July 30 - He's out of the hospital!

Just a quick update. Bobb left the hospital on July 28th at 12:00 noon! We will now be traveling back and forth to Walla Walla so he can have treatment 3 times a week. Monday nights we will stay with friends in Milton-Freewater so we will only have to travel twice a week to get 3 treatments in. It will be a tiring committment, but has to be done. We have no ot or speech therapist in the county.

The bathroom is not finished and it will be a juggling act to get it finished and maintain Bobb's treatments and exercise program.

So please pray for us as we weigh everything against that priority and the ability to get into our own "space" "home" soon. Still will be all the unpacking to do also since the house had been packed up for an original 3 year absence. Lane and Laramie have lived in the house while we were gone and done a bunch of shuffling while we were gone too so finding things is a challenge also.

Sorry this isn't more but only have a few moments. We are glad about being out of the hospital, but wish we could just be to a "regular" routine in our own place - flexibility isn't that the motto of every missionary :-)

To God be the Glory - AMEN!

July 20, 2006 - Out of the hospital...? July 28

Well it looks like we have a discharge date! July 28. That will leave me 3 days after the tiles come in to get the bathroom finished. By a miracle it can be done - otherwise we will have to go to my parents house for a while.

We will still be coming to Walla Walla for outpatient services for at least a while. It will not be permanent, but the people working with him here really want to take him further before they give him up :-) Dr. Breland told him today that his brain was young enough to get that left arm working and talked a bit today about Constraint-Induced therapy - not letting him use his right arm forcing his brain to connect and use the left arm. It will be very frustrating at first and it won't be an all day exercise either. He is trying out a wheelchair and the girls will be here next Monday for "Training" day.

Once he is home it will be up to us to make sure we do exercises and keep up a schedule that will continue what the therapies have started. Discipline is what its going to take and that is our job right now. So I may be a harder task master than the therapists here :-) Actually I will probably have to tell Bobb to chill and rest so he doesn't overdo.

I've been in a panic, because there is so many things to get done before he comes home and then the scheduling and there has been trouble with our car. It seems to be running again and doing fine so we pray that will continue. It has 150,000 miles on it and we will continue to rack up the miles for a while. Pray God keeps it running and there will be no major repairs or that it dies along the way :-)

Praise to the Father in Heaven who gives all good things!!! May He be glorified in everything.

I say that today - but yesterday I was ready for melt down(but God worked out a few of what I was stressing over :-) - so keep up praying for us - We couldn't be strong except in the Lord's strength and your prayers that uphold us through it all.

July 14 2006

Improvements are coming. From one week to the next transfers to the car have become easy compared to the first week we did them to go to church. He is able to move his left foot much more easily in the directions he would like, much more able to keep his foot forward when necessary and they are working on his knee bending more to make it move even better. He has excellent care and they all want to see him improve as much as he does.

This week Pt and Ot are concentrating on strengthing his arm - the biceps and keeping the spasticity out of his hand so he is wearing a splint. Because of the 3 week delay in treatment those reflexes had gotten too strong and now they are working hard at getting the wrong reflexes to lessen so he has "tone" in the right direction.

Lots of positive gains and speech therapy can see gains in his speech too. Mostly working on the "wh" questions because he gets those confused and also pronouns though he is working hard to understand and get the right pronoun out. Like talking of himself as "I" or "me" instead of "they". It can get confusing when the wrong pronoun is used :-) Makes us appreciate our linguistic language learning collegeues (sp-sorry) that much more! :-)

We continue to try to get the house ready for Bobb's return. It may still be 2 weeks before he is home, though it could be as soon as next week. I think we have it worked out so he can get his Pt in Wallowa County instead of driving to Walla Walla, though it is hard to think of leaving the familiar, but the Pt in Enterprise sounds very capable and I'm sure we will get to know him and be able to work with him too.

As a friend has reminded me - I need to concentrate more on the positive and not so much of what was lost. We are not defined in what is gone, but who we are in Christ. So true! I'm a pessimist by nature and always am waiting for the other shoe to drop. I am going to work on seeing Jesus here today and the gains in my own life through this.

Continue praying - we are gaining every day!

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph. 3:16-19 That goes for our family too :-)

July 7 2006 - Braces and other things

Today, Bobb gets a new brace for his lower foot - he broke the first one - because....he hyperextends his knee and it overpowered the previous brace. And today the wheelchair vendor comes to talk to us about what kind of wheelchair we want. And there is a question on whether he will need a brace made before we go home that will go up to the thigh. Two therapists don't want this because they feel that if he goes into a thigh high brace his muscles won't develop to overcome the hyperextention and another therapist is keen to get it done yesterday. We know what we want - we want a chance for his own brain and muscles to learn to correct the problem - but we also want to listen to the experts and not be stupid either. Please pray that his brain over the next 2 weeks will begin to recognize the hyperextension and his muscles above the knee will start to develop more and fire more to correct the hyperextention. That is our desire, but what God has in store here I don't know.

What has struck me especially lately is the loss. Simple things like I was putting a "thing" in my hair that makes a fake bun - and I always have trouble fastening it - in the past I would have gone to Bobb to help fasten it (he has done it lots of times before) - that is no longer possible and that was a reality that hit me. He also used to cut my toenails - I know that sounds funny, but it was just something he liked to do. I have probably cut my own toenails about 5 times in the last 29 years. To each his own huh? :-) I know I have to grieve and Bobb too, but where does the grieving stop and the acceptance and reality really begin? What is fighting to do what we need to gain back and what is being realistic about what the future holds? What is too pessimistic and what is being too optimistic? What is that place in reality?

We cherish every prayer. We are far from "there". Especially me. The nurses are so amazed at Bobb and his just even temper and his patience. I'm not there yet :-)

As what was read to us this week we say again -Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you. I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. Psalm 61:1-3

July 2 - Church - OUT!

Today Bobb was out of the hospital for the first time since the stroke. We were allowed to go to one of our supporting churches 10 miles away from Walla Walla, in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. They taught me how to transfer him out of the wheel chair to the car and back out of it. We had plenty of help had something gone wrong, but no disasters today :-)

He was exhausted when we got back to the hospital, but we had time to stop at Dairy Queen and have lunch before we headed back to the hospital and we had him back before the time we said we would. We had to absolve the hospital of all liability should something have gone wrong while we were gone. Bobb signed his own name. Its more legible than his left signature was :-)

Praise to the Father who is in Heaven for today!

Continue to pray for us, we still have a long way to go and patience on both of us can run thin. Bobb wants progress with physio yesterday and I want communication to be clear yesterday. We know that God has his hand in each bit of progress that happens and are thankful for each step, but sometimes we wish for more in a quicker time. I had gone back to Wallowa to take Lenise back to the county and to go to my families early 4th of July picnic. When I got back I saw an envelope that was addressed to his brother so I knew some of his family had visited him. I asked him "who came to see you?" He said "Bobb Lewis" I said "no, you didn't answer my question." I asked again, he answered "Bud and Lorene" - the cd that was in the envelope was a group of pictures from his aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary. I said "no, they weren't physically here." He said "yes" I said "no, they weren't physically in this room" Anyway, sometimes its hard. I'm pretty sure that his brother and sister-in-law came and delivered the CD. He feels so bad when we don't get it. When his receptive aphasia gets the best of both of us. It isn't very often that things go backwards so to speak, but it can be hard.

Have a great 4th of July for those of you who come from the U.S. - celebrate freedom - freedom in Christ! :-)