Week Five at Harmarville
Week Five
Day Twenty-nine...
July 2, 2003
Another good day. This week has been good so far. Greg sat up by himself longer in both PT and aquatics.
Being able to sit up leads to all kinds of other cool things.
Greg and Francie are trying to work out a short trip for Greg to go see fireworks with
the kids on Friday night. There are a lot of things that have to be covered. Pray that
this works out for them.
- Francie needs to be able to transfer him
- He needs to demonstrate his understanding and knowledge of his condition, what can happen and how to deal with it.
- He needs to get a special ok to be gone past 9 o'clock. I kind of get a kick out of that one.
I'd like to digress for a moment and tell you the story of Joe Smith. Joe was in
an autombile accident in April. He is a C6 (Greg is a C5). He was in Mercy
hospital for 4 weeks and had surgery there. He came to Harmarville approximately
8 weeks ago. When he came, he could move nothing. He still had an NG tube
in his nose As he tells the story, whenever anyone would try to get him to
move, he growled and said "Don't you see I'm paralyzed?" For several
weeks, he would be wheeled to therapy and just sleep there with his hands
curled up against his chest.
In the last few days Joe has been walking around the gym ---- without assistance.
That's right, no walker, no cane, no braces, no one holding him up. Yesterday,
he climbed stairs. I asked him what changed..what made the difference? He
said that one day he was telling Shelly, the psychologist, that he wanted to
kill himself. She took him down to Area 4 ...head trauma, and showed him
people who were in worse condition than he. Later, he picked up his Bible.
He didn't tell me what he read, but he said that he went to PT the next day
with a different attitude. Chris, the Physical Therapist, said that he just
had a different look on his face when he came in. Joe gives all the praise to God.
And Danyelle...
Today, Danyelle went home. Yep. Just a month ago she lay in a coma,
with half her skull sitting in a freezer. Her parents, Al and Debbie
absolutely believe that God answered the many prayers offered up on
her behalf...many of them from many of you.
And Tyler..
You may recall that I asked for prayer for Tyler the 18 month old
with encephalitis. Tyler has also gone home from Children's. He
appears to have only slight impairment.
The Lord is faithful in all he says;
He is gracious in all he does,
The Lord helps the fallen
and lifts up thise bent beneath their loads.
All eyes look to you for help;
you give them food as they need it.
I will praise the Lord,
and everyone on earth will bless his holy name
forever and forever...from Psalm 145
Blessings...
Connie
Day Thirty...
July 3, 2003
Another good day. Dr. Brenes was supportive of Greg's desire to take a field trip.
We practiced transferring Greg from the wheel chair to a car. I say WE...in the
morning I provided the car and was the catcher, Greg was the catchee and Francie
was the muscle. They were going to practice again this afternoon, with Nicole
Campbell in my place...the car, the catch.
Speaking of Nicole, here's an excerpt of a note she sent this morning.
"I received a call from my sister - in - law this morning. I have a baby niece
that has been suffering from seizures since she has been about 2 months old.
She will be 1 year old next week.
The last several months she has been on medication to control them,
and the last month or so my brother and sister in law have been weaning
her off the meds, per the doctor - slowly but surely, all was well.....until
this morning. Today was the first day she was to be completely off the
medication, and at about 10:00am she suffered another seizure.
Needless to say, my brother and his wife are heavy-hearted right now, as well
as we are all very concerned this may not be something Megan will grow out of,
as we first had hoped. Please keep Megan, her big brother Matthew, and
my brother and sister in law Curt and Sara in your prayers! May God
heal this baby of these seizures, and may He also place his comforting
arms around my brother's family as the doctors try to figure out what
is next for this little girl!"
So please add Megan and the family to your prayers.
As far as Greg is concerned..he has been very positive and energetic.
I'm hoping with this renewed strength we will see even more progress as
time goes on...if God is willing.
I was just reading through the book of James...there is so much in
there that I could write about..but this kind of stands out...James 4: 7-10
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.
Draw close to God and God will draw close to you. Wash your hands and purify
your hearts. Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let
there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter,
and gloom instead of joy....BECAUSE...
When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence
on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.
Boy has that been brought home to us. We who constantly want to fix things,
plan things, problem solve things.
Blessings,
Connie
Day Thirty-one...
July 4, 2003
Hi Everyone !
Happy 4th...belatedly..Our electricity was out last night so I
thought I'd wait to send this until I got a report on the outing.
