A Time to Give Thanks!

The last couple of days we have spent, eating, playing guitar, watching football, playing games, and just hanging out.

Everyone got here on Wednesday, and it was so good to see family. I don't think Jess or I realized how much we missed everyone until they got here.

Wednesday night we all spent eating pizza and catching up. Of coarse the guitar was pulled out and Birley reconnected with everyone, well except for Pat :)

Thanksgiving day we had a delicious dinner here at the hospital. It was the first time that most of us had tried deep fried turkey. It was SO good! I think we all agreed that the food was delicious, but the best part was the fact that we didn't have to cook or clean up. Talk about the ideal Thanksgiving dinner!

Last night we had a great time together. We all just hung out in Jess' room, playing guitar, games and were entertained by Briley. She sure has liked having every here, and she by last night she really started to take to Pat :)

Today Jess went back to rehab. In ot this morning he worked on his balance as he sat on the mat and played wii with another patient from Montana.

While Grammy Candy watched Briley, all us girls (and Pat) went shopping for a good couple hours. It was so nice to get out of the hospital setting and have a little break from miss Briley Anna.

We came back and everyone was able to watch Jess in PT. They focused on his left arm today. His shoulder socket has gotten really stiff, so he was given a lot of different stretches to work on.

We rented out a Kitchen/Living Room at the apartment complex that I'm staying out. We decided that instead of making a traditional turkey dinner, we would have lasagna.

Unfortunately, Jess needed his TLSO brace shaved down and the time they were able to do it was right before dinner was ready. So we just packed up everything and moved it all over to Jess' room.

It sure was nice that he got his brace shaved down. It had been giving him bruises on his stomach, so he was ready for it to be adjusted.

These last couple of days have been such a great break from our routine. And it has been so nice to have all of Jess' family here for Thanksgiving.

Briley loves to go on rides in the wheelchairs. So all the Alberi girls went and raced the halls :)

Lots of News

Boy do I have a lot to write about today. First off I want to thank Sara, Savannah, Sage, Brice and Clay for drawing Jess pictures. He absolutely loves them. So kids keep them coming!

We have had a great couple of days. Sunday was another lazy day. We spent most of it in his room hanging out as a family and watching more football :)



Yesterday was a great day with both ot and pt. Jess is getting so much better on his balance. He was able to sit unassisted and balance for 50 seconds. We also did our first transfer by ourselves. I helped him transfer from his wheelchair to the pt mat and then back again. I couldn't believe how much of the transfer he does himself. On the second transfer I barely had to help him at all. It's pretty amazing how well he is doing, especially with his left arm.

We also got some REALLY big news yesterday. The doctors have decided to send us home on December 18th. We will be in Dillon for about a month and then need to come back to Craig and finish off rehab. There were a lot of factors that went into this decision. One of the main reasons is that Jess has to ware the TLSO brace until January 16th, and there are a lot of things that He will not be able to work on until the brace is off. Another big factor is his left arm. The more time we can give it to heal the easier it will be for him to learn some of the more advance transfers.

We are so excited to spend the holidays at home, but we're a little nervous at the same time. It just seems so fast. We have a lot to learn and a lot to do in the next 4 weeks. But were up for the challenge.

So if anyone knows of a single story house with no stairs available let us know.

This morning Jess had pool therapy for the first time. And for all of you who know Jess, you know how much he LOVES the water. Because of the weightlessness he was able to do things with his left arm that he hasn't been able to do.

The pool therapist even thought she felt one of his leg muscles contract! She wasn't sure, but we'll take "thought" any day :)

After pool therapy we had to hurry upstairs and get him dried off and changed in just 15 minutes for pt. We didn't quite make it on time, but he had a great pt session.

One of the things they worked on in pt was a electrical impulse test on his leg muscles. When Stephanie, his physical therapist, tested his muscles they responded! That means that he is will be able to do some therapy on one of the bikes they have here. They hook your legs onto the bike as well as an electrical machine that shocks your muscles, which makes your legs peddle the bike. The bike reads how much work your muscles are doing on there own and then decreases the impulse accordingly.

