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.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Randy had his therapies today. For speech today, Vanessa went over Randy's homework. She said he did a great job on his assignment. Next, she had him do a "quick thinking" piece. She had Randy read the instructions aloud, which stated to give possible answers to each question and to be creative. When Randy started, he only gave one answer to the first question and then went on to the next. Vanessa reminded him that the instructions were to give 4 answers. After the reminder, Randy followed the directions accurately. An example of what the task was: Randy was given the statement "A woman with an empty pram. Why?" and he had to come up with 4 answers. Randy's answers were:

1. To get out of credit card debt, the woman sold her child
2. The baby was very ambidexterous and was able to sccot out of the carriage and away
3. A family had pet monkey and while the woman was walking down the street, the monkeys got out of the pram and ran up a tree.
4. The lady didn't have any way to get the groceries home when she went to the strore, so she took the pram wo carry them in.

One of the homework assignments Vanessa gave him was to go to the yahoo game site and play Text Twist. Randy told her about the games from the website of gamesforthebrain.com that he has been enjoying playing. He has also been playing Word Whomp from pogo.com.

In occupational therapy, Tina tested Randy on his reaction time using the driving simulator. They practiced going from brake to the gas pedal ten times and Randy passed. She also worked on Randy's visual scanning skills through a training video. He had to use the brake and turn at given signals and react to the action signs. The results of that test will be given next time. Tina also tested Randy's strength. She did the squeezing test and the pinching ~ there were improvments. She also tested his speed of putting pegs in a pegboard with both his left and his right hand. His speed had improved from the previous times. So improvements are being made!

In physical therapy, Randy worked on the exercise bike to warm up. He then moved to walking sideways, marching, walking backwards, and crossing of one foot over the other both in front and in back.

Randy and his mom then went to Cass's Halloween party at her school.

This evening, we took Cass around the block to go "trick-or-treating". We made it around our little cul-de-sac and then came back home for the car. It was a bit chilly outside. At least, it wasn't raining! It was cold enough that Cass didn't insist on going around our entire block as she has done in the past.

Back to the eye doctor

Randy had an appointment today with the eye doctor. He now has two eye doctors ~ the one seen here, which is the one that began treated him in Good Samaritan (Dr Baxstrom), and then the ones at the Harborview clinic. They have differing opinions on the necessity of prisms and eye exercises. We have continued seeing them both. I think as long as the prisms and eye exercises don't hurt Randy, they are definitely worth a try.

Dr Baxstrom examined Randy's double vision. It has been improving, but it is still there. To help, he applied what is called disposable prism, which is a tape-like device applied over the glasses. He said it can be removed or changed easily and can be doubled or tipled if necessary. It is the cost-effective way to go rather than having to continuously change the glasses as Randy's body heals. Dr Baxstrom said his goal is to reduce the double vision so that Randy can be weaned off of the prism glasses.

Dr Baxstrom advised Randy that he could go to every other day with doing his eye therapies and he introduced a new one, which is pictured above. The new one involves using string with colored beads. Randy is to focus far away, then on the bead within his hand's reach. If the focus is difficult or he sees two beads, he should touch the bead to get it down to one.

Dr Baxstrom said that Randy's tremors are called ataxia and often happens when the head and neck are held too rigidly and often when concentration levels are very high or when the eyes are moving out of their normal range. Some techniques to help are to 1. Look Softly 2. Breathe deeply 3. Relax 4. Let the task happen. I have noticed that he often gets these at night, right after we turn off the lights to go to sleep. I have been telling him at that time to do some deep breathing and I noticed that when he starts doing that, the shakes immediately stop.

One funny thing happened as I was writing the blog tonight. Randy kept trying to say the word "synonym"and it kept coming out as "cinnamon". I said it for him and he would try again, but it came out the same. All we could do was laugh! He did finally get it out, saying it very slowely.

Randy is 30!

Randy turned 30 today! I think he had a good day. We got up on time to make it to church (kind of. We were a tad late). Then after church, Randy and I ran down to the Apple Store in Southcenter. It seems as soon as we get a new power cord or battery for Randy he drops his computer again and it stops working. I told him this was the last one and if he dropped it again, he would be forced to use Microsoft products. So tonight, he had me carry his computer for him.

When we got home from the Apple store, Randy started cooking the steaks. He did an excellent job with them! His friend Brandon stopped by for awhile and Randy had a nice time chatting with him. Then Carrie, Randy's brother's wife, stopped by and visited for awhile.

We ended the evening with eating up the pumpkin pie. All in all, it was a good day.

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween Fun

Today, we went to a pumpkin patch by our house and Randy and Cass picked out the pumpkins that they wanted to carve. It is our Halloween tradition for them to carve out pumpkins and I usually sit in the room with them, staying away from all of the mess! They had a great time.

We also spent the day getting all of the stuff that Randy wants for his birthday dinner. I offerred all of the stuff that I know how to cook (such as lasagna), but he insisted on cooking his own because he really wanted steak. His dad is coming over sometime tomorrow to celebrate with us and his mom baked him his pumpkin pie (Randy doesn't like cake, but he loves pumpkin pie).

Cass had a party this evening. She had a lot of fun. Most of the kids were in black costumes as witches and such, but Cass's was quite colorful!

More pictures are on our space on MSN (http://rarush.spaces.live.com/photos/) under the Halloween album.

Speech Therapy and Sunflowers

Randy had speech therapy today. His therapist, Vanessa, noticed that Randy was more wobbly on his feet today as he walked down the hall. She asked him how much pain he was in and he rated it a 6, which is pretty consistent (very little change in the headaches so far).

