Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and that means a get together around here. I have begun getting ready for having friends and family over and am looking forward to having Dad come by and visit as well. Aunt Megan is in town and enjoying her time so far with Dad, Num Num, Ainsley, Jennifer and myself. It has been nice to talk about changes she notices in Dad since she last saw him (about a year ago). The progress comes in many small steps. So small that sometimes we don’t really notice, but they are there. Dad recognized her immediately and started right in on the conversations. I am looking forward to tomorrow with everyone here.

I can’t help but think about how things were only a few years ago during preparations for an event like this. I love you Dad and keep up the progress

~Aaron

I apologize for falling off of keeping up on this. A number of things have happened over the past few months and I keep putting off posting since the list of things to post about is so daunting. Instead of trying to play catch up for months of moments, I will just say that my busy schedule does not excuse how this has taken. Things are going well at the facility Dad is at now. We (Ainsley, Jennifer and I) visit him once or twice a week and have been trying to get him to read to Ainsley or get them to both work on picture identification, etc.

I will do my best to get a recent picture of him up soon. I just thought that since I had a moment I should update while I had the chance.

Dad, sorry for not posting for so long. I love you and keep the spirit!

~Aaron

I realize that posting frequency and length has been dwindling as of late, but becoming busy is just part of life, especially the beginning of the school year for us teachers. You will have to forgive that, but at least this post should be more than a sentence or two.

Recently, the group home that Dad was housed at decided that they could no longer meet his needs as a patient. This is due to him needing more than one person for transfers to and from his wheelchair, bed, couch, etc. The last facility was within a couple of miles of Num Num (my grandmother for those not aware) and that was convenient for some family members.

The new place has more people on staff, but overall strikes me as similar to the last location in many ways. It does seem to have more men on staff (I personally have not met a woman employee yet), which, speaking stereotypically, makes me think as though it could make transfers more seamless. The current facility is down the street from Jennifer and my house, so the convenience is ours for the time being. This has made it possible to have Dad over to the house for a family get-together already (a birthday celebration for him, Richard and Aunt Lisa).

Speaking of the get-together, he did really well with the roughly 5 hour visit with about 15 people. He loves being around family and was even in a good enough mood to be telling a few jokes and giving everyone some good laughs (some more appropriate for the little ones than others). It was wonderful to have Dad, Num Num, Uncle Clint/Aunt Lisa and the kids, Aunt Kath, Grandma Bernie/Grandpa Bill, Richard, Zachary/Veronica and us altogether for some good food and great memories. I can’t wait to have everyone over again soon.

As for this weekend’s visit, Dad was in high spirits and as talkative as ever. As usual, he continuously told the three of us about how much he loves us. He completely adores Ainsley and does great around her. He spent most of the time doting on her and how cute she is (she is starting to talk much more, but they are one to two words and repeated often…totally cute). We watched some of the Chargers/Patriots game, which is saying something if you know how little Dad enjoyed football before the accident. He told Jennifer and I that “we all need to get red Cardinals jerseys and watch the games together all the time…even the baby.” He said that “the Cardinals are the best team and the Washington Seahawks are alright, but I don’t care about the Steelers or the Cowboys.” It was a nice end to a chaotic couple of weeks. Hopefully my schedule will become a little more consistent and I can go hang out with Dad some more.

Dad, we love you so much. It is so weird how quick life moves by when you aren’t paying attention to it. In a weird way, I am glad that I am able to feel a little more grounded when I step out of the fast lane for our visits. Keep the Spirit and know that I am so proud of your continued progress. Keep up the good work.

Aaron

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Blaine, Happy Birthday to you:)

Blaine moved and it’s all good. The surgery was good with no complications. He was home the same day.

Blaine saw a Urologist a few weeks back for recurring UTI issues. Turns out, he has an egg sized bladder stone. The Urologist was shocked. Saying he had never seen a stone that large and went on to explain how even one the size of a grain of sand would make any of us crazy with pain. He felt so bad for Blaine. In turn we felt so bad for Blaine. This may be the cause of some of the agitation issues with him. The Urologist says it’s painful even to move or to be moved in Blaine’s case. Poor guy Long story short, he is scheduled for surgery Thursday this week. Normally a day thing, Blaine will spend at least 1 night in the hospital to be sure his Coumadin comes back nicely and that his pain is under control. Apparently, this kind of stone can be caused from prolonged Cathedar use, which Blaine had a lot of last year.

Not so good news….Blaine is being moved. The group home he is currently in is not equipped to handle Blaine and his needs. Over the past 8 months we have seen this coming. The difficult part now is finding a new placement for him. Since we can’t just scoop him up and bring him home with any of us ….yet…. the search continues this week. There are a lot of great places and a lot of great options out there. We are looking for a place with an excercise room, perhaps a therapy pool with a lift and a large yard in a nice quiet neighborhood for strolls. We have one in mind, it’s near Clint in Scottsdale. It’s got all of those things and then some added benefits as well. It’s an insurance nightmare now to see what can be done. It’s hard to have to move him and we are not happy he is getting the boot so to speak. However, if any family knows it….when a door closes, a window opens and life happens for a reason, even though at times, it’s difficult to figure out why.

Keeping the spirit!

