Engagement

One time I had told my best friend Carley something about how if a guy wanted to really marry me it would not matter if he bought me a .25 cent ring.  

I never really understood how a guy spending his life saving on getting me a ring was going to prove to me that he wanted me to be his wife forever.  

I kind of knew it was coming... the proposal that is, or well I did not know for sure but I had a feeling.  It was October 28th 2002 and we had taken a trip to Denver for the day.  I am not even sure I remember what we were doing in Denver but I know it was a fun day.   We made our way over to Boulder in the evening and invited Andrew's dad to dinner since he worked in Boulder at the time.  

Once we got back into the car after dinner Andrew told me he forgot something. He reached over and grabbed a plastic bubble, you know like the ones from a .25 cent toy machine.   He opened it and asked me to marry him.  Inside was a ring.... from a machine.  Now I know some people would have found this ridiculous, but I loved it and of course I said YES!!!!!

He then confessed to me that he spent over $1.00 because he was trying to find the right one... I still think that is cute.  We did not want the ring to fall apart so we went to Wal-Mart and got me a new ring... I think it was $8.00.  

Everyone loved my ring and thought it cost a fortune.  When I came back to work with just my wedding ring people wondered why I stopped wearing the beautiful ring, well it turned my finger green!  But I loved the ring and I knew others would not understand that it was not the value of the ring it was the purpose.

 

I would not trade in my boys....

I love having little boys. In fact I would not mind having another one.  Although yesterday in the mail we got an American Girl Doll catalog address to 'The Shearer Family"... um yeah we don't have girls.

I decided to look through it anyway before it would be placed into recycle. The first thing that caught my eye.... a DOLL SIZED CELLO!!!!!!!  Not to mention the adorable blue dress and the curls on the doll holding the cello.  I read the description of the item: Cello set $48 cello - bow - pretend rosin - case - mini music book.    AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

Next to the cello is a doll sitting at a piano that says it actually plays music.... I love the dolls eye glasses.

 

After a few pages of matching outfits you can get for you and your doll there is a doll Julie Albright  and her friend Ivy Ling from 1974 dressed in Flower Child like attire... and all the 1970 accessories.   Best accessory, Julie' Car Wash set for $350 that includes a sky-blue 1974 Volkswagen Beetle. The car has a radio that plays five '70s songs, working horn and headlights, seatbelts.

Last there is a whole section with twins.  You can get either a boy/girl, boy/boy or girl/girl.  They are too cute.  I love the little boys.... might have to get me twin boys :)

Part 9 of Recovery

Before Andrew even left Craig Hospital in December 2010, I had started looking for housing.  At that point Andrew was confined to a wheelchair and only had 30 days (due to insurance) at Craig.  Moving Andrew to Life Care Center of Littleton helped give me more time to look for a place to live.  

Finding a place was not easy.  I would call an apartment complex and the their ONE wheelchair accessible unit was already being rented, or because a unit was on the first floor it was considered handicapped accessible, but was not right for someone in a wheelchair besides having 36" doors.  Other problems included not allowing children, not allowing pets, horrible neighborhood, and way way way too expensive.

I spent months looking at apartments from Denver to Fort Collins and everywhere in between.  Finally I found the 'perfect' apartment in Loveland in December.  I put a monetary hold on the apartment and waited for the paperwork to go through.  There was a lot of paperwork since the apartments had an income qualification.  

Problems with the paperwork:  Had to get special permission to rent there since we own our condo in Denver.  That went through because there was no way Andrew could get up 37 stairs.  

Next I had to prove that we would have enough income to pay rent.  That was tough because at the time our only income was $175.04 per month.  That is not a typo $175.04 a month.  This money came from Andrew's work for disability.  The amount was a calculation based on a percent of the salary he received minus what was calculated he would receive from Social Security Disability.  Andrew was not receiving SSD income yet. I did have a letter that showed how much we would have per month once Andrew started getting SSD payment... but I guess it was confusing to the people at the apartment complex.

Next they wanted bank statements to see how much money we had per month for the last 6 months.  That drove me crazy because one month we had a good amount of money come in from built up vacations and sick pay Andrew had from work. Money that I had saved up an had been living off of... but to them it looked fishy.

And.... not only the mount of money in the bank account was enough... they also wanted to look at my purchases... to see what I was buying?  They questioned money that was drawn from my account to paypal.  They wanted to know if I had an online business.  It was clear no money was coming into the account from paypal... so I what if I buy diapers for my kids from diapers.com... and use paypal! 

Any way... I was sitting on the this apartment for months.  The end of December, January AND February! I wanted to move into the apartment, get the kids settled and have Andrew come 'home'.  But that did not happen.

Life Care wanted to have a meeting in February.  Andrew's insurance days there were almost up.  They said there was also no more they could do for him and his recovery and that he was doing great.  Next they asked about the apartment and I had to tell them it was still not ready. 

They asked us if there was a place Andrew could go if he had to. We both answered that he could go to his dads, even though there are stairs there too and the house is not handicapped accessible. Next we got a big shocking surprise. "Well then discharge date is set for Saturday to your dad's house."  And that was that.  Finally I got a call on that Friday about the apartment.  They were ready for us to sign papers.  So after Andrew left LCCL we drove to Loveland, signed the papers and I took him to his dad's house.

Andrew lived with his dad for a week while I finished packing our thing at the condo.  March 5th we were totally in... And of course all the waiting for a wheelchair accessible apartment and Andrew was not in a wheelchair anymore, he now used a 4-wheeled-walker.

It was nice for Andrew to be home almost 10 months after the accident... but it does not end there.

Thanks to Andrew's Dad

After reading my blog Andrew's dad Deak sent me a link to the video of Andrew on the Alter-G


Andrew on the Alter-G

This was Dec 29, 2010 we think it was the second time he used the Alter-G and about 7 1/2 months after the accident.