Vanessa reviewed Randy's homework with him. She advised him that when doing homework, he needed to concentrate on doing 3 things: 1. Be Focused 2. Try to not be impulsive 3. See the main idea ~ the "forest for the trees"

She told him, when reading ask the following questions: What's most important; what's least important; and ask who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Vanessa also went over Randy's planner with him. She commended him for doing a better job with consistently utilizing the planner. He is doing a great job with checking things off of his to do list as he does them and he is accomplishing more of his tasks than before.

Randy did very well on his "think fast" exercises (where he is given a category and has to list 10 things that fit in that category within 30 seconds). He had to list body parts, relatives, parts of a car, and things in a kitchen.

When Randy got home, he hung out in his chair listening to his NPR and worked on getting the seeds out of the sunflowers, which is what is pictured above.

We spent the evening doing what we had done many Friday nights before the accident ~ Randy, Cass and I hung out in the living room listening to "This American Life" while doing our own separate activities (Randy was laying on the loveseat listening intently, Cass was building her sock puppets, and I played a game on my computer). Then we all (Randy, Cass, Randy's mom and me) all hung out in the living room watching the Charlie Brown special.

It was a very nice night!

Oh, and a small announcement for those who don't know. Randy is turning 30 this Sunday. We had a lot going on with it being right around Halloween (Randy and Cass have to do their carving of pumpkins and Cass has a party to go to), but I wanted everyone to know. Not only is it a big deal because it is 30, but we really do have a lot to celebrate this year! So, if you get a chance, shoot Randy an email at Randy.A.Rush@gmail.com and tell him Happy Birthday!!!!!

Therapy Today

In Occupational Therapy today, Tina reappliedthe tape to Randy's left arm and shoulder. It seems to be helping with the pain in that shoulder. She also worked with Randy on his reaction time ~ they played catch with a ball with having to pretend to "put on the brake" of a car as the ball was caught. They also worked with lasers somemore, where she had a laser and Randy had a laser and Randy had to use his laser to chase hers.

In Physical Therapy today, that therapist did a re-evaluation of Randy's strength, balance, and coordination. Randy's left shoulder is improved, but still down a tiny bit. With side steps, Randy's balance has improved a lot and with turning in circles, the balance has improved a bit. She also evaluated Randy on walking up the stairs without using the railing. He did well with going up the stairs. The therapist, Julie, measured the angle of the range of motion on his left foot and found it was 5 degrees better. The range of motion with his left leg has also improved by 5 degrees. With walking, Randy's knees are still a bit shaky. The therapist said that Randy will probably be done with physical therapy sometime in November.

When Randy got home from therapy today, he shut himself in the bedroom and really worked on the class he is taking. He started working through all of the practice quizzes, getting ready for the final exam. When I got home, he said he was frazzled because the quizzes were a lot of work. I think he enjoyed working through them, though. It was good for him.

EEG Today

Randy had his EEG up at Harborview today (EEG being an Electroencephalogram, or brain wave test - it is used to detect abnormalities in the activity of the brain). They were testing for any seizure activity. For part of the test, Randy needed to be asleep or in a very restful state, so they wanted him sleep deprived. So I made it my mission to keep him awake until midnight. I made it until about 11:30 and then just couldn't keep my eyes open. I woke up, though, a little before midnight and he was still awake - so mission was accomplished.

He and his mom headed up to Harborview bright and early this morning. The EEG took an hour and 45 minutes they said they got the necessary information, so he was able to get to a restful enough state. We will get the results of that on November 15th when we go back to the Neurology Clinic. Randy also has an appointment with the TBI Triage clinic through Harborview on that day, but I am a little unclear of what that clinic will do for us.

Randy also went through his evaluation for the Metro Access system today. They tested him on his ability to remember what buses he would need to take in simulated situation. Randy said he didn't do too well on that one. He tried to venture a guess but then had to admit to the evaluator that it was purely a guess. Then they took him outside of the building to see if he could read a map, which he did great with, but then they turned him around to go back inside and they wanted him to backtrack his way back. Randy said it was kind of hit or miss on what he remembered. Once he started on the wrong path, though, he could tell it was the wrong path. They will let us know in a couple of weeks if Randy is approved for the Access program or not.

Then, when Randy got home, he began diggin through things in our garage. He has been fixated on finding a stereo system that he knows he put in there a few months ago. Currently, finding anything in our garage is not a small feat. Things have no organization and we have too much stuff in there. Randy did end up finding the stereo system, though, along with a few other things he had completely forgot he had.

Also today, Randy commented that his double vision was definitely better, which is definitely good news. He did have to go to wearing his patch tonight, though. We went over to the house of some people in our church ~ we had joined a small group (which is sort of like a bible study group. Ours happns to be the 40 days of Community). We had missed the last few sessions because of the chronic pain seminar and so we went tonight to get caught up. Randy walked in with his patch and the Marty asked him why he was wearing it. Randy explained the double vision and Marty immediately began praying over Randy for healing of his vision. So we expect to see continuous improvement in Randy's eyesight. We know there are a lot of people out there praying for him. We know this because of the improvements Randy has had so far.

Randy also bought himself a watch today. For those who have known Randy for quite some time, this might come as a bit of a shock. Randy has not owned a watch since his early teens, outside of a pocket watch I bought him around the time that we were first married. He was a firm believer that cell phones could easily double as watches. He decided, though, that he needed something easily accessible that could tell him not only the time but also what day it is. So, Randy bought a watch. Randy joked that using a planner doesn't do much good if you don't know what day it is!

I told him that there will be a day when we are much older, sitting outside on the front porch that he will eventually build for me, and I will be able to turn to him and say "Life with you has never been boring!"

