Sailing!

Ryan got to stay in bed until 1:00 pm today!! Although staying in bed for Ryan is not all that restful!! He was taken down to Swedish for an MRI around 9:00 and returned to the room about 10:15. I guess during the imagining, the portable vent is not compatible with the equipment in the imaging room so they have to use the “ambu” bag or “bag” him when they transferred him from his bed to the imaging table, then they “plug” him in to a vent there. Then, the process is reversed!! It really takes a toll on him when he has to be bagged.

But, when he got back to his room, he had a visitor. Chuck Thompson with Meadow Gold, Grand Junction Office, was here with a #16 Broncos Jersey signed by Jake Plummer! Ryan was in awe and was thrilled to get it; although, he did not show a lot of expression when Chuck was here, being he had just come from Swedish Hospital, the rest of the day he told everyone about it. His Doctor was jealous and wanted to know how he got it!! He is so grateful for all those who have supported him thru these last couple of months. He continues to be amazed at all those who have helped sustain him thru this injury – it means so much to him.

Tomorrow, two nurses from Farmington will be here for training. They will work with Ryan’s head nurse, tech’s and therapists to learn all they need to know in order to help care for Ryan when we take him home. I am grateful that they will meet Ryan before we get to Farmington, so that he feels somewhat comfortable with them in our home.

We have two weeks to finalize all the arrangements. Dean is still in Farmington trying to finish up the remodeling efforts. He was going to come back to Denver to help with Ryan, but decided he needed to stay there and wrap up the loose ends. We are glad he stayed; Michelle went into the emergency room last night having troubles with her pregnancy. She ended up miscarrying her baby; we all feel so bad about that. Sometimes life is just not fun!!

After Ryan got up and went to his occupational therapy class, he got dizzy and passed out, again. We are so hoping that these episodes end or the Docs figure out what is causing them before we go home. Doctor Balazy has said at least we know what to do when he turns white in the face, but I worry that it only takes “one time” to NOT know what to do!! We should know the results of the MRI tomorrow; maybe that will give the docs some insight.

I bought him a “memory foam” pillow to see if that will help him sleep at night. The bed that he likes has “air cells” that fill with different pressures at timed intervals and because he doesn’t have any neck muscles, sometimes his head would fall into an uncomfortable position. Hopefully this new pillow will help. Dr. Balazy came in today and said that he was going to have Dr. Falci, the neurosurgeon, look at the C-Scan that was done the other day and see if they could go to a “soft” collar as well as do some neck exercises to see how much movement he actually has in his neck. With the hard collar on, some of the therapists have said that he has pretty good neck movement, so we are hopeful that he will be able to regain some neck muscle and have good movement.

Here are some pictures of our outing at Cherry Creek Reservoir. It was great being out of the hospital and in the nice Denver sunshine. Again, the therapeutic recreation group goes “all out” in trying to help their patients get back into life. You can click on an image for a larger version, it may take some time if you have a slow connection.

The Sailboats


Ryan, Meredith, one other patient and all the “support” team!


Helping Ryan get off the boat.


Team Work!


We are so grateful for the continued love and support. We realize that there are so many who are struggling with concerns of their own – we will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

Love to all,

Dean, Terry and Ryan

Footprints

Weekends at Craig slow way down!! The staffing is at a minimum and I think the cafeteria serves leftovers!! We had planned on going on a “family” outing yesterday, but Ryan is having a tough time with all his friends getting on with their lives; i.e., school, etc. We were able to go out and have a nice dinner at Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant. When we were in Idaho Falls, Geralyn, Keith and Dean and I found Garcia’s. I had never eaten there, we were sure glad when driving around Denver with Dean’s and my parents we came across one. We went around 2:00 pm so there were no crowds, it was great!!

As we were eating, we watched the sky’s of Denver cloud over and get darker and darker. We finished up just before the clouds opened up and starting hammering us with rain. The area sure has had a lot of moisture in the last couple of weeks, almost every day – late afternoon or evening; keeping things lusciously green. Some of our visitors ask us where we are from, we let them know Farmington, New Mexico, and then they ask what the landscape is like there. We tell them it is very “brown”!!

We were able to go to Sacrament Meeting this morning. You should have seen me trying to tell Ryan how to back his chair into the van!! It was pretty comical – he is so tolerant. When we pulled out of the driveway, he said, “Its OK mom, we will get it!!”

Ryan always looks forward to going to church, although this morning he wasn’t feeling real well, he got dizzy during the meeting and we had to go out for a few minutes. He also has a lot of secretions so we ended up suctioning him in the cultural hall. This building has hardwood floors in the cultural hall, so when I suctioned him the suctioning machine echoed. After we got done, he said we couldn’t suction in there again. I didn’t understand why, no one was in there and I only turned on one light trying to be discrete. He informed me that the flooring made it to loud – he hates to have any attention drawn to him!!

Since we are becoming more confident in taking him out by ourselves I purchased a crock-pot to try and fix a couple of “home-made” meals. He asked if I would cook a roast and potatoes for dinner today; so we had a nice “Sunday” meal! After we got back from Church, we went over to the apartment and ate and took a nap – it felt great! He got dizzy again, but we made it thru it without any help. Progress!!

Dr. Balazy came in yesterday and said that the C-Scan they had done on Friday showed that the C1-C2 vertebrae are continuing to heal but are not quiet where they want them in order to exchange the hard neck collar for a soft collar. He said that they would watch to see what healing there was in the next week or so. We are without a doubt learning patience thru this process.

