October 19, 2011 -- Milestones and visitors

We reached two milestones in the last 8 days and had a special visitor.  On October 9, Bill celebrated his 67th birthday. The family gathered for a celebratory dinner on Sunday after church.  Tami made his birthday cake and it was very good.

I'm sure Bill is glad he doesn't have to blow out 67 candles!

After a good dinner we all went out to enjoy the outdoors.

The grandchildren also were preparing for Halloween and showed off their costumes.

 2 monsters and a fireman

 Rory, Archer, Kendra and Connor

 Talk about "hip" firemen"

Connor, Tami, Archer, Rory

The 2nd event, on the 15th, was not celebrated.  That was the date of Bill's accident last year.  We didn't mention it so I don't know whether he remembered or not but it wasn't something any of us wanted to think about.  

Bill's sister, Quynh, came to visit on the 11th and was here for a week.  Adam was good enough to pick her up at the airport for us.  We had a great visit.  Tami and Adam were here most nights to spend time with her and Kendra came for the day with Rory and Archer on the 17th.   

Quynh with Archer (and a loaf of French bread).  He's eyeing that bread, what is he thinking?

Well, now we know, do you think he might be hungry?

Quynh was so good with the kids, they loved her.  She was also good for her brother.  She made sure he did his exercises every day and kept him on his toes--well, almost.  Since she was here on a Sunday she also got to see her brother singing in the church choir.  It all helped her to see how much he has been improving since her last visit in April.  Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and Quynh had to return home.  Tami came by early this morning and carried her to the airport before work.  Now it's quiet again and we're getting back to our regular routine.  It has been an ugly day so we haven't gone outside.  Besides being rainy, it has been chilly.  49 degree high today after being in the 80s yesterday!  Bill has been sitting in front of the fireplace all afternoon and evening to warm up.  

October 17, 2011 -- Milestones and visitors

We reached two milestones in the last 8 days and had a special visitor.  On October 9, Bill celebrated his 67th birthday. The family gathered for a celebratory dinner on Sunday after church.  Tami made his birthday cake and it was very good.

I'm sure Bill is glad he doesn't have to blow out 67 candles!

After a good dinner we all went out to enjoy the outdoors.

The grandchildren also were preparing for Halloween and showed off their costumes.

 2 monsters and a fireman

 Rory, Archer, Kendra and Connor

 Talk about "hip" firemen"

Connor, Tami, Archer, Rory

The 2nd event, on the 15th, was not celebrated.  That was the date of Bill's accident last year.  We didn't mention it so I don't know whether he remembered or not but it wasn't something any of us wanted to think about.  

Bill's sister, Quynh, came to visit on the 11th and was here for a week.  Adam was good enough to pick her up at the airport for us.  We had a great visit.  Tami and Adam were here most nights to spend time with her and Kendra came for the day with Rory and Archer on the 17th.   

Quynh with Archer (and a loaf of French bread).  He's eyeing that bread, what is he thinking?

Well, now we know, do you think he might be hungry?

Quynh was so good with the kids, they loved her.  She was also good for her brother.  She made sure he did his exercises every day and kept him on his toes--well, almost.  Since she was here on a Sunday she also got to see her brother singing in the church choir.  It all helped her to see how much he has been improving since her last visit in April.  Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and Quynh had to return home.  Tami came by early this morning and carried her to the airport before work.  Now it's quiet again and we're getting back to our regular routine.  It has been an ugly day so we haven't gone outside.  Besides being rainy, it has been chilly.  49 degree high today after being in the 80s yesterday!  Bill has been sitting in front of the fireplace all afternoon and evening to warm up.  

July 3, 2011-- How Bill is doing

It's hard to believe it has been over 4 months since we arrived back home from the Shepherd Center and I haven't been very good at letting everyone know how things are going.  Time has flown by but we are still adjusting because things keep changing and we're never quite totally on top of them.  We've tried to get back to the normalcy of life as you've seen in our previous blogs while living the reality of our new "normal".    Life is constant change and we're just trying to flow with it.