BBQing

Randy spent the morning at our neighbor's house today. His mom needed to go into the dentist. Since her dentist is rather far away, she went to our dentist, which happens to be a good friend of her dentist. While she was there, Randy hung out at the neighbor's, who was thankfully working from today today. Randy took the time to read some more of the textbook of the class that he is taking. The class ends here shortly and he did what he always did with online classes ~ he saved everything for the last minute!

Throughout the afternoon, Randy worked on his models, of course. He also made dinner tonight. Randy makes excellent burgers.

Then, it being Tuesday night, he took off with his friend Brandon.

Today I started my physical therapy today for my pinched nerve. My coworked today asked if I had brought shorts or some sweats and I kind of looked at him like he was crazy. I informed him that I do not wear shorts, EVER! I have very white legs and would rather not show them off to anyone. I told him I was sure I could move around just fine in my slacks. So I get to physical therapy today and right after the therapist introduces herself, she hands me shorts to put on.

The session went very well despite the wearing of shorts. During her evaluation, she seemed to know right where to find all of the spots that hurt. However, she finished the session up doing some stretches that really helped. She told me that my posture is a big culprit of my lower back problems. I tend to stand mostly on the front part of my foot with my body leaning forward, so she had me working on shifting my weight back.She also gave me a couple of exercises to do that were very similar to the ones that Doug emailed me a week or so ago. Overall, I feel better.

Our Monday

In occupational therapy today, Tina, the therapist asked Randy how the taped worked for him. He said it did help. She did a motor free visual tape, which is part of pre-driving. Tina advised Randy to check with his eye doctor to see when they think Randy will be ready for the driving test. I am assuming that as long as there is double vision, he will not be able to get behind the wheel.

In speech today, the therapist worked on word retrieval exercises. Randy had to name vegtables. He had to name as many as he could in 30 seconds. He was able to do 11.

Randy brought home a large rubber tube that he is to use to do exercises to strengthen his left foot and ankle. He tried to demonstrate at home, but Max and Daisy thought they needed to join in with the fun.

Tonight, Randy and I ran down to the Supermall. His jeans don't fit him all that well (probably from all the ice cream and gummy worms!). So he thought he needed to go to the Eddie Bauer outlet down there. He had a lot of fun going through all of the sales racks and trying on clothes. We ended up spending a lot more time down there than I had planned, but he had a great time.

Togetherness

We went to church today. During the sermon, they played the video of Dick and Rick Hoyt. I had heard their story on Oprah a few months ago. But for those who don't know, I will give a website and tell a brief description. The website is: http://www.teamhoyt.com/index.html. The story: Rick was born in 1962. Due to a tragedy at birth, Rick was spastic quadriplegic, cebral palsy and non speaking. His parents wanted Rick to have as "normal" a life as they could possibly give him. At one point, he was taught to "write his thoughts" using a computer device. Rick voiced his desire to run in a marathon. His dad, Dick, made it happen. He pushes him through the marathons. It was said perfectly in the video today ~ Dick, the father, is the body (it is up to him to push his son through the marathons) and Rick is the heart. The point is togetherness. Rick couldn't do it without his father Dick, and Dick, the father, wouldn't do it without his son.

Ephesians 4:16 says "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every support ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

We weren't meant to go through this life alone.

The pastor pointed out Randy and said "Randy, you can't become strong by yourself". It is so true. Randy couldn't have made it this far without his family pushing the doctors and pushing him to do what is necessary, those who have prayed for him for healing, or those who have emailed him to give him support.

I couldn't have been strong for him without the prayers of all of those out there or the support of all of those who have commented to the blog or called or email me their support.

For those who don't believe or aren't sure there really is a god out there, contact me. I have proof. I can send you the pictures of the car that Randy came out of and send you the events that happened that day ~ a trauma nurse being right there and willing to stop to get him breathing again. Without God's love and "interference" Randy wouldn't be here.

God intended up to work together, to support one another. Christine was there and gave the talents and knowledge that God gave her to Randy and saved his life. Many people were there for us to help us through this time. We are like puzzle pieces, meant to fit together to make things whole. Don't try to go through things by yourself.

Togetherness makes things happen. As the Hoyt's say "There isn't anything in the world we can't go together."

Not much

There isn't much to report today. It was my Saturday to work, so I got up early and headed out. I tried to get Randy up, but it was a futile effort. He was pretty asleep when I left.

When he did get up, he and his dad went out in search of airplane models. They ended up getting one in which his dad flew in many years ago. Randy is excited about putting it together. He has yet to paint any of his models. He simply enjoys the process of putting them together.

It's Friday!

There isn't much to report today. I went into work a little later than usual this morning. I made sure to get Randy up and going before I left. So I got to sleep in a little and for him, he had to wake up earlier than usual.

Randy didn't do much today. He did get in a short walk with his mom. He then spent most of the rest of the day working on his model airplane. He didn't feel very well throughout the day. As soon as I got home, he was asking for some medication for pain. He says he hurts all over.

Randy's Therapy

Here is Randy with his occupational therapist

Therapy, therapy, and more therapy

Randy had all three therapies today.

His speech therapy reviewed Randy's planner. She talked about having Randy set monthly goals and let him know that it is okay for him to change his mind about the goals that he sets. She advised Randy that having 3 main goals to accomplish each day would be a reasonable amount because he does need have some "down time". She then went over some papers she had given him to do. He hadn't finished an assignment where he had to read a paragraph and come up with the main idea, so she had him read the story out loud and re-read the questions. He was then able to pick out the correct main idea. Talking through the questions seemed to help Randy answer the questions more easily. She gave him a sheet of homework to do until the next session.

