The Sears technician came out to take a look at our oven on Tuesday. When Randy turned the power back on, I expected to hear the familiar beeping. Instead, the oven decided to work. He was able to turn it on and off. The technician said that F1 generally means that the control panel and the computer part has gone bad. However, since it wasn't beeping, he figured it had been a stuck key. No sooner had he said that the oven started beeping and started flashing F1. He tried pressing the keys to get it to stop, just as we had. After just a few seconds of listening to it, he asked Randy to please turn it back off!
After pricing out how much it would be for a new computer thing and control panel and the labor charge, we found it was cheaper to get a new oven. Thankfully Sears has a deal going on now for their appliances ~ 10%, free delivery, and 12 months no payments and no interest. Our new oven gets delivered tomorrow. We opted to put it in ourselves and not pay the labor fee, so I am hoping it isn't incredibly difficult. We did alright with taking out the old oven tonight.
Randy has been using Access transit system more. I think it is great ~ that way he isn't stuck in the house by himself all day. I think he was going a bit stir crazy.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
More Driving
Today, we contacted Sears to try to figure out what is going on with our oven. One person I talked to tried to find an online manual but had no luck. She did find a manual that she could order for us and have delivered by Friday. We have an appointment for a technician to come take a look at it on Tuesday. I am hoping it is just one of the elements that have gone out and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, our range top and our oven are hooked up together so in order to use the range, we would have to listen to the constant beeping of the oven. Today, we just utilized the microwave.
For most of the day, Cass was over at a friends house working on a science project. While she was gone, Randy and I ran to Home Depot to price an element for the oven in case that is the issue. On the way home, as we pulled into our residential area, Randy asked to drive the car. He drove around some of the streets in our area before heading home. He said it felt nice to get back behind the wheel.
For most of the day, Cass was over at a friends house working on a science project. While she was gone, Randy and I ran to Home Depot to price an element for the oven in case that is the issue. On the way home, as we pulled into our residential area, Randy asked to drive the car. He drove around some of the streets in our area before heading home. He said it felt nice to get back behind the wheel.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
The Last Few Days
Thursday, Randy tried out the metro system and it worked wonderfully. They came and picked him up right at the door, got him to his appointment on time, and then came shortly after his appointment was over. They picked up a couple of people and did a drop off while on the way home, but they were all relatively close to our area, so he wasn't in the van for an overly long period of time.
The eye appointment went okay ~ no major news with that. Dr Baxstrom did say that Randy's vision was 20/25 last time he checked (prior to the eye drops given by Harborview) and they had improved slightly from that. He increased the prism in Randy's glasses, but they still aren't helping that much. One thing that is interesting, though, is that when Randy has them on, if the object he is looking at moves in some way, while it is moving his brain processes it as one imagine. When the object is still, it becomes two again. Dr Baxstrom encouraged Randy to continue with his eye exercises.
Friday wasn't a great day for Randy. He got up with me when I got up and got ready for work and he stayed awake to get Cass off to school. Then he took a very long walk. The walk must have worn him out. I called him half an hour before he was suppose to leave to get Cass and I reminded him what time she got out of school. Then I called at the time they should have been getting home and there was no answer. I kept calling every few minutes with no answer. I even tried his cell phone and got no answer. I decided to check the home phone messages on there was a message from Cass saing that, since Randy never came to pick her up she walked home with a friend and went to the friend's house. I called the friend's house and told Cass to go home and check on dad. Right as she got home, he finally answered the phone. He had apparently been deeply asleep. When he woke up, he wasn't in a good mood. I think it took him a while to really become fully awake. For the rest of the night, he wasn't feeling that great and just seemed out of it. I was suppose to go to Seattle for a New Parent Orientation at Cass's acting school, but decided to come home instead because I was a little worried about him.
This morning (Saturday), Randy still wasn't feeling that well. Cass had an audition in Seattle this morning. Randy headed out with us, but as we got into downtown Kent, he decided he wasn't up for the ride. So he hung out with his friend Brandon while Cass and I went. This was Cass's first audition in front of an actual agent who was scouting. I thought it would be exactly like the audition to get into the school ~ they gave Cass a script to read and she read it in front of a little group of people. Unfortunatley, because I missed the parent teacher conference, I didn't realize it wasn't like that at all until we got there. It was held in the middle of the kid's section of Macy's. The agent sat at a table and kids lined up to go in front of him. We were third in line. As I watched the first girl go up to him, I saw that she introduced herself and then immediately started in on a commercial. No script was handed to her. We quickly got out of line and asked someone there how things worked and that is when we found out that the kids need to come prepared with a commerical script memorized. So Cass and I quickly ran up to the floor that school was on and got the script of the commerical she had done for her first audition. She quickly committed it to memory and practiced it a couple of times and then we went back downstairs to get back in line. She was so nervous. She lacked confidence when she went up to him, but he said she did a great job doing the commerical script. She just needs to work on pretending to be confident when she introduces herself and when she is leaving. Before actually doing the audition, she kept telling me she was too nervous and wanted to go home. I told her absolutely not. When she had finished with it, she was very glad I didn't let her leave. She had fun and got to experience her first real audition so she will know what to expect for next time. I think the more experiences she has, the more confidence she will have in herself.
Her and I got back in time to pick up the dinners from Dinner's Ready. Randy's parents had gotten us a gift certificate there. We had originally planned on going in and making the dinners ourselves becausde they give you a 5% discount, but everytime we had scheduled to go in, something came up. When we changed it to them making the dinners for us, though, they didn't charge us the additional fee. We tried out our first one tonight and it was very good!
