HAPPY 86th BIRTHDAY TO HARVEY!!!

It's a happy day!! It's Dad's 86th birthday!!! If you get a chance, call and leave Dad a birthday greeting today! He and Mom are coming into town to have lunch with some of us kids and then we are having a big party with all the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids to celebrate him on Sunday at Glenda's house!

Dad was born in Elgin Texas on July 29, 1924. He was born on his Mother's (Grandma Mabel Pauly's) 17th birthday!!! What better gift can a woman receive than her first-born child, a son!!!

Since I love the Psalms, I looked up Psalm 86 in honor of my Dad! If you have time today, please read it and say a prayer for Dad. Part of it reads, "I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart: I will glorify your name forever." Amen!

Dad's home number is 830-693-3957. Their address is 6850 CR 120, Marble Falls, TX 78654-7914.

We're back!

Hello loved ones and friends! Ollie and I are back home from our trip to New Mexico! We had a great time but were ready to get home! We borrowed Mom and Dad's Suburban for the trip since it has more room than my 4-Runner. We plan to return it tomorrow and visit with Mom and Dad. I'll get back on track with my blogging once we have been there! Talk to you soon! Love, Sandi

My always-positive Mom!

I spoke to Mom on the phone today just before lunch. I try to talk to her at least every-other day. She said she thought that she and Dad were having a really good week! They were loving the fact that they have their home to themselves and that, for the most part, Dad can be pretty independent in the house. She said that many mornings she'll be in the kitchen getting ready for breakfast and he'll come "sneaking" in the kitchen already dressed! I think he could even shave himself, but he likes her to do it for him! She's always spoiled him, which is one of the reasons they've been married 64 years!! It's something for us all to make note of!!!

My nagging worked! Mom finally got another wrist emergency alert! She didn't like the one that hung around her neck because she accidentally pushed the button once and she was afraid of that happening again! She has one for herself and one for Dad. Now all we have to do is keep reminding her and Dad to actually wear them! I think they're wonderful and necessary. Mom agrees. She just forgets about them! I suggested she put them with their watches. When they put on their watch each morning, they can put the alert on the other wrist! We'll see if that works!!!!

As you know from my previous blog entry, I have been worried about Dad since I was there Tuesday. After today's phone call with Mom I realized that I was worrying rather than trusting my sweet Lord! We all have off days, and that's what I was experiencing with Dad. Were it not for the stroke, I wouldn't have been so concerned! So I put my trust back where it belongs..."Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid, for the Lord is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation." Isaiah 12:2

Just had these few things to share! I'm reading the Book, 90 Minutes in Heaven" and need to get a few things done so I can get back to it! It's a fascinating true account of a man who was dead for 1.5 hours, went to Heaven, and was brought back to life through prayer! I can't wait to read about his interpretation of Gods plan for him!

I pray you, my dear friends and family, are all having a wonderful summer! "Go well and safely, the Lord is ever with you. " Amen!

Not such a great day on Tuesday

You all know that nothing makes me happier than giving you good, upbeat news. Sadly, it just hasn't been an upbeat week.

I went to Mom and Dad's Tuesday. Dad seemed okay when I got to the house. He and Mom were running a little tight in getting him ready to go to therapy. When we got to the Suburban to leave, knowing Mom was going to town, Dad tried to tell her something he wanted her to do, but couldn't get his message across. From that point forward, Dad's mood went downhill. One can imaging the frustration he must endure on a daily basis, not being able to communicate what he wants to say. When he and I got to speech therapy, I told the therapist what had happened and asked her to help me figure out what he wanted to tell Mom. We worked on it a few minutes and then remembered that Dad's driver's license was about to expire. They discovered that when they were filling out the paperwork for the STAP machine. Dad needed a valid driver's license number or ID before they could submit the form. When she asked Dad if he was trying to remind Mom that he needed to renew his license he got so excited! Yes, that was it! I immediately assured him that, after lunch, I would take him to get that accomplished! That appeased him but then he did not want to participate in therapy. I don't know if he was tired or just having an off day, but he didn't do well with therapy. Physical therapy followed speech therapy and it didn't go any better. No doubt, Dad usually works hard and does well. I dismissed it as just a down day. "Life is full of ups and downs. The trick is to enjoy the ups and have courage during the downs." I am in awe of my Dad's courage.

