do tasks. He has been great at using his planner and planning tasks, but sometimes forgets to do them. I am currently reading a great book about a doctor who suffered a head injury. Her method would be to set a timer and carry notes with her to remind her what the timer going off meant. I was thinking something a bit more high tech than that, something that would allow Randy to set up reminders for a serious of tasks for more than a day at a time. I was thinking an inexpensive PDA that can sync up to his Outlook on his computer. I know that when Randy was working, he used his Outlook to plan out the majority of his tasks and that worked well for reminding him and keeping him organized.

A Long Day

Today has been a long day. We started the day by going down to Good Sam to visit the Merrills. We took them the shower chair that was given to us when Randy came home. We also offerred up other things that we thought they might need to get ready for his return home. We stayed and visited awhile and watched the first part of his therapy today. At Good Sam, they have a little apartment that they let people live in so that people can see what things they need to learn about taking care of their loved one before taking them home. The Merrills will be staying in the apartment one night next week before they are discharged. The therapist today worked with teaching Mrs Merrill how to transfer him from the bed to his chair. He needs a lot of help ~ a lot of cues to remind him what he is doing.

After the time down in Puyallup, we went to tour the Kent Bally Fitness center. With his physical therapy stopping here soon, he and I have talked of us joining a gym to contine with exercises. We haven't quite decided if we will start now or wait until after his pool therapy is done as well. We went to Ballys because it was the only fitness center around here that I could find that had a pool. Randy really enjoys the pool therapy he is currently doing.

When we got home from touring the facility, I took Cass down to the clinic down the street from our house. She has had headaches for the past couple of weeks and a couple of days ago she started having pains in her side. 2 1/2 hours later, we are given antibiotics. We are all falling apart here! My leg is still not better. Not being able to have any time to rest does not help. I think tomorrow we are all resting!

Therapy Friday

Randy had his therapies today. During his speech therapy, he showed Vanessa his new planner. It is a smaller Franklin covey planner. Its size makes it easier to carry. Vanessa said she likes the smaller planner and suggested that he only keep 3 months in the planner at a time, which is what the Franlin Covey "What Matter's Most" recommends as well (I went through that class at my work a few years ago and it made me a big advocate for the Franklin Covey planner system).

Vanessa also had Randy do a 15 minute multi-tasking and planning exercise. The exercise contained 5 tasks. He had to finish one of the tasks completely and complete the first 2 items of each of the other tasks. Some suggestions she had were 1. If Randy is having difficulty, go back and reread the instructions and clarify and 2. Scan for timeframes or to determine what applies to the task.

In physical therapy, Tammy had Randy go through his normal exercises. His physical therapy is coming to an end here real soon. They have taught him the exercises he needs to do and believe he can do them at home now. I think he will go through the rest of this month and then no more of the PT.

Tina, Randy's occupational therapist, also believes that his OT therapy will be ending here soon. We don't have an end date yet, though. Today, Tina checked Randy's left shoulder. It is feeling much better and seems to be healing. She had given Randy and assignment to plan a meal, so today he told her that he is planning on making his taco salad. I love Randy's taco salad! He said he is going to make it sometime this weekend ~ not sure when, though, as we have a very busy weekend ahead of us.

Today in OT, Randy was re-evaluated. He has made some great improvements. In September, his grip in his right hand was at a 67 and now it is 100+. His grip in his left hand was 22.3 and now is 39. He is definitely gaining strength.

For other updates for us, things have been very frustrating this week. My body is not cooperating with me currently. I think all of the stress of the last few months is catching up to me. The issues I was having with my sciatic nerve was getting a lot better. I had gone to the chiropractor and have been going to physical therapy. Right as I thought I was in the clear, the muscles in my neck started spasming. I went to the doctor and got that fixed and two days later, I moved wrong and am back to not being able to feel my foot and am walking worse that Randy! We make a humorous pair walking about.

