Day 38 — Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Day 38. Another good day.

I stayed home to rest. I felt regret for that, but Leah said when you do the modest thing, it usually feels better later.

These notes are from Chivonne and Betty.

12:05- We arrived and immediately the front staff knew exactly who we were there for and smiled when we arrived!

Shane was napping when we arrived but soon woke up and we got him set up to eat lunch! He is super alert today and he remembered me!! 🥹🥹 He was so glad you were taking a day and said “she’s a wonderful wife and needs rest too”.

1:00 update-

He is sooo alert today! He chatted all during his lunch and laughed when we joked. Asking questions about “what are we going to do after this?” And “where will we go next?” We are reassuring him to take each day at a time and then he has so many ppl at bethel waiting with open arms for him. We reviewed the schedule for the rest of the day too. He keeps saying how good of a wife you are. ☺️ We absolutely had to agree!

I told him that Gary Blackburn and Mike Donlin came to our office and global yesterday to chat about the project he worked on and he was thrilled to hear that! He said “oh that’s so nice it’s still going” and “we will see about that work soon” as if he’s excited to get back to it.

We talked about in the future coming back home to enjoy his flowers on the balcony!

He is in PT now and doing stair stepping! He’s looking steady and strong! He moves so much faster and those connections you can tell are working! Hes smiling at other ppl that he passes by in the PT room! ☺️

2pm update:

PT finished and he came back to the room.
Alex Perez and his wife Suzy came to visit and it was awesome!! 🤩 I wanted to respect HHs two person rule so I brought Alex up first to get acquainted and then I brought his wife up next and I stayed down with Betty. Here are some notes I collected and that Alex/ Susy shared after they spent 30 mins with him and came back down:

As soon as Alex walked in, he recognized him and smiled so big! Alex pointed to the formal picture of you and Shane from the HCD party and he said “yes there was dancing!” Then that led to a discussion about Greece and how Alex and Shane (and I) were all there…When we brought Susy in and she said we all danced at the evening gathering in Greece he said “WOW Tell me more about this!” very enthusiastically and eager. ☺️

The moment Alex started talking about work he became veryyy attentive! Shane paid attention to all the computer lingo he brought up esp about HuB. Alex said to us afterwards that he could see he is trying to get all the right words and processing all he was saying! Alex talked to him about the projects they are working on and he knew the words right before Alex could finish and he knew where he was going with the sentence. He’s filling in and understanding.

Shane is physically spatially aware of his skull…at one point he said “I don’t know where it went but they said they will fix it”

Alex also reassured him by saying: “There is always alot of work to do when you’re ready”

He’s getting used to being aware of the time and rest. After about 30 mins, Shane started taking off his helmet and unbuckling his seatbelt in his chair and then he said to Alex and Susy “ok I think I will rest now because at 3 hour I have more therapy” as he looked at the clock. He knew when to stop eating chips “no I will save some for later” (he was very excited to share some chips with Alex 🤣)

I love how he engages us in conversation, he asks questions to know more and wants to make sure we are ok. That’s great to see!

3-4pm update:

Shane had Occupational therapy from 3:10- 3:40. He worked with a new therapist this time and she said he did really well! They worked on fine motor skills and organization and putting together patterns to help strengthen the muscles of the brain. After he returned he was definitely tired between the big lunch, PT, visit with Alex and then 15 minute cat nap and then OT, he wanted back in bed. We gave him a little space to close his eyes but we don’t think it was deep rest.

Then Josh Gerber came at 4:30 and brought sandwiches and salad and he’s been chatty with him from the bed. Shane in the last 30 mins has mentioned twice that he wasn’t ready to eat dinner because he says “he doesn’t feel well” We are taking it easy for the rest of the night.

6pm update: Mostly rested in bed! ☺️woke up to use the bathroom and states “I’m feeling better” Mostly Josh and Betty in the room and chatting about work and also to the Sarita visiting her husband next door. ☺️ Calm evening!

I just asked if he would like to watch the morning worship this morning and he was very excited to hear it so we set it up for him and he’s currently watching…

Just wanted to give you the last update from the 7pm hour… We chatted for a little bit more and then even worked on his tracing Jehovahs name! He was very concentrated and focused on that and when I said he only had to do a couple lines, he said “I’d like to continue for more” so we let him and he did the whole page! We explained how good that is to help the mind/ hand fine motor skills connection!

Betty said something that I loved! She told him “your brain already took care of all the big stuff- breathing, moving your arms and legs and keeping your body going…now it’s just fine tuning all the little things so one day at a time” and I said “poco y poco” and he laughed and said “si” 🤣

Then he started yawning and seemed to indicate that mom needed rest which we took as he needed rest so we started to clean up etc as mentioned above!

And that was the day!!

If you want to help us pray for something these are our main concerns. We have been praying these consistently. So maybe we can also ask Him to make it clear if he has answered this prayer. 💓

Please, if it’s necessary to prevent a future fall, please help us know the original cause of the fall.
Please help the therapists to show Shane ways to prevent falls in the future
Please help us Thank Jehovah!!

He said he helped the lady in physical therapy out for about an hour.

He asked how my day was.

Alex is an important friend. He knows a lot of what Shane knows.

Couldn’t find the word, so he said, “Ugh, just wait, I’m gonna choose a poor word.” Asked about Bethelites. Also SFC might have meant SFTS. FTP path. I asked Alex to discuss it, since I don’t know much about it. HDC should only need to check out the facility once. ☺️ 8:50 therapy. If they are gonna do it, I’d like to get it gonna. Repeat the date July 24. July 29. Okay, you got July, let’s do it again. What did I say July 29 You needed to say, July 24. July 24.

Chivonnes notes about Alex visit, including getting with Global to find a new electronic medal record keeping system and alex said “the one problem with all the good programs is that " and Shane interrupted and said “that its very expensive”.

Case Manager Wednesday update; To Betty & Chivonne We got a chance to talk to Lisa the CM about goals over the next week…they want him to walk even longer distances and/ or to walk with touch assistance and then progress to be standby…also with bathing and dressing etc.

She also said Fidelis authorized another week! Yay! And afterwards they have an outpatient program 2-3 times a week here that he can take advantage of.

Stomach irritated maybe by spicy queso chips. Or BM. We changed into a fresh shirt for him since he got a little dinner on it.

Def a good day, chatty and asking questions and lots of therapy and laughs with friends! We didn’t seem to find the space to get outside today but I told him sometime this week he will!

He is amazing!! Couldn’t be prouder of how far your love and attention has taken him! Thank you for being sideline cheerleaders!

Hope you had a smooth day too! Please let us know if any of us can do this again 😘😘😘