The first thing we had to do after returning was set up appointments with a multitude of doctors--I'm still working on that--and therapists.  We needed a visit to Bill's internist so he was up to date on everything and then had to find a urologist who was knowlegeable about spinal cord injury patients.  I hate eeny meeny miny mo but sometimes you luck out.  I'm still searching for a "physiatrist" and if you don't know what that is I didn't either.  It's a physician who is trained in physical medicine and rehabilitation and Nashville doesn't have many and those that are here don't deal with spinal cord patients!  We have seen one physiatrist but we're still a little leary about what he understands about Bill's condition.  It's amazing how little most doctors know about spinal cord injury.

One thing we are very pleased about though is the therapy program we found.  Since Shepherd Center opened a Beyond Therapy Center here in Franklin last Fall, we visited it to see if we could go there.  Unfortunately it's only physical therapy at this time and as of our visit they still were not Medicare certified.  However they recommended Life Therapies and they have turned out to be fantastic.  Bill gets Physical, Occupational and Speech therapy there and they have been wonderful.  He goes twice a week for three hours.  During that time I can run errands and get things done that I probably wouldn't do otherwise.  In addition to therapy, Bill also goes to an accupuncturist.  For the first month we were back he went twice a week but after that we scaled back to once a week.   I can't say whether it's helping or not but we figure it's worth trying.  We can definitely see though that the therapy is helpful.

So we have a fairly busy schedule what with doctor's appointments, therapy and accupuncture.  And of course, it takes longer to do everything so we spread it out as much as we can.  The week starts on Monday morning with accupuncture.  Since we have to go to downtown Nashville, about 14 miles, we have to leave an hour beforehand to allow for travel time as well as transferring into and out of the car.   We get back home about 1:00 so half our day is gone.  Then on Tuesday and Thursday he has Therapy from either 12:00 to 3:00 or 1:00 to 4:00.  We seldom get home before 4:30 or 5:00 those days.  Therapy is closer, only about 6 miles, but they think nothing of running over the scheduled time, which is good for Bill as far as what he gets.  So those two days are pretty full.  That leaves us with Wednesday and Friday as free time to (schedule other appointments!!) do other things.  Since Tami is off on Fridays, we often spend time with her and Connor or drive down to see Kendra in Alabama.    Bill just started back singing with the church choir.  They have been asking for him to come back since we returned.  Practice one night a week is no problem but making it for practice at 8:00 am prior to service on Sunday is probably not going to happen since we do good to make it to 9:30 service on time.

Bill has improved a lot since we arrived home.  He has more use of his fingers so he can eat and take care of his teeth himself.  He has also finally been able to transfer from the bed to his chair which is much easier on me.  We had been using a portable lift which is not bad but the transfer is less involved.  It's  still necessary to use the lift to go the other way, chair to bed, because that is uphill and we just haven't been able to work that out yet, but each step gained is a blessing.  We also use the portable lift for transferring into and out of the car.  We always pray for clear weather, since it takes a few minutes to get him in or out, and so far we've been pretty lucky.  If it's really bad we just have to cancel our plans.

We have had our share of mishaps--forgetting to hook up the wheelchair seat belt or car seat belt or not  replacing the wheelchair's tip bars after removing them to go up or down stairs.  That results in forward or backward spills which so far have only been distressing and not damaging.  Bill has to weight shift every 30 minutes which takes the pressure off his spine preventing pressure sores caused by staying in one position all the time. So if you lean forward to weight shift and there's nothing holding you in the chair -- well, you get the picture.  Fortunately he hasn't been hurt bad.  They warned us at Shepherd that those things happen but it is frightening when it does.  It's also a panic moment when you're driving down the road and Bill suddenly says, "you know you didn't hook my seat belt!"

As I said earlier there is continual improvement, but it is slow.  About 2 weeks ago while we were getting ready for church, Bill showed me he could move his left foot.  I didn't really believe it, but sure enough he was able to move his foot.  He still has no sensation in his legs but we're hopeful.  After all, just to be able to move his foot is an accomplishment.

Finally we're on city sewer

On May 12 the plumbers came and dug trenches in the front yard for the sewer line and also to replace our water line which had been leaking.  They worked about an hour and a half then quit and didn't get back again until Tuesday the 17th.  Bill wanted so bad to be able to get out and supervise them.  It really didn't take too long when they got down to it.  The city began in August 2009 to put a sewer system throughout our subdivision which we have had to pay for.  We were glad to have it done but it has been painful the manner in which it was done.  The project was finished in July 2010 but we could not hook up until April 2011 because of bureaucratic procedure.  The week after the hookup to the sewer was completed, our septic tank was decommissioned--which means they crushed it and filled it in so we could not use it any more.  Because of our increased use of water after Bill's accident, I worried a lot about the septic tank so this is a positive event for the long run.  

