For a short review, my brother-in-law, Dave, had to have neck surgery because he had some bone spurs growing through his spinal cord. Something went wrong and he slipped into a coma. When he came out he had to relearn how to talk, eat, walk, and many other things we take for granted.
In time, they came to find out that the surgery was unsuccessful, and he again had to go under the knife. This time, the surgery was a success! But, he relapsed in what he had gained and is again unable to walk, can barely pick things up, and has to be fed through a feeding tube.
They are trying to get him into the same rehab facility in Atlanta that helped him last time. They have an evaluation on February 27th through March 1st. Please, keep this in your prayers. If you would like to share in their burden, please visit YouCaring.
It has been quite some time since I posted an update. We are just over 2.5 years in to our new reality, and have probably seen all the major improvements in Dave's condition that we are going to see.
I now realize that I can't do this by myself, and that it is also too much to expect our children to bridge the gap. Admitting that I need help previously made me feel like I failed, but I have learned otherwise. Failure happens when we refuse to recognize our weaknesses and develop strategies to overcome them.
We are basically in maintenance mode these days. Dave requires 24/7 supervision/care. He gets all of his nutrition via PEG tube; a special formula is pushed by a syringe through a port to a tube on his abdomen that goes directly into his stomach. He is completely dependent on someone else to provide for all of his activities of daily living (ADL: personal care including toilet needs and personal hygiene). On good days, Dave can maintain sitting up straight and well-back in his chair, stand assisted by someone, and occasionally take a few steps using a walker and with someone spotting him. But more than half of his days, he cannot even stay sitting up straight. One day a week, for one-hour sessions, a physical therapist comes to our home. He also has a Speech Therapist . With limited resources, their goal is to prevent regression. It is highly probable that Dave can regain the ability to perform some of his ADLs with more aggressive and frequent therapy, if we could afford it. Such therapy is far beyond my personal ability. Dave will soon be evaluated by Shepherd Pathways for possible re-admission to their exceptional rehabilitation day program, since his most recent surgery to free his spinal cord makes some physical progress a possibility. If approved, we are still looking at several months before an opening is expected.
In the meantime, we urgently need to hire a daily caretaker for Dave. My children help a LOT, but his care is not only time-consuming, it also precludes other equally necessary tasks for all of us (my job duties which provides our income and the health insurance we cannot do without; schoolwork and many extracurricular activities for the kids; even simple housework; and, of great concern for me, the time to be a mother for my children).
So I have decided to use YouCaring to humbly request donations to cover the cost of a home care assistant for Dave and other expenses for recommend therapeutic equipment not covered by insurance.