From my understanding the bike is just used to exercise your muscles. It doesn't help with the signals sent through your spinal cord. But it sure is encouraging to know that the muscles are still reacting.

Another exciting thing that happened today was Jess was able to stand up in a standing chair. He had to transfer over to this "chair" they have and they adjusted it to his height, strapped him in, and pulled a lever that propped the seat up slowly. It sure was crazy seeing him stand up. I had forgotten how tall he is.

So today was another great day and tomorrow is going to be even better! Candy, Dave, Lindsey, Anna, and Pat come in tomorrow for Thanksgiving. We are so excited to see them and spend Thanksgiving as a family. We have SO MUCH to be thankful for!!!

Our First Outing

Yesterday we had an absolute wonderful day. We went on our first outing. As Jess would say, "We took the short bus to Evergreen Co." It was about a 30-45 minute drive from Craig and despite our worries Briley was great throughout the entire trip. For those of you who may know the area Evergreen is out past Redrock. Over all it was about a 4 hour outing. We went to a great pizza joint called Beaujos (Sp?). They served honey with there pizza. Which I must say you should try on you pizza crust. It may sound strange, but it was really good. And then after lunch we just hung out around town. A lot of people "rolled" :) around town, but Jess Briley and I stayed around a bridge that was near the pizza place. There were about 30 ducks in the river that kept Briley pretty entertained. By the time we were ready to go home Briley was getting really tired, and we were worrying that she may scream the whole way back (she has been doing that sometimes), but she was absolutely wonderful. About a mile or two down the road she fell asleep and slept until we pulled into Craig's parking lot. What a great finish to our first outing.

After we got back Jess picked up his guitar for the first time. It was definitely a struggle, but I was impressed with how much he was able to do. We had no idea what his left hand would be able to do. By the end of the hour he had a couple of cords that he was able to play and transition to without the help of his right hand. I must say I was very impressed! Oh and Briley loved dancing to dad's music!!!

Today was a good lazy day. Briley and I hung out at the apartment until almost 11am and when we went over to see Jess he was still in bed. He was dealing with more bladder spasms, so he ended up staying in bed most of the afternoon and watching college football or"booball," as Briley call's it.

Briley and I took a nice walk to Safeway for a grocery run this afternoon. I'm a terrible judge of distance, but I would say its maybe 2 miles round trip. But let me tell you, climbing that hill coming back with Briley in my baby pack and pushing a stroller full of groceries is a great workout. By the way, thanks Candy for the baby pack, Briley loves it and I don't know what I would do without it.

Jess got up later in the afternoon and spent some time playing guitar and catching up on the blog. We went and ate dinner in the cafeteria with another couple and then came back to his room and just hung out. So yea, it was a lazy family day.

We got Jess' schedule for this coming week and its starting to pick up a bit. He is starting a new educational class as well as pool therapy. So I guess its ok to be lazy :)

So Blessed

First off, I want to give a special shout out to all of the students and staff at Eagle River Christian Schools. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for working so hard on your fundraisers for us. I love the picture of the milk jug of money!

I think it is safe to say that we are getting into the swing of things. I can't believe how fast the time has been flying lately. Here we are almost to another weekend. Actually tomorrow will be the 4 week mark of the accident. Jess and I were talking tonight and in some ways it seems like it was just yesterday and in other way it seems like forever ago. One thing is sure, we sure have come a long ways in just 4 weeks. And boy, look how life can change in just 4 weeks. I guess you just never think something this big will ever happen to you. As Jess and I were talking tonight, it just really hit home to both of us, how incredibly blessed we are. This isn't a "fun" experience to go through. But we are SO BLESSED. We are blessed that Jess is here. We are blessed his injuries aren't any worse. We are blessed that Jess is progressing so fast. We are blessed Jess and I have such a great relationship. We are blessed to have a beautiful daughter. And we are blessed to have such a great family and so many friends to support us. There have been times we both have been in tears at the support, love and generosity of all of our family and friends. I know so many of you feel far away, but every time you write, call, leave messages or send packages it means so much to us. So thank you so much for all of your support.

