Watch out for emails!

In Speech therapy Sherry has begun to explore some interesting possibilities with her email program. As you may remember, Sherry uses a program, designed at the U of O especially for people with brain injuries. It is meant to be very easy to use as well as safe. Only people that Sherry has on her buddy list can send and receive emails, so there is no spam to worry about. She has photos of the people on her list, so all she has to do is click on the photo (although she can read the names as well) to begin an email to that person. At this time, she has trouble sending anything longer that a word or two, like hello, hi etc. This is due, I think, to her difficulty with spelling. She is able, on many days anyway, to hunt and peck the keyboard pretty well if someone helps her to spell the words. This is actually a vast improvement from before when she would tend to "overshoot" everything to the left. If she tried to touch a certain key, she would always hit a key or two to the left. Now, her finger goes right to the correct key most of the time. It takes her time to locate the correct letter, but even that is getting better. We are going to start a home spelling program while she is on break from speech therapy this summer.

James has come up with an idea to help Sherry with writing emails. I am not sure I totally understand it yet. I think the idea is to use a program called FlashPaper to pre generate sentences for Sherry to insert in her emails. For example, if I have the right idea anyway, Sherry will be able to look at a list of sentences, hit a certain key and have a particular sentence inserted into her email. I don't quite see how Flashpaper is going to work, together, with CogLink (her email program) but I look forward to finding out from James exactly what he has in mind. Anyway, those of you on her list, watch out for the emails!

I hope you enjoy the short video below. I took it with my iPhone, which makes it very easy to upload to the blog. I plan on using video a lot in the future.

enough for now...

i love my wife and kids...tomorrow we move forward.

Dean

Shopping, Banking and Email....Watch Out World

As a long summer break approaches, Sherry is working very hard with her two University of Oregon student speech pathologists. We are all so impressed with James and Tim as well as Karen, their supervising professor. They really put Sherry through her paces and I know she is making progress, moving forward as she likes to say. What we really like is that they have chosen "real life" goals for Sherry, working on things she can really use in her life. For example, the last several weeks have been spent on practicing how to do a bank deposit and how to go through checkout in a grocery store. Last Thursday, for her "graduation", Sherry and Gayle met with all three at the Albertson's near our home. The store manager was kind enough to let them all take over a check stand for the better part of an hour. The therapists role played the part of the checker and had Sherry practice handing the checker her debit card, asking him to please slide it for her. Then she was able to enter the PIN number herself and complete the transaction with the debit card machine. Everyone was thrilled at how well she did. She was also able to complete a a deposit at the US Bank located in the store. After James, Tim and Karen had left, Sherry and Gayle did some actual shopping. When it was time to pay, Sherry took the lead and according to Gayle, did an awesome job. I am so proud of her and what is more important, she was very proud of herself. She admitted to being scared in the beginning, but took pride in what she had accomplished.

Sherry is now working on a different way to send email. She uses a program developed especially for people with brain injuries. It was developed at the U of O and is called CogLink. She has been using it for many weeks now, with some success. She is able to slowly type out short messages with help. She often does it by herself with mixed results. She has difficulty with spelling (something we are going to work on at home this summer) but likes to feel in touch by emailing her family and former co-workers. James and Tim have some ideas regarding special software that will help her send longer, more meaningful emails. We are all looking forward to the possibilities.

Most of the time Sherry has a great attitude and work ethic, it has carried her far and served her well. However, there are times when she does get down on herself. She yearns for the "old Sherry" and often get very emotional and teary. She is also easily frustrated at times and does not really know how to express her feelings. This can can lead to frequent "meltdowns" as we have come to call them. These can occur at home as well as out in public. Sherry takes medicine to address this issue, but we have noticed that it seems to be happening more often in recent weeks. With all the stress our family faces, it is no wonder, but it is a problem. Her doctor suggested to her that she seek counselling as a way to approach the problem. Sherry was at first, resistant to the idea. She finally agreed to let Gayle make an appointment for her. She had her first session today. Gayle was able to find a therapist that actually has experience with cortical blindness and working with brain injuries. I talked to him on the phone shortly before her appointment, and was very impressed with his experience and attitude. He told me that his first job, as a therapist, is to create an environment that Sherry will want to come back to. He succeeded in this and I really feel that Sherry will get a lot out her visits. I will keep you all informed.

This weekend we will have our first home visit with Chelsea since we had her placed in therapeutic foster care. I see her once a week at her school, but it will be nice to have her home again, if only for s short time. She is still struggling, not always making the best decisions, but I know she is trying, she wants to get back home. Only time will tell, but that is what we all want, to have our family whole again. I went on a pity tirade with my last post (sorry about that), so I will just leave it at that for now. Again, I will keep you all informed about Chelsea's progress.

