Thursday, July 26, 2007

Two years today

WOW....it has now been two full years since Sherry was hospitalized. July 26, 2005....everything changed. It has been quite a journey since. Sherry seemed in a funk all day today, I'm not sure she knew why. But when we talked about the anniversary, she realized why. We hugged for a good long time and shared a few tears. I am so glad she is still here, despite the difficulties. I love her so very much and cannot imagine life without her. I have had to grow up in so many ways since her illness. I relied on her way too much, let her do most of the hard work in our family. When the time came for me to step up and take more of the lead I was very ill prepared. I have grown, but I still fall short much of the time.

Next month will mark our tenth wedding anniversary. Sherry wants to stay the night in the same hotel we stayed at on our wedding night. I have made the arrangements so we will be staying at the Phoenix Inn on Saturday August 4. The next day we plan to renew our wedding vows at Allison Park Christian Church. We are keeping it pretty low key, but if anyone out there wants to come, you are welcome. I will post info about the time later.

We had to postpone Sherry's evaluation at the U of O for a few weeks. Sherry was not feeling well on the day of the actual appt. Nothing serious, just a little bug that passed. We are still excited about the possibility of getting involved with the university. Sherry's therapy at Sacred Heart has been cut back again despite her continued progress. She will now only get speech therapy twice a month for 45 minutes. That will not get us where we want to be, so we continue to look at other resources. No matter what we will continue to move forward.

If any of you who read this can contact Sherry, I know she will appreciate it. She misses hearing from her friends at the courthouse for sure. You can call her at 607-0761 or email her at deanojack13@comcast.net. This is a tough time, with the 2 year anniversary and just a short email truly makes her day We will be planning a visit to the courthouse in the next few weeks. I know she is excited about that.

Enough for now,

I love my wife....tomorrow we move forward,

Dean

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Gearing up for summer

Once again, it has been far too long between posts. Much has been happening as we all have been gearing up for the summer. The girls are both involved in a city parks program that they go to most every day while I am at work. They are signed up to go to a camp sponsored by our church later on in the summer. They will each be gone for an entire week in August. They went last year and really enjoyed it. I am trying to make it a fun summer for the girls (and all of us really) We bought a ping pong table for our carport area, Chelsea has a new bike (a very nice couple from our church had bought Brittney a bike several months ago) and I have some new grilling and meat smoking gear to help out with the summer meals.

Sherry continues to move forward and adding to the list of what I call "small things, on top of small things" that she can do. This morning was actually a big breakthrough. For the first time since returning home, Sherry completely dressed herself. She is also spending more time on the computer, both with therapy software and also trying to play games that she used to play on the computer before she became ill. She still has a ways to go, but she is starting to control the mouse much better and making progress in understanding what she needs to do. Most importantly, she is really enjoying it. Computers have always been such an important part of our lives (we met on the Internet after all) that getting back some of it is very important to her.

Next week is a big week for Sherry. She will be evaluated at the University of Oregon Speech/Language clinic on Friday. She will probably begin therapy there in fall. She is down to only one therapy session per week at Sacred Heart Outpatient Therapy. She sees Kirsten for speech but they have stopped both physical and occupational therapy, at least for now. I guess they will revisit her needs later...maybe. Sherry's insurance (Oregon Medical Plan) stopped paying for therapy long ago and SH has been writing her expense off. We are very grateful for that, but I am still confused as to why they want to end therapy for her when she is still making good progress in all areas. I know she has so much potential, that she is capable of even more and she is willing to work so hard. It is a shame.....but, we will continue on exploring other avenues and therapy options, such as the U of O.

I am working on a list of all the "small things" that Sherry is now able to do. I intend to post it soon along with a reminder of just where she started from. For those of you who know her, I think you will be impressed. She is still my miracle in progress and she is not done yet. It is a long, slow process but we are still heading in the right direction.....FORWARD!

enough for now,

I love my wife....tomorrow we move forward

Dean