We got back just a little bit before Randy's friend Brandon dropped him off and had just a little bit of time before we were to head back to Seattle for Cass's acting class. Since Randy's driving evaluation when the evaluator said she felt that he was ready to drive in residential areas (but she recommended he get an evaluation done from the DMV before he takes on freeway driving), Randy has really been pushing being able to drive. So today, he got behind the wheel and drove around our residential area. He didn't drive far (we didn't go near any main streets) and I don't think he ever got over 15 mph, but he did quite well. Better than I expected. I think it felt good for me to get in the driver's seat, even if it was only driving around the block.
We then headed to Cass's class. At the end of her class, the teacher had the parents come in and he showed us the videotape of the last couple of commericals the kids had been working on from the last two weeks of class. The first one was from last week. That was Cass's first time on camera. She seemed very tense throughout it. The one from today, though, she seemed very natural. A bit improvement.
A little bit after we got home, I found that I had left our oven on. I find this funny because I get so worried that Randy would do something of this nature while he is home alone and here I was the culprit. Thankfully nothing had been left in it. I turn it off and we all settled on the couch. A little while later, the oven began beeping on us. I thought maybe in my absentmindedness, perhaps I had set the timer. However, when we went in turn it off, we found that the oven display was flashing "F1". We tried hitting every button and nothing would make it stop beeping. We even turned off the power to it and turned it back on a while later. Still beeping. This oven is rather old and of course, we don't have a manual for it and when I tried to search on the internet for one, none could be found. I guess out next step is to call Sears. We just hope that it is some easy fix!
The eye appointment went okay ~ no major news with that. Dr Baxstrom did say that Randy's vision was 20/25 last time he checked (prior to the eye drops given by Harborview) and they had improved slightly from that. He increased the prism in Randy's glasses, but they still aren't helping that much. One thing that is interesting, though, is that when Randy has them on, if the object he is looking at moves in some way, while it is moving his brain processes it as one imagine. When the object is still, it becomes two again. Dr Baxstrom encouraged Randy to continue with his eye exercises.
Friday wasn't a great day for Randy. He got up with me when I got up and got ready for work and he stayed awake to get Cass off to school. Then he took a very long walk. The walk must have worn him out. I called him half an hour before he was suppose to leave to get Cass and I reminded him what time she got out of school. Then I called at the time they should have been getting home and there was no answer. I kept calling every few minutes with no answer. I even tried his cell phone and got no answer. I decided to check the home phone messages on there was a message from Cass saing that, since Randy never came to pick her up she walked home with a friend and went to the friend's house. I called the friend's house and told Cass to go home and check on dad. Right as she got home, he finally answered the phone. He had apparently been deeply asleep. When he woke up, he wasn't in a good mood. I think it took him a while to really become fully awake. For the rest of the night, he wasn't feeling that great and just seemed out of it. I was suppose to go to Seattle for a New Parent Orientation at Cass's acting school, but decided to come home instead because I was a little worried about him.
This morning (Saturday), Randy still wasn't feeling that well. Cass had an audition in Seattle this morning. Randy headed out with us, but as we got into downtown Kent, he decided he wasn't up for the ride. So he hung out with his friend Brandon while Cass and I went. This was Cass's first audition in front of an actual agent who was scouting. I thought it would be exactly like the audition to get into the school ~ they gave Cass a script to read and she read it in front of a little group of people. Unfortunatley, because I missed the parent teacher conference, I didn't realize it wasn't like that at all until we got there. It was held in the middle of the kid's section of Macy's. The agent sat at a table and kids lined up to go in front of him. We were third in line. As I watched the first girl go up to him, I saw that she introduced herself and then immediately started in on a commercial. No script was handed to her. We quickly got out of line and asked someone there how things worked and that is when we found out that the kids need to come prepared with a commerical script memorized. So Cass and I quickly ran up to the floor that school was on and got the script of the commerical she had done for her first audition. She quickly committed it to memory and practiced it a couple of times and then we went back downstairs to get back in line. She was so nervous. She lacked confidence when she went up to him, but he said she did a great job doing the commerical script. She just needs to work on pretending to be confident when she introduces herself and when she is leaving. Before actually doing the audition, she kept telling me she was too nervous and wanted to go home. I told her absolutely not. When she had finished with it, she was very glad I didn't let her leave. She had fun and got to experience her first real audition so she will know what to expect for next time. I think the more experiences she has, the more confidence she will have in herself.
Her and I got back in time to pick up the dinners from Dinner's Ready. Randy's parents had gotten us a gift certificate there. We had originally planned on going in and making the dinners ourselves becausde they give you a 5% discount, but everytime we had scheduled to go in, something came up. When we changed it to them making the dinners for us, though, they didn't charge us the additional fee. We tried out our first one tonight and it was very good!
We got back just a little bit before Randy's friend Brandon dropped him off and had just a little bit of time before we were to head back to Seattle for Cass's acting class. Since Randy's driving evaluation when the evaluator said she felt that he was ready to drive in residential areas (but she recommended he get an evaluation done from the DMV before he takes on freeway driving), Randy has really been pushing being able to drive. So today, he got behind the wheel and drove around our residential area. He didn't drive far (we didn't go near any main streets) and I don't think he ever got over 15 mph, but he did quite well. Better than I expected. I think it felt good for me to get in the driver's seat, even if it was only driving around the block.
We then headed to Cass's class. At the end of her class, the teacher had the parents come in and he showed us the videotape of the last couple of commericals the kids had been working on from the last two weeks of class. The first one was from last week. That was Cass's first time on camera. She seemed very tense throughout it. The one from today, though, she seemed very natural. A bit improvement.