In occupational therapy, Randy let the therapist know his shoulder was still hurting him so she gave him a little bit of a massage, worked on some exercises, and then gave him some kinesio tape for him to wear on his shoulder to help the muscles be retrained to go back into their normal places. Then Randy and the therapist worked with a rubber ball, bouncing it back and forth between them (see video clip in previous post). They then worked with a board, nails, and colored rubber bands. Randy was given "task cards" and had to duplicate the pattern with the rubber bands, matching the color and the design. It was good perceptual practice and good utilization of both hands in stretching out the rubber bands.

Throughout the therapy sessions, Randy's mom noticed that the harder Randy had to concentrate on a task, the more he seemed to have more "tremors"(the shaking of his entire body, though most noticeable in his head).

In physical therapy, RAndy and the therapist started with the shuttle machine (pictured above). He had to do 20 pushes with both legs and then 20 pushes with each leg separately. Then Randy worked on a balance star where he had to walk backward while hooked up to a stretchy rope. The goal was to walk backward as far as possible, then walk forwards using even steps, then sidestepping. It was very challenging. The therapist also had Randy work on standing with his feet toe-to-heel, and get his balance. It was much more difficult for him to put his left foot in front of his right foot.

This evening was suppose to be the last of the seminars for the chronic pain specialist but we all skipped out on going. I am still in quite a bit of pain from the pinched nerve and didn't want to sit there for 2 hours. This evening, we all just hung around the house. Cass played ping pong with anyone she could get to play with her ~ first her grandma and then Randy, until Daisy got ahold of one of the balls and squished it with her teeth. That is one down side of playing ping pong on the floor! You have to be quicker than the dogs!

Ping Pong

Today, Randy and his mom went and got fingerprinted so they can start volunteering at Cass's school.

Then they headed to Fred Meyer so that Randy could get another model airplane (surprise, surprise!). He got one for himself and one for Cass. Next stop was the dollar store to get ping pong paddles and balls to work on some of his occupational therapy at home.

After Cass got home and finished with her homework, her and Randy played ping pong on the floor. The dogs decided they needed to join in as well, so it ended up being a "keep away" game from the dogs!

Randy also worked on some of his tasks today, which is great. He remembered to sweep the floors and to clean up the floor by his side of the bed which was a big mess from all of his puzzle books and stuff. It was so bad I couldn't even open the closet doors. He did a great job, though, with getting it cleaned up and with reorganizing all of his books by the time I came home from work.

More Therpay today

Randy had a hard time getting up today. His mom was able to get him up just in time for him to have a shower and then head out to his therapies today.

For physical therapy, Randy worked on the exercise bike to warm up, worked on some step exercises and some wall exercises. He also did some squats and worked on marching, walking backwards, and walking sideways. Marsha inquired about pool therapy so the therapist put Randy on the list. I think he will really enjoy that and it will be a nice break up in the therapy routine.

In speech today, the therapist got on to Randy for not doing his to do list. He has even stopped carrying the items over as he did before. I tried putting a sticky note on out bedroom door to remind him to check his to do list, but that didn't work. His response to that was to write on the note "What? You think I have a memory problem or something?". Lately, he seems rather resistant to any suggestions or reminders. We aren't giving up, though. There has to be a motivation "button" to get his buy in with following through with completing tasks and such. My thought was to give a rewards system ~ if he sticks with his tasks and completes them throughout the week, at the end of the week he can "reward" himself with getting another model airplane to build since that seems to be what he is wanting to spend his time on currently. The therapist also suggested that Randy set specific times and set an alarm clock on his cell phone to remind him to complete the task.

The speech therapist also today gave him a worksheet to do. The first instruction on the worksheet was to read through the entire sheet before beginning. Randy ignored this instruction and just began working the problems on the sheet. Well the very last problem contained the instruction to only complete items 1 and 2. So Randy needs a little work on his impulsivity and needs to slow down a bit.

In occupational therpay, the therapist put a hot pack on Randy's left shoulder. It has really been hurting him. The heat seemed to really help it. The therapist also gave Randy techniques to reduce stress and possibly pain. The first was going on a "mental holiday". The second technique was meditation ~ starting with concentrating on your breathing, then imagine your head and neck feel light and floating like a balloon and feel soft, then with each breath the muscles get softer and lighter and loose and more relaxed, then you focus on feeling warmth starting with your neck and having it slowely move to your toes, and then focusing on relaxation of fingers, toes, mouth and tongue and end with breathing deeply.

The occupational therapist also worked on eye tracking. She had a laser pen and Randy had to track it with his own laser pen. Randy had to close one eye to see it, but he did well with this exercise. The therapist also did some exercises with ping-pong paddles and sponge ball ~ they rolled the ball back and forth on the table. This exercise was also working on Randy's eye tracking.

Then this evening, Randy went out with his friend Brandon for their usual Tuesday "hanging out". Randy really looks forward to getting out with him.

Trading Places

Today is going to be a very short post. I am currently in rather a lot of pain. I had to come home early today. I have a pinched sciatic nerve. It started hurting Friday and today got bad enough that I gave in and went into the doctor. I am currently sitting on ice and waiting for the muscle relaxer to kick in!

Randy didn't have any therapies today so he and his mom worked on his exercises at home and then went down to Costco ~ so he definitely got his walking in! Randy, this afternoon, has been working on his airplane models and kind of taking care of me ~ the models are really the top priority right now :-)! He has definitely been enjoying putting the planes together and it makes him use his left hand, which is always good.

That's going to be it for the updates today.

Sunday

Today we went to the Free Will Baptist church here in Kent. The church I grew up in was the Free Will Baptist in Yakima (my dad was the pastor for many years). We got together with those in this and other Free Will Baptist churches for things like camp, so I have known some of the people in this church since I was little. Right after Randy's accident, my dad called the pastor and he came and visited us quite often when Randy was in the hospital and the church people there prayed often for Randy. So today, we decided to visit there and let the congregation see the miracles God has done because of all of the prayers of His people. It was great!