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Amen!

We went home for lunch and then headed straight to the drivers' license bureau. As I was suspecting, but disappointing to Mom, they would not renew Dad's license, in fact they confiscated it! Since Dad is physically unable to drive at this time, they would only issue him an ID. Of course, it makes total sense, but it was sad to witness them taking the license. Mom asked if she could have it as a keepsake and they said no. You can't blame them! No doubt many physically handicapped people have licenses and drive that shouldn't! At least Dad got his ID so the paperwork for the machine was completed and put in the mail! Okay, there's something positive to say!

Once we got home from the lengthy visit to the license bureau Dad was more than ready to get in his chair and have a nap! I said my goodbye's and headed home.

I need to clarify something I previously told you in error. I thought that Jimmie had installed the handrail down the length of the hallway in Mom and Dad's house so Dad could walk from the bedroom to the breakfast room. Actually the handrail is only on one part of the hall so that Dad can stand at it and exercise his legs. I did suggest to Mom that ask Jimmie to install a handrail at the other end of the hall so he COULD walk from the bedroom to the breakfast room. She liked that idea and said she would ask him.

Jean was Dad's chauffeur Wednesday. Little did we know that he no longer qualifies for physical therapy! He was allowed 18 visits and actually got 19, so, for now, he will only be going for speech therapy. We will pursue getting PT to request more visits. Had we known he was about to run out of visits, we would have already had them working on the authorization for more! Very frustrating! So, for now, Mom, the home-health care aide Jerry and us kids will do Dad's physical therapy at home. Unfortunately, Dad really doesn't let any of us do much therapy of any kind at home.

Ollie and I will be in Ruidoso NM next week soaking up some cooler temps and attending the Wild West Historical Association's annual convention at the Inn of the Mountain Gods!!! Glenda will fill in for me taking Dad to speech therapy while I am gone. I'll try to keep you updated while I am gone! Love and hugs! Sandi

Friday

Jean went back to Mom and Dad's Friday to go with them to speech therapy. The therapist, Marge, as I mentioned before, has been trying to get a special machine for Dad to help him communicate more easily. The rep for the company was in Burnet Friday and met with Mom, Dad, Jean and Marge.

The machine (I will find out its name so I don't have to keep calling it that!) will be provided through a program called STAP (Specialized Telecommunications Equipment Program). STAP is a state-wide program that provides specialized assisted equipment or services for Texans having a disability that interferes with their ability to access the telephone network. Apparently, on our phone bills each month is a small charge, $2 or so, that funds this program! For instance, STAP provides specialized phones for the hearing impaired.

The rep from STAP took Dad's information and will seek approval for a communication machine for Dad. The approval process will take 6-8 weeks and, once he is approved, it takes about a week to get the machine to him. During the interim, we are all jotting down things that we say on a frequent basis that would be hard for Dad to communicate otherwise. Those types of thigs are what will be programmed into the machine!

The machine is a small computer and monitor, similar to a lap-top computer. It comes with either a 6" or a 12" screen. The 12" screen is the best choice for Dad. It runs on a battery that lasts about 5 hours before it has to be recharged (which seems rather short to me, but maybe we can get a longer life battery or leave it charging when he's not using it...). It has a touch screen with tabs across the top. It is designed for total customization. For instance, we can program a tab with all the family and friends' names. Dad can go to the "People" tab and touch the name or picture of the person he wants to talk to Mom about. Then he can go to another tab that says something like, "call," or "visit," or "have you talked to him/her lately," etc. Dad watches over their vehicles, so a tab could be set up for "Vehicles" and under that tab could be things like, "Suburban" and "oil change," rotate tires," etc. It doesn't allow arbitrary questions, only what is programmed into the tabs' verbiage, but it will absolutely make an appreciable difference compared to how he communicates right now!