A little bit after we got home, I found that I had left our oven on. I find this funny because I get so worried that Randy would do something of this nature while he is home alone and here I was the culprit. Thankfully nothing had been left in it. I turn it off and we all settled on the couch. A little while later, the oven began beeping on us. I thought maybe in my absentmindedness, perhaps I had set the timer. However, when we went in turn it off, we found that the oven display was flashing "F1". We tried hitting every button and nothing would make it stop beeping. We even turned off the power to it and turned it back on a while later. Still beeping. This oven is rather old and of course, we don't have a manual for it and when I tried to search on the internet for one, none could be found. I guess out next step is to call Sears. We just hope that it is some easy fix!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Cass is Back to School
Cass started back to school today. Randy did very good with getting her to and from school. He actually get up out of bed before I left for work today. I thought he would go back to sleep after I left, but when I got to work and called, he was still up. They chose to walk today, but we did get a lock for bikes if they choose to ride bikes. Randy spent the day working on various therapy things. When I called on one of my breaks from my training class, he admitted that he had only really played with the Super Mario game and watched tv, but after talking to me he worked on some of the Brain Age games and did some stretches and exercises for his arm.
Tomorrow, Randy gets to try out the Metro Access bus system for his eye appointment with Dr Baxstrom. I am so thankful that we have the Access system in this area. If Randy were to ride the regular Metro bus, he would have to leave the house at 7:30 in the morning to get to his 11:15 appointment and then he wouldn't get home until after 4:30. Neither of those times works for Cass's school schedule. With the Access bus, they will pick him up right at our front door a little after 10 am and take him straight to the Dr's office. Then they will pick him up and bring him back to our house. What is also nice is, if his appointment takes longer than planned and he misses the pick up time, they will send what they call a "will call" ride out to pick him up to make sure he doesn't have to sit there for a long time.
We heard from our attorney today. I guess the company of the truck that hit Randy has put in a motion for dismissal on the grounds that they are not at fault. If they get it dismissed, we have no real case since the guy that began the chain of events has no insurance and no assets that could be found. The next step for our attorney is to get a statement from the officer at the scene stating that the vehicle was over the weight limit. Then we take that to the hearing and hope that the judge will not dismiss our case. Randy and I don't have to go to the hearing since Randy has no memory of anything that happened. This has me a tad stressed out. I am sure that this is common practice to try to get the case dismissed and everything is just following the routine path, but I can't help but to worry a little that it might actually get dismissed.
Tomorrow, Randy gets to try out the Metro Access bus system for his eye appointment with Dr Baxstrom. I am so thankful that we have the Access system in this area. If Randy were to ride the regular Metro bus, he would have to leave the house at 7:30 in the morning to get to his 11:15 appointment and then he wouldn't get home until after 4:30. Neither of those times works for Cass's school schedule. With the Access bus, they will pick him up right at our front door a little after 10 am and take him straight to the Dr's office. Then they will pick him up and bring him back to our house. What is also nice is, if his appointment takes longer than planned and he misses the pick up time, they will send what they call a "will call" ride out to pick him up to make sure he doesn't have to sit there for a long time.
We heard from our attorney today. I guess the company of the truck that hit Randy has put in a motion for dismissal on the grounds that they are not at fault. If they get it dismissed, we have no real case since the guy that began the chain of events has no insurance and no assets that could be found. The next step for our attorney is to get a statement from the officer at the scene stating that the vehicle was over the weight limit. Then we take that to the hearing and hope that the judge will not dismiss our case. Randy and I don't have to go to the hearing since Randy has no memory of anything that happened. This has me a tad stressed out. I am sure that this is common practice to try to get the case dismissed and everything is just following the routine path, but I can't help but to worry a little that it might actually get dismissed.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Things a little better today
Randy did better today with me not being home. I think it was due in part to me being in training so he knew he couldn't call me and the fact that he didn't get up until I called at noon and had Cass wake him up.
He and Cass also did better today. Since he got up so late, they didn't have much of a chance to do anything. Randy spent a good part of the afternoon playing a game on the Nintendo DS. We have the Super Mario Bros game, which is very similar to the old Super Mario Bro games on the old nintendos (the one that I grew up with). Every day, Randy seems to get a little better with the game. I think it really works his reaction time and works on his coordination. We just need to balance it out with other things as well such as the crosswords and other word puzzles. He did have dinner ready for me when I got home (yeah!!!!!!).
I talked to his doctor about antidepressants to try to balance out his moods. Unfortunately, he cannot take any with the pain medication that he is on because it would increase his risk of seizures.
He and Cass also did better today. Since he got up so late, they didn't have much of a chance to do anything. Randy spent a good part of the afternoon playing a game on the Nintendo DS. We have the Super Mario Bros game, which is very similar to the old Super Mario Bro games on the old nintendos (the one that I grew up with). Every day, Randy seems to get a little better with the game. I think it really works his reaction time and works on his coordination. We just need to balance it out with other things as well such as the crosswords and other word puzzles. He did have dinner ready for me when I got home (yeah!!!!!!).
I talked to his doctor about antidepressants to try to balance out his moods. Unfortunately, he cannot take any with the pain medication that he is on because it would increase his risk of seizures.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Back to Work For Me
I finally went back to work full time today. On one hand, it was hard to go in and not be at home, but on the other hand, I was glad to be back. Randy had a bit of separation anxiety and called me a few times and he and Cass drove each other crazy. I think she is looking forward to going back to school on Wednesday and I am sure he is looking forward to having some time to himself at home.
Randy didn't have much time to do a lot of therapy things today because he slept in. When he did get up, he and Cass went on a bike ride around our neighborhood. Then he got some time away from the house by going out with his friend Brandon.