After church, Randy's parents (his dad was in town this weekend because of Cass's birthday party) took us out to the BlackDiamond Bakery, which is Randy's favorite restaurant. Randy ordered a coffee and his mom and I, at the same time, told the waitress it needed to be decaffinated. The waitress found it very funny. When she brought refills, she made sure to tell us it was decaffinated.

Randy spent most of the rest of the afternoon working on building a model airplane. His dad took him to a hobby store and bought him another to do when he gets done with this current one. He is finding he really enjoys putting them together. When they got back, Randy insisted on carrying boxes of apples from the back of his dad's truck to our garage. He did excellent with carrying them and keeping his balance. Those boxes have to weigh about 35 pounds. So there is proof that his left hand is definitely getting better and his balance has greatly improved.

With his memory, he has some good days and some bad memory days. Today seemed to be a good day for memory. Friday and Saturday, though, he would forget things within seconds of being told. Overall, though, I do see improvements in his short-term memory. I know his therapists are working on memory things and his mom and I are both reading different books on improving memory. I know that the memory is the last thing to "heal". We are all working hard at helping him find the tools needed to get a jumpstart on getting there.

Cass's Party

Well, the party was a hit today. Cass had so much fun. I wish it hadn't been so rushed in getting it together to we had time to invite the friends of hers that didn't go to school with her (like Brittney!), but all in all it was a fun time. Since it was a bit chilly outside today, we did most of the things inside. The girls made name tags with their "hawaiian name" and then made leis. They then played pass the coconut and did a little limbo. We did go outside for the relay race since their isn't anywhere in the house where there is room to run. For the relay race, the kids had to put on a grass skirt, a sunhat, and some sunglasses and then run a short distance, come back and take everything off so their partners could put the stuff on. I think the kids had a lot of fun with that. Randy played camera man today. It was a lot of fun.

Randy did great with helping get everything ready. We had a bunch of fruit for the kids to eat. Randy spent the morning slicing it all up.

In the evening, he played a game with Cass and I on the Gamecube for awhile. He didn't do too bad with the game, but normally he would always whomp on Cass and I. Tonight we at least had a chance. His attention span is still rather short, though, so he wasn't able to finish the game. He moved on to working on one of the model airplanes he got.

Randy the Funnyman

Randy today, told me "I don't have a brain injury, I am just a normal 55 year old" in reference to his lack of memory. I found it very humorous.

Today, Randy had to go through testing in therapy today because it was his 5th session.The therapist checked his strength, grip and coordination. There was improvement in all areas and had met all of the goals the therapist had set for him. The goals that Randy set for himself were memory strengthening and improving skills for driving.

For speech today, Randy worked on his planner. Randy said the therapist chastised him for his "to do" list. He does a great job of making the list, but not such a great job of doing it. The therapist suggested that he schedule the task. That is funny that she talked to him about this because this last weekend, I had a big discussion with him about needing to actually do his tasks and I suggested that he use the schedule part of his planner and that he sit down once a week and write in the exact times of his therapies throughout the week and then schedule his tasks around them.

Then the speech therapy tested him with the given task of being given a category and then naming 5 things within that category within 15 seconds. With fruits and tools, he was able to get 5 out of 5. With occupations, wild animals, and planets, he got 4 out of 5. With actors, he got 3 out of 5. Then with rivers, he got 2 out of 5. For homework, Randy is to name ten items within 30 seconds for the categories. Randy really wanted to practice this tonight, so tonight on the way to the store, Cass read off the categories and Randy named as many things as he could. Cass was itching to try to help out with naming them as well.

Tonight, we spent the evening getting the house all ready for Cass's party. This one was a little shorter planned than the first one so she didn't get a chance to get invitations out to everyone that she wanted, but hopefully those that she did invite all get a chance to come. Tonight, we dug out all of the stuff we bought in June for the original party and got all of the decorations up. The house looks all Lua-y. Cass is very excited!

Sunflowers

Randy didn't have any therapies today. He did go on a walk with him mom and worked on his eye exercises. Even though the doctor at Harborview didn't think the eye exercises would do any good, if they don't hurt Randy then we figure, on the chance that the one doctor is wrong in their opinion, it wouldn't hurt to continue doing the exercises.

Randy also worked on his sunflowers. He had planted them shortly before the accident. They are now tall enough that you have to get on a ladder to reach the tops of them. They got so heavy that they toppled over, so he and his mom propped them up with bamboo poles and pieces of wood.

We also went to the second of three seminars for chronic pain. Tonights topic was the very controversial topic of narcotics. This chronic pain clinic does use narcotics to help some people live with their pain. The doctor said that over 50% of their patients use narcotics, but they also work with people that don't want to use them.

We aren't ready to go down this road by any means. We just started taking the new medication and have every intention of giving it plenty of time to work. My hopes and prayers are that the Amitriptyline works for Randy's pain. Our intentions in going to the seminar is to be informed in case other things don't work. We want to know what other options are out there.

In this pain clinic, they only use narcotics that are long-lasting and that can be taken by mouth and that don't provide a euphoric feeling, so they use Methadone and long-lasting morphine. Both of these drugs are rather scary to me. I know there are a lot of people who use them to make their lives livable through the pain, but that isn't the stories that you hear of them. The stories commonly heard are the ones of addiction. The doctor tonight did bring up that issue. He said that dependance happen to everyone, but addiction is rare. His definition of addiction is behavior issues (i.e. willing to sell your worldly belongings to get more). He said the medications are given in a controlled environment and given only to make the road of getting better less bumpy and working towards putting pain in the background instead of having it in the foreground.