Andrew's recovery pt8

At Life Care Center of Littleton, Andrew's therapy team pushed him very hard.  He liked it, he was on a mission to walk.  First steps therapy worked with him so he could transfer himself in and out of his wheelchair and his bed.  The goal was to get Andrew strong enough to stand on his own... and then walk.

The miracle machine was the Alter-G.  This machine allowed Andrew to use the motion of walking without having to bare his body weight on his legs. It had been at least 8 months since Andrew had walked or stood by himself at point in recovery.  The Alter-G was hard to get into at first but it was worth it.  Andrew had to stand (holding on to the sides) by himself for a minute or more while they zipped him into the machine.  The machine would fill with air to take the weight off the body and a treadmill would start underneath his feet.  I thought I had video of Andrew using the Alter-G but I can't find it.  Here is a link to a site that shows what it does.  Alter-g

Andrew also learned that his left leg is now shorter than the right leg by one inch.  At life care they first set up a temporary lift and had shoes made with a lift.  He will have this length discrepancy for the rest of his life and needs all his left shoes lifted.

Soon Andrew was able to use a walker in therapy.  Here is video of his therapy and yes those are our kids running around in the background!

Andrew also learned how to transfer into our car from his chair.  This was fun because I got to take him out to get his haircut and pick him up for his doctor appointments.  We even got to go out for dinner and a movie!  

Walking Part 1

Walking Part 2 

Andrew's Recovery Part 7

Life Care Center of Littleton did not seem exciting to any of us.  The family was bummed that Andrew could no longer stay at Craig Hospital and a Skilled Nursing Facility did not seem like a good fit for some one weeks away from turning 31-years-old.  Andrew was by far the youngest person there; many other residents well into their 70th, 80th or 90th years of life.

Littleton was also even further away from every one, Craig had already been a long drive and we were adding an extra 30 mins.  LCCL was not even our first choice however they want to take him in and we liked that they wanted to work with him.  I had looked into another SNF and they had said they wanted to take him.  A nurse from that facility attended a family meeting by phone and then the next day I received  a call from the facility director telling me that Andrew's condition was "too critical" for them.  To this day we do not know what made them decide that.  It could have been the medical records. Since we were looking for Andrew's 5th facility we learned that medical information and history does not always transfer the same.  It took forever to get facts straight most the time, like that he was involved in an auto accident and was not on a motorcycle or he has two sons not a son and daughter.

At first even the kids did not like visiting LCCL.  Miles would cry and Avery would run around crazy getting lost in the figure 8 shaped building, unless of course it was ice cream parlor day.  It was tough on Andrew too.  Therapy now happened 7 days a week and then the rest of the time he was left bored watching TV. Cognitive therapy started to become easier however his math skills were still not even close to what they used to be.  He had to call me up on the phone to ask me how you solve 3 digit multiplication problems.... he used to help me with my college math.


Range of motions was staring to be less of a problem.  Andrew was also gaining strength in his arms to wheel himself to dinner in his wheelchair.  People enjoyed working with him and being in his company, his determination refreshing.

Andrew was once again allowed to come home (to his Dad's house) for Christmas.  This time he was able to transfer himself from his wheelchair to the couch to be more comfortable.  A few weeks later we celebrated his 31st birthday when I brought food from home to LCCL for the whole family.

Christmas time on the couch @ Dad's

Part 6 of Andrew's recovery

Part 6 of recovery is one of my 'favorite' parts.  Andrew was finally moved to Craig Hospital right before Halloween 2010.  Every one was excited for the move and I have to admit I was a little nervous.  While waiting for Craig Hospital to have an opening we learned of all the great outcomes that had come from Craig and I was hoping for the same thing for Andrew.

Craig Hospital specializes in TBI (traumatic brain injury) and spinal cord injuries.  It is a hospital that helps people regain their life. Craig helps people and their families recover and adapt into their new life.  I can't even describe the people and families we met while Andrew was there.  I enjoyed every visit and a lot of burden had lifted being around people who were going through the same things.  I did not care that I now had an hour drive to come visit. Craig hospital helped make staying in the hospital pleasant with activities and families were welcome to participate in those activities as well as therapy.

While at Craig the main focus with Andrew was adjusting medications, gaining range of motion and cognitive therapy for his TBI.  At first I think the cognitive therapy was the hardest for him.  He is a very smart man and learning new tasks and retaining information had never been a problem for him before.  He now knew this was a problem and I think knowing the problem was difficult for him.

At this point Andrew was also relearning how to feed himself, write, and to take care of his personal hygiene.  He was gaining strength and motion to wheel himself through that halls of Craig in his wheelchair.  Fatigue was still a problem and often other people would have to wheel him to therapy.

For the first time since May 11th 2010 Andrew was finally able to leave the hospital (on a pass) for something other than doctor visits.  A 3 day pass was given to Andrew for Thanksgiving; 6months and some days since the accident.  My father-in-law rented a van for the wheelchair and because there was no way we could bring him home (37 stairs just to get in) we took him to his dad's house.... the house he grew up in.  There were still some stairs however it was not 37 of them and Judy taught us how to safely get the wheelchair up and down a few steps.

The only downside to being at Craig was the short visit.  Because of our insurance Andrew was out before Christmas.  Even though the stay was helpful, Andrew's goal to walk had not happened... he had barely worked on standing.  We had no place to take him home to.  Sadly (at the time) we had to give in to a perk of our insurance and send Andrew to a Skilled Nursing Facility.  Our insurance allowed 100 days 100% covered and that was our only choice..... Part 7.

                                                Halloween at Craig

                                          Thanksgiving!

                                             Family in our Craig-made tie-dye shirts