It’s been a long time since my last update and I apologize to everyone who has been looking for some news. The days go by in a blur with non-stop activity combined with the ongoing surreal nature of our new lives.
For everyone who has done anything for us, from the much-needed donations that continue to come in to the helping hands and the many ways our families have helped us, I want to thank all of you on behalf of Jesse and our family. Some of you may have received a personal thank you and some of you may not have, truth be told, I can’t keep up with it all and I apologize if you did not get a personal thank you. We are all doing the best we can to deal with all the myriad of responsibilities and chores we have to do on a daily basis. Consequently, sometimes these things that should be done don’t get done, so please know that we very much appreciate all of you, every donation, every act of help and support, we appreciate it all and thank you all.
After the disappointment of St Louis we came home to an unfinished house as the contractor we hired completely dropped the ball and did not finish on time – or even come close. That made the transition home that much harder with workers in the house everyday while Jesse tried to adjust to life on the first floor.
During our time at home we had a great OT and PT coming twice a week each. Not enough to be called “intensive rehab” but enough to keep Jesse working and moving forward. Thank you Jaimie and Kim, you two kicked butt for Jesse while he was at home. After 3 months of waiting to get into the outpatient program he was accepted to in October, we finally got tired of waiting and came to Canada in mid-January.
Canada, eh? Kathy found a new type of electronic stimulation combined with physical therapy that is not available in the United States. It takes what he was doing in Baltimore and carries it to a whole new level with something like 100 times the voltage while he does specific electronically-aided movements designed to reprogram his neural pathways. It is too early to tell what the results will be for Jesse, but we are very hopeful. Sari Shatil of Neuphysio is a physical therapy savant and she has built a team of great therapists and wonderful people around her. They are all awesome people – but we’re going to have to stay here to get their treatment because none of them want to move to the states!
We’ll start posting videos on this site in the near future, but for now, if you want to see some video of Jesse’s progress, please check out his Facebook page. We’ll get more up there soon. Just to see him work himself to exhaustion doing something as “simple” as raising his arm 10 times gives you an appreciation of the magnitude of the mountain he has to climb and his amazing strength in making the effort to climb it!
One of the biggest hurdles for Jesse is in between his ears right now, He’s truly depressed as he thinks about what his life should be like right now versus what it is. That’s not something he can easily reconcile and we can only hope that someday he can come to terms with this or he forever will be tortured by it. You all can help. Message him on Facebook, don’t just click “Like” when you see his posts, send him a quick note. He’s lonely and bored and feels like his friends have forgotten about him. He’s not looking for the cliché comments, “hang in there”, “you can do it”, etc. How about asking him if he’s seen something on Netflix or sending him a link to something funny or just “hey man, want to talk?” That would mean a lot to him as he deals with his daily nightmare and therapy.
Look for more updates and a fund-raiser event announcement soon, thanks again to everyone for your help and support.