It's been a busy week and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Last Sunday I was in the emergency room with Janea all night. Dennis, Jessica and Janea volunteered at the Wharf to Wharf on Sunday, for those not familiar it's a 10K run in Santa Cruz. Janea started to feel dizzy about noon and by 2:00 she was vomiting. The strange thing is Janea felt fine all morning. Janea was so sick she couldn't hold anything down, by 8:30 pm her arms were trembling uncontrollably. I took here to emergency and they kept her all night, she was severely dehydrated and her blood pressure dropped scarily low 77 / 21. Three IV bags later her blood pressure was 80 / 50. They were concerned about releasing her but she was able to get up and walk around without getting dizzy and she was fully hydrated so they released her about 7 am. I was really tired because I didn't sleep at all and was sitting in the most uncomfortable chair all night. Janea slept all day Monday and is back to normal, I pray Jerry doesn't come down with it, it was awful. I managed to get about 5 hours sleep but was pretty wiped out on Monday.
Tuesday Jerry had his endoscopy, they didn't do the colonoscopy there was a misunderstanding on my part. The endoscopy went well, the results came back normal with a little bit of acid damage in the esophagus. The doctor thinks the ditropan Jerry takes for bladder spasms is relaxing the sphincter to the stomach so acid is backing up into the esophagus. The doc said that it could be what's causing the nausea so he put him on protonics. I don't think the acid is the nausea causer, he has been off and on protonics since he was in the hospital and it has never had an effect on the nausea. I'm going to request Jerry's doctor to order a stomach emptying study, I think he has a motility problem. We'll see. Jerry has felt pretty bad all week, however today he seemed a little better.
We had to cancel SCI-FIT on Wednesday because I had a doctor appointment. I have been having trouble hearing in my left ear for a few months now. The doctor put me on a steroid for two weeks to try and resolve the issue I'm having with my inner-ear. I had another hearing test and there was no improvement so the doc gave me a shot of steroid. The shot hurt, they poke the needle through the ear drum and inject the cream next to the inner ear membrane. After two weeks there is still no improvement to the hearing so at this point the doc has determined the hearing loss is permanent. I now have an appointment to be fitted for a hearing aid, how ridicules, I'm to young to loose my hearing.
Today Jerry had therapy at Dominican Rehab. Jerry did the FES hand bike. Every time Jerry does the FES hand bike he feels like he gains a little something back. After the FES session Jerry gained the ability to rotate his wrist slightly. This is new, until now he could only pick his arm up and let it fall but he cannot push it down or rotate it. Jerry also had a very slight movement in his thumb when he was trying to rotate his hand. The thumb movement is so small you could hardly see it, but it's there and it's exciting to have something new. I thank God for anything new because it keeps hope alive and renews motivation to keep working hard.
Jerry's friends from Florida are coming this weekend for another visit so I know Jerry is very excited about that. Tomorrow we are off to Pleasanton and then having a BBQ at our house for the summer staffers. Summer staff leaves on Saturday which is a bummer, Jerry very much enjoyed them dropping by for visits.
Well I think we've caught up and the dinner dishes are awaiting my presence so I will say good night.
Katie
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday - July 23
We are so busy with therapy and doctor appointments, the days seem to fly by, I can't believe we are over 7 months post injury. It seems like yesterday and yet it seems like a life time ago, how is that possible. What's even more ridicules is we still don't have Jerry's permanent power wheelchair or bed.
Jerry still struggles with nausea but it seems like it's getting better. Jerry has an endoscopy and colonoscopy today at noon. I know this sounds weird but sometimes I just want one of these tests to come back with a problem. Although you don't want there to be a problem it's obvious there is a problem or he wouldn't be nauseous for 7 months. If one of the tests came back with a problem you would at least know what your dealing with and how to fix it. The fact that every test they have done til now has come back normal is great however it leaves us still searching for the needle in the hay stack. Despite the morning nausea Jerry seems to feel pretty good from about noon on. Jerry's mental state is in a good place right now, there always seems to be someone around to keep him cheery.
