Friday Feb - 20

We are so excited about the benefit concert at Brookdale Lodge tomorrow night. We all are planning on going including Jerry. It's going to be so much fun, we hope to see many of you there.

We met Jerry's new doctor today, Dr. Quinn, I gotta say right off the bat we love him, he is awesome. We did so good getting Jerry to his appointment today on time at 2:15, we were even 5 minutes early. That doesn't sound like a big deal I know but if you've seen what we go through to take him on an outing you'd understand, we did good ;-). Dr. Quinn is arranging for home health care PT and OT so we are excited about that. Dr. Quinn seems to have a very aggressive approach towards Jerry's care, it's so refreshing. We all really seem to be on the same page which is a great change of pace. God has connected us with the prefect doctor for Jerry's needs.

I have to give a big THANK YOU!!! to Leanne Martinez. Leanne contacted Senate furniture store and told them of our need for a chair suitable for Jerry, as a result Senate donated a used chair for Jerry. The chair is in great shape, Jerry's been sitting in it for about an hour now and says it's 100 times better then what he's been sitting in. He's so much more comfortable, thanks Leanne and thank you Senate Furniture.

We looked at the van in Scotts Valley that a woman is willing to donate to us, it may work out however we need to talk with her to find out more about the van. She was not at the van so we just peeked in the windows. As far as we know the van has been sitting for a few years and is being used as a storage shed. I don't know if the lift works and what kind of work needs to be done to get it running but we'll find out. We also need to do a measurement to see if he'll fit in it with his chair.

Our friend Jenny found a van in Napa that seems ideal, it has less then 15,000 miles and they are asking $16,000. The lift will work perfectly and it's fully loaded. The only draw back is the floor to ceiling height is only 57 inches which is exactly how tall Jerry is in his chair. We would like to get Jerry in his chair and put him in it to see how he would fit but I don't think Jerry can stand being in the car for several hours driving to Napa at this point. Maybe the guy will meet us half way but even with that we will have to load the wheelchair in a trailer to get it there. We'll figure it out, I would love for that van to work out. I'm thankful that we have a couple of options to explore at this point. Thanks to all those who have been sending us links and leads on vans we have explored them all. Someone asked us to post again the specifics in what we need in a van. Here are a few details to keep in mind, we are looking for a van with a dropped floor, we would rather not have the raised ceiling van as the only thing Jerry will be able to view would be the ceiling. We need a full size van because the mini van style will not fit his wheel chair. When Jerry is sitting in his chair it is 57 inches from the floor to the top of his head, we can get by with a 52 inch door opening however the floor to ceiling needs to be at least 60 inches. We are hoping to find a van with less then 80,000 miles and are not wanting to spend more then 15,000.

Jerry has been feeling pretty good today, a little nausea this morning and a little pain this evening but for the most part pretty good. It's so nice to get him out of the house. It may take a couple weeks to get Jerry into the Dominican Rehab Center so it's nice that Dr. Quinn will be sending a physical therapist to the house. Dennis and I have been doing his range of motion every day but it will be nice to have a break with PT working him. Dennis is going to make a skateboard devise to exercise Jerry's arms, similar to what he used at Valley Medical. Jerry's biceps are getting stronger and he seems to have a little more feeling then last week. I pray God will give Jerry new feeling or movement each day. I see the hope in Jerry's eyes when he feels something new, it melts my heart and I want that for him every day. God's timing is not our timing and we don't know his plan. We want what we want and we want it yesterday, waiting is the hard part. It's hard for us to be patient but we are trying. Jerry is only 6 weeks post injury and has made huge improvement, most people with his level of injury are in the hospital for 2 to 3 months, on ventilators or have a tracheotomy. We have to remember how very blessed we are.

Good night,
Katie