Christmas eve

This week has been busy, I am so happy to have it come to an end. It feels like we are on vacation! No appointments until next year, yay!!! This week one of our many appointments was with Dr. Kockler who did the neuro testing right after Josh was released from the hospital. Lets just say that Josh was very unhappy when the doc said that it would be awhile before he would be able to go back to work. He pretty much threw a fit, and it the end the doc said that he would see how he was doing at the end of January and consider letting him start back on a very modified schedule. The doc did say that he thought it was time to let Josh take the driving evaluation and if he passes he can get his privileges back, that made him very happy. The doctor said that he believes that Josh will recover quite well from his TBI (traumatic brain injury) it will just take time, the brain heals much slower than the body. To be honest I don't know where he would fit work in with the schedule of appointments he has right now. Some days he has 4 different appointments and by the time he gets home he takes about a 3 hour nap. The fatigue is somewhat related to the TBI, but even I am tired from going all of the time. I think he needs to just take it week by week, he still has a long road ahead of him. He gets frustrated looking at his progress on a daily bases, but I told him to look back at just a month ago, he has come so far in such a short time. Even week to week he improves a lot, he picked up Asher for the first time this week and he has been out to his shop by himself, doctor approved even! That was one thing the neuro doc said as well, he is approved to use the power tools! One thing at a time......

Today has been spent watching movies in our pj's and just hanging out, so very nice. The Smurf's movie was actually cute, for a watch with the kids kind of movie. They are watching Harry Potter now and I have not seen the one before so I will wait. Josh had no desire to see it so he went out to the shop and even Asher said "no Harry Potter", but that is ok it's almost nap time. I can't wait for our family party tonight and for Christmas in the morning. It will be different to go to church before opening presents, but I am excited for the hour we will spend with our ward family learning about Christ and feeling his spirit on Christmas. Brayd will be speaking in our meeting tomorrow, I love to hear from any of our youth and especially when it's one of my own. He is much braver than me thank goodness. I hope that we can all feel the love that Christ has for us as we celebrate him tomorrow. I am so very thankful for the blessings he has brought to my life this year. I could not have made it without the strength he has given me, and the angels he has surrounded my family with, thank you so much everyone and a very Merry Christmas to all, may God bless each and everyone, Love Denise

Healing

Josh is done with the wound vac for good, he is super happy about that. His wound is healing slowly, but it is healing. He now only has to go into the wound clinic twice a week, I have to change the dressing every day that we don't go. I really hope it heals soon, they said it could be another 3 weeks. One less appointment is good. Yesterday he had 4 appointments, he was really worn out after. PT, OT, ST and wound care, it was a long day. The rest of our week is busy with more appointments, but next week we get to have a break while we are in Salt Lake. It will be nice to be able to slow down a bit. I will have to keep him busy though we don't want him falling behind. His therapist recommended he try hop scotch, to bad that is an out door activity, maybe when we get back. I am afraid we are going to freeze in Salt Lake, mostly Josh he is always cold now. It will be nice to visit everyone we don't get to see very often.

Josh told me last night that he is worried he won't be the same, I told him he won't be the same, but the changes will be ok. He has been through a lot and it has changed him. I think he will be close to what he was physically, it is just going to take time. He is worried about his left side, I had to remind him that he didn't even move his arm for the first 5 weeks and that it is doing much better than the doctor thought it would be doing at this point. I can see an improvement every week, he can do just a little more than he could before. He is not very patient and he gets down a little because he wants to be better than he is. He has been having a lot of pain in his left shoulder the last week or so as they work it out in PT. I really hope this is short term as it is healing. He was down yesterday so I got him a peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks, I don't like going there cause they are so expensive but he needed cheering up and he loves them. I wish there was more I could do to help him. He will enjoy seeing his friends and family over the holidays, I just hope the drive doesn't wear him out to much, his tail bone gets very sore when he sits long.

