Good To Go!

One more day and we are out of here................! You can now uncross your fingers and such!

Thank you all for your support and positivity for the past two and a half months. Family and friends who visited, called, emailed or left comments here, thank you. And especially NM who put up with me through all this and even let me play unofficial roommate for the duration.

It was great to run into people in the water or the coffee shop and to know they were praying for Bailey, he has a fair bit of rehab in his future as well as one more surgery. And challenges that will take adjustments, but for all intents and purposes he is the same B-monster he's ever been. Looking forward to him getting back to school in the near future.

See you in the water!

Close enough to smell freedom baby!

We can feel it.

The 2:00pm(PST) meeting will in all likelihood get us to set a release date for this week......

Cross your fingers, pull them out of your bums, pray to the Great Ringworm In The Sky, or any prescence you deem worthy of your pleas.....let's get this party started!

Update either way later on.

"Hot Steppin'".....

Or "These boots are made for walking"........ would work.

Shooting for Halloween.

Not leaving today, there are a few more goals to be met. Looks like we'll be home for Halloween, B's favourite celebration.......... come on baby!

Jackass!!

About 2 and a half months in and he's had enough..... When you hit the wall and can't take it any longer. A shot in the arm just might turn your world in the right direction. B took a spill over the weekend and since then everything has been a struggle, definitely having a tough week as a result. B even took the time between tears, to tell Doc Steve that ...."I hate this place!" Not one of the highlights of our stay so far, yet completely understandable.


A couple of weeks ago I was talking to some friends at the beach, between sessions. Small town stuff and getting the word out on the kid kind of thing. And one of them asked if he could visit the Bman, turns out he had broken his neck at the age of 18 and rehabbed at the same hospital we are in now. We talked about how important he had found visitors and especially a visit from someone who had gone through a similar life experience. How even months later the memory of that visit would be good for the psyche.........



So today Ehren came by to let the Bman know that you do eventually get out of the hospital and they bonded over wheelchairs and neck braces. Oh and they talked about the movie that makes me cringe and B laugh, and Ehren's great advice.... "I do this stuff so you don't have to!" Very cool of him to drop by and spice up the kid's day, I don't think he'll lose that smile for a looong time. He can't wait to show Andrew from school his autographed PS2 game either!



Many thanks brother.........

Missed it by this much!

Great reports from the last two days had me frothing, so I hit the road last night and got up early hoping that the surf's evening bump had dropped, but nooooo! Still got a few clean ones and sprinted back for the weekly conference refreshed.

Missed DTL by 24 hours, I know you got it better dude!

Wii-hab.

I'm not coining a new word, somebody else did. But this is gaining widespread usage in rehab. Hand eye co-ordination and general body movement, the boxing game takes two hands and a little body english helps too.




We have a tentative release date of the 26th of October, but there are some goals to be met before it will happen, cross your fingers.......

What would happen...........

If we got in and out of OHSU without a problem? We'll never know will we?


B and I took a trip back to there for another check up and we just can't time our visits any worse it seems. Last time we were almost ON the cat scan table before they pulled us out of the room and back into the holding pattern. They were inundated with 6 traumas and we were instantly at the back of the queue as they took care of more serious cases.

This time it was a terror drill, P-town being one of three cities involved. So as we waited for the docs to show up, all sorts of victims of a bombing started coming in. Latex special effects substituting for real burns, down to a Starbucks cup in the hair.



Then the staff donning face shields as they treated patients, soon a geiger counter was employed and the ER split into a "dirty" and a "clean" side. I snapped a couple pics. It got crowded and confused before settling down....



In an odd coincidence I worked for a winemaker who was in the WTC the day before 9/11 and another friend was in Paddy's the night before it was blown to bits. Some things feel a lot more than dress rehearsals.

Here's hoping it stays a drill.

Getting there!

!SWEEEEEEET!

Oh Puhleeze!

All weekend long........ "Larry Legend says I surfed well!".....Larry Legend says this and then says that.......aaaargh! "He ran over my tail and I wasn't a bit mad at him!"......."HE IS SOOOOOO DREAMY"......."I'll be down at our peak!" (not OUR peak)......




After 8 hours in the water he took this one on the head and thank god Rich got a pic of it....... the bloody guy is human!

Little Fish

Six foot and sinky.
Two inches longer than the 1971 5'10".
Probably 50lbs heavier than I was then, close to a foot taller.
3 more fins than the '71 and maybe 21/2" wider too.

Side offshore of 30 knots, salmon season in full swing critters everywhere including the imaginary periphery. Grey waters and grey skies.

Oh, I don't like sinking! Gotta get the chest over the wide spot. Stay ever so slightly above the food chain below.

But on crossed-up peaks luck seems to play a bigger part than I like in finding a drop. Quick and skatey on a few faces I found, it's just a matter of time until it feels natural.

Walking Tall.

The goal this week was self directed walking between the bars by Friday, and Bman got there by Wednesday........ that makes it a great week! Home is on the horizon!

There's nothing funny about 50 stitches in your head.

No matter how you couch it, so............



So hold the giggles please................



'Til they're all gone!

9 steps.

A total of 9 steps yesterday plus a half hour of sitting upright and unassisted. Then he stood between the bars but didn't hold onto them for 2 minutes. All points toward recovery. He had a discussion with his doctor about what his brain is doing at the moment and why his legs are not doing the work they used to do.

The pressure of the tumor now gone, the brain is slowly filling some of that space and the movement of the brain somehow restricts normal functions. The more he works on his basics the sooner they'll return.

Stand alone.

A better day today, yesterday's visit by the PC crew must have been a pick me up. B sat unassisted for 10 minutes on the table and stood alone for 2 more, no hands on the bar either. Spicy popcorn chicken must be good for the soul! He felt good at days end.

Thanks to the crew for the visit, especially the face licks courtesy of Clem. Cheers guys!

Rehab is a bitch........

but the alternative is worse. Trying to get a 14 year old to believe that is a task in itself. And I can't imagine how he sees it, one minute he's celebrating a birthday and anxious about freshman year the next he's had brain surgery and is either in bed or a wheelchair.

He lost a month there without even knowing it. Now he's being asked to relearn the most basic things and his body is less than co-operative about the new situation. He can't see the progress he's making and can only remember small bits of it from time to time. It's our job to keep pushing him whether he wants to be pushed or not.

He did take some steps today(Oct2), assisted sure but at least the feet moved in the right direction. He was stoked I know, or more pleased than he's letting on, maybe just trying to grind out a few of the basics without getting too emotionally commited to them.