Ok now to let everyone know what has been going on the last couple of days. Yesterday was basically just another day of rehab. Jess had an hour of both ot and pt, but they were spread out throughout late morning and afternoon. He got his last wheelchair to evaluate, before he needed to decide on which wheelchair to purchase for himself. It's amazing how many different kinds of chairs there are. Oh and yesterday he was fitted for a power chair. They basically gave it to him because he has so many restrictions on his left arm, he can't really push himself very fast. So with the power chair we can go on walks as a family, and he will be able to say up out of bed longer without having to strain his arm.

Today was a GREAT day!!! Jess was moved from the west wing of the hospital to the east wing. Which is basically for the more stable and independent patience. But the best part about it is his room. He now has his own room with a private bathroom and living room/kitchen. It makes a world of difference. The living room area is carpeted so Briley played all afternoon and evening, crawling all over the floor and pulling things out of every thing she could open :) It was an absolute wonderful day.

In physical therepy today Jess picked out all of the different bathroom equipment he will be needing, as well as chose his wheelchair. Now all he has to choose are all the different options of a wheelchair. I never know there were so many different options. In ocupational therepy today he worked on balancing again as well as laying down and rolling himself over and sitting back up again. I couldn't believe how well he did. Today was by far the best he has done on everything. All those little steps are starting to really add up!!!

More good than bad

Yesterday started another week of rehab. Jess did great at both ot and pt. He's still working on balancing and transfers. This week he's trying out 4 different wheelchairs so we can decide which chair to order for when we go home. He will soon be working on testing other equipment that will be needed throughout the house.

My sister Holly headed back home today. It was SO nice to have her here (thanks Chris for watching the kids, I think she probably got the better end of the deal :) We had such a great time together. She was such a great help around the house as well as with Briley. I felt bad that Briley wasn't really her normal self. She has been really fussy and clingy this last week. Yesterday and today were much better though. I think we were finally able to get her into more of a schedule. (Looks like I spoke too soon, she just woke up)

Today we had a meeting with all the Drs and therapists on Jess' team. They went over all of the x-rays and MRI's that he has had. It looks like his arm is doing well, and with time it will heal. They couldn't read the report from the EMG that he had last week, so we don't know the prognosis and timeline yet of how the radial nerve is going to heal. As far as his spinal cord, you can definitely tell that the picture doesn't really look the same at his point of injury. However, they couldn't tell the extent of injury because of the magnet with the MRI machine and the metal in his back.

This evening Jess did have a little problem. I noticed this afternoon that his catheter wasn't emptying like it usually does, so I told him to make sure that the nurse checked everything out. His Dr was very glad that we noticed when we did, because his bladder wasn't emptying. Without going into a lot of details, basically his bladder has sediment in it, which they are trying to figure out what is causing it. He is getting bladder spasms which he describes as cramps about every minute, so they have put him on some new meds.

So please pray for Jess. That he won't be in pain with his bladder. And that the Drs will figure it out and it will be an easy fix. Thanks so much for all your prayers and support.

This may not have been a road we would choose to travel, but with God by our side in the end we will overcome it. And maybe, just maybe someone will see that we serve a living God. A God who is the same God we may have read about in Sunday school or heard as a bedtime story. A God that turned the water into wine, multiplied the loaves and fish, calmed the seas, healed the sick, rose the dead, made the blind see and the lame walk. But even more importantly a God that calms our hearts, gives us peace and strength and carries us through the tough times.

God is Good!

This weekend was filled with spending time with family, new adventures, football, and some exciting new blessings.

Friday night my sister Holly and I were able to go out to dinner with our Uncle Dale and his wife Lois. It was a great surprise to be able to see them and catch up on the last couple of years, as well eat a delicious meal.

Saturday Jess was cleared to leave the floor, so we took him out to a little garden outside and spent at least a couple of hours enjoying the sun and fresh air. It was the first time since we were in Montana that Jess had been able to get outside. Briley loved crawling around in the dirt!

