Weekly Update #34

Week #22, Park Lido, Week #21 Outpatient Therapy, Touchmark

Mon. 10/29: Land PT w/Sean. Nustep 12 minutes. Then leg press. 210 lbs!!! Sean said I started at 180 lbs just 25 days ago and look at me now! Then I walked the stairs, I did about 15 steps, and walking upstairs still reciprocally and that was looking better and my walking down was WAY better. Almost reciprocally.

Pool PT w/Jason and Crystal. She’s a PT student observing but Jason is having her work with me too. I did a bunch of walking in my Tevas. Walked some with the sticks, trying to get the reciprocal motion going.

Karen brought Siena for a short visit. I told her only 2 more sleeps then mommy comes home. She was quite excited about that…

Tue. 10/30: Land PT w/Sean. Nustep 12 minutes. Then hit the treadmill. I went 3 minutes at 1.1, then rested and then 3 more minutes at 1.2. Awesome =)

Pool PT w/Jason and Crystal. Wore Vibrams and did a lot of the same stuff, just getting better reactions of my muscle groups. I also work on balance and hitting a beach ball to help work on my balance.

I called CVAN to book my ride for the move and they said that they couldn’t book my ride. WHAT?!? Yeah, it’s not in their service area, and so I had to book a ride CVAN to the Fishers Landing Transit Center then book a ride for Camas Connector to pick me up and drive me home. GRR…how frustrating. I completely lost it and bawled my eyes out. The Camas Connector only travels 5-9 a.m. and 2-7 p.m. Mon-Fri. NO WEEKENDS…and they only take me to the Transit center and downtown Camas areas. Ugh. More on this later.

Sooz and Tami were planning on helping me to pack, but Sooz ran into some scary car trouble! On her way to me her car died out on a busy street with no crosswalks, sidewalks, kind of dark and she had Niles with her. Thank goodness some good samaritans helped her out. So she had to take care of her car and running kids around, but PTL Tami was already on her way. She helped pack me up and took a bunch of stuff with her and dropped it off at my house.

Wed. 10/31: Moving Day…got up and had breakfast and then Holly and Chloe came over and helped take the last remaining stuff to my house. I then had my last shower and lunch…said my teary goodbyes to my favorite caregivers then got on my CVAN to the Fisher’s Landing Transit center, then the Camas Connector came and picked me up. The driver was such a nice guy, so friendly and helpful. He showed me a map of the area CC services and I looked and I’m only about 5 streets away from CVAN service. O.O yeah, so I will be putting in a call to the supervisor to see if I can talk with someone to see if I can work something out. Pray for me =)

Toni came during the morning and cleaned my toilets (awesome!!!) and Diane came over to help make the bed and stay until I came home. I came home and Siena came running out to greet me, that was so nice…Holly came back later, and took the girls trick or treating while I stayed home and passed out candy. Holly and girls came back and was gonna do round 2, but Siena decided to stay back and hand out candy with me…aww…so sweet…we ran out of candy! And Jeffrey came home after midnight.

Thu. 11/1: So my first night at home went well, I slept about as good as I did at Park Lido, haha…I get up a few times during the night to turn over, get comfy…but it was nice to get greeted with a good morning, sunshine by my little sunshine…makes it all worth it. I canceled my therapy because I wasn’t sure how things were gonna go with CVAN and all and it was probably a good thing I did because it would’ve been a total mess. So I just unpacked stuff around the house and went with Jeffrey to pick Siena up at school. Her face was so filled with joy when she came to the car and realized I was in there =)

We had our first MealTrain dinner arrive, made by Kapuanani, slow cooker chicken with home-grown fingerling potatoes and carrots, it was SO ONO, she’s quite the susie homemaker now =)

For the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and maybe beyond, I will be doing a gratitude journal. I’ll just repost here what I post on FB. So today I am thankful for dear friends who helped with my move go as smooth as possible…and many more who couldn’t help physically but helped spiritually through prayer.

Fri. 11/2: Starting with my gratitude entry: “Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34. Today I am thankful that Jeffrey is home for a few days. It’s been a rough road and it’s going to continue to be a work in progress but I am thankful for his dedication this past year. It meant the world to me and I have said it before that any one of my past boyfriends would have left, but he stuck with me. Thank you, for all that you’ve done for me, dear husband. You are in my prayers for continued endurance. ❤ you.

Today we went to the gym to work out and pool therapy. I was doing 40 – 50 pound weights for upper body, that was good. I also showed Jeffrey what I've been doing in the pool how I've improved.

So I get a phone call from CVAN, the same guy who I had to deal with the crazy driver. Yeah…so anyway, he told me that he has to send the request to the executive board but that I'm kind of farther out of the zone than I thought. They only go 3/4 mi off the fixed route. Which is literally nothing to me. Please pray really hard so that I can get an exemption the CVAN ride is so important to me and my quality of life and independence…

MealTrain tonight was brought by Jennifer Perry, it was taco soup and it was very good! We even had enough left over for a couple meals which I froze. And we got to spend time with Jennifer, Anna and Caleb. So sweet…

Sat. 11/3: Day 3 of my gratitude journal. "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him." Psalm 28:7. Today I am grateful for my inlaws. They were such great help and support through this year and I can't thank them enough. You were the help that the Lord provided when I needed help. Thank you.

I told Siena that she could sleep in my room on the floor on Fri/Sat nights but not during the week. Kind of like a sleepover =) she snuck in my bed around 5 a.m. though so we got extra cuddle time. I missed that so much so we'll be making up for lost time for awhile…

Just kind of hung out at the house and did housework and then watched football, another wonderful thing about moving back home…52" flatscreen HD tv baby, now that's what I'm talkin' about =) got to watch both the Ducks and Beavers win…awesome!

Dori and Pupule Fritsch brought a yummy lasagna, salad, garlic bread and cookies for MealTrain, and had to endure I mean, got to hear another story about Pupule’s life (he likes to talk about his favorite subject, himself, a LOT). LOL Good times.

Sun. 11/4: Day 4 of my gratitude journal…I am truly humbled and grateful for my River Rock family. It was quite a pleasant surprise to see that the new series is going to be on HE>i, more importantly, HE>everything. This little phrase has brought such meaning and purpose for my journey and I am so grateful for anyone who is part of my River Rock family for all of your love and support this past year and for continuing to stand beside me and lift me up in prayer. I never would have thought that the first church I found on a google list would end up being such a meaningful part of my life. Love you, River Rock.

So as you read, there is a new series called HE>i at church. Our first week was so awesome, Ricky talked about Jehovah Rapha, God our Healer. It was really good and there were much tears as people got up to share their stories. I’m looking forward to this whole series. Oh and if you could please keep our lead pastor, Kelly, in prayer, he’s in the Philippines visiting our PI churches right now.

OH…and I did have my first fall at home. Holly brought over these shoes for me to try, so Jeffrey puts them on and I start walking on the carpet towards the wood floor. All of a sudden my walker gets stuck between the carpet and the wood and I couldn’t get unstuck and I couldn’t get the words out to tell Jeffrey I needed help…and then…tiiiiimmmmbbbbeeerrr…I went down. However, I didn’t go down to the floor without hitting anything. I hit my bottom against the wheel of my wheelchair, and OUCH…I didn’t hit my head (thank you, Lord!) and I was just frustrated that I fell. So I laid there and asked for a pillow and some ice…man, this sucker hurts…

Ok, so this has got to be the longest.post.ever. So I will end now =)

HE>i,
jewels