We had a party at our house last night to celebrate Dennis' birthday. Jerry and I didn't get back from Pleasanton until 8:30, we were late for our own party. Oh well, we had fun anyway.
Therapy is going well, Jerry continues to get tingles in his legs while exercising. Jerry said yesterday that he could feel tingling in his hands which is new. Pray that this means his body is waking up. I pray several times a day that God will heal him completely and restore his body.
God bless you all for following Jerry's progress and keeping him in your daily thoughts and prayers, until he walks again.
Love always,
Katie
Jerry still struggles with nausea but it seems like it's getting better. Jerry has an endoscopy and colonoscopy today at noon. I know this sounds weird but sometimes I just want one of these tests to come back with a problem. Although you don't want there to be a problem it's obvious there is a problem or he wouldn't be nauseous for 7 months. If one of the tests came back with a problem you would at least know what your dealing with and how to fix it. The fact that every test they have done til now has come back normal is great however it leaves us still searching for the needle in the hay stack. Despite the morning nausea Jerry seems to feel pretty good from about noon on. Jerry's mental state is in a good place right now, there always seems to be someone around to keep him cheery.
We had a party at our house last night to celebrate Dennis' birthday. Jerry and I didn't get back from Pleasanton until 8:30, we were late for our own party. Oh well, we had fun anyway.
Therapy is going well, Jerry continues to get tingles in his legs while exercising. Jerry said yesterday that he could feel tingling in his hands which is new. Pray that this means his body is waking up. I pray several times a day that God will heal him completely and restore his body.
God bless you all for following Jerry's progress and keeping him in your daily thoughts and prayers, until he walks again.
Love always,
Katie
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A great day at the ball park
For those of you who went to the San Jose Giants game yesterday, you all ready know it was a great game and a wonderful time all together. For those not able to make it, the Giants won the Modesto Nuts 1-0, whoot, whoot. I was hoping the following Jerry crowd would all be seated in one section however it didn't quite work out that way. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't get Jerry in the stands. There was a wheelchair seating area way out by the third base side which was full, so we spent most of the time hanging out by the fence on the first base side. Other than that minor issue the day was absolutely wonderful. It was great to see so many of our friends come out to support Jerry as well as many familiar faces from our community.
We had a tail gate party prior to the game and I gotta say that was just as much fun as the game itself. I wanted to stay and hang out with friends, the time was far too short. It was fun having people stop by to say hi on their way into the game. I would have loved to have more time to socialize.
For those who weren't able to make it to the game Jerry went out to the mound with his sister Jessica who got to throw the first pitch. It was a pretty good pitch for a center fielder, the catcher said it was a strike and even had some movement on it. Way to go Jess! Jerry also went out to the field with the summer staffers and a few friends to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". I can't believe they actually got Jerry to go out there and sing, that was pretty sweet. Some of the guys on the team came over to talk to Jerry, they were so cool. One of the players went in the dugout and got an official ball to sign for Jerry, what a great guy.
I would like to thank everyone who came out to support Jerry in this fundraiser. It was kind of a scary fund raiser because we had to invest $2,500 for tickets. We were nervous about not being able to sell enough tickets to cover cost. Thanks to all who purchased tickets we made our money back. We have not gotten all the ticket money back yet but the estimate is that we profited $2,500. That equates to 2 months of therapy at SCI-FIT in Pleasanton, so THANK YOU ALL!!! I would like to give a special THANKS to Mike owner of Stanford Avenue Automotive on the corner of Stanford and Mission in Santa Cruz. Mike purchased somewhere in the ball park of 120 tickets, thanks Mike for being so supportive. Anyone needing automotive work be sure to visit Stanford Avenue Automotive, Mike is an AWESOME DUDE and will treat you right.
I want to thank the following people for busting their booty to sale tickets: Trish, Leanne, Marci, Kris, Kay (AKA Nana), Karen, Rob, Paul, Josh&Janea, Sharon Ferry, Sharon Fry, Jessica and Amber. Thank you to Becky for working on the flyer and news paper ad. Thank you to Santa Cruz Weekly paper for the free ad space. You guys rock big time! Lastly a huge THANK YOU to Marci for finding and orgainizing this fund raiser. Thanks for working with the Giants staff and coordinating our vollunteers and gettin it done. YOUR AMAZING, THANKS!