Randy didn't have much time to do a lot of therapy things today because he slept in. When he did get up, he and Cass went on a bike ride around our neighborhood. Then he got some time away from the house by going out with his friend Brandon.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Finally Home
We made it back from Oregon safely. We are all exhausted ~ we got home a little around midnight. The service was very nice. I got to see Randy in a suit, which is a very rare occurance. It was also great getting to meet a lot of the family. This was Randy's biological grandmother. He grew up knowing her and his grandfather, but didn't know the rest of the family. He and his biological brother (who was adopted into a different family) met some of the family for the first time at their grandfather's funeral a few years ago, but since the family didn't really know them, they weren't really treated like part of the family back then ~ I think a lot of people didn't even know who they were. This time it was a completely different experience. An uncle got us hotel rooms, which was very nice. We got a lot of opportunity to sit and chat with some of the family, which we really enjoyed. The service was very nice. After the service and the nice lunch, which consisted of a bunch of Grandma Dunn's recipes, we had to head back to Grandma's house because Randy had left his coat and his wallet there. We ended up being very thankful that he had, even though it added quite a bit of time to our trip home. A few of the relatives headed there after the service, so we got more of a chance to visit with them. There was even talk of a family reunion this summer. It is kind of interesting to meet everyone and see similarities among them and Randy. It shows that who we are is really a mixture of genetics and our experiences. I could see mannerisms that were similar in people Randy had not met or only briefly encountered and of course, a big part of who Randy is comes from his upbringing and experiences through the Rushes (he definitely has Paul's sense of humor!). It is all rather fascinating.
When we finally made it home, we all kind of looked around the housealmost as though we expected things to be different ~ as though, while we were out, little faries had come and changed everything around. Everything had remained the same. We were all very glad to make it home. Randy's motion sickness patch held up until the very last little part of the trip. As I pulled into our community, I had to quickly pull over for him. I am very thankful that the patch worked as long as it did.
We all slept in a bit, but had to get up a little in time to get our dogs. They were very excited to see us. Tonight, we took Cass to her class. Tonight was her first time being on camera. Next week, she will get to see herself and see how she did. We got home in time to head to the church down the street from us to watch a play. A boy she goes to school with was in it and invited her ~ she says he is NOT her boyfriend, but when I made her go say hi to him afterwards, they both turned bright red and he did nothing but look at the floor. It was adorable!
We are glad to be back at home!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Our First Day Back Home
Our first day back home was exhausting! We all didn't get into bed until clost to 2 am and then had to get up early. Cass headed off to school and Randy and I went in for his driving evaluation at Valley Medical Center. He did better on the cognitive testing part than he had the previous time. He only missed 1 out of 30 or so questions. He also did better on the driving part and the responding to hazardous conditions. Without putting all of the info into the computer, she couldn't say how much better. Her recommendation was to have Randy go into the DMV and ask to take the driving test. I think it was more of a way of not wanting to responsibility of saying that Randy was ready to drive and then have something happen. Some of his response times were still a little slow, which would be very worrisome if he had to respond quickly to something. Randy was happy that she didn't say definitely no to him driving.
The driving evaluation took up all morning. We got done barely in time to pick up the dogs before they closed for lunch. We weren't scheduled to pick them up until late afternoon, but we were both really missing them. They were so excited to see us. It was the first time we had used this kennel so I was a little nervous about leaving them. We use to leave them with a lady that would just let the dogs run throughout her house. She spoiled Max rotten. She even let him sleep with her. But she stopped watching them in her house, which I am sure is better for her sanity! It was always a mad house. So we left them at a kennel. The person that was there today told us that Max was definitely a barker! It must have driven him crazy to see all of the dogs and not get to play with any of them! They also gave the dogs a bath and clipped their nails before we picked them up. I am thinking they need to go stay more often! Randy and I together can't clip Daisy's nails because she hates it so much.
We got home in time for me to crash ~ my eyes wouldn't stay open any longer! I thought Randy would take a nap, too, but he stayed up and worked on therapy exercises. We spent the evening doing laundry and getting things repacked for our trip to Oregon for the memorial service for Randy's Grandmother.
The driving evaluation took up all morning. We got done barely in time to pick up the dogs before they closed for lunch. We weren't scheduled to pick them up until late afternoon, but we were both really missing them. They were so excited to see us. It was the first time we had used this kennel so I was a little nervous about leaving them. We use to leave them with a lady that would just let the dogs run throughout her house. She spoiled Max rotten. She even let him sleep with her. But she stopped watching them in her house, which I am sure is better for her sanity! It was always a mad house. So we left them at a kennel. The person that was there today told us that Max was definitely a barker! It must have driven him crazy to see all of the dogs and not get to play with any of them! They also gave the dogs a bath and clipped their nails before we picked them up. I am thinking they need to go stay more often! Randy and I together can't clip Daisy's nails because she hates it so much.
We got home in time for me to crash ~ my eyes wouldn't stay open any longer! I thought Randy would take a nap, too, but he stayed up and worked on therapy exercises. We spent the evening doing laundry and getting things repacked for our trip to Oregon for the memorial service for Randy's Grandmother.
We Made it Home
We made it home safely. Our trip home was a lot better than our trip there. All planes left on time and we had 2 hours in Minneapolis, which gave us enough time to walk in almost every little shop from the gate that we got off at to the one that we left from.
Randy did very well on the plane rides. Those patches work amazing! Thankfully he has one more left. We found out a few days ago that his Grandmother passed away. Thursday, we will have a car trip down to Oregon to meet with family and the service will be held down there on Friday.