The biggest frustration we have had this week, though, has been in learning that Mr Merrill is being "kicked out" of the inpatient rehab at Good Sam. He plateaued. With no improvement, insurance companies will not cover the rehab. The problem is that the only insurance they have is Medicare and they have used all of the benefit for nursing home so Mrs Merrill has no option other than taking home her husband and trying to care for him herself. So he will not be getting any rehab. This weekend, we will be taking them a couple of things that Randy needed when he first came home. It is frustrating that Mr Merrill will not get the rehab that he needs or the care that he needs because of the insurance that he has.

More Harborview today

Randy had his follow up appointment with Harborview Neurology clinic today. We got the EEG results today ~ it was normal. So no seizures. That doesn't mean he will never have seizures, but it is good news for now.

The doctor did some of the same little tests on Randy she had done 6 weeks ago. She noticed he was tilting his head to the right a bit and she said it is common for the 4th nerve palsy damage that he has, which is what is causing his double vision. The hope is still that things heal on their own and the double vision goes away. Randy has a follow up appointment with the Neuro-opthamology appointment on the 28th of this month.

They also talked about the pain in his head and how the Amatriptalin hasn't touched the pain. They said he could continue taking the amatriptalin if he feels it helps him with sleeping and his moods. For the pain, they want to try Gabapeutin (Neurontin). It, like the Lyrica that was prescribed by the one neurologist, the Gabapeutin was originally used for seizures, but was found to be great for nerve pain. Now it isn't used for seizures, but still used for pain. We hope that it works with no side effects.

Tonight, Randy and I went to a Brain Injury support group. It was an interesting group. The 2 who chair it are a couple. The husband was in a car accident when he was 15. Together, they have led this support group for over 10 years. It was a mixed group ~ a couple car accidents, a stroke victim, and then care givers of those with the brain injury. It was good to hear everyone's story and to hear their advice and their trials and tribulations.

More Harborview Clinics

Randy had an appointment at one of the Harborview clinics today. I think this one was the TBI Triage clinic. He had a couple of doctors from Harborview recommend he go, so we went. In going, we found out that the reason Randy was reffered there was because they had on his file that he hasn't attended inpatient or outpatient therapy. Some good did come out of the visit, though. Valley Medical, where Randy is doing his outpatient therapy, doesn't have a Vocational therapist, so the one from Harborview will be contacting Randy. They also gave us a list of some counselors for us all to go to. Up until this point, we have all been so busy, but I think it would be good for everyone, especially Randy, to sit down and talk to someone about what we are all going through.

Tomorrow we head back to Harborview for his follow up Neurology appointment. I am looking forward to hearing the results of the EEG Randy did a few weeks ago.

That is all of the updates for now.

Parent/Teacher conference

Randy was a bit tired this morning. He started working on his speech homework as I went to bed last night, and he ended up staying up until midnight completing it. He did make it up and out the door in time to get to therapies, which started at 9:30 this morning.

The homework that Randy stayed up doing was putting together a schedule at an amusement park. He has a timeframe to work with and the object is to plan the visits to the exhibits within that timeframe, accounting for travel time between the exhibits. So in speech today, Vanessa went over how well Randy had planned it out. She wants him to rework the page to tighten up the schedule and plan the exhibits in a more sequential manner to best utilize the time allowed. She told him to have someone time him while redoing it. She also wanted him to have someone else do the exercise and time them to compare. The whole scheduling of stuff is right up my alley. I love putting things together and resolving puzzles so in this instance I am not sure if he would want me to be the one to compare himself to!

Randy told Vanessa that he was proud of and was good at helping people solve problems by thinking on his feet at his job. She commented that things before the accident might still be in the memory storage bank, but new pices of information may be harder for him to retain.

