Friday, July 20, 2012

Day 15-a little more about dad

We are officially 2 weeks into the healing process for dad's injury.  Although his broken neck has robbed him of his ability to be independent, it has not robbed his humor. 

Here's our biggest challenges with helping Dad to recover:

-Never able to walk again and must rely on his powerchair and a lift system to move him safely from his chair to bed
-Limited movement in his hands and arms bc of the ALS and neck injury, dad is learning to feed himself with customized silverware and sippy cups with straws!
-Adjusing to life in a neck brace which doesn't allow him to see the world the way he used to see it.  He will never be able to move his neck.
-Dependent on someone to help him with daily living 24 hours a day

                                                                           (Dad broke his neck at C1)


It's the little things that we celebrate each day and embrace in our hearts.  Learning to live life each day as if you are a quadrapelgic is definitely a challenge.

And so my blog begins on day 15...

15 long days and nights by his side
15 emotional days
15 challening days
15 days of hope, courage, and love

Day 15 was a great day for dad! He was able to sit up with some assistance for 25 minutes today, had friends from Dayton visit in the evening, got his stitches removed, and found his appetite (mom got him a doublestack from Wendy's)



Other exciting news, dad was able to stand yesterday for about 10 secs with support.  This is the first time he was able to stand and stretch in 2 weeks! I couldn't imagine how good that must have felt!

3 comments:

  1. Standing and stretching! Awesome. This is such good news!
    Nancy

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  2. Eileen,
    Can you put a "follow" widget on this so we'll get emails when you post? Thanks,
    Nancy

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    1. Great idea! Try the widget-top right corner. :)

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