May 14, 2009

General Blog
1

Looks like everthing is coming through with the army. They are transferring Seyward from Warm Springs, Tx (Inpatient) to the VA Hospital in Salem, Virginia…our home town. It’ll be somewhere between May 25th and June 1st. I’m very happy about that…we all did the “ants in the pants” dance which is totally something Seyward created. When she can do it again, I stick a video out here…HA. We have a lot of paperwork to do with the army and packing and sorting and getting her car ready to be shipped home. Went to the see the doctor on Tuesday…(funny must be old age, I can’t remember if I said this before but) I was real dissapointed. It seems as though since she’s had a “leak” that the doctor is no longer interested in her case or it appeared that way. AVM’s are so rare I think he was happy to be involved in the case. Frankly I think all the glue and gamma-knife is what did it, shifted her brain around…but we are hoping it came from the spot he could not fix. Sometime I wonder if just taking it out would have been better…at least it would be gone. Guess I shouldn’t look back… Anyway, he said the leg he think would come back however he was not optomistic about the arm. I’ve noticed that when we are in the room most people talk to us rather than her…that’s got to be annoying to her…so I tried to let her answer the questions so that he focused on her. He asked her a few questions, like what was he holding (pen), what was it used for (writing), etc…but that was it. At least he will write a convolesent leave for June 13th…two weeks…so we can go to the beach, however it might be up to the VA to give us leave. Bill’s family will all be there, I think she needs to be surrounded by family now…it’ll do her good, I would think.

Hey, does anyone out there know if it is possible to get physical therapy while you on vacation? I know I would have to pay…but I just don’t want her to freeze up while we are at the beach (Topsail Island, NC). We have stuff we can do for her, but Bill and I are not professionals.

Well, she seems in good spirits and Warm Springs here in Texas will keep her until we leave…so that’ll be good. Then the VA will take over until June 13th and pick up again the last week in June.
We plan to take the trip back home slowly unless she can stand the ride. I have a lot of work waiting for me at home, but I sure will be glad to be home where my church is and it’s cooler

Thanks to everyone…,you all are in my prayers…God bless.

2

ricki,
such good news…glad you guys will be heading home a vacation will be good too…a bit of a break from physio wont hurt eithier sometimes a break does more good than harm every few months i take a couple of weeks off physio and ot and find i actually make greater gains when i return after the break …i think sometimes the brain needs a bit of a rest and it is still healining anyway…dont listen to that doctor seywards arm will come back she already has movement …still praying for you guys have a safe trip home xxx

3

You can talk to her PTs and see if they can give you some exercises or something that Seyward can do while you’re on vacation. That’s what I did when I went to the beach just a couple of weeks out of the hospital. For me, if I take time off from exercising, I find I’ve lost strength quickly and it’s that much harder for me to do some things, like stairs for example. This is almost a year later and I still find that to be the case. I have to keep exercising, even a little bit every day to sort of maintain where I am. But, that’s just me.