okay, I know it has been awhile because I have had a hard time trying to get my e-mails ect through Dorrine's computer. Sometimes it works, others not. And I just couldn't get onto this blog at all. Now Dorrine has me on it, so I will update for those who have not given up on this. Gil has therapy each week for physical, speech and occupational. Physically he is getting stronger. He walks with a quad cane and can but shouldn't do it alone for safety reasons. He tires when he walks too far however. One day when it was nice, I walked him to the driveway and back. We walk him daily, and exercise him daily with leg. Speech, he can vocalize but not much you can understand. He does say a few words, mom, yes, no(not always in the right context), money, damn, oh man, and a few times has said homo, and damn idiot. It is hard to know what he wants as I can't understand him and hard for him to explain what he wants. Makes it frustrating for everyone. He has no use of his right arm at all. Although we have seen a movement here and there, it is mostly involuntary and sporactic. The occupational therapist works with his arm,. so not sure if it is worht continuing, but will. Actually, I'm not 100% sure any of the therapy helps anymore, than what we are doing at home. but will continue it for now. My insurance stopped paying after 20 visits. I have applied for help through the hospital where they basically write it off, but havent' gotten a reply. We did get approved for a grant through the aging and disability dept. so I will use that $ to pay for his therapy for another month or so. Will go from there, at that point. We are still at Dorrine's house but have someone coming out to give us an estimate for putting up a handrail and new toilet this week. Those are the most immediate needs. I will be in contact with Lutheran Social Services to see about help as they put a elevator in for Mary Jean for her MS(my sister) and one contractor told me it would be easier to sell my house than to put a ramp on the hill. I hope we can go back home by 1st of June. 'We had Gil to the ER on Wednesday as he was feeling crappy, not looking good either. I thought he also might have a sinus infection. They did EKG, cat scan, blood work, ect. Found nothing wrong with him. He didn't eat or drink well either and was just plain weak. He seems a bit better today. I hope he sleeps better as he has been waking me all night for most of week, and it is catching up with me I think. The kids had a benefit for us that went really well. Gil goes to see his stroke dr. tomorrow. So if she finds anything wrong, family will be told. But like I said, he seems better today. This weekend we are going on our first out of towner since his stroke. Actually we went to Rice Lake a few weeks ago for the day and that went well visiting his family. But we are heading to Superior on Friday and returning on Monday. I took vacation days as I haven't seen Mary Jean for ages and Fran and Georgia too. So will meet them for lunch on Saturday and hopefully Eddy can join us if he finds someone to work for him. And we can visit some of Gils's family and I am hoping to hook up with Kathy and Bob for a few hours also. Will try to stay more on top of this. Love Susie

hotel info for benefit

Dorrine has made arrangements for the benefit weekend for the Super 8 Motel in Wausau. This block starts March 12-15. If you need it before and after that, let them know and you will still get this special pricing. The Super 8 has a pool and whirlpool. It has a continental breakfast of waffles, hash browns, eggs, bagels, doughnuts and cereal. There is free internet, a few handicapped rooms, and a few smoking rooms. You have to make the reservations by Feb. 26th to get this pricing. She talked to Keith in case you need this information when you call them. The phone number is 715-848-2888. The address is 2006 W. Stewart Ave Wausau. Hope this helps you . Gil is doing well today. His sense of humor is in tact. He decided it was time to get up and he would sing and such until I agreed. He had me up most of the night so I would have loved to slept in. When I got home from Church he decided to stand up from his wheelchair and sing . Good thing I was right there or he would have been on his nose. We are going to take him to the China Buffet this evening. Okay, off to get a few things done before I go back to work tomorrow. Susie