This machine will allow Dad to be much less passive and become so much more involved in every-day conversations! Certainly he and Mom communicate well together, after all, after 64 years they can practically read each other's minds!!! But, Dad is pretty quiet around other people most of the time because it is such an effort for him to get his message expressed. I get butterflies in my stomach every time I think of the possibilities this can open up for Dad in communicating with the rest of us! Technology is fascinating!!!

I will keep you posted on this! As always, I pass good news on to you as quickly as I can! Please help me pray that SPAT approves Dad for the machine! Amen!

Sorry for the delay!

Dear family and friends, I apologize for the lack of blogging, but I have been under the weather! I'm now on the road t recovery and hope to get to go see Mom and Dad next week. I never want to risk passing something on to either of them, of course!

First, I have a request...if you have an old Scrabble game stuck in the back of a closet somewhere, please send me the tiles! I want us to be able to play Scrabble with him as I told you in my previous blog. I have two sets, but it takes about six to have enough letters to prevent running out of vowels and some of the consonants. My address is 10109 Talleyran Dr, Austin TX 78750-3834.

Jean and Jimmie went to Mom and Dad's Tuesday. Jean took Dad to therapy, speech and physical, and Jimmie installed hand rails down the full length of the hall between the breakfast room and Mom and Dad's bedroom! We are so fortunate to have such a talented craftsman in our family!

The speech therapist is working diligently on getting Dad a computer that will talk for him. Rather than letters on a keyboard, there will be words! He can then touch the words to create a phrase like, "Need water please." We have been searching for something like this ever since the stroke occurred, but there wasn't anything on the market that was workable, until now! The company rep is meeting with the therapist, Dad and Mom and Jean on Friday to see how Dad does with it! I pray that it works for him! We're anxiously anticipating the possibility of Dad truly being able to "talk" to us, to Jerry and to visitors!!! I want so badly to be there Friday, but I won't go until I am healthier!

We have also been working with getting Dad to use the wheelchair less. As I told you in the blog about going to Colorado, Dad was able to walk onto the plane since his wheelchair was too wide for the aisle. He did such a great job that we know he is strong enough to continue using his legs more and more. Jimmie installed handrails down their bedroom hall. Once Dad gets to the breakfast room, there's furniture for him to hold on to all the way to his living room chair. Jean told me that he walked up and down the hall twice while they were there Tuesday afternoon! There's nothing more exciting than being able to tell you about progress!!! My heart knows that our precious Lord is giving Dad the physical strength and mental spirit not to give up! Saint Francis said, "Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." We chose to take the path of faith, rather than listen to doctors and therapists who told us Dad would never improve. Each step of the way, Dad would make progress and they would still try to squash our hopes and tell us that things wouldn't get better. All I have to say to them now is that faith can move mountains!!! It's been a steep climb, but Dad is moving mountains!

"Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark." Amen!

The progress continues...

Jean chauffeured Dad to therapy yesterday and today was my day. It is an eye-opening experience to be there and witness how hard Dad is working to get better. The new speech therapist, Marge, has 40 years' experience and is wonderful! Speech therapy started at 10:00 and lasted an hour. That hour flew so quickly! Marge told me she has seen marked improvement in Dad over the two weeks that she has worked with him!

First, she got out a sheet of paper with the each of the letters of the alphabet a separate box. Another box read, "end of word." She wrote a sentence and had Dad read the sentence with her. She encourages him to use his voice and all his words sounded pretty much the same, but at least he's using his voice! She then had Dad point to each letter on the sheet that corresponded with the letters in each of the words in the sentence. For instance, he would point to each of the letters "t-h-e" and then touch the box that said, "end of word." Then he would point to each of the letters in the next word and then touch "end of word" when he finished that word, and he did that until he had done the entire sentence. His recognition of letters has greatly improved since she has started this exercise! She explained a lot to me about aphasia and how it is a learning disability like dyslexia. Many stroke victims end up with a form of dyslexia and she sees a little bit of that when she works with Dad.