Over the weekend we took Josh to see Footloose. It came out just after his accident and he had said that he wanted to see it, so we waited until he could go. It sounds silly but it was something that we just couldn't do without him. Thanks Mower friends for waiting with me! We were lucky to catch it at the dollar show, I thought we had missed it. As I sat there with him I was reminded of all that we had been through to make it this far. We are blessed, love to all who have helped us get here, Denise

Secrets

It's that time of year isn't it? When it's ok to keep secrets? Well today I kept one as long as I could, and it was for a really good reason. You see right before Josh left the ICU he had to have an MRI, he didn't know what was going on, he was awake but in a bit of a dream like state. He said he felt like they were putting him in a hole in the wall and they kept chiseling at it to make him fit. It took me awhile to figure out he was talking about the MRI, he was still a little out of it when he first started talking about it. So when the neurologist ordered another one for his brain, he was not very happy. I scheduled it when he wasn't with me and I just kept it to myself knowing how he felt about it. So today we went to his work Christmas lunch which was really nice, I felt a little bad because I was the only non-employee there. Anyway he had some really nice visits with some friends and in the meantime I was watching the clock and had to tell him once it got to be about twenty minutes until his appointment. It was probably good I waited, he wasn't happy and he made some fuss about it. I even heard him down the hall after they took him back telling the girl that they shoved him in a hole in the wall the last time! Silly, they really are not that bad, if you are not already traumatized.
Things have been going well, he is still without the wound vac and we will find out in the morning if he can keep it off. We are busy as ever with appointments, most of the time he gets home and crawls right in bed. He is working hard and improving, he is always sore from therapy which is good, it means it is working. We finally got the Christmas tree up, and some decorations out thanks to the kids. I dug it out for them, but they have been happy to help decorate. It is hard to find the time to get done all I want and need to do each day. I am looking forward to having a break after Christmas, for one week we will get to slow down and enjoy friends and family. I am truly grateful for all that I have and for the help and love that we have received. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas this year, love to all, Denise

Trial

On Friday at the wound clinic Josh talked them into letting him have a break from the wound vac. He still has a hole but it is not to deep anymore and it was not draining to much, so they said they will give it a week and see how he is doing. He is happy to be free from the wound vac. With the wound vac off he has to have his dressing changed every day. So they taught me how to change it......not the funnest thing I have ever done. I have to poke some mesalt, a thin strip of material down in the hole. Kinda creepy, still we hope to keep the wound vac off. Josh had a good weekend, we were busy with Christmas parties and he had a good time. He talked so much on Friday night that his voice was hoarse the next morning. He got pretty worn out and by Sunday afternoon he spent most of it sleeping.

Today starts another round of appointments, he has 3 today. He will start his speech therapy tomorrow, which will help with the brain injury. They call it speech therapy but they spend time working with his brain. It is a full time job keeping up with his appointments, it will be nice to have a break the week after Christmas. We will be going to Salt Lake to see family for the holidays. Josh's sister Kasey has reserved the church on that Tuesday for family and friends to come see him. I will post the details as soon as I get them. This month is flying by, we have yet to put up the tree, maybe tonight. Christmas will be here before we know it! Well Josh will be done with OT here in a minute and then we will have a break for lunch before our next appointment so I better start looking through our coupons for lunch. I hope that everyone is enjoying this special time of year, love to all, Denise

Dr.'s Remarks

Josh had follow up appointments today with two different doctors. First was with the neurologist, he was pleased with the way Josh's arm is healing. He said that it will take some time for the nerves in his arm to grow all of the way back, they grow at a rate of one inch per month. He also wants Josh to have an MRI of his head and c-spine to find out more about his brain injury and his neck. He will go back to see him in a month. He also saw the surgeon Dr Miller, he was very happy with the way Josh is recovering. We talked about some things to watch for in the future and he released him from his care. In between those appointments he had PT and they had him doing things I bet he didn't know he could do. They had him working on his strength on his whole left side. They put straps around his waist and had him bounce on a little trampoline, he had to hop back and forth, they had him jog down the hall and he even skipped. He can't get his feet to far off the ground yet but he got the motions. He is very sore tonight. In between all of that we went to the DMV to get his free parking window hanger, it doesn't seem right to call it a handicap for him, but only for a little while. It comes in handy at the PT building, I think they have more handicap parking than they do regular parking!

