Thursday - Nov 5

Winters on it's way and already I don't like it. It's been cold in the mornings and evenings but not to bad in the day. We've had one good storm so far with 11 1/2 inches of rain in Boulder Creek. Ironically I like a good storm, I just hate dreary, overcast, drizzly, cold days. I'm not a big fan of the time change either, it was dark before we left SCI-FIT in Pleasanton yesterday, it makes me tired driving home in the dark. One last complaint, the TVs on but the channel is off the air so they play music, Christmas music. Are you kidding me, Christmas already we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, Costco's had their Christmas stuff out for at least two weeks. OK, I got all that out of the way, I'm done complaining.

We all had a night out of enjoyment Friday before Halloween, Dennis and I went to a Murder Mystery Dinner at a friends house. The scene was 1929, my character was a socialite dressed in a flapper dress, fish nets and boa. Dennis' character was a pro baseball player, that was an easy costume to come up with. Jessica played a server and served us a delicious dinner (chicken parmasian). We had a wonderful time and got home pretty late. Jerry went to a costume party with some friends, Luke was home from college, Kiki and Natani. Jerry was a prisoner in an electric chair, I know kinda morbid right, at least he's able to have a sense of humor. Jerry got home really late close to 4:00 am but he said he had a lot of fun. The person having the party Sean and his landlord built a ramp so Jerry could get in the house. Thanks guys for making it easy for Jerry to be involved in a fun night out.

Not much change physically with Jer, he's still struggling with the nausea. Jerry had a CT scan which didn't get to the root cause of anything. The CT scan did show that he has two small stones, one in each Kidney however the doctor feels that they are so small they aren't causing any problem. We continue to go to therapy four days a week, Jerry's body is staying strong and he seems to be moving his arms more. Jerry is so close to being able to control his wheelchair with the joy stick as opposed to the chin drive, he can pull back and go left and right he just can't push forward yet. It will be a glorious day when he is able to use the joy stick.

I've been doing stem cell research for some time now which can be very overwhelming. We are looking to go over seas for Jerry to have stem cell surgery. China, India and Portugal are all more advanced in this area then we are here in the States. Stem cell therapy has not been perfected to the point of curing spinal cord injury however most patients get some improvement whether it be bowel or bladder function, or the use of arms, some even have regained the ability to walk but thats a small percentage. I really am leaning toward China, I like what I'm learning. One thing I like is they use your own bone marrow cells and turn them into nerve cells as opposed to using embryonic cells. There's no moral issue when they are using your own cells. Jerry very much wants to have stem cell therapy but is concerned about the cost. He worries we won't have the money to do it or if we do come up with the funds he's concerned about spending all that money on something that may not work. My feeling is we will come up with the money one way or another through fund raising efforts, it's a small price to pay for the hope that it could help him walk again. Even if he could just regain bowel and bladder and the use of his arms that would be HUGE. I'll keep you posted about my research.

The transmission on Janea's car is going out, I've been on craigs list and vehics.com looking for a car for her. I really hate car shopping it's so time consuming. I miss the days when a couple thousand dollars would get you a pretty decent car. It' seems like anything less then $3,000 is a piece of doodoo. The hunt goes on....

I better get moving, I have to get Jerry ready for therapy. Jerry is doing the arm cycle at Dominican Rehab today, that's one of my favorite therapies, I feel he gets stronger each time he does the arm cycle.

Have a wonderful day,

Katie

Saturday - Oct 18

I've feared the swine flu and prayed it would not hit our home, this week my fear came to be, Dennis was diagnosed with the swine flu. We quarantined him to the bedroom with a mask and gloves. I was very worried that Jerry would catch the bug, and it would spread through our house. I was like a crazy woman disinfecting everything in sight, three different times. Our whole family was treated with Tamiflu and so far no one else has gotten sick. We are scheduled to get vaccinated on Monday.