For occupational therapy, Tina had Randy practice turning a steering wheel. At first, Randy was only using one hand, but Tina coached him on using both hands. Randy used to be skilled at driving pretty straight with his knees as well, which he did, I think, mainly to get a rise out of me in the car! Randy pulled off the kinesiotape (the tape that Tina has been putting on his shoulder) and there seems to be a small rash from it, so it was decided not to reapply the tape until Randy's next visit on Friday. The tape has really been helping with his shoulder pain, though. Tina had brought a heat pack for Randy's arm. She massaged his left arm muscles to stretch them. Then Randy did his elbow exercises. Randy then worked on putting 2-sided small cylinders into holes in a board with the point of turning them over as quickly as he possibly could.

Physical therap was cancelled today due to Cassandra having an assembly. Her and another girl were Uncle Sam and had a few lines.

Tonight was parent/teacher conference. I missed the first part due to leaving work a little late. The teacher told us that Cass is reading above her grade level, which is what we hear every year. Randy and I both love to read and we passed that along to her. Last year, when she was in the 4th grade, she was reading at above a 10th grade level. So it doesn't surprise us that she is continuing to do an excellent job in reading. What did surprise me a bit was that she was doing so well in math. Cass is the creative sort and she has always scored average in Math, but this year she is scoring above average. Cass's school doesn't use letter grades, they use numbers. 3 is average and 4 is above average. The teacher commented that when Cass gets a 3 on one of her math papers, she doesn't like it but the students around her, who are getting 2's and 3's, are not understanding why a 3 isn't making her happy. She pushes herself. I think it has helped her that both Randy and I have been in school the last few years and we talk to her about our classes. She knew what Y=mx+b was in the 3rd grade. Also, Randy and I pushed ourselves to get high grades (Randy graduated with highest honors). So it was a good conference.

Poor Therapy Today

Randy's mom went to Cass's school this morning to help out with the book fair going on there this week. Randy hung out at the house by himself. I think this was the first time that either her or I left him home alone while he has been awake. He enjoyed the time to himself. I think everyone needs that sometimes. I am just thankful that he is to the point that we feel he is safe enough for the short bits of time. With the memory issues I feel that he is not ready to be by himself for the longer periods yet, but I feel confident that he will heal enough that he will get there!

Today, Randy went for his follow up visit with our chiropractor. Dr Petett went over Randy's x-ray with him and his mom. He said there appears to be no fracture or instabilities in the cervical spine x-rays, which would be contra-indications against chiropractic adjustments. He said the goal is to re-educate and re-channel Randy's neuro network. The current plan of care is 2 adjustments 2 times per week for 2 weeks and then 1 adjustment per week for 4 weeks followed by a progress exam after the 6 week time period. Both Randy and his mom have an appointment this Friday. We have been seeing Dr Petett for the past 6 years on and off. He and his wife (who is also a chiropractor) are such wonderful people. Randy says the two adjustments since the accident have really helped his neck pain.

Cass had a half day of school today since this week is parent teacher's conference (ours is tomorrow evening). After picking her up, Cass and her dad worked on putting together a cart thing that his mom got for us to go into our pantry. Our neighbor, Ron, had built us the small pantry with extending our bathroom, but we haven't had a chance to plan out the inside of it yet. So, Randy's mom got us a little cart on wheels to use until we can plan out what we want to do for the shelves. They are going to need to be some pull-out type because of how the space is set up, but beyond that, we haven't figured out what it is going to look like. Randy was always the visionary and I was the one that planned the small details and made it happen. I am trying to expand my "visionary" skills.

Later in the day, Randy had another sesison of pool therapy. I was noticing this evening that his walking is drastically improving and I believe it is because of this therapy. Randy did 2 laps of walking in the pool and then he did a series of leg and foot exercises. The therapist commented that his balance was improving because he didn't have to use the sides of the pool nearly as much as he had the last time.

After pool therapy, Randy was scheduled to hang out with Brandon. On the way from the pool to the house, though, Randy gave his mom some bad directions, so they took the long way home. Brandon was patiently waiting for Randy when they made it home.

Very Tiring But Good Day

Today ended up being a very long day, but definitely a good one.