Then she got out little colored tiles a words or punctuation marks on each tile. With the tiles she made the sentence, "The little brown cat ran up the big tree." She had Dad read the sentence and she mixed up the tiles and told him to arrange the sentence! He gave her a hearty, "HaHa!" He then proceeded to arrange the tiles. He would get the tiles in the wrong place but would proof-read his work and correct it! He had the sentence correct except he kept calling the cat "the brown little cat" and he had "the" and "big" backwards. Marge told Dad that there was an error at the end of the sentence and he re-read it and fixed it! She gave him positive feedback and then mixed the tiles up again! Once again, he gave her a hearty laugh! It's obvious he likes working with her! He worked to set up the sentence and, once again, he transposed "the" and "big." She told him there was an error and he fixed it! She had him work with the sentence about six or seven times until he got it all right!

Next she got out a bag of six sets of Scrabble tiles. The three of us made sure all the letters were face-up on the tiles. She said Dad liked words about the rodeo, so that was our word for the day. She and Dad spelled "RODEO" out with the tiles and then we took turns finding tiles to spell words that we could play off of "RODEO", as if we were playing Scrabble! It was so much fun! Every once in a while Dad would get a little stuck with spelling, so Marge would put out 3 or 4 tiles and let Dad pick from them, rather than from the huge pile. He gets a little confused or overwhelmed and she helps him but doesn't just give him the tile. On one of Dad's turns he pulled an "R" then an "E" and an "M" and was adding it to the "U". Marge could not figure out what he was trying to spell! I said, "I know what you're spelling, Dad!" it was "REMUDA!!!" WOW!!! Marge got so tickled because she didn't even know what a remuda was (a herd of horses)! I explained it to her and Dad was nodding his head and pointing to her while I was telling her, as if he was explaining it to her himself! What a hoot! Before we knew it, the hour had flown by and it was time for physical therapy!

The physical therapist spent the 30 minute session today showing me stretches for Dad's legs, knees and hips. What I realized, while I was working with her, is that Mom has so much to focus on during each day with the house, preparing meals, laundry, etc. that she doesn't seem to be able to work in any home therapy. It's just too much for her. At this point we are very grateful that Dad can go to therapy 3 times each week. I don't know what we're going to do when Medicare decides to cut back on that. I wish so whole-heartedly that we lived close enough that I could go over on the days he doesn't have therapy and work with him. I'll have to figure out something!

Lisa spent some time this weekend visiting with Mom and asked her what was her biggest stress. Mom said it still was deciding what to cook and the actual chore of preparing meals. Lisa and I worked together and found a restaurant, Noon Spoon, in Marble Falls that will deliver lunch. So today I called and talked to the owner, Jennifer, and pre-arranged lunch to be delivered at 11:30, so it would be there when Dad and I got home from therapy. Dad had a dental appointment at 12:40, so the window of time that we had to eat lunch was pretty small. The food was delivered promptly at 11:30, as ordered, and was waiting on us when we returned from Burnet! I had ordered 2 sandwiches and a quart of soup. Mom saved the soup for their supper and we thoroughly enjoyed the sandwiches for lunch! Would you believe they will deliver the food from Marble Falls out to Mom and Dad's house for only $5.00?! I told Mom it was so worth it for her to take advantage of that! I will keep urging her to order lunch (they have a different hot-meal special every day of the week, sandwiches, salads, etc) on the days that Dad has therapy. That should help her a lot! I was so impressed when this afternoon the owner of the restaurant called me to see how Mom and Dad liked the food! She also offered to talk to Mom and have a customized menu for them!!! What a blessing she is going to be!!! The trick will be to get Mom to use her services!

After Dad's dental appointment we got back to the house and he went straight to his bedroom chair for his nap! Mom and I spent a little time checking her emails and going over a few things the therapist had told me. Bless Mom's sweet heart, caring for Dad is a full-time job despite her usual house-keeping chores. Hopefully we kids can keep figuring out ways that she will allow us to help her! Please keep our precious Mom (and Dad, of course!) in your prayers! "Give her the reward she has earned and let her works bring her praise at the City gate." Amen!