OHHHH, I can't forget to thank Paul Firenzi of MVP-Photography for document the day with some awesome pictures, thanks Paul. You can click on the images to view larger size.
Katie
We had a tail gate party prior to the game and I gotta say that was just as much fun as the game itself. I wanted to stay and hang out with friends, the time was far too short. It was fun having people stop by to say hi on their way into the game. I would have loved to have more time to socialize.
For those who weren't able to make it to the game Jerry went out to the mound with his sister Jessica who got to throw the first pitch. It was a pretty good pitch for a center fielder, the catcher said it was a strike and even had some movement on it. Way to go Jess! Jerry also went out to the field with the summer staffers and a few friends to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". I can't believe they actually got Jerry to go out there and sing, that was pretty sweet. Some of the guys on the team came over to talk to Jerry, they were so cool. One of the players went in the dugout and got an official ball to sign for Jerry, what a great guy.
I would like to thank everyone who came out to support Jerry in this fundraiser. It was kind of a scary fund raiser because we had to invest $2,500 for tickets. We were nervous about not being able to sell enough tickets to cover cost. Thanks to all who purchased tickets we made our money back. We have not gotten all the ticket money back yet but the estimate is that we profited $2,500. That equates to 2 months of therapy at SCI-FIT in Pleasanton, so THANK YOU ALL!!! I would like to give a special THANKS to Mike owner of Stanford Avenue Automotive on the corner of Stanford and Mission in Santa Cruz. Mike purchased somewhere in the ball park of 120 tickets, thanks Mike for being so supportive. Anyone needing automotive work be sure to visit Stanford Avenue Automotive, Mike is an AWESOME DUDE and will treat you right.
I want to thank the following people for busting their booty to sale tickets: Trish, Leanne, Marci, Kris, Kay (AKA Nana), Karen, Rob, Paul, Josh&Janea, Sharon Ferry, Sharon Fry, Jessica and Amber. Thank you to Becky for working on the flyer and news paper ad. Thank you to Santa Cruz Weekly paper for the free ad space. You guys rock big time! Lastly a huge THANK YOU to Marci for finding and orgainizing this fund raiser. Thanks for working with the Giants staff and coordinating our vollunteers and gettin it done. YOUR AMAZING, THANKS!
OHHHH, I can't forget to thank Paul Firenzi of MVP-Photography for document the day with some awesome pictures, thanks Paul. You can click on the images to view larger size.
Katie
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday - July 13
We have had quite a busy few days. Jessica had a tournament so Dennis and Jess stayed Saturday night in Stockton. Jerry and I went to a friends wedding, Salina. Salina looked so beautiful and is so cute. You know the tradition something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue? Salina's something blue was Jerry's (FollowingJerry) bracelet around her ankle. It was too cute when she took a picture with Jerry with her leg up on the arm of Jerry's chair to show the bracelet around her ankle. I gotta get a copy of that, who do I pay Salina? :-) During the reception Jerry said "Look" as he looked in the direction of his leg. Jerry had new movement, he was able to move his leg about a 1/2 inch. That does not sound like much but let me tell you any deliberate movement below the level of injury is mucho huge. It was deliberate movement that he was able to duplicate about four times. Jerry wanted to show Salina so I went and found her and he was able to show her as well, it was way cool. Jerry has not been able to make that movement since but continues to try. My understanding is the body gets fatigued so something you can do one day doesn't necessarily mean you can do it the next day.