Randy did very well on the plane rides. Those patches work amazing! Thankfully he has one more left. We found out a few days ago that his Grandmother passed away. Thursday, we will have a car trip down to Oregon to meet with family and the service will be held down there on Friday.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Sunday
We had a nice day today. We got up in time to head to church this morning. With the 2 hour difference, it was a little hard to get up ~ I hit snooze a couple of times. After church, we headed to the one and only restaurant in Oilton (the little town my parents live in). Everytime I come, it seems the restaurant has changed owners ~ someone else is giving it a go. As long as it has chicken fried steak, though, Randy is happy. I think that is what he has ordered at every place we have eaten while we have been here.
We got finished with lunch in time for my mom, sister and I to head to a ladies tea at the church. I thought I was stuffed when we left the restaurant. Then, they brought out the cheesecake and the chocolate covered strawberries at the tea. While everyone was eating, my sister handed out little prayer cards to everyone. The card I got had Matthew 17:20 on it. This is the verse that was with me while Randy was in Harborview. I repeated this over and over while I was driving to Harborview in the mornings, while I was sitting next to Randy holding his seemingly lifeless hand while in ICU ~ "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." In reading the card I had to fight back tears. At the beginning of this journey, it seemed so easy to rely on faith because really I could do nothing else. Now that we are 7 1/2 months into it, sometimes it can be harder to have the faith. I know this card was given to me to remind me.
We got finished with lunch in time for my mom, sister and I to head to a ladies tea at the church. I thought I was stuffed when we left the restaurant. Then, they brought out the cheesecake and the chocolate covered strawberries at the tea. While everyone was eating, my sister handed out little prayer cards to everyone. The card I got had Matthew 17:20 on it. This is the verse that was with me while Randy was in Harborview. I repeated this over and over while I was driving to Harborview in the mornings, while I was sitting next to Randy holding his seemingly lifeless hand while in ICU ~ "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." In reading the card I had to fight back tears. At the beginning of this journey, it seemed so easy to rely on faith because really I could do nothing else. Now that we are 7 1/2 months into it, sometimes it can be harder to have the faith. I know this card was given to me to remind me.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
A Day of Visiting
Our morning started out with a phone call from Randy's cousin. He lives in Tulsa and was coming our way for a basketball game. We got to visit with him for awhile this morning before he had to take off. Shortly after he left, my family began showing up for lunch. My mom made her "red chicken" (barbque chicken), which is one of my favorites! The last time I was here, she had started to make it for me and then had to be taken to the hospital so I was a little hesitant to ask this time, but it all worked out okay this time. We had a very nice meal and a good time visiting with everyone.
The last couple of days, Randy has been dealing with being in not-so-good moods. Most of the day, he wanted to just hide out in the bedroom, but he did alright with making himself come out and visit some. In the last few months, his moods have gone up and down, but I think he is starting to realize it more and has said that he want to talk to his doctor about trying some medication that might help some. I was wondering if it was kind of a sensory overload that affected his moods the last couple of days. He has also been reading the books of other people's experience with TBI and is feeling a bit down about the life that he has lost. I just remind him of Joe at our support group. He is 2 years post accident and has come a long way. He attributes having a positive attitude for how far he has come in the last 2 years. Sometimes it is hard to keep a positive look on things, especially when you look into the past and long for what you had. You just have to keep your focus to the present and all that you have now.
Friday, February 09, 2007
The Last Couple of Days
Yesterday, we had a busy day. We drove over to Tulsa, which is about a 45 minute drive my the little town that my parents live in. Randy wanted to go to a little book store that he and I had gone to when we lived here. We had lived here right after we got married in 1994 and lived her for about 6 months before heading back to Washington. The little bookstore is now gone, replaced by the bigger guys. We (Randy, Cass, and I and my mom, sister and her husband Mike) headed over to the Barnes and Noble bookstore. Of course, as soon as we enter, Randy and I head straight for the Starbucks!
We spent awhile browsing throught the books. My sister and Mike bought Cass "Mary Poppins". She was so excited! She loves that movie. From the bookstore, we headed to see my mother's sister. She had a stroke a few months ago. She is currently in a nursing home, but her recovery has been miraculous. She has recovered a lot further than the doctor's had said she would. She seems to be doing so well. Her memory is a lot better than Randy's is at this point, but she is going through very similar things as he did. It was great to see her. Unfortuntely, my cold had the best of me that day, so I wasn't as able to visit as much as I would have liked to. Randy was wanting to compare therapy notes with her and talk to her a little bit more about what she is going through, but he wasn't at the "top of his game" either. He was very wobbly throughout the day. I think it is because he still had his motion sickness patch on. It can be worn for up to 3 days and Randy chose to leave it on for the first 3 days for any car rides we on.
After we visited my Aunt, we went out for a nice lunch and headed back home. Today, we have had a nice relaxing day. We have watched a couple of movies and Randy has done quite a bit of reading. Tomorrow, we will have a lot of the family here for lunch. I am really looking forward to it. My parents live in my Grandma's house. When my Grandma was alive, when we would come to visit, the family would gather here. It is a small house, but it can fit a lot of people!
For those of you who pray, please remember the Pukitis family. Bob Puktis had a heart attach in the summer of 2005. Since then, it has been an incredibly long journey for the family, with many ups and downs. His son is one of my employees. Last I had heard, Bob was finally able to go to his home and was improving. Today, though, I found out that he lost his battle. His son is having a very hard time with this, as I am sure is the rest of the family.