feb 1

Gil has been home nearly two weeks. There is not a lot of change in that time. He verbalizes alot but nothing that can be understood. He watches T.V. and seems to understand as he laughs when something is funny, and makes facial gestures at things he doesn't understand. In the morning when I help him do his get up things, he helps out more-helps to put his good leg in the pants leg, pull them up, helps to get his shirt on and buttons it up, that sort of thing. He combs his own hair and shaves with an electric shaver, and does fairly well. He can't brush his own teeth yet, although the therapist in the hospital said he could. I should have asked to watch that as he only has use of his left arm, so how he could hold the teeth in his hand and brush them has me baffled, that is something I have to do for him also. He participates in the therapy I do with him in the morning, although, speech therapy is a challenge for both of us. I have prayed ALOT for patience lately. He has really given me a hard time at taking his medicine. I can only tell him why he should, and try to be stern with him about it, but not much I can do if he refuses to take it. Today he refused to take it altogether so it ended up in the garbage. So then I have the fear of him having another stroke because he is not getting the blood thinner, and the other meds they feel he needs. Anyways, Dorrine and I took him to dinner the other night and that went okay. I was worried about the two of us not being able to get him in and out of the car in the front of the house. (flat surfaces are okay). But we did it without dropping him on his head(although the temptation was there when he was so STUBBORN about getting in the car his way, instead of the way I was trying to explain-the safer way) and Dorrine told him he should apologize to me for pushing me out of the way, but of course that didn't happen. I only continued on to dinner for Dorrine's sake, otherwise he would have been taken back into the house. But he ate well, and so I guess that's good. He has phone calls this week from Gerald and Kathy. He listens and hands the phone back when he is done listening. He knows who he is talking to and responds with chuckles. or a yes or no at times. So feel free to call. Okay, he is resting so I am going to try and get some laundry done and get dinner in the oven. Keep us in your prayers. Susie

Gil is out of hospital

Gil was released from the hospital on Monday. He has started to help move his right leg in the walking process, he is not however walking on his own by any means. Just progress. One day this week I saw him move his right hand about three inches. Not alot. But more than I've seen from the right arm in 7 weeks. Still no speech but he does make noises. He certainly has a way of letting us know if he is unhappy about something. So he is in a wheelchair and we let him do for himself those things he can do, feed himself, shave with electric razor, help dress himself, move from one point to the next in his wheelchair ect. We are staying at Dorrine and Donald's until either he can walk or until Spring when we can build a ramp at our house to get him in and out. Probably have to do some remodeling for the bathroom that will allow him to get in and out too. Dorrine's address is 617 Pine St. in Marathon. If you are in the area and want to stop in and take a chance, great, if you are coming from a distance to stop in, you may want to call first to make sure he isn't with therapists as he will be having home therapy for several weeks and then reevaluate then. The number here is 443-2419. When someone calls and he is awake and alert, I usually let him listen and he hands the phone back to me when he is done listening. His friend Roger called tonight and Gil seemed to know who he was and was excited about the call. I was home for Mon. -Wed. to get him settled in but went back to work today. Raymond was here in the morning with him and Gail this afternoon. Dorrine will be here tomorrow with him. I don't know what I would do without the kids help. Thanks for keeping in touch with this blog. I know I don't get to it as often as I should. Sorry. Susie

2nd post for the day

I got a copy of the benefit poster from the printer last night, This is a copy of the final one. Next week we are going to start handing out to let people know about the benefit and to get donations. Please note that the poster sounds like dad is still in the hospital but it was already ready before we knew when he was going home. So it has to stay this way. Let me know your thoughts on it. I am printing out the letters to the stores today and we are handing them out tomorrow and next week.
THe benefit poster is a lot better than my scan. My printer sucks!!!!!

update Saturday Dec 17th, 2009

Today dad is at my house till tomorrow afternoon for a trial. If everything goes good than he will be able to come to my house for good. Just in case someone has not heard, that mom and dads house was not approved to come home to. There house has stairs leading to all doorways and until the benefit and the snow melts that dad can not go to his house to finish his recovery. So Don and I talked to mom and dad and said that we would stay at there house and mom and dad can stay at ours till that can be done., and if something would to happen we are only 2 blocks away. Last Thursday the rehab people brought dad out the our house to see what else the house needed for dad and to make sure that dad can get around the house in the wheelchair. The visit went we'll, a couple of things that we need to get , but other then that it was good. Today dad came ( we call our house home to dad) home and he was mumbling something, but we knew he was excited to be away from the hospital. We fed him lunch and now mom and dad are laying down on the couch taking a nap. I said to dad be good and no sex!! He looked at me weird and mumbled something. I said dad do you know what sex is? And he shook his head no, in a confused way like he should know but does not. Mom than said " thats good" and laughed. I said "So I guess later we will have to have that talk about sex. " and mom said " huh NO!!!I am still laughing about it!!!!!