We had to leave the reception a little early as I was having some lady friends over for game night. We got home about 5:30 and my guests were due to arrive at 7:30. I had just enough time to take care of Jerry's needs and get all my hors d'oeuvres ready before the gals showed up. Jerry went to the movie with a friend, it was nice for him to get out of the house and get a break from me. I had a blast with my friends which left about 12:30. By the time I cleaned up and got Jerry to bed it was 3 am so needless to say we slept in until about noon the next day. Sunday Jerry chilled and watched his shows or did computer work all day which is his favorite thing to do since his injury. I finally got an opportunity to pull all the weeds in my yard, I actually had weeds 4 feet tall. The flower beds are now practically empty. I didn't plant flowers this year for obvious reasons and all those weeds almost looked like plants. After pulling the weeds I see now I need some flowers. Ahh well whatcha gonna do? .....tomorrow's another day.
Today we had a massage therapist (Susan) come to the house for Jerry, I gotta say she was pretty amazing. Susan was here for well over two hours and even did a little work on me, it was wonderful. We are going to have Susan do massage therapy on Jerry probably every other week at this point. Part of the goal is to relive pain Jerry has in his neck and shoulders, hopefully to reduce the need for the pain meds. Any one local looking for a good therapist look no further, Susan Handloff Hammer of Harmony Massage does wonderful work. Thanks Susan!
After the appointment with Susan we had to load up and head to Santa Cruz. I had an appointment with the ear doc which was not pleasant. I've had a significant hearing loss in my left ear over the last 3 months. I took a steroid for two weeks which did absolutely nothing. Today the doc put a needle through my ear drum and injected a steroid near the inner ear. OK that was not fun, hopefully it will help to regain the hearing loss.
Our next appointment was with Jerry's doctor. I took all the charts that I've been charting for the last two weeks. Food chart, blood pressure chart, bowel and bladder chart, we're looking for a pattern and sadly the only pattern is something we already knew. Jerry's nausea level starts out between 5 and 7 every day, by mid day he's about a 3 or 4, by late afternoon he's at a 1. No correlation to bowel or bladder, blood pressure or food, the quest goes on. Jerry had major blood pressure issues today, we learned something new. Jerry wears compression socks to help keep his blood pressure up. On occasion he has gone without the socks and been fine. The socks is not something he will have to wear for life he can eventually get rid of them. Today was pretty hot so we thought Jerry would be more comfortable without the socks and as he has on occasion gone without them I didn't give it a second thought. So we found out today that when it's hot is when he needs them the most. Jerry could not sit upright without starting to pass out and stayed in a tilt position until we got home. The nurse took his blood pressure sitting up and it was 58 over 31 just as he was about to pass out. He went back to tilt position and his blood pressure went back up to 90 over 58, much better. Now we know.
Dennis was installing an attic fan in our house this evening. He was testing it out and went to adjust it and his hand slipped, he almost chopped off the tip of his finger. It was rather gruesome, the entire fingernail was ripped off as well as a hunk of flesh under the nail. I called our doctor and she confirmed what we thought, there's not much they can do other then to clean it up and give a tetanus shot. Dennis will go get a tetanus on Wednesday, the sweet thing is we have a nurse on staff here where we live at Redwood Christian Park. Dennis went down to the nurses station and she cleaned it up for him which saved a trip to the ER.
We still have a lot of Giants tickets left, if you plan on going tickets are still available locally at We All Ride in Soquel, Scotts Valley CycleSport and Felton Feed. You can also purchase them online here at the blog until Saturday at 12noon. Any tickets purchased online before this Tuesday will be mailed, those purchased between Wednesday and Saturday at 12noon will be held at will-call at the Stadium.
I guess that's enough for know, I think I'm all caught up on the latest.
See You There, Go Giants!!
Katie
We had to leave the reception a little early as I was having some lady friends over for game night. We got home about 5:30 and my guests were due to arrive at 7:30. I had just enough time to take care of Jerry's needs and get all my hors d'oeuvres ready before the gals showed up. Jerry went to the movie with a friend, it was nice for him to get out of the house and get a break from me. I had a blast with my friends which left about 12:30. By the time I cleaned up and got Jerry to bed it was 3 am so needless to say we slept in until about noon the next day. Sunday Jerry chilled and watched his shows or did computer work all day which is his favorite thing to do since his injury. I finally got an opportunity to pull all the weeds in my yard, I actually had weeds 4 feet tall. The flower beds are now practically empty. I didn't plant flowers this year for obvious reasons and all those weeds almost looked like plants. After pulling the weeds I see now I need some flowers. Ahh well whatcha gonna do? .....tomorrow's another day.