Jess' Uncle Mike from Maine flew in on Saturday. We had such a great time catching up with him. When Mike was 26 he lost his leg in an accident, so he could really relate to Jess' situation and had a lot of good advice for him.

Today was the first time Jess was able to come over to the apartment Briley and I are staying at. We spent the morning hanging out and watching football. Later on, Jess came back to the center and one of the nurses gave him a much needed hair cut. He watched some more football while Holly, Briley and I spent some time together at the apartment.

Hi everyone this is Jess. I have some very exciting news to all of you that have been praying for me. I belive that God has begun a work in my body, for I now have sensations shooting down my legs. The best way I can describe this feeling, it is like the tingling feeling you get when your foot is falling asleep. So please continue to pray, for I truely believe that God is doing something amazing.

Pain in the Neck

Yesterday Jess was fitted for another wheelchair. Even though this one still isn't quite long enough for him, it fits a whole lot better. Every couple of days the hospital brings in dogs for people to play with and just be around. So yesterday when Briley saw one of the dogs, she got so excited. As you can see from the pictures, they got along pretty well.

Today Jess was supposed to test out different wheelchairs so that he could decide which one he wants to order, but he was wheeled off for what was supposed to be a short procedure instead. When he was at St. Patrick Hospital they put in a filter into his jugular vein, to catch any blood clots. Well, the Dr here didn't want him to have it in any longer so he sent him in to have it removed, and it was a good thing. The device had actually moved and instead of laying vertical in the vein it was at an angle and wedged into the sides of the vein. The procedure was supposed to take 20 minutes and it took about 2 and a half hours. Needless to say, I was doing my best not to be worried and I think the same can be said for Jess. Unfortunately, Jess had eaten breakfast, because he hadn't been told about the surgery, so they weren't able to sedate him. He said that it was probably the most pain he has been through, throughout this entire ordeal and is so glad to have this day behind him.

Even though today was really difficult, we are so thankful that the Dr decided to have the device removed now instead of waiting the normal 6 months. The surgeon told Jess that it could have presented some really serious complications if they would have waited any longer. Just another reason to be thankful that we are here at Craig.

Playing Catch

It seems that the best way of seeing progress is to think about where we were in the past. As I was watching Jess in PT today I realized that he was doing things that he couldn't yesterday. No they may not be huge improvements, but they are improvements never the less. Yesterday was the first day that he was able to sit on the mat and balance while lifting his arms to his side. Today he was able to sit on the mat and balance while playing catch with Briley. I know it may not seem like a lot, but when we look back just 5 days ago he was just learning how to sit up on the mat.

For those of you who really know Jess, you know that when he sets his mind to something, there is no holding him back. One of our biggest obstacles right now is learning how to be patient with his arm. Because of the nerve damage in his left arm, he isn't able to progress as fast as he would like, which can be frustrating at times. So when your praying for us, one of the things to add to your list is for his left arm to heal quickly and for his right arm to stay strong and keep up with all the stress he's having to put on it.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. I know I said it in my last post, but just knowing that so many people are praying for us and supporting us helps tremendously.

Feeling Your Support

Today was another day of tests and rehab. This morning Jess was wheeled off for an MRI to check up on his injuries and see the extent of the damage. After his morning test we had just enough time to catch a bite to eat and then head off to have an EMG test done. The Drs ordered this test to see exactly what kind of nerve damage was done to his arm. Jess was really glad to get this test behind him, both because it is a very painful test and because we want to know what to expect of his arm in the future.

His physical therapy today was simply getting fitted into a new wheelchair. Which may sound easy, but since Jess is so tall, its was really hard for them to find a wheelchair that even came close to fitting him.

So after all his tests, lunch, more tests, and therapy sessions Jess was in his wheelchair for over 4 hours straight. Talk about an improvement in the last week. That's 4 times longer than last Monday.

I think the reality of the situation is really starting to hit home, but the Drs and staff here are so amazing and supportive. I can't even begin to express how incredible this center is. We are truly blessed to be here. But even more so Jess wants to thank everyone for your comments. After going through a long day like today your comments really encouraged him to keep on pushing through. Thanks so much for being there for us in this difficult time.

