Flights Are Booked

I've finally booked our flights to Thailand, I really struggled with committing to an airline. I've spent a lot of time researching airlines trying to find an airline willing to donate an upgrade from coach, unfortunately I didn't have any success.  I'm so worried about Jerry flying coach for 20 hours. Jerry has only been on a plane once since he broke his neck, it was a 6 hour flight to Georgia that resulted with Jerry in intensive care with a pulmonary embolism. Jerry is 6'3" tall, his head sat above the head rest his knees hit the seat in front of him, there was no way for me to move or massage his legs to help his circulation, there was no room for it, as a result he got a PE. I feel the safest place for Jerry would be first class, where he could put his legs up and recline and I would have plenty of space to massage his legs to help with circulation. Here in lies the problem the difference in cost between coach and first class for two people is $21,954, not affordable. I decided I can no longer wait, as prices for coach fares are going up everyday. I had to book the coach seats now and work on finding a way to upgrade later. With our seats costing almost $5,000 I certainly hope they have a decent meal for a 20 hour flight, lol.

After spending much time on the phone with the airline I learned of a few organizations that work with the airline where people have donated their flier miles to these charities. If I could get one of these charities to donate 120,000 flier miles that would be enough to upgrade both of us to first class round trip. The other thought was to do a miles drive to see if we could get miles donated, from friends, family and the community. If any of you have an extra 120,000 flier miles laying around feel free to drop me a line. :)

Katie                  

Getting The Word Out

The Spaghetti feed is fast approaching, I gotta say I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Excited to have a community gathering and see my valley peeps I haven't seen for so long, nervous my valley peeps won't show up...lol. That being said the details are all falling into place, it ought to be a wonderful night of food, music and fellowship, I hope to see you all there. I gotta give a huge shout out to Donna, Sharon and Debbie, for all their help promoting the Spaghetti Feed. Donna had a booth set up at the Felton Remembers memorial celebration in the park, with the help of her daughter Kelsey, they spent all day Saturday promoting the spaghetti feed and sharing Jerry's story. Debbie passed out flyers at the Felton Remembers Parade, and Sunday Sharon and her husband set up a beautiful booth at the the Boulder Creek Art festival at Junction Park ...spreading the word. I just want to acknowledge how appreciative I am to all of them for the work and effort they put into helping to share Jerry's story and spread the word of the upcoming spaghetti feed. Thanks!!!

Jumping Out of Bed

7 am this morning I awoke to Jerry, calling me, you know that voice kids have when you know you better run? I jumped out of bed so fast I felt faint, and ran into Jerry's room to find that Jerry had literally jumped out of bed and was laying on the floor. For a brief second I felt a sense of fear and panic, my mind raced through several thoughts in a split second. Did he sustain any serious injury?  How am I gonna get him off the floor? Did this happen in one swift kick or multiple? Jerry said I'm Ok and it was all I needed to hear to take a deep breath, get my wits about me, and take action to get Jerry off the floor. I was thankful to find that the Hoyer lift does drop low enough, (just barely) to pick up from the floor. Once I got Jerry back to bed I did a thorough inspection for injuries, thank the Lord no injuries. What an adrenalin rushed way to start the day. I'm sure some of you are wondering why Jerry's bed rails weren't up, the bed he's in right now does not have bed rails, we never needed them before. Jerry has 2 beds and switches back and forth, bed 1 is the bottom of the barrel piece of you know what with no rails, however the mattress alternates and is awesome for reducing pressure points, bed 2 is the top of the line luxury edition however the mattress does not alternate and Jerry's butt fall's asleep. Unfortunately the mattresses are not interchangeable, so Jerry switches back and forth between beds.

Jerry's spasticity and muscle spasms have increasingly gotten stronger since his brain injury. Jerry never had to take spasticity medication before the brain injury however now he does and we've had to increase it twice. Two weeks ago he had to double his medication and it's helped a little but not much, I'm fearful his doctor will want him on a Baclofen pump, I pray not. Jerry's legs will quite literally kick and jump 2 feet off the bed. He's kneed me in the chest pretty hard and gotten real close to kneeing me in the face a couple times, good thing I move quick, lol.

I mentioned above that Jerry's butt falls asleep, I know for Jerry it's very uncomfortable, we have to keep rolling him side to side and it's hard for him to get relief. For me I find it encouraging ...3 months ago Jerry could not feel anything below the chest line and now he can feel when his bottom is asleep. It's incredible to think that 4 years post injury Jerry is still getting some return if even just a faint tingling in his bottom, it helps to keep hope alive for more to come.

katie

For those of you who haven't heard yet, a nationally televised TV show called Right This Minute will air Jerry's story tomorrow morning, including a skype interview with Jerry and I. The show will be aired locally on KTVU channel 2, there are 2 shows that play back to back from 9 to 10 am, Jerry's story will be on one of them. If you don't live in the San Francisco bay area but want to watch you can find the tv network in your area that will air the show here: http://www.rightthisminute.com/about/stations. You can also watch the show from their Rightthisminute.com website. Ok I'm clearly not ready for show biz, lol but glad to the chance to share Jerry's story. 

Katie

The spaghetti fundraiser is coming together and coming up quick, I'm posting the flyer here and distributing around town. If any of you Valley folk are inclined feel free to print and hand out to friends and family. If you plan on coming to the the dinner it would be awesome if you could RSVP ASAP to give us an idea of how much food to get. You can rsvp to rsvp@followingjerry.com or call 831-338-3169 to let us know how many adults and how many children in your party as well as if you prefer meat or vegetarian sauce. We are very excited and can't wait to see you all there.

gofundme

The fund raising efforts are ramping up! Plans for the spaghetti feed are coming together, mark your calendars for June 8th 4-8 pm more info to come. June 26th we maybe having a free social event, music and refreshments in the park, we're still trying to secure the location, will keep you posted. The gofundme campaign has started with a bang. We've raised $680 in less than 22 hours, I know our page says 13 days however I set up the account 13 days ago but it didn't go public until last night. Thank you to all those who have donated so far. If this is the first you are hearing of our gofundme campaign I encourage you to click on the link below and check it out. From our gofundme page you can share it with your facebook friends and email it to your contacts if you are so inclined. Thanks to all of you who are already circulating this through email and facebook.

Spaghetti Feed

We finally are making some headway on fundraiser planning thanks to Sharon Ferry who has stepped in and got the ball rolling, keeping me motivated and moving forward. We will be holding a Spaghetti Feed June 8th at the Boulder Creek Fire Department so mark your calendars we hope to see you there. Keep checking back for more information, I'll keep you posted as details arise.

Sponsorship Letter

Not much has changed since my last post Jerry remains in relatively good health, he continues to work on improving his speech and it seems to be helping. I've continued my quest of trying to find affordable suitable airfare to Thailand but have had no luck at all and time is running short. I fear we may have no other choice but to fly coach. A friend had a good suggestion of purchasing an extra seat, it's a couple thousand more as opposed to $20,000, then I could turn Jerry sideways and stretch him out across my lap. Not the best solution but it is one option, I have about 2 weeks to figure it out and then I will have to book flight regardless.

You may have noticed I've added a sponsorship letter page the link is above, you can also access it by clicking here. If any of you feel comfortable distributing it please feel free to print and pass out to friends, employers, rich uncles or anyone you think would support Jerry's cause.

Best wishes,
Katie