Monday July 27th 2009: Pinehurst, NC

Will & I survived the car trip from GA to NC. We made really good time; less than 6 hours! He is settled in with Tom & Joyce (my in-laws). He will stay with them until about August 8th when we are hoping to move into our new home. This past Saturday night he was able to move his toes AND calf muscle on his R leg! He was also able to barely move his left toes. We were all very excited about this! Hopefully today he will talk to the folks at WakeMed Hospital which is who he will do his outpatient therapy with. This Wednesday he is going to his wheelchair vendor in Apex, NC to get his new wheels and also look into getting a different set of brakes. He has scissor brakes and they are very difficult to lock and access. We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of his raised toilet seat. Since arriving in NC he has been without it and it makes his bowel program even more of a nightmare. We were able to buy a toilet seat cushion to help take away some of the discomfort from his sitting on the hard toilet seat, but he still has a hard time without the special cutout raised seat. I am back and forth between Raleigh and Pinehurst this week. Ty & I are trying like hell to get the house packed up by closing on Aug. 5th.

Friday July 24th 2009: Thank you Shepherd!

Love ya, mean it.....but we are outta here! Will and I are hitting the road in about 1 hour (around 1pm) and will drive about 6 hours to Pinehurst, NC where Will is going to stay until we close on our new home (hopefully August 5th). He started off the morning by moving almost all of his toes on his right foot! So cool to see! I am super excited to be heading home. Will is not as excited, understandably, since this a new environment and life he will be introduced to. Keep sending him encouraging thoughts please!

Wednesday July 22nd 2009: Pool & big toe movement

I can't upload any pictures or use the Internet right now because my computer is infected, but there will be some good pictures of Will in the pool. He went in for the first time yesterday and then he was in there again today for a water polo match. He really liked it. He is a big sinker though, so he uses a noodle or float dumbbells to hold himself up. The big news is from last night. He was able to move his right big toe! He did it a few times for me. It is very, very subtle movement and it took all of his concentration and energy, but it was still very cool to see :) It is not moving much today though...poor little toe is tired ;)

30 days in a wheelchair

Google it and watch this episode (on Hulu.com it's about 40 minutes...very well done). Will thought "Murderball" was a bit better because it depicts more of what a struggle it is to get up up, out of bed, and get dressed. I haven't seen "Murderball" yet, but I just finished watching the 30 days and I thought it was great. I also thought it was awesome to see a NFL star take on this challenge....watch it and see for yourself....

Sunday July 19th 2009: Last weekend at Shepherd

We are coming down to our last few days here at Shepherd! Friday, Ty & his mom drove down from NC for the weekend. Friday night we all went out for bison at Ted's Montana Grill. It was really yummy! Yesterday was our anniversary and we treated ourselves to a night at a very swanky hotel. My wonderful mother-in-law, Joyce, spent the night with Will while we were away. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our 1st year of marriage. Ty & Joyce packed up the car this afternoon with a lot of our stuff, including my bike, so we will be able to fit everything else in my car this Friday. One of the pictures I have posted here is Ty trying like hell to get a VERY annoying piece of metal that rolls around inside Will's push rim. Even though Ty is engineer extraordinaire, we had no luck in getting it out! The wheels Will has now are not the wheels he ordered, and he will get his new wheels once we are back in NC. So he has to put up with the annoying nose for another week or so. It appears that he also has another UTI brewing, which we are not very excited about :( His urine has a foul odor and is very cloudy. He is also very tired and his muscle spasms are worse. Hopefully with some extra hydration and cranberry juice it will not get any worse. First thing tomorrow he will see the nurse in day program. He also needs to get his medical records corrected. There is a lot of paperwork he needs to mail in so he can continue to get disability payments, and after getting his records on Friday, I read over them and found a few errors. I cannot urge people enough to be an advocate for yourself when it comes to the medical world. You should always have copies of your medical records and more importantly, take the time to read them and understand them! This is me getting up on my soapbox ;) So tomorrow hopefully we will get the records corrected.

Wednesday July 15th 2009: Are we on an episode of Cops?

Last night there was some drama unfolding in the apartment next to ours. As we were going to to bed, a loud ruckus started up on the other side of our bedroom wall. All we heard was a lot of yelling and door slamming. Awesome. I thought about calling security and then our a/c fan kicked on and drowned out the noise. We were able to fall asleep sometime around midnight. We found out this evening that 2 of our other neighbors called security and the police were called to deal with the drama. Apparently it was a patient's adult child (it's unclear what sex this person is) who was all up in arms because his/her girlfriend was going to jail and his/her mom would not drive him to the jail and his/her girlfriend had given his/her parents money....blah blah blah! Give me a break!

Anyways, Will did the airport outing today and I did my 60 mile ride. I felt pretty depleted at the end so I went right into the bike store where I had parked and proceeded to purchase one of those large obnoxious energy drinks in a can. Bad decision. The drink plus all the GU's I ate added up to A LOT of caffeine and I was off the wall this evening. Fatigue & over -caffeination is not a great feeling. Will has laughed at me all night- nothing new there! We are looking forward to some sound sleep tonight!

Here are some pics of my bike "Black Betty." She got really dirty today so I ended up taking a shower with her. Cervelo, who is a kick ass bike manufacturer, also partners with a company known as Marvel, to help them make awesome wheelchairs. Will's mentor, Pete, was given a Marvel chair to trial and it is amazing. Really sweet suspension system. Just a fun fact for ya!