……..well HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you!
Showing my age with some lyrics from an old Beatles’s song. That’s right, today is Aaron’s birthday. He wanted to keep it low key so just a few visits from friends and family.
Aaron we love you and know that the coming year holds more amazing steps as you continue your journey. We thank God for your recovery so far and trust Him for what is yet to come.
Please join us as we continue to pray for God’s healing touch in Aaron’s life.
Greetings All,
Sorry for the long time between posts. I could make up some lame excuses but they would be just that …. lame , so I won’t bother.
The countdown (37 days) continues until we return to Kennedy Krieger. Aaron continues his rehab at home as well as at Hershey in preparation. As a result he is as strong physically as he has been since August. Aaron’s breathing also gets stronger each day. The ventilator and trach seem like such a long time ago. It is hard to believe that it has only been 7 weeks since they were “tossed to the weeds.”
Aaron and I have been following the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, although neither one of us see the second half of the late games. We’re a couple of light weights. 🙂 My bracket is shot as I had Kansas winning it all. Aaron is doing a little better. He has Duke winning it all which will make his Pappaw Wood happy. 🙂
Finally we want to thank Judy Roberts & Tim Strube for organizing the Basket Bingo fundraiser. Also thanks to all who helped including the Elizabethtown boys basketball family, past and present. Gina and I were unable to attend but the 3Ds (Aaron’s mom Diane, Aunt Den, & Aunt Deb), Mamaw Wood, Aunt Barb & Aunt Diane, and his sister Alexis were there. They as well as everyone else that we talked to who attended had nothing but rave reviews. It was well organized and everyone had lots of fun.
Yesterday and today Aaron had physical therapy at Hershey Med. Ctr. Gina took him yesterday, I took him today.  He was in the stander yesterday, had a little bit of difficulty keeping his blood pressure up; but overall it was a good session.  He did discover yesterday that when he has a really strong muscle spasm, one that makes his hands stand up, he is able to move his index finger…..on both hands!   Awesome stuff! (Today, during a spasm, he was able to move his middle finger on one of his hands as well. Only saw that once, so we’ll keep looking for that!!)
Today at physical therapy Aaron didn’t get to stand up in the stander;  but that’s OK, because he experienced something very exciting and encouraging….he was lying on his back on a mat and the therapist was having him try to move different muscles in his legs and feet and he was able to move both of his feet outward toward the walls, then back in again.  A couple of times!  The therapist was impressed; I (and his Aunt Deb who joined us today) was overwhelmed with excitement and emotion and even Aaron let go over some of his reservation and was excited!     (Aaron is afraid to be overly optomistic, so to get him to say he’s excited ,or to show it, is a major undertaking.  But it happened today!)
Aaron continues to work hard on his therapy and we are seeing the fruits of his efforts.  These movements he’s been experiencing really fuel his desire to work even harder. Please continue to pray for him and stay tuned to the blog for further updates on his progress!   With our prayers and Aaron’s determination, great things have happened and will continue to do so!
I had hoped Aaron might let his “faithful readers” know this, but he hasn’t. Aaron, I hope you don’t mind me giving this information, but I feel it’s become necessary in that people are still making reference (understandably) to Jaime and Tory.  Aaron and Jaime are no longer together.  Some of you may have figured this out due to pictures of Jaime being removed from those that appear across the top of the blog page.Â
So now Aaron is moving on (and doing very well at that, I might add). He can now focus harder on “rehabbing” and gettting stronger. All things happen for a reason….and it’s not for us to understand!  Enough said.
What a fantastic week! It was everything we who were there with Aaron (Woody, Gina, Diane, & Denise) were hoping for and more. Aaron was surrounded with so much hope, energy, and positive attitudes from everyone he was in contact with this week; it was truly refreshing and energizing for all of us. His therapists, Kristen and Erin are obviously well qualified and take Aaron and his goal to someday walk very seriously. We didn’t have to listen to any speeches about the high level of Aaron’s injury and never heard the words can’t or won’t. Aaron worked very hard for 5 hours every day and can’t wait to get back there for 2 weeks beginning May 3rd. We were all very pleased to meet Dr. John McDonald (see pic below), the director of the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at Kennedy Krieger. He stopped and talked with Aaron a few times during the week and talked with him about his progress, both present and what he believes he can accomplish in the future. He also took time to work with Aaron on moving his hands and fingers. Much of the week was spent using electrical stimulation on various muscle groups, riding the bike using E-Stim, and standing up in the stander/glider. By the end of the week he was able to move the “arm skate” (in the video on a previous blog) with his triceps and biceps on his own without E-stim! Yesterday he showed us how he can move his left thumb and today he was moving his right thumb. Not big sweeping movements, but definately controlled movement! We will be getting an E-stim unit for use at home soon, eventually a stander, and then a stim bike so that Aaron can work hard every day, not just at Kennedy. 🙂
There were 3 little girls  at rehab all week that  had a princess party on Friday and Aaron was invited;  he got a necklace and we got to eat some cupcakes (see pic below). 🙂 I’m guessing that they were aged 2 to 4 and it was just amazing how focused and hard working they were. They really touched our hearts. 🙂
We arrived home on Friday evening, all of us pretty well beat! Thanks again Diane for staying the night so we could sleep. Only one nights rest and you were on night duty again. You’re a sweetheart! 🙂
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working on biceps & triceps video
The above video is fairly large and will take a minute or two to load.
Here are a few pictures of Aaron’s day at Kennedy Krieger on Monday and the Friday before at home. Aaron is having a great week at Kennedy. They are as aggressive as we had hoped and Aaron is working hard. They have been using Electrical Stimulation on his muscles to make him move and to re-teach his body that it can move by stimulating peripheral nerve responses. His therapists as well as Dr. McDonald (the director at Kennedy) told Aaron that his response to E-stim is classic textbook, and if they were going to grade his response to it, it would be an A+!!!! Hopefully we will have some more pics soon!
Woody & Aaron at home
With Kitty B
Aaron & Kristen
Aaron, Erin (behind Aaron), Amy (teal shirt), Rachel (white shirt)
You can click on the above link to watch video of Aaron. The video is sideways, but I can’t figure out how to fix it yet. It’s still fun to watch. Aaron’s arm is moving with the “skate” with the help of E-Stim. When he did it the first time he lifted the entire skate off the table, hence the 5 lb weight on top of his arm in this video. 🙂