It sounds nice, but not a road I want to go down anytime soon.

I think that is it for updates tonight.

Today, Randy saw his other speech therapist, Sohi Oh. She went over strategies to help with word memory such as word association, imagery, auditory input (say aloud what you need to remember), rehearsal (repeating something over and over), chunking (grouping information, breaking things into smaller units), acronyms, and making up a story.

Randy also had physical therapy (see picture). He worked on balance coordination with various exercises. Backwards steps were harder for him ~ he was more wobbly. He worked on a shuttle machine where he had to put a ball in between his knees while doing repetitions. Then he had to push with his right leg and then his left. Pushing with the left leg was much harder.

In occupational therapy, Randy worked on multi-tasking. He had an excel table he had to replicate while being interrupted with needing to send an email and then getting a phone call. Randy did quite well with that.

Tonight when I got home, he was making dinner. He was cooking chicken on the barbeque. I asked him if he needed help or if he was handling things alright on his own. He said he was doing just fine and then informed me that he decided to make Nike's slogan his motto ~ Just Do It!. So that is how he is going to heal and get better ~ just do it.

Randy met Becky

Randy had to go to Harborview today for an opthamology appointment. He was also scheduled to go through the evaluation for the Metro Access, but the opthamologist had put drops in Randy's eyes that prevented him from seeing so he wasn't able to go through the evaluation. It had to be rescheduled for the 25th, when he goes in for his EEG.

In between the appointments, though, his mom took him up to 3 West and he got to meet Becky, Pauline and Carmen. I wish I could have been there to thank them all again for all they did for us. Since I couldn't go, though, I asked his mom to at least get a picture of Randy with Becky. She said it was a nice reunion ~ everyone was crying and everyone had wonderful encouraging words for Randy.

The opthamologist (Dr Sohn) had Randy describe his double vision and wanted to know about the prism glasses Randy was prescribed and wanted to know about Dr Baxstrom (the eye doctor from Good Sam). He said there is a lot of debate about eye therapy and he is of the opinion that the eye exercises don't do any good and that the eyesight, if it improves, will do so on its own.

He checked Randy's vision with eye charts and checked his ability to track light. Randy said that when he was looking left, his double vision subsided a bit. He checked Randy's vision with some prism glasses. He also checked Randy's eye pressure and then recommended that Randy see the neuro-opthamolgist (which we were really wanting him to see). So randy saw Dr Mudumbal. The two doctors examined all of Randy's records from Harborview and they examined the CT scans on the computer screen.

Randy has some nerve damage - 4th nerve palsy. The facial fractures may have caused some scar tissue to form. Dr Mudumbal said that he doesn't think we can get a definitive correction yet because it is still early in the recovery. He said they won't know the total extent of the eye damage until 6 to 12 months from now. They said that at that time, he will be re-evaluated and see if there is a necessity for corrective lenses or surgery.

They said that Randy's eye is having muscle spasms. They put some drops in his eyes to paralyze the muscle spasms and his nearsightedness went away. They will be seeing Randy in 6 weeks. At that time, the doctor will determine if it is necessary to prescribe the drops to Randy. Right now, though, they are wanting to give his body more time to heal.

I admit that I am struggling a bit with lack of patience right now. Randy's eyesight is one of his biggest complaints, second only to the headaches. I was hoping for more answers or solutions today. Throughout this recovery, we have been told often that we have to wait to see ~ wait to see what the mental deficiencies really are, wait and see how much the use of the left side returns to, wait and see how well his eye sight will be. Logically, I know that we are still early in this whole recovery process, but emotionally, it feels like it has been a long time.

I received an email from the RN that saved Randy's life. It made my day! Christine, if you are reading this, thank you so much for your email! This is a picture she sent of her and her "rat".

I have no doubt that God was with Randy that day and had set things accordingly to keep him here with us. Christine said he was an hour late leaving work that day. If she hadn't been there, he wouldn't be here. She commented in her email that Randy must have had a strong force with him or a linebacker for his guardian angel. How very true!

Today, Randy continued to work on drying more fruit. We will be eating dried fruit for years to come!

Randy also talked to the LOA office at Boeing. His LOA expired at the end of September. Randy was able to get it extended. He is looking forward to getting back to work. I had advised him to extend the LOA through the end of the year, but he decided to go only through the end of October and then wants to see where he is at then.

He and I also talked about putting together a set schedule for his days. He is doing great with writing down tasks he wants to do, but is struggling a bit with actually doing them. I thought it might help if he scheduled out his day and put "task time" in there. He is going to give it a try.

With the class that he is taking, they don't have set due dates, so it has been a bit of a struggle for him as well. He has done some of the reading, but I think he needed a bit more structure to the class. The only due date he really has is the taking of the final exam and that is a few weeks off. We were going to try setting due dates for him but then he got very busy with therapies and doctor's appointments. Hopefully, after this week, we can be done with doctor's for a little while and just concentrate on therapies and getting into a set routine.

Randy's Sunday

We had another good day today. We slept in a bit too much this morning and ended up missing church, but it felt great to get sleep.

Randy spent most of the day working on drying more fruit. He took a break so that we could go to the store to get the final things for Cass's birthday party. Her original part was scheduled for the Saturday after Randy's accident. We are throwing her a late birthday party to make up for it. So today we planned the party (our original party was to be outside, but I think it is suppose to rain next Saturday so we had to re-plan some of the games) and got the finishing items needed. Cass is so excited.

We also went to the library today. I got the book "Fighting for David" by Leone Nunley. It is the story of what she went through when her son was in a motorcycle accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury. I have had to put the book down a couple of time because it brings back some of the emotions that I felt those first few days, when we didn't know if Randy was going to make it.

