Daily Archives: October 27, 2009

Literally.  Yep, he was at it again today in the power wheelchair.  He was running over the cords of his oxygen tank, so I squatted down to try to grab the cords to pull them out of his way, when he decided it was a good idea to suddently turn the chair in the opposite direction.  When he did the chair knocked me right over and there I sat on the floor, just looking up at him with that “what the heck just happened?”  look on my face.  He, of course, loved it.  Me, not so much.

He had an uneventful day, which is a really good day!  He did ride the stim bike using his legs this morning, and as always, he loved it.   He played Wii again today and did very well.  He’s getting to be quite the ping-pong player!   

We’ve been a little concerned about Aaron’s appetite over the past couple of days, he just hasn’t had a real desire to eat.  Well,  we can stop worrying….at least for today.  He scarfed down his breakfast, lunch and dinner today AND he had a healthy piece of  ice cream cake. (Thanks to Bill, Danielle and Andy for arranging for the cake to be brought to Magee over the weekend!   Poor Danielle!  The cake was to be eaten on Sunday in celebration of her birthday,  but because Aaron wasn’t eating much, the cake wasn’t even taken out of the freezer until today.  And Bill and Danielle have returned to Las Vegas.  So we ate some today in her honor! )  

Tomorrow, Jaime and Greg (not sure about Gina, but I think so) will be visiting Aaron.  I hope they have a nice, uneventful day,  just like we had today.  

Please pray for Aaron’s recovery……and also for everybody’s safety while Aaron is motoring around in that wheelchair!   Thanks!

A BIG THANK YOU to EVERYONE. For your thoughts & prayers, donations, time & effort, love & friendship. We can never begin to thank each and everyone of you individually. We don’t even know who some of you are. But please know that in this day and age where the news and media tend to focus on the negative and selfish aspects of the world today, we are uplifted and encouraged daily by the people who have , and continue to, touch ours and Aaron’s lives.  The risk that you run when you publicly thank people via a venue like this blog is that you will foget someone. May God bless each and every one of you for your kindness.

Aaron is amazing and has come so far with his breathing. I started keeping a log when he began the weaning process.

Day 1 – 25 seconds
Day 2 – 10 minutes
Day 3 – 35 minutes
Day 7 – 1 hour
Day 11 – 2 hours
Day 13 – 5 hours
Today – 10 to 12 hours daily

The last thing that he would say before he went off of the vent when he first started was “I’m going to be miserable” and he would sleep the entire time. Now he does therapy, gets showers, eats meals, talks, takes less meds to calm him prior to going off the vent, and asks if he can stay off of it over night. His calm reaction (“Can I stay off it?”) that I witnessed on Sunday when we discovered that his oxygen tank had run out was unbelievable. The first thing that he asked on Monday morning was “can I go without it again today?” It’s hard for him to back off now but their approach is to build his strength slowly towards breathing successfully everyday on his own rather than bound ahead and have him only be strong enough every other day to do so.

Monday Aaron got to do the tilt table again. There were a few minor mishaps with the motorized wheelchair. My favorite one was….Aaron was tired after his last therapy session so I left him so that he could catch a nap. I decided to walk (25 blocks round trip) uptown and check out the Liberty Bell. It was a beautiful day for it and apparently I just missed the Phillies pep rally at City Hall by an hour or two. When I returned about 1.5 hours later I checked in on him and he was still sleeping. I checked back about 15 minutes later and he was awake & talking to a nurse. After she left the room he told me that when he woke up he was going in circles in his wheelchair. NO injuries, NO damage to the room and it was good to see Aaron able to laugh at himself.

On a sad note….Aaron’s fantasy team suffered it’s first loss of the season and is now 6-1 but still holds a 1 game lead over the rest of the pack.

We continue to get answers about the next step in Aaron’s care as there are many questions and we do not want to rush into a decision until we are certain that it is in his best interest. Please pray for wisdom as we look to move forward in “Aaron’s Journey.”

As always, thank you to everyone and please continue to pray for stregnth, wisdom, & healing.