Our day started out with Randy and I getting to church early and helping out with passing out bulletins and greeting people as they walked in the door. We have never gotten there early. It was great to see how many people get there early to get things ready for the service. We only know a handful of people so it was nice to greet those we hadn't seen before. It was fun. We need to make more of a habit out of doing that.

Then we headed out to Home Depot and Lowes. Randy has been asking to be able to do a project around the house. It was what he spent most of his time at home doing ~ little projects that needed to be done. So we got a couple of organizational things for him to put together, oneis for some of his stuff in the garage to fit into to. Then we also got a project for him to do in our main bathroom. For that one, he wants to be the planner and the executor, only asking for help when he thinks he really needs it.

We got home in time to get ready to head up North. I want to thank Heather for inviting us up to her church this evening. The church (which is up in Stanwood, not quite a 2 hour drive) had a special prayer service tonight. It was great to go up there and have them pray over Randy for his healing as well as to be part of them praying for each other as a church group.

Today was very long and tiring, but we had a great day. Randy said he didn't feel "on top of his game" today. I think it is from not getting enough sleep last night and running around all day. I noticed that his memory was a little worse today. But mine was to, for that matter.

By the time we got home tonight, we were both ready for bed. As I was writing the blog, he began searching for his eye patch. After a couple of paragraphs, I commented that it had to be over "there" somewhere. He responded back with saying that it should have been with the others and then stopped and looked at me and asked where "there" was. I told him that "there" meant his side of the room that he was looking on. I then asked what he was looking for to make sure we were on the same wave length with our conversation. He told me he was looking for a receipt for something. I just kind of laughed and asked him if he remembered what he had started out looking for. He looked at me very confused and said "Well, yeah. The receipt." I laughed again and he asked what was so funny. I said "This is my life now". I waited a bit to see if his memory would kick in. When it didn't I reminded him that he was looking for his eye patch. He laughed and said "Oh yeah" and went back to looking. A couple of minutes later, he exclaimed "I found it!" and then holds up the receipt.

The eye patch still has not been found.

The Merrills

Randy, Cass and I went down to Good Sam today to visit the Merrills. I don't know if Al remembers me or not, but I know Sharon was very glad to have us there. She wanted to compare everything Al was going through with what Randy went through. There have been some similarities, but a lot of differences as well. He is looking a lot better than last time I saw him, though. I took a picture of him walking during his physical therapy today. I heard him talk more today than I did the entire time we were at Harborview.

I think Randy enjoyed going to visit them as well. He shared a lot about his experience and things that he was feeling. I think Sharon was a bit amazed how good Randy was doing. By the end of our time there, though, she was firing one question after another at him, trying to gain insight on what her husband might be going through. The visit did all of us good. We got a chance to share our experience with someone who really needed to hear it, which made us feel like we could really help out someone else.

Happy Friday!

I am so glad Friday is finally here!

Today, everyone except me slept in. Cass didn't have school today, and with the replacing of our outlets, clocks were reset so they didn't quite make it up on time to get to Randy's first therapy appointment. The therapist was able to reschedule, though, for after his other therapists.

In physical therapy, Randy worked up a sweat doing his exercise bike and his walking and balance exercises.

In occupational therapy, he worked on putting closthespins on a bowl with his left hand. She then had Randy do left arm exercises. Randy commented to her that he thought these were helping and he was noticing more mobility with the left elbow and arm. The therapist then had Randy do his shoulder shrugs and some arm stretches. He then worked on putting pegs into a pegboard with his left hand. They were tiny pegs and his mom reminded him of the big ones he struggled with at Good Sam. Big improvements! The therapist then had Randy doing pattern work with 1 1/2 inch wood cubes.

In speech, the therapist went over Randy's homework and she had him explain his strategy and how he completed the task. They also talked about what Randy did at work ~ his duties, his schedule and responsibilities for follow through.

Randy spent the evening working on making a little leather pouch to carry around a small notebook he has.

