Pat’s Progress

Well fall is in high swing, most of the leaves have changed and the lawn is covered. Not much to report but we have a little bit to tell you about. We had a few first this month already! Pat and I went for a ride in my Mini Cooper this past Saturday. We had a lifting system installed in the garage so I can lift Pat out of his chair and lower him into the mini. It was nice for him to get out in a “normal” car and not be in his wheelchair. We went to Newport down around Ocean Drive and home again. The other thing we did was go to dinner at my Mom and Dad’s house. You may be thinking so he went to dinner at the in-laws, what is the big deal. Well they put a ramp up so that Pat can get in and out the front door and gives us somewhere else to go visit and get out of the house. This is the first time Pat has been to someone else’s home. The puppies are getting big they are 4 months old, Fred is up to 46 lbs and Sara is 41 lbs. I have lots of pictures but they are in a new camera and I have not taken the time to learn how to down load but I will get them up soon.

Just a reminder if anyone would like to come visit, please just give us a call. If you don’t have the number just leave a comment and I’ll email you back.

Well once again the leaves are changing colors and the crisp cool air is here. Hard to believe another season has passed us by and we are going into another. I am happy to announce our new additions have arrived! Thanks to Bill (Pat’s Dad) for driving down to PA to pick Fred and Sara up. They have been with us a total of 3 weeks and already have worked their way into our hearts. They went to there first vet visit 2 weeks ago and Fred weighed in at 25 pounds and Sara was 24 pounds, they go again Wed and I can see they have grown already so it will be interesting to see the weight change. We start “puppy kindergarten” this weekend, they’ll probably be the biggest puppies in the class. Here are some pics of Pat and the kids.

Pat’s doing well at Journey Forward, small gains everyday. They received a new piece of equipment, it is an attachment o the FES Bike but it works the arms instead of the legs, studies have shown that it has some significant impact in the recovery of SCI injuries so say your prayers that it will make a difference with Pat. What an FES does is send electrical current through the muscles causing the to contract making you pedal the bike.

Well Thank you for checking in and if you fill like coming to visit we are always looking for company just give us a call to make sure we’ll be home.

Thank you to everyone who came to the party. It was great to see everyone and we had a blast. In the last post I mentioned we were thinking of getting a puppy well we are now getting two. I would like to introduce Fred and Sara, Fred is the apricot pup and Sara is the fawn (lighter), they are currently 7 weeks old and will be officially joining our family in a few weeks. As you were told before they will both become therapy dogs and one will be trained as a service dog. This link gives you the difference between the two.

Pat is doing well at Journey Forward. Here are some pics:
Pat is doing very well in the program and if you would like to help us continue please make a donation by following this link “need a tax deduction” Thank you

Opening this up to everyone for Sunday, 8/31; 12pm to whenever

We will have hot dogs, hamburgers and chips.

Please bring your chairs, sunscreen and anything else you may want.

If you need directions let me know.

Ang

I don’t have much to report except Pat has been gaining strength in his biceps and triceps. He is able to work on a machine using 10 pounds of resistance and is able to sit up for about 45 minutes and keep his balance. Here is a pic with Lisa, she is one of his trainers. One of these days I’m going to try and get some video up so you can see the progress. It is difficult to explain but he is getting stronger but it is just a long, long road.
I quit my job and I’m now assisting Pat full time. He may want to send me back shortly because I make him work but it is good for him. We have started to look into training a new puppy to be service dog. A friend of ours has Mastiff Puppies and we think we are getting one, more to come on that. I’ll need a new blog on training a service dog.

Hi Everyone, It is way past the month period and I’m finally writing. Lots of little things going on with Pat. He has made some gains working at Journey Forward (formerly known as Project Walk) check out the clients tab on there wedbsite and you’ll see someone we all know and love. He is able to stand in the standing frame for over 30 minutes, he is working on the FES bike and sit up without assistance for over 30 minutes. The other day he felt his stomach muscles!

