Slow weekend

It's been a busy time for me (Barb) and unfortunately Jon has not had visitors this weekend. Friday night I watched children at church for a spanish speaking group. Saturday morning I stopped in and had Jon sign 3 cards! He signed his name in cursive. He did a good job. :) One for Dad for Father's Day, one for nephew Joshua (his birthday was the 18th and he turned 20!!) and one for niece Angelique (her birthday is the 25th and I will let her tell her own age now). He had the front of his neck brace off when I got there. The back was still on and was soaked. I took it off, washed the neck pads and showed the nurse how to put it back on. We had a cookout for their birthdays and for Father's Day in Defiance. I did not get back to see Jon again last night until 8:20. He said it was quiet all day. He still had the neck brace off so I put it back on for the night.

Today, Dad got there around noon. I went to second service and then to a graduation party and worked for about 2 hours doing payroll (something my workers might appreciate) and catching up on other things at work. Aunt Judy and Uncle Bill stopped by on their way back home from Rhode Island. Jon said he enjoyed their visit. Dad stayed until just after 5:30, so he spent a good portion of his day with Jon which is nice for Father's day. I didn't get there until 7:20pm :( I found that he had his neck brace off again. When I asked if he had it off all day, he said "You can put it back on" so I am assuming it was off all day. The instructions were for a few hours at a time. With the goal of having it off permanently in six weeks. We talked for a little bit and then we did a word search. He is good at finding them and seems to enjoy it. I waited until his next check which should have been done around 9:15. I'm glad I stayed. His C-Diff seems to be coming back. I noticed "the odor". So I mentioned it to the aide and she said the last 3 checks he has had diarrhea. She said this morning he was solid. Not good signs. I told the nurse and she is calling the doctor to get an order for a stool sample which won't be taken until tomorrow since it is so late tonight. We still have no appointment for the colostemy. It is taking alot longer than I anticipated. Hopefully Jon won't change his mind before they get around to it. I left at 10:00 pm.

Tomorrow will be the first day of physical therapy without Matt. He is on vacation and one of his assistants will be working with Jon. It will also be the first day of getting into the chair without Matt. All last week, Matt worked with Mom or I on getting Jon into the chair using a lift. He wanted us to know so that we can tell the aides how to do it. Some of them don't really like it when we try to tell them about Jon as they think they already know it. Spinal cord injuries are different and they don't realize how different they can be. The lift itself is the same but putting Jon into the chair and making sure he doesn't fall out is different than what they are used to so we will see how they do with it. I told Matt to show the aides himself and he said he would rather show us and for us to tell them. I said "Okay". The foot rests stick out too far for the lift to get as close as it should, so when the lift lowers him, Jon sits on the edge of the seat. We have to hold onto him and recline the chair in order to get him all the way back into the seat. Matt's biggest concern is that if Jon's muscles go into a spasm as he is sitting on the edge of the seat that he could fall out. Thankfully Jon does not have many leg spasms and is only on the edge for less than a minute but it is still a real possibility. Please pray for Jon and the transfers. He will get into the chair around 1:00 and back out around 3:00pm. He will also be able to eat lunch in the chair which will really help with his swallowing and feeding himself since he will be up at a true 90 degrees.

Jon's friend Mark is working down here again this week and so he said he would stop by and see Jon in the evenings. Jon is looking forward to seeing him tomorrow.

Thank you for checking in.