We spent awhile browsing throught the books. My sister and Mike bought Cass "Mary Poppins". She was so excited! She loves that movie. From the bookstore, we headed to see my mother's sister. She had a stroke a few months ago. She is currently in a nursing home, but her recovery has been miraculous. She has recovered a lot further than the doctor's had said she would. She seems to be doing so well. Her memory is a lot better than Randy's is at this point, but she is going through very similar things as he did. It was great to see her. Unfortuntely, my cold had the best of me that day, so I wasn't as able to visit as much as I would have liked to. Randy was wanting to compare therapy notes with her and talk to her a little bit more about what she is going through, but he wasn't at the "top of his game" either. He was very wobbly throughout the day. I think it is because he still had his motion sickness patch on. It can be worn for up to 3 days and Randy chose to leave it on for the first 3 days for any car rides we on.
After we visited my Aunt, we went out for a nice lunch and headed back home. Today, we have had a nice relaxing day. We have watched a couple of movies and Randy has done quite a bit of reading. Tomorrow, we will have a lot of the family here for lunch. I am really looking forward to it. My parents live in my Grandma's house. When my Grandma was alive, when we would come to visit, the family would gather here. It is a small house, but it can fit a lot of people!
For those of you who pray, please remember the Pukitis family. Bob Puktis had a heart attach in the summer of 2005. Since then, it has been an incredibly long journey for the family, with many ups and downs. His son is one of my employees. Last I had heard, Bob was finally able to go to his home and was improving. Today, though, I found out that he lost his battle. His son is having a very hard time with this, as I am sure is the rest of the family.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
We Made It
Well, it was a long day yesterday, but we made it safely to Oklahoma.
The flight out of Seattle left the gate a little early, but before we get get off the ground, another plane had to make an emergency landing for medical reasons. Then some of the lights on the landing strip went out, so they had to switch around where planes were landing and taking off. In Minneapolis, where we had our connecting flight, we were scheduled to have an hour layover. With the delay in taking off and knowing that Randy isn't able to run as fast as he could before, I was a little worried about making our connecting flight. When we tried to talk to the flight attendant about our concern, her response was "Well, I am sure there are a lot of people that will have tight connections." Then, right after the plane came to a stop and pilot had turned off the fasten seatbelt sign, the entire plane lurched forward. Unfortunately, I was standing up at that time and fell forward a bit, which didn't sit well with my back! I guess the wheels had fallen off those chalk things they use to keep the plane in place at the gate. Everyone had to sit back down so that they could pull the plane back up to the gate. We finally got off the plane 10 minutes before the next one was suppose to leave. We made a mad dash to next gate, which of course was not anywhere near the one we had landed at, only to find out that our next plane was also delayed and we hadn't needed to stress at all! Even with the delay, though, we landed in Tulsa, OK earlier than scheduled.
Randy did amazing throughout the entire trip. The motion sickness patch he put on the night before really helped. He did better than Cass and I did ~ with us both having those miserable colds, our ears were bothering us a bit.
We have had a really good visit so far. Randy finished reading a book today, which is a huge deal. It is the first book he has read start to finish since the accident. He has a hard time remembering what he read, sometimes even from beginning of the paragraph to the end. The book he read was one I had just finished. It was a short little book about a woman who had suffered a head injury in 1997 ~ so somewhat recently. The book was written a little bit by her mother and then she wrote a few chapters at the end. It was an interesting story. The woman was 32 when it happened. It was a single car accident and she lost her 6 year old son. She ended up spending 9 months in prison for negligence that led to his death. One thing I found interesting in this book was that this woman said she didn't really "wake up" until 3 years after the accident. Before that, she had very little memories of things that she did and didn't feel as though she was really aware of what was going on around her. It made me wonder if at some point later, there will be a moment of "waking up" for Randy or if that moment has really already come for him.
The flight out of Seattle left the gate a little early, but before we get get off the ground, another plane had to make an emergency landing for medical reasons. Then some of the lights on the landing strip went out, so they had to switch around where planes were landing and taking off. In Minneapolis, where we had our connecting flight, we were scheduled to have an hour layover. With the delay in taking off and knowing that Randy isn't able to run as fast as he could before, I was a little worried about making our connecting flight. When we tried to talk to the flight attendant about our concern, her response was "Well, I am sure there are a lot of people that will have tight connections." Then, right after the plane came to a stop and pilot had turned off the fasten seatbelt sign, the entire plane lurched forward. Unfortunately, I was standing up at that time and fell forward a bit, which didn't sit well with my back! I guess the wheels had fallen off those chalk things they use to keep the plane in place at the gate. Everyone had to sit back down so that they could pull the plane back up to the gate. We finally got off the plane 10 minutes before the next one was suppose to leave. We made a mad dash to next gate, which of course was not anywhere near the one we had landed at, only to find out that our next plane was also delayed and we hadn't needed to stress at all! Even with the delay, though, we landed in Tulsa, OK earlier than scheduled.
Randy did amazing throughout the entire trip. The motion sickness patch he put on the night before really helped. He did better than Cass and I did ~ with us both having those miserable colds, our ears were bothering us a bit.
We have had a really good visit so far. Randy finished reading a book today, which is a huge deal. It is the first book he has read start to finish since the accident. He has a hard time remembering what he read, sometimes even from beginning of the paragraph to the end. The book he read was one I had just finished. It was a short little book about a woman who had suffered a head injury in 1997 ~ so somewhat recently. The book was written a little bit by her mother and then she wrote a few chapters at the end. It was an interesting story. The woman was 32 when it happened. It was a single car accident and she lost her 6 year old son. She ended up spending 9 months in prison for negligence that led to his death. One thing I found interesting in this book was that this woman said she didn't really "wake up" until 3 years after the accident. Before that, she had very little memories of things that she did and didn't feel as though she was really aware of what was going on around her. It made me wonder if at some point later, there will be a moment of "waking up" for Randy or if that moment has really already come for him.
