Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Dear Friends,

Today is a very good day. Thank God for the very good days that give us a reprieve from the very bad days and once again give us hope as we see that our Kevin is still there.

I arrived at the hospital at 9:30 this morning and found physical and occupational therapy walking Kevin back to his room. They informed me they had just had a very good hour with him. He had been very cooperative as they spent much time working on his balance issues. Kevin's usually very tired after morning therapy and usually falls asleep shortly thereafter. However, this morning this didn't happen. He remained awake and alert. I was able to spend time talking with him and he was receptive to me reading from the Bible as well. This was really a big deal because for the last two weeks he has become very agitated and angry if I tried to read to him. I read the Book of James and both I and II Peter to him stopping along the way to ask him what he thought of certain verses I felt pertained to his predicament. After I read I Peter 1:6,7 which says, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed", I asked him what that meant to him. He replied, "Everything is going to be okay". I continued reading and asking him questions and I could see he was very much trusting God to bring him through.

The speech therapist came in later in the morning and once again talked to him about eating because he has had absolutely no desire to eat. (Yesterday we were able to get him to eat about half a cup of ice cream. He didn't want to eat any but later the physical therapist was able to "trick" him into it. He told Kevin he wanted him to taste something I had brought him and then tell him what it was. Kevin obliged and had a bite and was able to recognize it as mint chocolate chip which is his favorite. After I fed him a few bites I handed the spoon over to him and he fed himself almost the whole dish. This was quite an accomplishment.) But back to this morning...The speech therapist told him they were going to bring him a lunch tray and asked whether he would like a hamburger or patty melt. He finally agreed to try a patty melt and fries. So about noon a tray was brought in with an awful looking patty melt and fries. I pulled it in front of Kevin and after his first bite he said it was terrible. He tried a couple more bites and then tried a couple fries which he didn't like either. The fries looked pretty good so I tried one but had to agree they were terrible. They had also given him a coke, but after a couple swallows said he preferred to have water. I had baked his favorite peanut butter cookies a few days before which I had been unsuccessful in getting him to eat. I handed him half a cookie which he did eat but wouldn't eat any more. So, in the future we will probably be bringing him in meals from the outside as it is true that hospital food is awful, and hopefully we can tempt him into eating again bringing us closer to having the stomach tube removed.

The speech therapist also gave him some other tasks to perform which he did very well. In the past she had been unsuccessful getting him to write. Today he signed his name, was able to print the whole alphabet without prompting, write his address and a few other things. This was great to see he had not lost the ability to write.

We are still waiting to hear from the Centre For Neuro Skills as to when they will be sending someone to reevaluate him. I talked to Peggy, Kevin's case worker, yesterday who contacted the director of the Centre who is supposed to contact Kindred to set this all up. As of this morning Kindred had not heard from him. Both the physical and occupational therapists told me this morning that they believe Kevin is ready to go. We hope that tomorrow at our weekly family conference we will find that all of this has been set in motion.

With regard to Peggy, we still need your prayers. There had been some miscommunication as Peggy thought the insurance carrier was the one keeping her from staying on Kevin's case. It seems it is Peggy's boss that makes that decision. However, Peggy's boss is on vacation until Thursday and Peggy leaves for vacation on Friday. Peggy doesn't think there will be a problem with her boss and is planning to email her about the situation. So please keep praying we can keep Peggy on the case.

We also need prayer with regard to Sarah's work. Sarah's boss broke her ankle over the weekend and will be out all week and possibly more. This is giving Sarah more responsibility and she is unable to take her normal breaks and sometimes her lunch hour as there is no one to cover the office so she is not able to visit Kevin as much as she would like. Then the one student worker they have informed them today that she is quitting. Sarah said they will be hiring a temp but there is no one to train them. This is all happening at a very bad time as we anticipate Kevin moving to Bakersfield very soon and we all plan to go and spend the first several days with him. We know God can work all this out and ask you to join us in prayer about.

I went back to the hospital this afternoon to find Kevin sleeping, but I was informed he had had another good therapy session. Yeah!!!

Much is happening and much is yet to happen. Thank you for hanging in there with us with your love, encouragement and prayers.

Tami