Sunday Visits

We went down yesterday and visited dad. We got there just before dinnertime. They were running a little behind on dinner, so he canceled and had Joel go get a Whopper Jr, fries and a shake. He had been craving them, seeing the commercials on TV, so we obliged and he enjoyed.

Paul and Mary also came to visit. They have been great friends and visit him often.

Dad listening to Dani tell about her javelin throwing on Saturday. She placed 2ND at the Davis invitational.

She had them all captivated with her interesting stories of the previous day.

I was just in the corner snapping pictures when I could.

Grandpa and Dani's 2nd race. For the first one, Dani was in a wheelchair and grandpa one. He was moving pretty fast and Dani kept running into the walls. Grandpa seems to be in the lead here too. He is doing so well. Enjoying the time by getting to know friends that are there. There are three of them that they have named the "Three Musketeers". We love you dad!

Visits with Grandpa

Date night with Grandpa. The kids got some coloring in.-Addy

Hank-

Slade-

Melissa and her cute boys came to visit. Dad is doing great. The kids enjoyed the wheelchairs and doing some racing.

Nina and Slade

Karmelle and dad. Karmelle and I stayed after the others left and taught dad how do bowl on the Wii.

Slade has a darling personality. He looks so much like Melissa I think.

Dad thought the bowling was fun. He did good for his first time. He only killed a few people in the bowling ally behind him. The whole release thing is hard to get your first time. We had fun though

Yea!! We gave dad his own blog. He will be so happy. We will get some current pictures on here but for right now we are happy to say that he is doing very well. Rehab is going great and he is getting stronger every day. Thanks for all your love and support!!! Val

Day #7

Today was a pretty good day. Dad is getting more mobile. He is able to use the walker and can go for short distances.

It is so good to see him smile.

Teresa has been an angel. She came up from St. George last night, and slept over with dad. He still has trouble getting around during the nights. We have made a schedule so that he has round the clock care with us.

We all got together and had a pow wow about all his care. It made us all feel better I think. We came back to the room and enjoyed his company. Once we start taking pictures we can't stop.

Joel and Mitch went over and got his easy chair from the house. It will be much more comfy than the chair there and give him some of the comforts of home.

We will slowly rearrange the facility.

Next came the bed. Since someone will be there all night, we made arrangement for an extra bed to be brought into the room. Joel is catching a ride on the way in.

I guess it will be better than the air mattress she had last night.

He sure looks good in red.

Joel and Mitch came to enjoy his company while they watched a football game, and I think Joel said something about a cheerleading tryouts.

Some things never change. Men and their football. Life is good with football and family!!!

Day #4

Day four was a little rough. He was moved from the hospital down to a physical therapy facility in Orem.It is called Stonehenge and it is brand new. It is very nice. He shared a room last night, but is being moved to a private room tonight.

He was tired from the ride and said it was really bumpy. He thought he was in Lehi, and that a friend of Nina's was the one who had driven him there. He was obsessing over funny things. First it was dinner and food and he was telling Karmelle and me different stories about food.

Here is a shot of his room. They all had window views and it smelled nice and clean.

The next fixation was the photo shoot we did. I had brought a picture down with all the families pictures in it. We were going over who was who and showing him all the people that loved him. Then he called me in and wanted me to take pictures.

We took lots of pictures. He wanted one from this angle and that angle. With this person and that person. Then he would say, "What's next?" "Who's next?"

He was kinda funny, but mostly just confused. He was quite sure he could go home and that he would be able to do the stairs by himself. Even though he needs help getting up and down out of bed.

Cameron came along for the visit. If you didn't watch really close he would raise Grandpa's bed up. Then he was off to the neighbors bed to push some more buttons. Grandpa was happy to see him and have him there. Isn't he cute.

Now it was Karmelle's turn to take a picture of the gang. He got settled in for the evening and got his meds about nine. One problem that he is having is remembering to ask for the medicine. We have seen that his aggression and confusion goes up when he hasn't had his meds.

He had a really great nurse and she did her best to let us know he would be fine there. They started physical therapy today and he will have about 3-4 hours a day. No one knows yet how long he will be there. Read a little on google about confusion after surgery, it will give you a good idea of how he is.

Here is his nice bathroom. He thought I should take a picture. It is nicer than mine.

Love to all.

Day #3

Day three started out a little rough. He was in a lot of pain this morning and very uncomfortable. I got there around 9 am and they had told him he could sit up at noon. He watched the clock the whole morning. He really wants to go home and wasn't totally sure why he was there.

They came and gave him his pain meds and he was still in pain an hour later so they gave him 10mg more. I think it gave him some relief and he was able to snooze off and on. At one point he looked at me and said, "I think I really hurt my back!". I explained that he had and he had surgery to fix it. He kept telling everyone that he was ready to be discharged.

The clock went slowly for him, but true to her word, at 12 o'clock sharp she put the bed up as much as was comfortable. It really helped take some of the pressure off his back. This is him on his way up.

This is as far as he went. He was able to eat his lunch a little inclined. He is always warm so we keep a cool rag on his forehead.

Here is one of his cute nurses, Michelle, they have all been awesome and are so patient with him even when he is in pain.

All during the morning and last night he was wanting to take out his iv and take off his oxygen saturation level monitors. I'm sure they were really bugging him. I told him he had an E.T. finger and we talked about the movie for a minute. If I held both his hands it helped him forget about the monitors.

At 1 p.m. the physical therapy team came in and got him up. He was pretty shaky getting up, but he felt much better than being flat on his back.

Yea!!! a sitting position.

And Yea!!! a smile.

It looks like he is getting ready to fight the pt nurse, but they are just going through the exercise routines. He is making fists here.

He was able to get up and walk about 15 feet down the hall. I felt kind of sadistic taking pictures but I did it all for you up in Washington! I would tell every new nurse why I was taking pics so they didn't think I was strange.

He is still a little crooked, and very weak. She could tell how much he was relying on the walker he was using and turned him around.

We were cheering him in the hall. Kirsten was ready to save him, it helps to have a nurse in the family. I just kept taking pictures.

They figure he will need a lot of rehab and physical therapy. Nina found a beautiful new facility down by their house. It has only been open about three weeks. We will know soon where they send him. It needs to have the capability of taking care of him.

He was able to come back to his room and sit in a chair. He seemed much happier after he went for his walk. I tried to brush his hair and Kirsten told me he looked like Hitler. So I changed it the best I could. I only know how to mouse and spike hair like Max's. I figured dad wouldn't appreciate that.

A big smile before I had to leave. It was good to see him happy. They said he continued to do well this afternoon, he ate a good dinner, and is resting comfortably. He was really sleepy and seemed to know what was going on and aware, so that is good. He is scheduled to be released on Friday or Saturday. Love to all!!