Enough for now....I love me wife and family,

tomorrow we move forward

Dean

Blame it on Bruce

This blog is about Sherry. I promise to update you all about my amazing wife next time. I didn't go back and review all of my past postings, but I don't think I have used this outlet to vent about too much about anything else, with the exception of the last post about Chelsea. But today was such a day, I feel the need to vent. I hope by the end, this makes sense to people. Those who are close to us, I'm sure will understand.

Everybody has stressful days at work, I know. Today was one for me. Part of my job at the Eugene Hearing and Speech Center is designing our print ads and quarterly newsletters (among many other graphic design projects. ) I had two deadlines today, I am using new software so am I am working in somewhat uncharted waters. I think I met both deadlines okay, although I won't know for sure until I get to work in the morning (if you see and ad for EHSC's Health Fair in the R-G Thursday, that's me :) Right in the middle of trying to get everything done on time I got a call from Chelsea's caseworker who told me that she had run away from school in a very angry mood. She was missing for several hours and I was worried sick. She called me late in the afternoon and took my advice as to what she should do. I went from being scared for her to being proud of her and encouraged that she chose to call me and follow her dad's advice. There is hope after all. I think, for the first time ever, she told me she was "embarrassed" about the way she behaved. That, I hope is progress. She made it back to her temporary foster care home safely. Crisis # 1 resolved.

Brittney started doing volunteer work today at her schools after school care program. She was supposed to be out in front of the school at 5 pm to be picked up by Gayle, Sherry's care provider. I got a phone call from Gayle (again, in the middle of the whole Chelsea ordeal) telling me that she had waited 20 minutes and no sign of Britt. So, for a time both of my girls were missing. Brittney eventually made it home with the help of a friend's mother (thank you Kristen) Crisis # 2 resolved.

When I was home and knew everybody was where they were supposed to be and safe I began to relax a bit. Then right around 8:30 one of our cats, Kali, began to meow in an loud and unusual way, she started scratching her neck aggressively and wouldn't let me touch her. She disappeared under our bed and I was honestly afraid she was going to die there, her behavior was so unusual. I checked on her several times and she barely moved when I poked her with a broom handle.

So, what does this have to do with "Bruce" you may be wondering. Late last month I went to Portland with my sister Kim to see a Bruce Springsteen concert. For many weeks prior and ever since I have often visited his website www.brucespringsteen.net to check out set lists and to watch videos (including one from the Portland show.) His long time keyboardist, Danny Federici, passed away from cancer a few weeks ago. He made one last appearance with the E Street Band about 8 days before the concert I attended. There is a video clip of the band doing "Sandy", one of my favorite songs. I made the mistake of watching it tonight. I soon found myself crying like a baby, tears streaming down my face. It's funny how sometimes it takes something totally separate from your real life to get the the emotions going. I watched the video, watched Bruce Springsteen's face as he looked at his friend, kissed the back of his head at the end of the song. I could tell he knew it would probably the last time he would play music with him. Everything just hit me like a ton of bricks.....especially the situation with Chelsea, the whole day as well, and maybe my damn cat was under the bed dying (she has since come out and seems okay, crisis # 3 resolved).

So, you can blame this long self pity post on Bruce. I miss my daughter. I want things to be perfect, I know they never will be. But we didn't adopt Chelsea to give her to someone else. I want her home, with her family. We have a ways to go, many challenges to meet, but despite the rough day, I have some hope things can be better.

enough for now....I love my wife AND MY GIRLS

Tomorrow, somehow we move forward

Dean

Rough Family Times

A long time, I know. much has happened, some good, some not so good. As most of you know our family has really struggled with behavior issues with our oldest daughter since the adoption about seven years ago. Earlier this year we removed her from public school and enrolled her in a therapeutic school. She seems to be doing much better there (although she is now beginning to show signs of rebelling there also.). However, her acting out, outside of school, and at home in particular has spiraled out of control. I won't go into detail about the behaviours here, but they made for an unlivable situation at home. After consulting with all of her councillors and at our request Chelsea has been temporarily placed in a therapeutic foster care home in Junction City. This situation will last several months as Chelsea gets more help to stabilize her behavior. It of course, gives the rest of us a much needed break from the constant drama, tantrums and dangerous behavior . This was a tough decision, we all miss Chelsea and look forward to her eventual return. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she goes through this tough time in her life.

KM, if you read this, I would really like to talk to you if possible. Email me and let me know if we can do that :)

Enough for now.......I will post soon about the happier things that have been going on, and keep you up to date on Chelsea.

I love my wife......,,tomorrow we move forward, no matter what.

Dean