I talked to Francie this morning....Greg was in PT. She said
that the outing to the fireworks went well. What I didn't
mention before was that Greg was very apprehensive. His first
time out without any professionals. Their departure was delayed
until about 8:30PM because of rain, but they finally got started.
The party included Francie and the boys and Jeff and Nicole Campbell
and their kids, and, of course, Greg. Francie said that she thought
the boys were really glad to have him there. They didn't get back
to the hospital until about 11:45 PM. She said he was still pretty
perky this morning.
The group, except for Greg, stayed at the Holiday Inn Express last night.
So they didn't have to drive all the way home.
Greg's roommate, Rich, left yesterday. I don't remember if
I told you that Rich has had MS for 32 years. He has been to
Harmarville 14 times. Everybody knows him. As far as I can
tell, his wife Betty is his sole caregiver. She also works fulltime.
She is probably in her early 50's, he is 65. They have really
taken a shine to Greg. They promised that they'd come back to
see him when they get back from Las Vegas. Betty gave Francie
and me little angel pins. Please pray for them.
Oh..one last thing, some have asked about best times to visit. Best Times:
Tuesday, Thursday from 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Saturday, Sunday from 12N - 8:00 PM
If you'd like to come another time, just give a call so that we can check the schedule.
As time goes on, Greg and Francie are scheduling meetings to learn more about what
services are needed and available and those generally happen during the week
up until 5 or 530P and they are worked around his therapy schedule.
And another last thing, I believe that God is working in small ways in Greg's body, please pray.
One more last thing....really.. It's the holiday weekend and we all have
things to do, please remember to worship the One to whom we pray...and
frankly, that's best done with other members of the Body of Christ.
Blessings...
Connie
Day Thirty-two...
July 5, 2003
Good morning.....
Yesterday was fairly uneventful, at least from Greg's perspective.
He did have some troubling muscle spasms for a while, by evening
they were better. He and Tom got "buzzed" by Francie...their
request..and now both have a "skin head" look.
I have an update about Joe Smith. Apparently on the night of July 4th,
Joe was either kidnapped or flew the coop, hit the road, went
over the wall, made a break for it. Anyway he's AWOL.
We think he must have had an accomplice. I'm surprised you
haven't seen it on Channel Eleven. Our sources are investigating...more at eleven.
Blessings to all of you,
Connie
Day Thirty-three...
July 6, 2003
Just a short note. Greg and Francie had most of the day to themselves.
After church, Tom and I had the boys swimming here and then the four
of us went up about 5 PM. Greg has been suffering with full body
spasms all day. So he was pretty sore tonight. Francie left a
little earlier tonight and took the boys home:The first night she
has tucked them in since May 27th. Tom and I stayed until about 9:30 PM.
Pray that God gives Greg another good week and that the healing continues.
Also, continue to pray for Joe Smith. He came back to the hospital
last night to get his clothes. I pray that he will continue his recovery.
Funny thing about free will.
"Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow."Psalm 25:4
Blessings,
Connie
Day Thirty-four...
July 7, 2003
Hi everyone....
Despite encouraging words from his various therapists, Greg was kind of out of sorts today.
As anyone who has spent time in a hospital knows, it's very difficult to get much sleep.
The topper today was being awakened, for the third time since midnight, at 545 AM to
be partially dressed. He was irritable all day.
On the brighter side, he got a new roommate, Sean, who is back here to
spend a week while he is being fitted for leg braces. I hope to
find out more about him in the next couple of days.
Also, since Greg's wrists are doing well, Chris (PT) put the
electronic stimulators on Greg's triceps. This is good, but
he said it was also painful.
You can see from the diagram below that the triceps are at the C7 level.
For those of you who may have been added to the distro later, Greg's
injury was at the C5 level. It is an incomplete injury, therefore it
is unknown how is injury will affect his function. Also, of course,
God has the ultimate answer.
As I described before, the therapists begin at the next cervical vertebra.
In Greg's case that was C6. His wrist motion has been improving, that's
why they are moving to C7 (triceps).
I came across this: Psalm 103: 1-3 (and on to the end)
Praise the Lord, I tell myself;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, I tell myself,
and never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
Blessings,
Connie
Day Thirty-five...
July 8, 2003
Good morning everyone...
I thought I'd dash off a report before I go to Harmarville this morning.
Yesterday was a much better day than Monday. He got a little more uninterrupted sleep.
This morning he is scheduled to do "lowers" with Michelle.
That means starting to put his pants on. This ought to be
interesting. I hope I get there in time.
Pray for help with decision making. I'll write more tonight.
Blessings..
Connie
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