Monday, February 05, 2007
And We are Off
The last couple of days have been busy. Sunday, Randy and his friend Jon worked on Cassandra's playhouse. It is shaping up nicely. Randy got a little down on himself, feeling rather "gimpy" as he called it. He wants to be able to do things like he did before and it sometimes gets to him a little bit that he can't.
His parents came that evening to spend some time before Randy takes his first post-accident flight. We leave tomorrow morning for Oklahoma to see my parents. I am not looking forward to a day of flying, but I am looking forward to seeing them.
Today was my first day back at work since my surgery. My doctor wanted me to start out with part time, so I only worked 4 hours today, but I got a lot done in those 4 hours! It was very nice to be back there, though I did enjoy my time with Randy this last month.
Our evening was spent getting ready for our trip. It started off with looking everywhere for the luggage that Randy had moved. We usually keep our luggage in our spare room closet, but apparently, at some point Randy had decided he didn't want to keep it there. I finally located it hidden in the garage. One of my new roles is "finder of all things"! Now, we are all packed and Randy has his motion sickness patch on, which is a little bit of a funny story. Randy went to put the patch on, but it wasn't sticking. It didn't really look right to me. When it fell off a few minutes after putting it on, I asked him to go get another one so that we could take a look at it together. Upon opening the new package, a little square that looked like what Randy had just put on fell out and left in the package was the actual patch attached to a little adhesive strip. Apparently, he had thrown away the first patch.
His parents came that evening to spend some time before Randy takes his first post-accident flight. We leave tomorrow morning for Oklahoma to see my parents. I am not looking forward to a day of flying, but I am looking forward to seeing them.
Today was my first day back at work since my surgery. My doctor wanted me to start out with part time, so I only worked 4 hours today, but I got a lot done in those 4 hours! It was very nice to be back there, though I did enjoy my time with Randy this last month.
Our evening was spent getting ready for our trip. It started off with looking everywhere for the luggage that Randy had moved. We usually keep our luggage in our spare room closet, but apparently, at some point Randy had decided he didn't want to keep it there. I finally located it hidden in the garage. One of my new roles is "finder of all things"! Now, we are all packed and Randy has his motion sickness patch on, which is a little bit of a funny story. Randy went to put the patch on, but it wasn't sticking. It didn't really look right to me. When it fell off a few minutes after putting it on, I asked him to go get another one so that we could take a look at it together. Upon opening the new package, a little square that looked like what Randy had just put on fell out and left in the package was the actual patch attached to a little adhesive strip. Apparently, he had thrown away the first patch.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Some Ramblings
I finished the book “The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome” last night. I could not stop reading this read. I read it during commercials of my favorite shows, when it wasn’t my turn during games, when I didn’t have to devote any attention to anything else. What is funny is that this book, of all of the others that I have read I related to this one the least. Throughout reading this book, I gained better understanding of what the last 20 years must have been like for the man who lent me the book. It also made me so very thankful for Randy’s attitude during this time and thankful for how much he has recovered in the last 7 months. Many people with head injury don’t realize the deficits they are left with. Though Randy feels the same inside, he is aware of the deficits he has, which has greatly helped his recovery process. If you are not aware of a problem, you cannot fix it. Randy being aware of the deficits gives him the opportunity to find ways of solving them. There are of course times that being aware of the deficits doesn’t necessarily help. For example, Randy knowing that his memory is faulty didn’t prevent an angry episode that Randy had because he didn’t remember one conversation we had had a day or so earlier. The lack of memory of that conversation led him to believe he was lied to. It wasn’t until the next day that he was able to take a step back and realize that his memory had failed him.
One thing that reading this book made me realize, though, is how much I do for Randy. The step-mother in the book was always working on improving independence of her stepson throughout the book. When she would go grocery shopping, she would give him a list of 2 or 3 things and send him off on his own. It took him years go get to the point that he could maneuver around the store and find the items that he needed. I am sure that Randy is functioning enough to find his way around the store and do his own shopping, but he has not really gotten the chance to do so because it never really occurred to me to even let him try ~ it was just easier for me to do everything.
All of the books I have read have some similarities amongst all of their differences. One common thread is the family members of the TBI survivor start out with hopes and beliefs that their loved one can and will return to their former self, and by the end of the book all come to the realization that the TBI survivor is a new form of the old person and things will never go back to the same. My mind has come to this realization, but my heart has had a harder time of letting go. I am thankful that so much of Randy did remain “intact”. He didn’t have major personality changes that can occur with head injury. I, though, have never had much patience and often find it hard to deal with the not knowing how much Randy will “recover” over time.
Another common thread of the books I have read has been the authors’ dealing with the question of whether or not God permitted the loved one to suffer a TBI in order to teach that person or family members some life lesson or to use the tragedy for some greater purpose. My thoughts on this ~ I believe that every decision we make leads to some sort of outcome. As in the case of the stepson in “The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome”, his decision to drive home after a night of partying and of having little sleep led to the outcome of him losing control of his car and crashing into a tree. This decision resulted in his head injury that changed his life. It affected him and all of those that he came into contact with after ~ from the immediate family and friends whose lives had to change drastically because of the injury, to the team of people who helped him recover to the point where he is now. Sometimes the decisions we make affect others more negatively than they do us. With Randy’s case, someone made the decision to drive too fast and wasn’t paying attention to traffic and someone else made the decision to drive in a lane they weren’t suppose to be in. Their decisions resulted in Randy’s injury. What we do with what has happened is up to us. I believe we are all connected and our choices can affect those we don’t even know. I believe that God sometimes steps in and change the outcomes and I don’t know why he didn’t in this case. He did say he would never give us anything we couldn’t handle.
