For the abridged version of what you’ll find written here, please see Michael’s comment on the last post done by my brother. For the emotionally erratic and somewhat more detailed version, please continue reading…..
Sorry it has been so long. What with planning for the big FUNraiser a couple of weekends ago, then my trip out to Colorado, the madness of construction going on in our home, plus having 2 jobs, time has been on short order these days. And in all honesty, what little time I have sometimes I just don’t want to spend it thinking about anything, and writing to the world just doesn’t appeal to me.
But let me backtrack and bring everyone current. I spent a week out in Colorado with my mom, brother (for part of the trip) and one of my dearest girlfriends Sarah, with visits from my parents old rent-a-son, my friend David from college who lived with my family over the past summer. That week I spent there, he had more good days than bad ones, though that often changes from minute to minute, hour to hour. I got to spend some time in some of the ‘classes’ he has, we got to order equipment, and have open conversations about what life will be like in the future. He appeared to me to be more engaged with his surroundings, and fellow patients and family members, letting himself get outside of his own head for a bit. We had some good laughs–one evening while feeding him dinner I spilled jell-o all over his chest and bed, and he complained that I was giving him “Sloane sized bites” (Sloane is the wonderful little baby that I take care of….and she takes huge bites, so I’m not quite sure what he was talking about). We went to one of the movies they show in the entertainment room at the hospital on Saturday nights–Slumdog Millionaire–which he happens to love the soundtrack to (yes, he already has it). He stayed awake and ”with-it” for the whole movie, and it was the first time my mom let me and my dad go anywhere in the hospital without her. True to form, moments after my mom left, my dad promptly ran his wheelchair into a wall at full speed, screaming “Shit” and the second I spun around, dissolved into tear-inducing laughter, which you can tell is hard to come by in his life these days.
Some other advancements that occured while I was there, and the days following my departure–Larry got his collar (neck brace) off! The second day I was there, my family and I left my dad for his 4:00ish nap. After the routine errands and phone calls, I went back to his room and was talking to him for a full 3 minutes before I interrupted myself to scream “Hey! Your collar is off! Is that for good?” to which he told me yes. As the days went on, he became more confident in holding his neck up and not feeling like it was going to flop off of his body. He got a haircut the evening that I left, which, let me say, was SO necessary. His hair was about 2 inches long, which for my dad, could have been a ponytail. His hair was starting to wave at people. The other big thing that got resolved was the food. My dad can now eat whatever he wants, as long as he feels comfortable eating it. His swallow is much better, and he no longer has speech therapy. He keeps saying how good the food at the hospital tastes in it’s original state (his favorite change has been the beef barley soup that has chunks of beef and the actual barley, not all pureed together for beef barley flavored mush). And, in that vain of food, he is no longer on the tube feed since he can be responsible to consume enough calories on his own. Big, positive changes. And for me, this is particularly special and important because you all know how much Larry loves food.
A few other big things. He went on an outing that left hospital grounds on Sunday, the bowling event that Michael Conn mentioned in his comment. This was the first time he had been out in public since his accident January 10. So it’s a big deal. And despite his sub-100 score, I think that it’s still better than Barack Obama….somebody can verify that. He went on Wednesday to the Denver Zoo, as also mentioned by Michael. While sitting in the office that I work at yesterday morning, I received a text message on my phone from a number I did not recognize, but I accepted the picture text anyways. And this is what popped up, with the text “Hi Lauren…”:
Dad had one of the physical therapists on the zoo outing take a picture on her cell phone and send it to me. It absolutely made my day today, and it is now the background image on my cell phone. For many of you, this is the first time seeing him since the date of or even before the date of his accident. Despite the bells and whistles he pretty much looks the same right? His face wasn’t disfigured, he still knows how to smile, and he has somehow managed to maintain a tan even with only being outside a total of like 6 days in 3 months. He asked me to put this picture up with a current blog post. Maybe he wants to prepare everyone for what he looks like? I don’t know. But it’s a pretty sweet picture.
To correct Michael Conn on a few things–he HAS movement in his shoulders and upper arms, but primarily his left side. He is NOT using that movement as of recently however. He does some arm exercises in bed, but his rehab at the hospital as far as gaining movement/strengthening existing movement has been very VERY limted. Due to his current state of movement, or lack thereof, the ASIA (American Spinal cord Injury Association) is calling his injury a C3, not a C5, which essentially means paralysis from the shoulders down, not the chest down. This whole diagnosis of C3 could and most likely will be temporary, but we want to be clear and honest with everyone. He will not be moving his arms very much by the next time you all see him (that mainly goes for people in closer proximity I suppose). From the very beginning, we said this and I’ll say it again…realistic but hopeful.
But his overall health is getting better, and he seems to be getting more of his “old self” back each and every day.
In other words, if anybody has any fundraising ideas, please let me know. We are fundraising through an organization (please see the ‘How you can help’ tab on the blog) that acts as a bank for anything that we fundraise, and out of that ‘account’ we can pay any uninsured medical or accident related expenses. Also, please email me if you still want some Superdubey Swag. We have some waiting to be worn by Larry fans.
This is all I have energy for right now. It’s been a rough couple of days with packing up the house for the home modification and whatnot. Plus, the magnitude of everything sometime hits me at strange times and almost paralyzes me myself. Some days I think I can feel a 1/1,000,000th of what my dad feels, or doesn’t feel.
Thanks Jim, for encouraging me to write this right now. I don’t know if I feel better, or if I just stopped feeling progressively worse. Either way it’s something.
For those of you who know my dad well, you know he won’t want to lose momentum with his rehabilitation. He needs to keep training.