It has been a very busy week, the only thing we have left as far as appointments is a wound care in the morning. Over the weekend we have two Christmas parties, it will be good for Josh to be around people. I hope we are all able to catch some Christmas spirit. I was able to move my shelves out of Josh's shop tonight. Thanks to my Dad for helping me get my garage painted and for bringing paint, paper, tape and Shirley to help . It looks so nice, I almost don't want to put anything back in it! I hope now that Josh will have the space he needs to get his drums set up and be able to start playing. It will be a good project for Brayd to help him with. Josh's mood has been good today, he has been positive, I think hearing the doctors tell him good things helped a lot. I know he thinks about the long term affects and where he will be when he is healed as much as he is going to be. It has been said many times that it will be a year before he gets to that point. In the meantime he will work hard to get to that point. Thanks to everyone who has helped him on his journey so far, much love, Denise

Here we go

The weekend was good, Saturday was a little hard for Josh. We had some friends come to help in the yard and he felt bad he could not go out and help them. He was reminded though of how many times he has helped others and that he needed to take his turn. We took him out to dinner and a movie that night, it was good for him to get out. We saw the Muppet's, it was cute. Thanks Kim and Justin for helping me to get him out of the house!
Well today starts the first day of our new schedule and it is a busy one. There are some days when he has 3 different appointments in one day. Between wound care, PT, OT, ST, follow ups with doctors, and therapy with the neuro doc, we are very busy this month. Things should calm a little when the wound vac is off, hopefully by the end of the month. I am thinking we will have at least a few months of all the therapy's. Josh is doing well, a little impatient, he wants to be better faster. He got a really good workout today at PT and they gave him some exercises to do at home. I think when he is done with the wound vac his spirits will lift.
Thanks so much to everyone who came to help in the yard on Saturday, it takes so much stress off of me. There is so much to do and it is nice to know there are people who care and who don't mind helping. Thanks! Much love, Denise

Time off

It has been a very busy week so far, filled with appointments. Josh went to see his regular doctor for the first time since the accident and he was shocked that he was doing as well as he is and that he is walking. He went over everything and said that he wanted to see him at the first of January. He doesn't want him to return to work for awhile, he will evaluate him again at his next appointment. We still haven't heard back from the neuro doc yet for his test results. Wound care is going well and he started PT today. OT will be tomorrow, next week I am going to schedule them on the same day. Josh made the appointments and I know he was thinking less to do in one day would be better, but he did both on the same day before. I think he can do it again and save us from having to have an appointment every day, we'll see how it goes. Josh is doing well at home, he just needs more to do. I know he gets bored and feels like he can't do the things he would like. I am working on getting my stuff out of his garage so that he can set up his drum set and play. It will be good for him to have time out there but I was told he needed someone to be with him when he is in his shop, so I will have to be out there with him. I tried to get him to read, he wasn't interested. I will have to think of a good indoor project for him to do, hmmm. He is walking so good the last few days, very smooth, his left side still droops a little and his hand just kinda hangs there but he is still improving. I would like to take him out to the movie this weekend or maybe to the DI to browse a little, I think he needs a break from the house and doctors.

I can't believe it is December, the last two months are a blurr. I have bought a few items for Christmas but I feel a bit overwhelmed with it all. I haven't even thought about decorating the house, I would really like to get some Christmas spirit but I am not sure how with everything going on. It's funny I have been telling Josh something I have told myself over and over the last 2 months. One day at a time, one day at a time. It is hard to look forward to much, maybe that is my problem with the holidays. I think we all need something to look forward to, maybe I will dig out the tree soon. We are blessed to be together, it is so nice, I am thankful for that. I am also thankful for my dad who has been helping me paint my garage so that I can get my things out of Josh's shop. And for Dan for helping me trim the palm tree out front so that I can see Camden walk to school. Thanks! Love, Denise