A Quiet Weekend

Everyone has told us that the "work week" will be hard and tiring but weekends are a great time to catch up on sleep and relax. So that's exactly what we did. Yesterday Jess was able to get up and eat in the cafeteria for the first time. One thing is for sure, he definitely has his appetite back, which is a good thing. When we got here we found out that he lost 26 pounds in the 13 days since his accident. I guess that's what happens when you don't feel like eating.

This morning we went and strolled around and then finally watched some football on a big screen TV in one of the education rooms. We had a great time. Briley was able to crawl all around and of course get into everything she could reach. One of her new favorite things to do is stand up and shake dads wheelchair or at least pull on the break lever. She still isn't walking by herself, even though we think she could if she really wanted to. That's OK though, because I know as soon as she starts, I'm going to be chasing after her even more :)

Everyone needs their rest

Last night was pretty rough on Jess. He was in a room with 2 other patience and since one couldn't sleep it meant Jess couldn't either. But today took a better turn. He was able to get some sleep early this morning and then met with physical therapy for the first time. It was a long hour of practicing rolling over, weight exchanges, and getting in and out of a wheelchair. So after a long night and a hard workout he was able to sneak in a little nap before heading off to occupational therapy. Since it was his first day at OT we basically went through a tour of the rehab center and found out what to expect in the coming weeks.

This afternoon Jess was able to move into a different room that only has one roommate. It already seems so much quieter and hopfully that will mean more sleep.

Little Miss Briley has taken to playing with a toothbrush. She loves it so much that she even slept with it last night and then again today during one of her naps. Isn't it crazy what entertains kids?

First Day in Wheelchair

After getting his best night of sleep so far, Jess started his day by going through lots of tests. He met all of of Drs and had pictures, xrays, cat scans, an MRI, and of course lots of pokes. But the highlight of his day was after all the test came back clear he was given the green light to get into his first wheelchair. We went through a tour of the hospital and Briley LOVED her ride on dad's lap!

Emily's mother, Dee and Jess's parents Dave and Candy wait as Jess gets ready to leave for Denver. Jess and Emily flew down together and had a safe trip. They are now getting settled into Denver, and are ready to start Rehab. Briley flew down with Candy and she reported that Briley was an angel on the plane, and slept the whole time. What a relief! Jess is doing good, his spirits remain high, and he loves reading everyone's post, so please keep them coming.

   

Jess was greeted with a song that his friends wrote the first day he was rolled out of the room.

All Smiles

The guys stopped by and wished Jess well on is journey to Denver. Jess is flying out on Wednesday Nov. 5th. We do not have the address in Denver yet, but will send it as soon as we do.

Montana Fresh Air

Jess had a great day! He took some fresh air in this morning and hung out with friends and family this afternoon. He is eager to start is rehabilitation in Denver and can't wait to begin the road to recovery.

waiting room fun

Friends and family have taken over the waiting room at St Pats in Missoula, every night we pack up all our stuff only  to move in again the next morning.  Jess sure is loved!

Friday and Saturday Update

Jess had his 1st adventure out of his room! He was feeling better and was able to come out to the waiting room on Friday and say hello to everyone. Nissa, Nathan, Summer Miller and Kaile Smith wrote and sang an amazing song for Jess and it brought tears to our eyes and touched our hearts. He is so lucky to have friends like he does. He had a great morning, and watched the Griz game with a few of his friends from Dillon. Go Griz! The support from Dillon, family and friends has been wonderful and Jess looks forward to the visits daily. Briley has been helping mom answer the phone, we just need to teach her how to take a message:) Music is such a large part of Jess and Emily's life so we are making sure the guitar isn't too far away, as Dave helped set the mood is Jess's room. Briley danced and helped entertain us in her Lady Bug costume. Each day Jess is growing stonger and is ready to head to rehabilition in Denver. He is set to leave on the 5th and will spend at least 2 months in Denver. I will post more when we have specific details.