I also talked to Mrs Merrill, the wife of the man that Randy shared a room with during his first week on 3 West of Harborview. Her husand is currently in a nursing home but she is hoping that he can improve enough that she can get him into rehab at Good Sam. They need a lot of prayer. He was doing so well while Randy was still in his coma and then he began having issues with fluid on the brain and he experienced a fall and had to have a second surgery. He is now not even able to walk, but the doctors speculate that it is probably due to the fluid on the brain. They are talking of putting a shunt in to take care of that. Mrs Merrill doesn't have family around here and is dealing with a lot of this on her own. She calls me when she needs support and to talk to someone who has been there. I feel very fortunate that Randy has had an amazing recovery process and I have been blessed to have a great support system that includes Randy' mom who has given up the comforts of her life and moved into our crazy house, and I have had a lot of support from old friend and new friends and Randy's coworkers. For those praying for Randy, please say a prayer for Mr and Mrs Merrill as well.

Randy's Saturday

We had a great day today.

Last night, after playing games together, Randy and I got into a cleaning mode and started working on reorganizing our bedroom. Today we finished the task. Randy has been wanting to set habits, such as making sure he puts things in the same place and such to help with not having a good memory. So we moved a little bookcase that has been sitting in our spare room into our bedroom. It would be an easy task except for the fact that the bookcase was full of books. Our house is actually overrun with books. To have a home for all of the books that we currently have, we really need about two more big bookcases. We ended up boxing up some we felt we could live without having around for awhile and we reorganized other shelves and found homes for the remainder of the books. Now Randy is all set up to have one place to set all of his stuff to make it easy for him to find.

We also went to the store today and got Randy a couple of model airplanes to build. He has it set in his mind that he will not be able to fly again so he has decided to build the models for right now. He has also talked about getting into photography again. Randy has an amazing eye for that sort of thing and he enjoyed developing his work. Before the accident we had talked about turning part of the garage into a dark room. We can't really afford to do that at this point, but he decided today to start working on drawing up the plans to do that.

This evening, Randy decided to make dinner. He did a great job of planning and cooking it. He made cube steak with garlic mashed potatos.

Tonight just felt amazing. It was as close to "normal" as we have had since the accident. Randy made dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen afterward (he has always been a very messy cook). We played Taboo together as a family ~ Randy did excellent with both describing the words that he had and guessing the words of other. Even the way in which he interacted with Cass with giving our Max a bath (even though he is the smallest dog, it takes at the very least, two people to give him a bath because he acts just like a cat), it just made it feel like things use to be, before the accident.

We also worked on his daily exercises today.

All in all, Randy had a great day today.

Mr Randy Rush

Randy had a good day today. He slept in until 11 this morning. He says he doesn't feel any differences from the new medication, but I think the last few days he has had less energy and been more tired. Randy worked on his eye exercises this morning, but didn't quite get around to doing the other exercises he is suppose to do daily before his mom had to get on the road to Yakima.

Our neighbor works from home sometimes, so Randy hung out at their house. When I walked in, he was looking pretty comfortable, sitting in a recliner doing logic problems. Cass and I have always enjoyed logic problems, but Randy never sat still enough to do any of those things. Now he is really enjoying them.

He worked some on his exercises and practiced walking around the house a bunch without his cane :-) . He also got up and danced a bit with Cass to the ending song of the Ghostbusters movie. I wish I had a video camera!!

We are going to spend the rest of the evening playing games together as a family.

Starting of Speech Therapy

Randy had a very busy day today! He has his evaluation to start speech therapy at Valley Medical Center today. Randy said the speech therapist asked him a lot of the same things that all of the others did ~ she had to get a baseline of where he is currently at. She had him name objects within a box and he got all of them correct. She had him repeat words and phrases and he did alright with that ~ just had with "l" and "s" in words. She had him name all of the animals that he could name ~ he named 8. She asked him questions such as "where do nurses work", "where do you buy stamps", and "what color is snow" and he got all of them correct. She then had him identify pictures, shapes, letters, numbers, and colors and he was accurate on all of them. He had to name things within the room and his body parts. He got caught up on index finger and he struggled with left vs right. She then tested his ability to follow directions. He did well with even those that had were 3 steps.

She then tested his cognitive ability with questions and organizing of pictures into categories, picking out a word within a list that didn't belong, stating how pictures were alike and different, arranging pictures from smallest to largest. He did well with all of those activities. He also had to state 4 or 5 things in sequence that you do to change batteries in a flashlight.

Things he needs to work on: delayed memory skills, memory for detail, and short-term memory skills.

The therapist also asked reasoning questions about opposites and had Randy complete analogies such as "river is to boat as highway is to....". He did quite well with all of that.

For occupational therapy, his therapist asked him if he had been writing in his journal as she had told him to, and he admitted he has not. She then asked him if he remembered what he had done yesterday and he did okay with recalling what took place. The therapist worked on multi-tasking today by doing things such as working with cards on a table by picking them out and putting together stories with them and then whenever a timer went off, Randy had to walk to the sink, turn the water on and off and then return to finish the task. He did quite well with that.

Next, the therapist had to put numbered cards in numerical order and periodically that therapist would interrupt to have Randy answer random questions and then he would have to return to the task with the cards. She said he did quite well.

For homework, he had to pick a task, plan it out and follow it through. He also has to practice multi-tasking.

We also went to a seminar tonight. It is the first of 3 on chronic pain. Randy just started medication that we are hoping will alleviate a lot of his pain, we are going to the seminars just in case the medication doesn't help. One thing that was said during the seminar was to not enable the person ~ not to over help them. This goes right along with what Randy has been asking for. Over the last few days as I start to do something for him, he has been stopping me and asking to do it himself. He said he feels like we treat him like he is in a bubble and he really wants out.

