Sunday - Aug 30

We would like to thank Sheri Ross for putting on a wonderful classical concert benefit for Jerry last night. Sheri you did a wonderful Job and you play the violin so beautifully. Thank you to all the wonderful musicians who participated in the concert we appreciate all the time you took to help our family. Thank you!

Yesterday we had a very scary experience with Jerry, just a reminder of how fragile he still is. Janea and I were getting Jerry into the standing frame in hines sight we should never attempt that when it's 96 degrees in the house. Generally Jerry's blood pressure drops when you stand him up, the trick is to get him up as quickly as possible and get his hands strapped to the handles and start the glider while someone pumps his calf and thigh muscles. Once you get the glider going his blood pressure comes back to normal and then it's just a matter keeping the glider going and pumping his legs every few minutes. When the blood pressure drops it can cause you to pass out, Jerry has a pass out scale of 1 to 4, when he reaches 1 he feels light headed and it's time to start pumping the legs. When Jerry reaches 2 he's a little dizzy, 3 he begins to get tunnel vision the beginning of blacking out and his hearing goes, at 4 he passes out. At level 1 and 2 we pump the legs and it brings him back to zero if he reaches a 3 we bring him down from standing to sitting and pump the stomach. If pumping the stomach does not elevate the blood pressure then we raise his legs. Janea and I got him up to standing and he was imediatly at one, Janea started to pump the legs as I had one hand on his chest to keep him from tilting and the other hand holding his two hands on the little table in front of his chest. Jerry went to a 2 so I wanted to get his hands strapped quickly and begin moving the glider that always brings his blood pressure back. Jerry never went to 3, before I even got one hand strapped he passed out. It was scary, because the normal pumping was not bringing him back and I was holding him up so could not push the lever to bring him down. I kept calling him and then started screaming "Jerry come back". I finally got the glidder down and had to unhook his legs and pull them up. He was out for almost a minute by the time we got his legs out of the glidder and elevated, it was so scary to see his eyes staring out but nothing was there, no response. At one point I paniced and slapped him to try and startle him to come back, he doesn't remember any of it. Another lesson learned, no standing frame when it's hot in the house the heat causes him to have blood pressure problems. Secondly don't panic just get the legs elevated as quickly as possible.

Dennis and Jessica are in Hayward yesterday and today, Jess had a softball tournament. They won the first two games yesterday and lost the third. Today they won the first game and could play up to two more games. Go Spin! I will spend the day catching up on chores after getting through Jerry's morning routine.

Have a peaceful day,
Katie