Today we had a massage therapist (Susan) come to the house for Jerry, I gotta say she was pretty amazing. Susan was here for well over two hours and even did a little work on me, it was wonderful. We are going to have Susan do massage therapy on Jerry probably every other week at this point. Part of the goal is to relive pain Jerry has in his neck and shoulders, hopefully to reduce the need for the pain meds. Any one local looking for a good therapist look no further, Susan Handloff Hammer of Harmony Massage does wonderful work. Thanks Susan!
After the appointment with Susan we had to load up and head to Santa Cruz. I had an appointment with the ear doc which was not pleasant. I've had a significant hearing loss in my left ear over the last 3 months. I took a steroid for two weeks which did absolutely nothing. Today the doc put a needle through my ear drum and injected a steroid near the inner ear. OK that was not fun, hopefully it will help to regain the hearing loss.
Our next appointment was with Jerry's doctor. I took all the charts that I've been charting for the last two weeks. Food chart, blood pressure chart, bowel and bladder chart, we're looking for a pattern and sadly the only pattern is something we already knew. Jerry's nausea level starts out between 5 and 7 every day, by mid day he's about a 3 or 4, by late afternoon he's at a 1. No correlation to bowel or bladder, blood pressure or food, the quest goes on. Jerry had major blood pressure issues today, we learned something new. Jerry wears compression socks to help keep his blood pressure up. On occasion he has gone without the socks and been fine. The socks is not something he will have to wear for life he can eventually get rid of them. Today was pretty hot so we thought Jerry would be more comfortable without the socks and as he has on occasion gone without them I didn't give it a second thought. So we found out today that when it's hot is when he needs them the most. Jerry could not sit upright without starting to pass out and stayed in a tilt position until we got home. The nurse took his blood pressure sitting up and it was 58 over 31 just as he was about to pass out. He went back to tilt position and his blood pressure went back up to 90 over 58, much better. Now we know.
Dennis was installing an attic fan in our house this evening. He was testing it out and went to adjust it and his hand slipped, he almost chopped off the tip of his finger. It was rather gruesome, the entire fingernail was ripped off as well as a hunk of flesh under the nail. I called our doctor and she confirmed what we thought, there's not much they can do other then to clean it up and give a tetanus shot. Dennis will go get a tetanus on Wednesday, the sweet thing is we have a nurse on staff here where we live at Redwood Christian Park. Dennis went down to the nurses station and she cleaned it up for him which saved a trip to the ER.
We still have a lot of Giants tickets left, if you plan on going tickets are still available locally at We All Ride in Soquel, Scotts Valley CycleSport and Felton Feed. You can also purchase them online here at the blog until Saturday at 12noon. Any tickets purchased online before this Tuesday will be mailed, those purchased between Wednesday and Saturday at 12noon will be held at will-call at the Stadium.
I guess that's enough for know, I think I'm all caught up on the latest.
See You There, Go Giants!!
Katie
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Ballgame This Saturday!
We are SO excited for this Saturday, and hope that you will be joining us at 6pm at the San Jose Municipal Stadium for a great game between the San Jose Giants and the Modesto Nuts!
Not only will the baseball be awesome, but you will enjoy seeing some of our own folks playing games between innings, throwing the first pitch, and singing for the 7th inning stretch! That's likely worth the price of admission right there.......!
Tickets are still available locally at We All Ride in Soquel, Scotts Valley CycleSport and Felton Feed. You can also purchase them online here at the blog until Saturday at 12noon. Any tickets purchased online before this Tuesday will be mailed, those purchased between Wednesday and Saturday at 12noon will be held at will-call at the Stadium.
So, don't delay! If you haven't yet bought your ticket, the time is now!
We can't wait to see you there.
Go Giants!
Not only will the baseball be awesome, but you will enjoy seeing some of our own folks playing games between innings, throwing the first pitch, and singing for the 7th inning stretch! That's likely worth the price of admission right there.......!