I’ve had numerous people ask if we will be doing any fund raising and the answer is yes we will. We will probably be having a pasta dinner in the fall, when I have more information I will pass it along.

As always thank you for keeping us in you thoughts and if you want to come visist give us a call and keep in mind sundays are best.

Hi Everyone,

Can you believe more time has passed? I just don’t know where the time goes. Pat has been participating in Project Walk know for 6 weeks and his doing great. He has some new sensations and his core strength has greatly improved. He is able to sit up and keep his balance for 20 minutes and stand in a standing frame without getting dizzy for 20 minutes. The sitting up has to do with all the core muscles in your mid-section and when you can’t feel them, that’s great. The standing frame gets weight on his feet, hips and knees. I need to remember to bring my camera and get some pictures of him working out. We also have a small machine called an E-stim, which is electro-stimulation. We do that at home to his triceps and wrist extensors (the back of your forearm). The theory is that the electrical current flows thru the nerves helping to regenerate the firing mechanisms in those nerves getting the muscle contract. Pat would also love to start having visitors know that the weather is getting nice, so if your interested is coming by to see him (or even me) just let me know. Thank you all for your support.

Hi Everyone! Hope everyone is doing well! Pat has started a new physical training program called Project Walk (PW). We are very excited about this program, what they do is work the whole body and every muscle in the hopes that it will get all the nerves firing. PW was started out in California and they just opened the Boston facility in Canton, MA this January. Pat and I went and checked it out just before the holidays and signed up. Pat started his training program on March 3 and is going twice a week for 3 hours at a time. So far he loves it, he says he feels like he is working again. They have numerous machines that they work him out on and his favorite is called an easy stand glider. It stands you up then you move your arms which moves your legs kind of like cross-country skiing. He was able to stand for about 10 minutes before getting light headed. This machine is good for him not only because he stands but it gets him bearing weight on his legs which helps with all kinds of stuff. They also have him on a FES Bike which is a bike that has electrodes hooked to Pat’s legs and the machine and it fires an electrical current into the muscle which stimulates it to pedal the bike. He also works on a Total Gym (you know the Chuck Norris thing) which simulates him doing deep knee bends, this helps with different core muscles and his balance. As I said so far he loves it and already he has had some new sensations after only 3 visits. The medical field is sort of divided as to whether these kind of programs work but when you look at different research and talk to the people who have participated in them feel differently. so I invite you to look at the client videos and remind you that Pat’s injury is classified as a C5 incomplete - C6 complete. So until next month Many Blessings to you all and Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts.

Can you believe it has been one year since our lives have changed? This day last year I received the phone call that no one wants to get, that a loved one has been hurt and is on the way to the hospital. I spent the next few weeks in a fog but thanks to all of you I received so much love and support it helped to pull me through. Pat spent them in and out of consciences and at times fighting for his life.

I have spent the last week reflecting on this past year re-reading all your posts, laughing and crying. It has been a hard year but along with the bad, so much good has happened. Believe it or not this the hardest post that I’ve written to this blog. I have written and rewritten this at least a half a dozen times and probably still wont get all the words right. Pat and I still don’t know why this happened and have stopped trying to figure it out, maybe it was time for Pat to slow down and smell the roses.

In this year Pat has made considerable progress. He has gone from only being able to move his shoulders to being able to control his arm movements down to his elbows. He has gotten different sensations through out is body and hopes to regain more. We are looking into some different programs to help strengthening his muscles and regain as much movement as possible. The other day during therapy he sat up unassisted for 13 minutes. Who knows what the future holds but we refuse to give up.

I’m not sure how many people actually pop in and see the site anymore since we don’t really write much in it now. I try an update at least once a month but at this time the progress is slow but we are getting there one little muscle twitch at a time. I will let you know when we start the new training program and what gains Pat has made. Maybe one of these days I’ll get Pat to write his thoughts in this blog since it is his. I would also like to let you know that we would love to hear from you, give us a call or stop in and visit us.

Just a quick note to say Happy Holidays to all of our friends. May you all be safe and happy this season. Love Pat and Ang