Randy is done with his class

Randy finished his class tonight. He didn't do as well as he had wanted to. He says he learned a lot from it, though. He says he learned a lot about himself and how to manage things like this in the future. He is a little frustrated that he had to work so hard at this and then not get the result he wanted. He use to be able to put things off until the last minute and still pull out a high grade.

Other than the class, there isn't much for updates today. Randy spent a good part of his day hanging out with his dad before his dad had to head back to Yakima. Randy then spent the rest of the day finishing up his class and then working on his homework for his therapies tomorrow.

Randy and I talked a little of him taking another class, but he is undecided f he wants to jump right back into it or give himself a break. He is pretty busy right now with all of the therapy.

Working around the house

Randy hung out with his dad all day today, working around the house trying to replace some of our plug ins. We have an older home (I believe it was build in 1968). The plug ins are very loose and don't hold things very well. So they began the task of replacing some of them.

Randy also spent some time working on the class he is taking. He has to take the final exam in the next two days, so he has been getting prepared for it.

Tonight, we all played Yahtzee together. Randy was getting pretty tired. I noticed at the end he was having a harder time with keeping track of the game and adding things together.

I am also very tired, so this is going to be a short post tonight!

Happy Birthday to Randy's Dad!

Randy's dad is 60 today. He came over from Yakima this evening and we all went out to dinner to celebrate. So Happy Birthday to him!

Every night, right as we are lying down to sleep, Randy asks me to wake him up as I am leaving. Every night, I remind him that every morning I try to do as he asks and I am unsuccessful. Every morning as I am getting ready to leave, I try to wake him up and he mumbles something about about needing just a little more sleep as he turns away from me.

So this morning, as I go in to wake him up, I was not surprised to here him tell me that he needed more sleep. However, I was very surprised when, less than 5 minutes later, he walked into the bathroom as I was getting ready to go. He actually got up early this morning. And what made it even more surprising was that he didn't even turn his light out until close to midnight. He got so into getting his planner organized that he couldn't go to bed until he had it all done.

Randy had all three of his therapies today. In speech, Vanessa went over internal memory strategies. She also reviewed his planner. Even though he had spent all of that time getting it organized, he hadn't actually completed some of the tasks that he was given to do for homework, and other tasks he did complete but didn't mark off. Randy asked the therapist how she saw him progressing. She said that he is making significant gains in all areas and, though he didn't complete those tasks and check off the others, in general, he is doing great at using his daily planner. Randy also asked her what she saw as his deficits. She said his responsivness time needs to improve. He needs to make use of compensatory strategies.

In physical therapy, Randy did his usual exercises. He started on the exercise bike to get warmed up and then moved to the exercises that build his strength and improve his balance. She advised Randy to add weights up to 3 lbs to his legs as he is doing his exercises at home to help build strength.

In occupational therapy, the therapist again talked of Randy playing games that require quick thinking and quick decision-making. The therapist, Randy and his mom all played Uno together, which is one of the games that the therapist recommended.

This evening, we all went to dinner. At dinner, Randy and I were joking together about his loss of memory as we do often. He and I had just finished having a converstaion about something. I thought it was all decided, but not even five minutes later he brings it back up and begins as though we had never discussed it. I laughed and reminded him that we had just had that conversation. I joked about "Ten-Second Tom" (from the movie "50 First Dates"). He laughed and said "Yeah but imagine how many times a day I can have the same great idea!"

I love his outlook on things.

Pool Therapy Started

Randy got to start his pool therapy today. He said it was a lot of fun! His therapist's name is Irene. She had him walk 2 laps in the big pool. He then moved to the therapy pool, which is smaller but warmer pool. In the therapy pool, he did exercises such as lounges and squats ~ pretty much working on balance. The therapist told him to hold the sides only if necessary. Randy said he had to grab the sides a few times, primarily when getting started with walking. He said, though, that once he would get started, he would be fine without grabbing the sides as much.