As we sat and ate lunch today, my heart continually aches to see this tall, dark and handsome (or at least I think so) young man not able to do anything, scratch his eyebrow, change the channel on the TV, feed himself, etc. etc. We continue to pray that the Lord will see us thru this. I am reminded of the poem “Footprints” written by Mary Stevenson.

Footprints

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

As hard as this trail is and with the numbness and anguish we sometimes feel, we are also reassured with a very calming peace that He is by our side and will see us thru. We continually pray for Ryan’s health, emotional state, sweet spirit and testimony; that all will continue to be strong and he will be able to bear this burden.

May the Lord bless each of you in your daily endeavors. We pray that each of us may live our lives in such a way that we will be able to return to His presence.

With Love,

Dean, Terry and Ryan

Life Vests

We have wheels to transport Ryan’s wheels!! Ryan’s van was delivered yesterday. Since Dean is in Farmington, the gentleman who delivered the van wanted to go thru the details of the van with me; so we started at the dashboard and then he asked me if I was aware of the type of chassis it had! I must have had a blank look on my face because he said, “Dean probably knows all about that!” I agreed and then told him all I do is drive – if Dean keeps the gas tank full!! After we went thru the power lift, we took it for a spin and took Mr. Zach back to the airport to catch a flight back to Omaha.

As you can imagine, this is going to be a whole new experience; me and Ryan and the van!! The whole time I was driving, I was looking at the road then in the rearview mirror to make sure that he was still breathing. We picked up Meredith from work on our way to the airport; I was relieved to have someone sitting in the back, keeping an eye on him. He thinks I am paranoid!!

He has a new type of tracheostomy tube. It is supposed to be better for home use, it is a Bivona type and uses silicone to fill the cuff, rather than air. Because we are getting ready to go home, Lonnie, the respiratory director, wanted me to help him remove the old trach and replace it with the Bivona. I guess my stomach is getting a little stronger or I am realizing that we are going home with a trach, because this time around it wasn’t so bad! Since we replace the trach, he has had a lot more secretions in his lungs; which means more suctioning, which means pain. We are told that his body has to adapt to the new trach since it is a different type of material and then the secretions should decrease. We also went to a different type of inhalant which (I think) is not keeping the airways in the lungs open. The new inhalant is supposed to be easier for home use; we have talked to the Docs about going back to the nebulizer, even if it is harder to use at home!

We are working with a great group of caregivers in Farmington. We have spoken with the home health care group and the group which will take care of Ryan’s respiratory needs and they want to come in to our “new” home and get things all set up before we bring Ryan home, rather than having boxes of supplies all over the place. I am so grateful for that, since all of our “stuff” is in boxes in the garage; at least Ryan’s room will be organized. We are grateful to the contractor and all the sub’s that are remodeling the bathroom to accommodate Ryan’s needs; so he will be pretty well set up!

Michelle is working on getting the kitchen organized so that we can have a home-cooked meal when we get there. We are very tired of hospital food and fast food restaurants!! Although, Ryan has gained about 8 pounds!! Each day he seems to get a little more energy, it is surely helping to get some fat on his bones!!

A special THANKS to all who helped pack-up our house, etc. etc. and get us moved. From what I hear, there were many many helping hands. Again, THANKS, hopefully one day we will be able to repay the kindness.

We had a nice day today; we went out to Cherry Creek Reservoir State Park. Each year, Craig has "Hobie Days". For those of you that don’t know (which I didn’t) Hobie Cat is a manufacturer of catamarans, sailboats, fishing float cats and sit-on-top kayaks. There were approximately 38 in-patients and six out-patients that enjoyed sail boating, motor boating, kayaking, and pontooning. There were about 35 volunteers and a good number of staff who helped “transfer” paraplegics, quadriplegics, and brain injury patients on and off the boats. I believe some of the volunteers brought their own boats for patients to ride on and then Hobie Cat provided some. There were about ten sail boats, two motor boats, a pontoon boat and a couple of kayaks. A great deal of effort went in to planning and organizing and then pulling off the event. It was wonderful.

The day started at eight this morning, they had buses or vans scheduled every 45 minutes to shuttle patients to and from the reservoir so we could come and go at our leisure. Ryan was schedule for the 10:00 am shuttle, but they didn’t have room for him so he went on the 11:30 shuttle. He was the last one to take a ride on the pontoon boat at about 3:15 pm. Most of the patients were transferred in a four-man sling, but when it got to be Ryan’s turn, they rigged up a steel grate for a ramp and loaded him in his chair. After he got on the boat and it left shore, the staff and volunteers started clapping; it was pretty amazing to watch. I will post some pictures when we get them.

He had a “spotter,” a respiratory therapist and Meredith all on board with him in the event that he needed assistance with breathing. It is quiet an ordeal for him to be mobile, although we are so grateful he is.

The funniest part of the ride was when they put an orange life vest on Ryan. Several of us on shore chuckled and Ryan asked if it was really necessary to wear the vest, he commented that if the boat went under he was strapped to a 500lb wheel chair and he didn’t think the life vest would help!! OSHA laws (or the water equivalent – I don’t know what the acronym is– being that I was not brave enough to get on board, you can tell I don’t care for water sports)!!

After we got back to the hospital, he was worn out and so was I – but I didn’t do anything!! He is talking more and more about when we get home. He is wondering what he is going to do. Tonight he said that he wanted to get a job for a few hours each day. Hopefully we can find something for him to do, so that he feels that he is contributing to society.

We continue to be thankful to all for the e-mails, cards, letters of encouragement and phone calls. We truly appreciate your kindness.

With love,

Dean, Terry and Ryan