SEWER LINE:

WATER LINE:

FRONT VIEW:

DURING

AFTER

Catching up with April and May 2011

I've not been too good at keeping up with things since I got back home.  I will try to catch up some on what has happened in April and May.  As you may know we were anxiously awaiting the birth of our grandson in April.  Below is a picture of Rory with Xena the last time they were in Franklin before the baby was born.  As you can see they are good buddies.  On April 28, Kendra and Rory made an unscheduled trip to Franklin after tornadoes hit the Madison-Athens area leaving most of North Alabama without power for a week or more.  They decided to travel to Franklin for the comfort of air conditioning and refrigeration despite the fact that Kendra's due date was only 5 days away.  By Sunday, May 3, 2 days from due date, however, she was getting a little nervous about delivering away from home so Josh drove up and they all went back together.  Adam provided them with a generator so they could hook up some of the essential things they needed and wouldn't you know the power came on late that night.  Better prepared for the worst than not.  

May 5: With no baby arriving on the due date, Kendra was induced and Archer Hayden joined his family and the world weighing in at 8 lbs, 15 oz..  Kendra had a relatively easy delivery considering Archer's size and was happy to have it all over with.  

May 8th was Mother's Day and Tami, Tony & Connor sent flowers.  Bill, Adam & I drove to Madison, AL to celebrate the day with Kendra, Josh & Rory and of course Archer.  A special day for a new Mom.

We arrived before lunch so we could fix the meal for them.  

And of course we enjoyed meeting Archer for the first time.  Kendra went home from the hospital on Saturday and we saw him on Sunday.  This picture reminded me of Kendra when she was a baby because this was what she did most of the time for about the first year.    

Lest you think it's his normal personality though, this is how he was most of the time.  I still can't decide who he looks like.  

It appears he overheard something we said about him and didn't like it.   But he appears to have the response on the end of his tongue.

Bill had a chance to hold Archer too and enjoyed being with his new grandson.  He was very careful that we propped Archer up on a pillow so he didn't have to worry about dropping him.  His hands have improved a lot but he still can't grasp objects.

On Friday, May 13,  we again travelled to Kendra's to celebrate her 30th birthday.  Tami and Connor went with us this time.  

Although that may look like humongous ants or possibly cicadas crawling across her birthday cake, it's actually large sugared blackberries.  

Josh and Rory posed in between lunch and cake.

And of course here are the 2 cousins in a very sweet pose.  

All things must come to an end so here we are buckled up and ready to head out for home.  Connor and Papa keep each other company in the back seat.  

A shower for Kendra & Easter in Franklin

Well,  Tami, Connor, Bill and I travelled to Madison, AL on Sunday April 17 for a baby shower that Kendra's church was throwing for her.  It was very nice and Kendra got a lot of nice things but someone goofed.  Her baby boy will look really cute in that dress!

Kendra and Tami in discussion

Kendra and Rory are so ready for little brother.

On Easter Sunday, April 24, Adam, Tami, Connor, Tony and Florrie Ann Lawton (a friend from Tami's church) came over to the house for Easter dinner.  We had a good meal and afterward Tami laid out eggs for an egg hunt for Connor.  He was strutting his Easter stuff as he went out for us to take pictures.

The Harris Family--Easter 2011

The weather was beautiful so we got some good family pictures.  Of course someone has take them so I'm not in it.

Connor had a great time running around searching for the plastic eggs and had to stop and check them all out, especially what was inside them.  After gathering about 15, he asked if that was all.  He was a lot more interested in the finding of the eggs this year.

He shared his stickers with Uncle Adam

And also with Ms Florrie Ann.  He is a good little sharer.

After everyone left we had some quiet time in the backyard just enjoying the weather.  Bill enjoys sitting outside in the sunshine.  

Even Xena took a break and rested.  Actually she was just waiting until a squirrel or rabbit got careless so she could go after them.