Tickets are still available locally at We All Ride in Soquel, Scotts Valley CycleSport and Felton Feed. You can also purchase them online here at the blog until Saturday at 12noon. Any tickets purchased online before this Tuesday will be mailed, those purchased between Wednesday and Saturday at 12noon will be held at will-call at the Stadium.
So, don't delay! If you haven't yet bought your ticket, the time is now!
We can't wait to see you there.
Go Giants!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thursday - July 9
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, when things remain the same with very little change I struggle to know what to write about. Jerry is doing well for the most part. There were a couple of days where Jerry felt depressed and had a hard day but it was short lived thank God. This is such a roller coaster ride for us all but particularly for Jerry. I'm so glad it's summer though because a lot of Jerry's friends are home from college. Jerry has been spending quite a bit of time with his friends, those are the times when he feels good. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little worried for the end of summer when everyone goes back to school.
Jerry had another ultrasound which came back normal. Jerry has an endoscopy and colonoscopy coming up, still trying to get to the bottom of the nausea. I will say the nausea seems to be getting better, he still wakes up with it and it never really is fully gone however it stays at a tolerable level for most of the day.
Please continue to pray that God will heal Jerry completely. Pray that God will give Jerry strength, peace and determination to keep working hard.
Thank you for praying, for loving, for supporting, for caring, and for staying with us on this journey.
Katie
Jerry had another ultrasound which came back normal. Jerry has an endoscopy and colonoscopy coming up, still trying to get to the bottom of the nausea. I will say the nausea seems to be getting better, he still wakes up with it and it never really is fully gone however it stays at a tolerable level for most of the day.
Please continue to pray that God will heal Jerry completely. Pray that God will give Jerry strength, peace and determination to keep working hard.
Thank you for praying, for loving, for supporting, for caring, and for staying with us on this journey.
Katie
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Countdown....
Our Saturday, July 18 ballgame between the San Jose Giants and the Modesto Nuts is coming up quick! The game is at 6pm, tickets are just $7 per person, and kids ages 0-4 can enter for free.
If you haven't yet invited your friends, family and coworkers, please extend an invitation as we would love to see a FANTASTIC turnout. If you need any flyers, double click on the flyer to the right and print as many as you would like.
If you are planning to attend but have not yet purchased your tickets, we would love for you to do so this week. Based on our tickets sales by weeks end, our plans will begin to finalize, and we would HATE for anyone to miss out on this fantastic evening of baseball, good friends and good food!
Tickets are available here by clicking the "add to cart" button your sidebar, or you can purchase tickets at We All Ride in Soquel, Felton Feed, or Scotts Valley CycleSport.
See you soon!
m.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Happy Summer and Happy 4th of July Weekend
I love summer it's my favorite time of year, the weather has been gorgeous. Jerry and I get a 4 day weekend as SCI-FIT is closed today and we always have Monday's off. Well I guess Monday's not totally a free day as Jerry has an ultrasound. It will be nice to use the time off to get caught up on things around the house, maybe even get some yard work done.
Jerry has been feeling much the same with the nausea, the charting I've been doing shows a pattern. Using a scale of one through ten every morning upon waking he is at 5 or 6 by 1:00 he is around 3 by 5:00 he is at 1 and remains that way. The nausea is never fully gone but level 3 and below is tolerable. It's was sad the other day he said, "I don't even remember what it's like to not feel nauseous".
Jerry has had a lot more time with friends since summer has started and it has been wonderful. He smiles more and that always warms my heart.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend.
Katie
Jerry has been feeling much the same with the nausea, the charting I've been doing shows a pattern. Using a scale of one through ten every morning upon waking he is at 5 or 6 by 1:00 he is around 3 by 5:00 he is at 1 and remains that way. The nausea is never fully gone but level 3 and below is tolerable. It's was sad the other day he said, "I don't even remember what it's like to not feel nauseous".
Jerry has had a lot more time with friends since summer has started and it has been wonderful. He smiles more and that always warms my heart.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend.
Katie
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