Things have been going much the same, Jerry is still having nausea in the morning and early afternoon. Jerry is scheduled for a CT Scan on the 26th, they'll be looking for any kind of stones bladder, kidney, etc. He's had two ultrasounds which came back normal, I'm told the CT Scan is supposed to be more sensitive. It sounds weird but I hope they find something, at least if the find stones you know what your dealing with and how to treat it. The whole looking for the needle in the haystack thing is getting old. I think we've tried every medication available, every homeopathic remedy and ran every test available. We're running out of options and really need to get to the root of the problem.

I put together a video of some of the exercises Jerry does at SCI-FIT. It's really poor quality because I took it with my phone but it gives you an idea of some of the things he does there.



I hope everyone has a wonderful week, stay well.

God bless,
Katie

Friday - Oct 9

I can't believe we're 9 months post injury, the time has gone so quickly. I really thought at 6 months things were going to start waking up in Jerry's body. I thought Jerry would be further along in his mobility, certainly at 9 months I expected a greater return. The closer we get to the one year mark the scarier it becomes because progress slows after 1 year. The greatest return is in the first year, you can continue to get return of some mobility after the first year but at a much slower rate. I have to keep reminding myself of all the improvements Jerry has made over the last 9 months, he really has come a long way. Although I wish he were closer to his goal of walking I am grateful for the movements that Jerry does have. Jerry's arms continue to get stronger by using the FES hand bike at Dominican Rehab. I wish he could use the hand bike 3 to 4 times per week, once a week slows progress in my opinion. I'm working on getting an FES Bike for our house which may or may not be successful as it is a very costly piece of equipment, $20,000. Jerry can now lift both arms and give a little wave, I'll have to post a video. Jerry has trace initiation in his left tricep but it's not strong enough to be useful at this point. If we could get Jerry's triceps to fire he could get strong enough to use a joystick control for his wheel chair and get rid of the chin drive, that would be sweet.

Life remains busy, Mondays are doctor appointment/errands day. Tue through Fri are therapy days, Sat & Sun for Jerry are chill/recoup days. For me Sat & Sun is get caught up on house cleaning, paper work, laundry, bills, grocery shop, etc. Dennis continues to work five days a week at his job and work on the weekends on the house. We are getting oh so close, I can't wait to get the bathroom done. Nine months of sponge baths for Jerry has taken it's toll on his skin, it's just not the same as a nice long shower or bath. Dennis took a break from the bathroom to get the roof put on since the rain's are headed our way, I'm glad to have that done. Dennis also poured the concrete pad for the AC unit. Although the AC is no longer priority at this point, heat is, they go hand in hand as they use the same ducting and at this point there is no heat in Jerry's room and it gets cold. We are using a little portable heater for his room which is working out OK but not a long term solution.

I think I may have mentioned in a previous post that Jerry was appointed by our district supervisor Mark Stone to the Commission on Disabilities. Jerry is a district 5 commissioner for the COD. Yesterday was the annual planning retreat for projects for the next year. Incidentally my cat Tina was also scheduled to be spayed as well as FES hand bike at Dominican for Jerry, we can't miss that. The plan was to drop Jerry at the retreat, stay a few minutes to get Jerry settled then run Tina to Scotts Valley to drop her at the vet and return to the retreat. Things just did not go well, amazingly we were able to get out of the house by 9:40 am, we had a 10 minute drive to Ben Lomond and everything seemed to be working out well. The street we were supposed to turn on was right off hwy9 in Ben Lomond. This is were things went a rye, we couldn't find the street, we drove all the way to Felton and did not see the street, turned around drove back to BL. Again we didn't find the street turned around drove all the way to Felton again and back to BL. Turns out we were misinformed the street was in Brookdale, at any rate we were 25 minutes late to the retreat, AWKWARD. It's not like you can sneak in unnoticed. Needless to say we missed the appointment for Tina, I had to leave the retreat and take Tina home. We had to leave the retreat early to make it to Jerry's FES appointment, which again was awkward disrupting the meeting to leave early. Jerry was not feeling well because he had been cold all morning and all his muscles had clinched up in his shoulders and neck, however he wanted to do FES. After getting Jerry all hooked up which takes about 20 minutes the bike began malfunctioning. We left feeling a little disappointed and headed to the pharmacy to pick a prescription that was droped off almost 2 weeks ago. This was our third visit to the pharmacy to pick up this script, wouldn't ya know they still don't have it. It was one of those days, just kinda wierd. Today was better but I'm so glad it's Friday, even though it was a long day getting down to Pleasonton it's nice to have the weekend to look forward to.

