A Much Better Day - Feb 17

Yesterday was difficult, I began to feel a sense of panic over finding a van. I spent a lot of time yesterday looking online and came up empty. We feel it's so important to not loose any time in Jerry's rehab and yet we feel so immobile. We have no way of transporting him in the wheel chair he has without a lift and we don't have a manual chair that can be loaded in the Suburban. Everyday without a van is a day lost in rehab.

God is good and reminds us where there's a will there's a way. We loaded Jerry in the Hoyer Lift, which is kinda like a Cherry Picker. Josh held the huge beach umbrella over Dennis, Jerry and I so we didn't get to wet while loading Jerry in the car with the Hoyer. The first stop on the trip was Horsnyder's to rent a manual wheel chair, what a relief. At least with a manual chair we can now leave the house if we need to, car transfers are really difficult and not ideal for long term but it's doable in a pinch.

We felt like we had it all under control to go for a ride, we packed are bag of tricks and thought we were prepared. We forgot about the nausea, Jerry has had very little nausea if any and we forgot to take it into account. Now we know, always take nausea medication and a barf bucket on a road trip, live and learn. Other than that oversight we did good, everything else went smooth. Amazingly enough we were able to get Jerry loaded in the car around noon, that's record timing on our part to get through the morning routine. Jerry needed some slippers because he can't wear shoes right now, he had a specific kind of slipper he wanted so we went to the mall to hunt them down. Jerry was not feeling up to getting out of the car so he and Dennis waited in the car while I hit 8 stores, before I found the right ones. I bought the slippers came out to the car and tried them on him and then had to take them back for a smaller size. Things are a little more complicated. After leaving the mall we drove to Watsonville to check out a few vans, no luck they were to small.

Next on the trip itinerary we went to Dominican Rehab Center to check out their facility, Jerry still did not feel up to getting out of the car so I waited in the car with Jerry while Dennis went in and checked it out. Dennis came back then I went and checked it out, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, to soon to form an opinion.

Jerry started to feel better and wanted to go visit Robin and the nurses at Valley Medical Center. Robin is being discharged from the hospital tomorrow so we decided to go for a visit. After arriving at VMC we found out that Robin got a day pass to go to the Sharks game. Robin is Canadian and the Sharks are playing his team from Canada, lucky him. Every night Jerry says that he misses his nurses and therapists so it was very nice for him to get to see some of his favorites, Maria, Tess, Jose, Kathy, Heather, Percy.

It was so nice to get out of the house today. Getting the manual wheelchair was a huge sense of relief. I know we have to be patient and God will provide for us, the right van will come along at the right price, waiting is the hard part. Thank you all for continued prayer, thank you for posting comments of encouragement it really means a lot to us.

Good night,
Katie