Randy's friend Brandon was waiting for him at the house when he got back from therapy. They went for their night out tonight. Then Randy came home and diligently worked at updating his planner with what he has going on throughout the week. He has come across a couple of instances where he has double booked himself (he has had to call the chiropractor twice now to reschedule his follow up appointment). He has definitely realized the necessity for the planner and is really working hard at remembering to write things down in there. The Franklin Covey system that I had created for him seems to be working very well for him.

Tonight, I had an exciting voice mail message from Mrs Merrill (her husband Al shared a room with Randy on 3W at Harborview). Al got approved for the Good Samaritan in-patient rehab program. Unfortunately, I didn't get the message until late so I didn't get to talk to her personally, but in her message she sounded so excited. I know they were just about to run out of funding from Medicare for the nursing home he was in and she was worried that she was going to have to take him home. It is absolutely amazing and wonderful that he improved that much that quickly to be able to be in that intensive of a program. Just a couple of weeks ago, when I talked to her last, he wasn't even able to completely stand on his own and he wasn't responsive enough. I am very excited for them! We plan on going to see them within the next few days.

End of the weekend

Our Sunday went well, for the most part. We got a lot done today around the house - almost everything I had wanted to get done this weekend. Randy cleaned out our gutters, which had gotten clogged with leaves. He scared me a little bit climbing up the ladder, but all went well with it. He then made breakfast foods for lunch. I was actually very impressed. He had 3 different things going at once and didn't burn a single one of them. Everything actually turned out very well. He also did a couple of projects around the house. They took him a little longer than it would have before the accident, but he stuck with them and got everything done.

Randy's mom made it back safely tonight. She said traffic was awful. She thinks there was an accident earlier that backed everything up. So it took a little longer than she would have liked!

This evening, my mom called to let me know that my dad is back in the hospital. He has been in and out a lot over the last few years. My mom took him in last night because he was running a high fever. When I talked to her tonight, they still didn't know what was causing the fever. Before the accident, Randy and I had been talking about going to visit my parents (they are in Oklahoma). I wish I could be there if for nothing else than to support my mom through all of this.

Saturday

Randy did a lot around the house today. We were suppose to go to the Museum of flight to some exhibit that Randy wanted to see, but I woke up with the flu and pretty much stayed in bed until late afternoon. Randy spent the day backing up files on his computer since he has been having issues with the power source from dropping it a few times. He also put together a bookcase that we got from Ikea.

This evening, the three of us played Skip-Bo. It has been years since I had played. It took a little longer than Randy had wanted. He began losing focus towards the end. His attention span has been shorter since the accident, but I have noticed that it is improving some with time.

Friday

For those who read everyday, sorry for not posting yesterday. It wasn't due to anything being wrong. I had intended to post after we watched a movie, but fell asleep during the movie.

We had a busy day yesterday. Randy's mom had to go back to Yakima Thursday night so I took Friday off to be with Randy and Cass, who didn't have school. Randy had all three therapies so I finally got to meet his outpatient therapists. They all said they have seen great improvments in him. Hi physical therapist said she thinks that once he starts the pool therapy, which will be this next Monday, his balance should greatly improve and he might be able to stop using the cane within the couple of weeks. He currently is able to go short distances without it, but still definitely needs it for uneven surfaces.

In occupational therapy, his therapist went over the results of how Randy did in the driving simulator test. His reaction times were great ~ even better than the average. However, he didn't do as well with the signs, which required him to have to quickly make a decision.

After we finished with the therapies, we headed to Ikea. For those who aren't familiar with Ikea, it is a huge store filled with stuff for your home. They have everything from silverware, to furniture, stuff to organize your stuff with, and even flooring. We spent a long time there, walking through the entire store and ended up getting a few things to help organize some of our stuff.