Please keep the healing prayers coming, we're still waitin on the miracle.

Much love,
Katie

Thank You!

The pizza party was a huge success last night, it was so great seeing the community support. Thank you to JR Curtis (lacrosse) & Doug Morris (football) for planning and organizing the event, you guys ROCK! We appreciate the time you took from your busy schedules to put on this fund raiser to benefit Jerry and Allie. The Redwood Pizzeria was so gracious to host the event, not to mention they have fabulous pizza, I love the organic pizza crust, hmmm. It was my understanding the pizzeria ran out of pizza and it was the most pizza they've ever sold. Thank you again and again to the entire community for supporting our kids.

Much love,

Katie

Big Pizza Fundraiser Coming Your Way

The San Lorenzo Valley High School football and lacrosse teams are hosting a Pizza Night fund raiser for Jerry and Allie. Thanks guys, you guys ROCK!

When: Tuesday September 29th
Time: 5:00 - 8:00 pm
Where: Redwood Pizzeria
6205 Hwy 9 ♥ Felton

Call in Orders Early 335-1500

You can check out menu options here: http://www.redwoodpizza.com/mainindex.html

Join us for Dinner at the Redwood Pizzeria, come hungry, order early. I'm told it's best to call your pizza in early to avoid a long wait. A portion of the proceeds from all sales will be split to benefit Jerry and Allie. Hope to see ya there!

Friday - Sept 25

I can't believe I haven't posted for two weeks, the time has flown, sorry I know some of you have been worried. Not to worry everything is going well we've just been busy, and tired.

As I reflect on the last 9 months I'm encouraged and discouraged at the same time. I'm so thankful for the speedy recovery that Jerry had as well as the progress he continues to make. My heart sinks a little that we are almost 10 months post injury and there's no leg or hand movement yet. In my heart I know he'll walk again, we will never give up on that, we'll do whatever it takes to help him achieve that goal. I pray for controlled movement in his legs and hands so he has something to work with. If he has the smallest of controlled movement he has the ability to strengthen it for use. Jerry continues to work hard in therapy, in October we go back to SCI-FIT on Fridays so he will again be in therapy four days a week.

My mom and dad came for to visit for a few days from Washington, we had a good visit it was nice to see them. They drove from Washington so they could bring some exercise equipment for Jerry. My mom had a treadmill and Total Gym (like they use at SCI-FIT) that she wasn't using, thanks mom and dad. We can try and set up a harnessing system for the treadmill so we can do gait training with Jerry on a more regular basis as well as do total gym with him on the weekends. He'll have a mini gym set up in his room, I'm glad we went extra large on the room so it can fit all his stuff.

I'd like to give a big "THANK YOU!" to Barbara Lofranco, I hope I spelled that right. Barbara donated an adjustable bed to Jerry. It's hard to believe we are almost 10 months post injury and still don't have Jerry's permanent hospital bed. The loaner bed from the vendor was a big piece of doodoo (sorry, Karl), Jerry had a hard time sleeping in it. Jerry is using the adjustable bed from Barbara until his permanent bed comes in. We appreciate your kindness Barbara, Jerry sleeps much better and is far more comfortable.