So. Mom got a new car. A Kia Sedona so she can transport Blaine easier. Up until now, he had to be put into her tiny car and then there was no chance of taking a wheelchair with her for him to be able to get out of the car. She also she got a Transport Wheelchair for him as the van does not have a lift to get that Mercedes of Blaine’s into the car. She has taken him out a few times in it for their regular chocolate milkshake, fries and burger run. He told her that her “new car was nice….but not cool ” He loves to go places. This is a step forward in taking him to events. It’s a great thing! I am really excited for him.

His Speech Therapy is going well. However, his chosen words are not improving, pretty much like we thought. It’s not that bad once the initial shock wears off. It’s just how he talks now. But explaining that to people trying desperately to work at Physical Therapy with Blaine is difficult and they don’t appreciate the constant name calling. In time? Maybe?

Medically, Blaine has nothing to report which is a great thing!

The bed is still in the wind. It’s always at the front of my mind, then I get going with life and it moves to the back only to wake me up at 3am for me to forget again that day. Someday soon he will have a better bed, I promise to work on it!

Keep the spirit!

When do we stop saying things like “Blaine is great” “Things are plugging along?” It’s hard after so much time to express the changes that have happened. Medically, Blaine is stable and progressing, slowly, but surely. We all keep hope and faith that things will change with him, prayerfully dramatically, but the future is yet to be seen. If those changes never come, we are all still madly in love with our Blaine!

They took him off anxiety medication and added a sleeping medication. He was staying up all night long then wanting to sleep all day which makes him impossible to work with, obviously. He sounded pretty agitated on the phone yesterday and gave mom one of his signature bruises. Whether this will work out is yet to be seen.

His shoulder continues to heal and he has resumed his physical therapy. This is actually, more stretching and range of motion. Blaine’s right leg and foot make any kind of walking virtually impossible. They will have to try the Botox procedure to see if they can get any movement back in that foot before they keep up on the walking. At this point, Gordon, our Physical Therapist angel visits 3 times per week and works with Blaine. He also has a speech therapist that comes. Seems like a waste of time because she is working with the Aphasia and swearing….he is a pirate after all It’s in his blood.

He is happy the pain in his mouth is gone after those 2 teeth were pulled.

We continue to work on getting a new bed for him.

Not anything else to update! Happy 4th everyone! I know Blaine would love being in Washington right now, where you can light em’ up…well. In some places It’s holidays like these that make me think of how much fun he would be having today!

For now, it will be a surprise smoothie from Starbucks and one of the boys space movies.

Keeping the spirit!

Dad goes in for an MRI tomorrow. As weird as it seems, apparently Sundays are the days that are typical for them…even Father’s Day. Due to this, Zack and I went to visit Dad today instead of tomorrow. You can never anticipate how groggy he will be after sedatives of any kind. Our visit went well and he seemed happy to get the sailing magazines and space movies that we brought for him. He loves looking at pictures of boats (as always) and he has been asking for space movies non-stop for what seems like months. After some conversation he decided that we should watch one of the movies and then proceeded to doze off after less than half of it, which concluded our visit.

Dad, this Father’s Day is a special one for me. It is my first as a father. The events that have taken place in the last year and a half have made me cherish all of the great moments that I have had with you. The memories I have of us back when I was a kid are a major part of why I am the person I am. Thank you for being a wonderful father and I will do my best to be a wonderful father for Ainsley. I love you.

Keep the Spirit

Things are going well. Blaine had even more dental work done. 2 more teeth pulled out…..blech! Necessary and you can’t tell. I suppose that is part of what happens when you don’t brush your teeth for 4 months and then when people start, you constantly bite the toothbrush and fight every second of it. He’s worse than a 2 year old at times. His mouth is healing nicely and he has graduated from liquids to soft foods.

His shoulder remains badly bruised. This happened a few weeks ago. When he was taken to the ER complaining and having a huge bruise that was swollen there, the Dr.’s assured us this was not an indication of abuse, rather, he was probably bumped into something while transfering. He didn’t fall because the bruise is only on his shoulder and there were no hand or finger marks with it. This is upsetting to all of us. It’s one of those thing you never want to think about…..someone hurting or being cruel to your loved one while they care for them. Thankfully, Mom is able to check in on Blaine and visit every single day for the family. It helps keep our minds at ease and hearing that this mysterious injury was most likely not the result of abuse or negligence was very settling for us.

He continues to have the blood clots in the right leg. We didn’t know, but the longer you have clots, the less dangerous they become. He continues to fluctuate in his Coumadin levels….something apparently normal for Blaine.

He’s on an antibiotic for the teeth and Vicodin for the shoulder and teeth. Since they seem to be starting to heal, they are going to start weaning him off the Vicodin and use more over the counter pain control.

He’s in good spirits and other than sounding loopy from the meds now and then, he seems to be his regular self!

Physical Therapy remains slow as the shoulder is an issue. The caretakers keep up the exercises for range of motion, but really, no walking at this time. His shoulder is just to painful for him. Then again, Blaine has gone from a freakishly high tolerance for pain, to bearing almost none as all so it’s hard to tell what he can take physically at times. Then again, he has to be pushed to do anything as motivation is one of the most damaged areas in his brain. Needless to say, Blaine at this point, would be perfectly happy sitting in the sand on a beach with a drink in his hand doing absolutely nothing at all! One day I hope he will.

I miss him, so much. His crazy stories of the present are fun, but there are days when I just miss talking to my brother I used to have.

Keep the spirit!