After Ikea, we headed to our chiropractor because I had had a headache for the last couple of days. While I was there, he also worked with my sciatic nerve. It feels so much better today. He also talked to us about Randy getting adjusted. I was a little concerned because of the fracture Randy had that was close to the brain stem. He assured me that he wouldn't do anything that would harm Randy. They took x-rays and they said that Randy's fracture had healed up incredibly well. So I agreed to allow him to give Randy a minor adjustment. All evening and then this morning, Randy has talked about how much better he feels now. Our chiropractor and his wife, who is also a chiropractor (they run the business together), are such great people. He even called later in the evening to see how Randy was doing with the adjustment.

After the chiropractor, Randy went out to dinner with his friend Jon while Cass and I hung out at home playing games.

It was a very full day!

Volunteering

Randy and his mom began their volunteer work at the school. They began with stapling and sorting the "Meridian Happenings" newsletter. They also put together some papers for one of the teachers.

Afterward the volunteer work and running a few errands, Randy worked on his models for awhile and worked on his eye exercises. He and his mom had disagreed about how the eye exercises should be done ~ they had both remembered the instructions a bit differently (Randy remembered the eye doctor saying he could do them either standing or sitting and his mom remembered them needing to be done while standing). The eye doctor called to to say that the exercises could be done either way but because of the axtaxia it would be good to alternate one day standing and then the next day sitting.

This evening we went over to Marty and Julie's house. They have a puppy there that is beyond adorable. They had 3 of them but have sold the other 2. The three of us (Randy, Cass and I) had so much fun playing with the puppy. Earlier this week, we had to put down our older dog Sherman. He had been with our family for the last 2 1/2 years. Randy found him online from an organization that rescues animals. Randy fell in love with him. I told him that taking on an old dog would be hard because they would need a lot more medical care and the decision of putting him down would come up at anytime and we both knew that the decision wasn't ever an easy one. But Randy just fell in love with him and wanted to bring him home. Sherman was great for cuddles and will be greatly missed.

Increase in medication

I forgot to post an update a couple of days ago about Randy’s medications. Last week I had called the Neurology clinic to ask if the Amitriptyline could be increased because he still has had no relief with his headaches. The nurse called me on Monday to say that the doctor okayed Randy to increase from 50 to 75 mgs, so we began increasing the medication on Monday night. He said he has felt more tired the last couple of days, but still no decrease in headaches. I keep hoping that this medication is going to be what works for him.

Today, Randy worked on cleaning and organizing this side of the bed. We have set a bookcase for him to set all of his stuff on. He has too much stuff!

Later, when he and his mom went to pick up Cass from school, they stopped in and talked to our neighbor (who works at the school) about starting to volunteer there. They are going to start helping out with the Friday newsletter, getting it all ready to go. Since there is no school this Friday, they are going to go in tomorrow for the newsletter for this week.

Randy worked on his eye exercises and his leg exercises. He also spent some time this afternoon studying more for the class he is taking. The final exam is coming up here soon, so we shall find out shortly how he has done with the class.

I was thinking today how much he has improved over the last 4 months. It was just a little over 4 months ago that the accident occurred. In the last 4 months, he has gone from being in a coma, to the process of coming out of a coma, to re-learning how to walk, to getting to come home. Even just in the time that he has been home, there have been great improvements. When he first came home, I had to follow him everywhere, still kind of holding on to him to make sure he didn’t fall. Tonight, as he and I went for his evening walk, he was walking without his cane (at least for a little bit). Big improvement!

Along with the improvements, we have also seen negative changes. When Randy first came out of his coma, for the first little while, he was very polite like he often was before the accident. As time has gone on, mood swings have began to appear. They can appear at any time, with no notice, and at times, they can be severe changes. In dealing with them, it helps to remind myself that it is due to the injury and in part, also due to his frustration and anger that he is feeling at not being himself and not getting to do all of the things that he wants to do, such as going to work, driving, working out in the yard on Cass’s playhouse. I admit, though, that there have been times that I have been very tempted to just leave him at the store for awhile (at this point, though, he would probably really like that being that he doesn’t get any alone time and misses the freedom of being able to be by himself). I know that the mood swings will pass as his brain heals and his abilities return.