Jerry still struggles with the morning/noon nausea it so frustrating for him to still be dealing with this. All the different tests, and nausea meds, acupuncture etc, has not helped or even changed a thing at this point. Despite the nausea Jerry still has an incredible attitude, he remains in good spirits most of the time even though he's down in the mornings. I think he feels a little depressed in the mornings because the morning routine takes so long to get him out of bed, he has a lot of time to reflect on the situation he's in. Not to mention that's when he feels his worst physically. Once Jerry is out of bed and the nausea subsides he's in a much better mood, he returns to the pre injury Jerry, talks more, jokes and laughs, enjoys his computer games and shows.

Dennis is making progress on the bathroom, we are almost ready to tile. I've gone to a few places to check out tile to try and find something I like, I gotta say it's a little overwhelming. A nephew of a friend of ours whom we did not know, volunteered his time to come and hot mop the floor to seal it and get it ready for tile. Thank you so much Matt you did a beautiful job we appreciate the time you spent on your day off to help out. YOU ROCK!!!! Jerry is going to be so excited when he finally gets a real shower, 9 months of sponge baths just don't cut the mustard if you know what I mean.

Dennis is making a lot of progress on the house but it seems never ending. Working on it Saturdays and Sundays makes for slow progress, he still has to get the roof and siding on the house before the rains come. He needs to move the water heater and plumb the bathroom, sheet rock the bathroom, set the tile, tub and fixtures, poor a concrete pad for the AC unit, poor a permanent concrete ramp, build a secondary concrete ramp to Jerry's room, and on and on. Sometimes it feels like it will never get done. Dennis works hard all week and then works hard all weekend, not much break. I'm proud of his endurance and am thankful for all his hard work. I'm also very thankful for his skill to complete the work, to pay contractactors to do the job would have been a huge financial road block.

Well I'm on Jerry duty and I've neglected him all morning I better get rolling so he's not in bed all day. Thanks for all the love and support you all give. I'll try not to let too much time pass before the next post.

Much love to all,
Katie

Tuesday - Sept 8

When things are cruising along smoothly, one can get a little cocky, a feeling of we got this, everything is under control. Along comes the monkey wrench to remind you we're not out of the water yet. Last night Dennis and I were getting Jerry in the standing frame when Jerry got his first real case of A.D. (Autonomic Dysreflexia). Maybe we were a little prideful that Jerry hadn't gotten AD yet as it is common for his level of injury. Shortly after getting Jerry to a full stand he began to have spasms` which isn't entirely unusual. It became unusual however when he began to have full body spasms. It started with the left side of the body spasming and then the right and back and forth. Jerry's arms began to spasm and his fingers started to make a fist uncontrollably, he started to get a headache along with goose bumps and anxiety, all this took about 5 to 8 minutes. Jerry Suspected he was beginning to have AD so I took his blood pressure and sure enough it was dangerously high 166/111, normally he runs about 115/70. We immediately got him out of the standing frame and began searching for the cause. Unfortunately we didn't figure out what brought on the AD however we were able to get his blood pressure down to a normal range within 30 minutes. Another reminder he's more fragile then we think.

Jerry has had two sessions of acupuncture and has decided acupuncture is not for him. I was disappointed because I think acupuncture has many benefits and it was unfortunate Jerry didn't feel the same.

Jerry still is struggling with the nausea, Sunday was particularly bad. Jerry hates going to bed at night because he knows he will be waking up with nausea. I can't believe we are 8 months into this nightmare and are still struggling with nausea. AAARRRRGGGGG!!!!!!!!

We had a wonderful visit with my Aunt and cousins who were here over the weekend, we even managed to get out for a hike at Big Basin State park. Jerry's chair handled the terrain pretty good but he did feel a little beat up by the end of the day because it was somewhat gravely.

Please continue to keep Jerry in your prayers. We are beginning to research stem cell surgery in China and India. Pray for guidance in our search and as always pray that he will be healed and walk again.

I think that's all I got for now, much love,
Katie