Dorrine

Update

I will update tonight after work. Sorry for the delay.

Dorrine

sunday

I went back to work on Monday so could only spend 5:30 to 8:30 at the hospital. That seemed so strange but I needed to get back to work. Friday I was laying on the bed with Gil and several times he chuckled. I would ask if he was chuckling at the TV, shook his head no, chuckling at me, shook his head no, finally I moved a bit and Gil's brother Paul was standing in the room and then Gil really laughed. Paul stayed that evening and the next day to visit and Gil enjoyed that. On Saturday the kids and I spent the morning at the hospital doing some training on transferring him from the wheelchair to the bed, how to get him up, feet position ect. When they went to so the walking part of the therapy I saw a wonderful surprise. Gil would move the hand walker one step, slide his bad leg up (by himself-last week the therapists' were sliding it for him) and then step with his good leg. That is so encouraging. And exciting. Last Monday evening I was listening to a Christian channel on the radio and this guy was giving a testimony on how he had this medical condition(don't recall what it was) but someone told him to say the rosary for a week and at the end of the week he was better. So that very night I started to pray the rosary for Gil and the request was for Gil to walk. So for that movement of the leg yesterday was very exciting. Today was the 7th day day for the rosary so I look forward to a great happening tomorrow. Today, we got to take him out for a ride. Dorrine had him excited about going to the casino only to find out he wasn't supposed to get out of the vehicle. HOWEVER, we took Gil to Wittenberg to the new little casino there for about 1 1/2 hours. Then we drove to Gail's house where he watched the kids play in the snow for awhile. Then did a drive by Dorrines house, on to our house and Raymond brought Jake to the car to see Gil. They were both excited. Then we drove by one of Gil's best friends house, Norm, and Norm was outside so came over and talked to Gil for awhile. That meant alot to Gil, I could tell as we drove away. Thanks Norm!!! Then we went through Mcdonalds drive through for lunch before we took him back to the hospital, where he did not want to go. I left him there to rest and kids and I came home for awhile. I went back up about 5:30 til 8:30. He seemed pretty tired, but he didn';t get a nap in today so I'm sure he was. He did eat some cheese and crackers that Betty from L and S brought up. Tried her soup too but think it was too salty for him. Thats okay, I liked it. MMMMM Betty!!! So he was ready for bed after his snack and so he went to bed just before I left!!!! Okay, will try to update this again in a day or two. Until then, love to all and thanks again for being there for us and for the prayers Susie

Jan. 4

Things are about the same. Gil did however move his bad leg bending at the knee, three times this week. Nothing with his arm or speech, although his laugh is wonderful. It is good to be at home as several people from his work have visited, neighbors, friends, and family. His dad and Jan were here last weekend for a few hours, and yesterday, his brothers Paul, Darrell and wife Patty, sister Kathy and 2 of her children Matthew and Marty came from up north. I think Gil was estactic with the visit. He didn't nap so we wore him out a bit, but I know he felt it was well worth it. It was good for me to see all of them again too. He eats well, and spirits are good most days. He has some down time ,but I guess that is to be expected. I am returning to work on Tuesday so I will spend less time at the hospital which neither one of us will like, but I will try to update this every few days as I can. In the meantime, keep us in your prayers, and thanks for everything. Oh, the benefit the kids are having is March 14. They have a local restaurant donate the space, one of the members of my church is an auctioneer and will donate his time, a guy Tony works with will do the D.J. and they have lots of good stuff planned, auction, silent auction, bake sale, food, ect. If you would be interested in helping I'm sure the kids would appreciate it, just call me or one of them. Or leave a message in this blog thing. Otherwise I hoe you can plan on coming and just have a good time. Love to all, Susie