One thing that reading this book made me realize, though, is how much I do for Randy. The step-mother in the book was always working on improving independence of her stepson throughout the book. When she would go grocery shopping, she would give him a list of 2 or 3 things and send him off on his own. It took him years go get to the point that he could maneuver around the store and find the items that he needed. I am sure that Randy is functioning enough to find his way around the store and do his own shopping, but he has not really gotten the chance to do so because it never really occurred to me to even let him try ~ it was just easier for me to do everything.
All of the books I have read have some similarities amongst all of their differences. One common thread is the family members of the TBI survivor start out with hopes and beliefs that their loved one can and will return to their former self, and by the end of the book all come to the realization that the TBI survivor is a new form of the old person and things will never go back to the same. My mind has come to this realization, but my heart has had a harder time of letting go. I am thankful that so much of Randy did remain “intact”. He didn’t have major personality changes that can occur with head injury. I, though, have never had much patience and often find it hard to deal with the not knowing how much Randy will “recover” over time.
Another common thread of the books I have read has been the authors’ dealing with the question of whether or not God permitted the loved one to suffer a TBI in order to teach that person or family members some life lesson or to use the tragedy for some greater purpose. My thoughts on this ~ I believe that every decision we make leads to some sort of outcome. As in the case of the stepson in “The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome”, his decision to drive home after a night of partying and of having little sleep led to the outcome of him losing control of his car and crashing into a tree. This decision resulted in his head injury that changed his life. It affected him and all of those that he came into contact with after ~ from the immediate family and friends whose lives had to change drastically because of the injury, to the team of people who helped him recover to the point where he is now. Sometimes the decisions we make affect others more negatively than they do us. With Randy’s case, someone made the decision to drive too fast and wasn’t paying attention to traffic and someone else made the decision to drive in a lane they weren’t suppose to be in. Their decisions resulted in Randy’s injury. What we do with what has happened is up to us. I believe we are all connected and our choices can affect those we don’t even know. I believe that God sometimes steps in and change the outcomes and I don’t know why he didn’t in this case. He did say he would never give us anything we couldn’t handle.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Dentist
Our day today pretty much consisted of going to the dentist office to get our teeth cleaned. Randy was a little difficult to get up and around again today. I was a little surprised because he fell asleep even before I did. He finally got up in time to get ready to get there on time. The dentist is one we have been going to for year. He expressed to me how very impressed he was with Randy's attitude with dealing with the accident. He commented that he didn't believe that Randy would be as far along as he was now if he had been a "glass half empty" kind of guy. I completely agree.
Randy and I got home in time to play a few short games on our Nintendo before picking Cass up from school. There is one game that Randy really struggled with. He has tried many times before, but never could quite make it. Today, he actually made it through the entire game. The game required use of both of his hands. The left hand had been a big hinderance to him, but he did amazing through it today.
Cass is sick with a nasty head cold so we had a peaceful evening. We all played a short game together and then watched a movie.
I started a new book today. Since the accident, it seems all I have read a lot of different stories of other people's experiences with head injury. The book I started today came highly recommended from someone in the support group we go to. His son was in a car accident over 20 years ago and has no short term memory still to this day. A couple weeks after the accident, the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" started going through my head. The name of this book is "The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome". On the front cover is a poem written by the man in the book who had the head injury. The poem is:
Humpty Dumpty
Had an auto accident
And even though the pieces are
Back together physically....
All the king's horses,
And all the king's men,
Or neuropsychologists,
Or mental therapists,
Even Priests,
Can't put him back together again.
Randy and I got home in time to play a few short games on our Nintendo before picking Cass up from school. There is one game that Randy really struggled with. He has tried many times before, but never could quite make it. Today, he actually made it through the entire game. The game required use of both of his hands. The left hand had been a big hinderance to him, but he did amazing through it today.
Cass is sick with a nasty head cold so we had a peaceful evening. We all played a short game together and then watched a movie.
I started a new book today. Since the accident, it seems all I have read a lot of different stories of other people's experiences with head injury. The book I started today came highly recommended from someone in the support group we go to. His son was in a car accident over 20 years ago and has no short term memory still to this day. A couple weeks after the accident, the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" started going through my head. The name of this book is "The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome". On the front cover is a poem written by the man in the book who had the head injury. The poem is:
Humpty Dumpty
Had an auto accident
And even though the pieces are
Back together physically....
All the king's horses,
And all the king's men,
Or neuropsychologists,
Or mental therapists,
Even Priests,
Can't put him back together again.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Dr Baxstrom Visit
Randy had an appointment with Dr Baxstrom today. Before going, we had discussed how this would be the last visit since the doctors at Harborview had said that the issues that Randy was having could not be fixed with prisms and Dr Baxstrom strongly believes in using prisms. After seeing Dr Baxstrom today, though, we aren't so sure which direction to go. We talked to him about what the doctors at Harborview said ~ that we should start looking at surgery as a very possible solution. Dr Baxstrom strongly encouraged us to not give up on his methods yet. The type of double vision that Randy has is the hardest one to heal from. Dr Baxstrom says he has had patients that have recovered a lot from it to the point that they have single vision most of the time.
Dr Baxstrom showed Randy some exercises that he could do to strengthen some of the weak muscles around his eyes.
We are just very confused at who to listen to because they are saying the exact opposite. At this point, it won't hurt to continue trying out the exercises that Dr Baxstrom has prescribed, but we won't rule out surgery at this point either.
Dr Baxstrom showed Randy some exercises that he could do to strengthen some of the weak muscles around his eyes.
We are just very confused at who to listen to because they are saying the exact opposite. At this point, it won't hurt to continue trying out the exercises that Dr Baxstrom has prescribed, but we won't rule out surgery at this point either.
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