Not Much To Report

There isn't a whole lot to report today. Randy didn't have any therapies. He did do some of his exercises at home such as his eye exercises. Randy says his vision is improving slightly (the double vision at least), but not as quickly as he would like. Randy also worked on his stretches and worked on his exercise bike. He also continued to work on drying fruit. We have enough to last us quite a long time!

Randy was caught a few times tonight walking without his cain. His balance continues to get better, but without the cane he is still a little too wobbly.

The new medication hasn't started helping with the pain yet, but it is only the third night he has taken in it. I am hoping it kicks in soon.

Randy's Day

Randy had occupational and physical therapy today at Valley Medical.

For occupational therapy, Randy has 4 goals he is working on:
1. To increase his grip/strength
2. To improve his multi-tasking activities
3. To plan and follow through an activity from start to finish
4. To increase his memory

Randy accomplished goal #3 with the planning and making of dinner yesterday.

The therapist gave him math problems to do and gave him the task of organizing a stack of books in any manner that he chose. For the books, Randy chose to organize them by size. With the math problems, in the timeframe he had, he finished 10 out of the 14 math problems. With errors, he was able to self-correct and seemed to do well when he talked himself through the process.

The therapist also had Randy do shoulder shrugs as a strengthening exercise.

In physical therapy Randy worked on the exercise bike and some balance activities.

This evening, when I got home, his friend Brandon was down on our kitchen floor looking at our fridge to try to help with getting the water attached again. I teased Randy about inviting his friend over to put him to work! We didn't get it hooked up but we at least now think we know what the problem is.

I think that is it for updates for today.

Dr Visit Today

Today was a long day! It started at 6:30 this morning for Randy and I. We got up a little after 6:30 to drive the car down to the dealership in Fife to have the coolant leak looked at. They gave us a new 9-7 to drive around today (the 9-7 is the Saab SUV). Randy was excited. He had just been checking one out inside the dealership. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't Randy that got to drive it, it was me. I hate driving big cars. It was very nice inside, but I was very excited to get my little car back this evening!

After dropping the car off this morning, we headed to Randy's doctor appointment at the Neurosurgery clinic at Harborview. I felt a lot more confident with this appointment than I did with the one with the Neurologist from Multicare. The doctor today asked Randy a series of questions. She really wanted to get down to what was different about him since the accident. We talked about the weakness in his left side, the issues he has with his memory, the trouble with finding words, the shakes that come and go, and the constant pain he has in the left side of his head, his neck and his tailbone. We described the happenings of September 5th when we had to take Randy to the ER. She said there is no way to really tell if what happened that night was a seizure. She said it could have been petty seizures because you can be cognizant during those. They are going to do an EEG on Randy in about 3 weeks to see if there is any visible seizure activity or anything out of the ordinary going on. What was funny was that she had said that because of Randy's injury, his brain is expected to show as "not normal" through the EEG and it might not be able to tell us anything. Then, after she left the room for awhile to view Randy's records from Harborview and to consult with an attending physician, she came back and told us that Randy had 2 EEGs done while in Harborview and the 2nd one (which was the only one I was actually aware of ~ I believe it took place about a week after the accident), came back normal. She seemed surprised. She said that since that that came back normal, we should be able to see if anything is out of the ordinary going on now.

She did say, though, that she does not believe Randy had a stroke. She says that what she thinks the other doctor saw was from the initial injury. The recent MRI showed some changes, but she believes the changes were from the weakness and lack of use of the left side.

I asked her about the seizure medicaiton given to us by the other Neurologist. She said that she wouldn't recommend it for seizure medication, but it would work for the pain. The attending physician, however, recommended a different medication ~ Amitriptyline. They chose that medication because the side effect is making you sleepy, which would be great in helping Randy get to sleep at night. They are starting him out with a low dose and they warned that it won't help right away. It takes a few days to get into your system. I am really hoping, though, that it will help with his headaches. I can't imagine what it must feel like to have constant pain and trying to function through that.

The attending physician asked Randy how he would compare how he is now with how he was before ~ what percentage is he now to what he was then if then was 100%. Randy answered with the low 90's. Randy said the biggest detriment he is dealing with right now is his eyesight.

We started the medication tonight. Of course, Randy wanted immediate results, so he was a little disappointed. Hopefully it will kick in soon, though, and start allieviating the pain. We get the EEG done in about 3 weeks and have a follow up visit with the Neurology clinic in 6 weeks.

After the doctor visit, Randy and I dropped his mom off in time to walk Cass home from school and he and I went to pick up the car. The problem with the car had to do with a water pressure valve. It was a quick easy fix and it was covered under warranty ~ yeah!!!!

Then, after getting home, Randy cooked us dinner. He did an excellent job! He said it felt good to be back to doing some of the things he did before.

The Adventure Continues

It was just Randy and I home this weekend. Today, I decided to lie down and take a nap. He said he has some work he wanted to do on his computer so I thought all would be safe. I really should know Randy better than that!

I heard his sister and her friend come in the front door. I figured Randy was visiting with her, so I got up and took my time coming out ~ I went in and took a shower. When I came out, Melinda and her friend were sitting in the living room by themselves and they commented on how they had just let themselves in. Then they asked him where Randy was. I looked at this a little surprised and said "you are kidding right?". His sister shook her head no and asked if Randy was taking a nap. I said "You mean he hasn't been out here?". I think my heart skipped a few beats and I started into the kitchen andthat was when, through the back sliding door, I saw Randy sitting outside visiting with our neighbor on his back porch.