Friday and Saturday, December 21st and 22nd, 2007

On Friday, David got a new brace for his left leg, ankle and foot. It has a little spring action going on to help lift his toes out of the way as he walks. We all talked to David’s new Air Force liaisons, Tech Sergeant Anderson and Staff Sergeant Groetegeer, and set up another meeting for next week. Tech Sergeant Anderson is David’s new boss in the Travis Air Base ‘Patient Squadron’. So there will be no slacking for David during his therapy sessions or I’m sure that Sergeant Anderson will be screaming “Huddleston, drop and give me fifty. On your finger tips!” Actually they both seemed very nice, and told David that his job was just to get better.

He had trouble swallowing his food at lunch as I fed him. They have graduated him from ‘minced’ to ‘diced’ food, and maybe he wasn’t quite ready.

We went to a Friday Night Pizza Party for our “D” wing (the TBI ward) and David got a special order of spaghetti, along with some desserts. These are fun things to break the routine of hospital life.

Saturday morning was a lazy time for David. We had trouble getting him up, and PT rescheduled him for the afternoon. The weekends are much slower around here, and if any of you are thinking of visiting David, the weekends are the best.

For Physical Therapy, Se had David kicking a soccer ball. She knew that David loves soccer, and I like the way she tries to motivate him. For David, this is not as easy as it sounds. He was standing between the parallel bars, while Se was supporting, and balancing him. He had to shift his weight to his weak side, as she kept that knee from buckling, and swing his right leg back and then kick at just the right moment. This might sound easy, but there are a lot of things going through his mind, and then he is trying to put them into action. He did really well. The kicks were real weak, but it was a great start! Se then had David practice rolling the ball under his right foot, forward and then backwards. This was kind of a real basic ‘dribbling’ move in soccer. For David it was all about shifting his weight, and coordinating his leg and foot. For a TBI patient this is physically and mentally tiring. Se asked what David wanted to do next and he said, “Go to my room”. He was thinking about getting pushed in a wheel chair, but she was thinking about walking all the way back in his ‘cool’ walker. So the tough coach got her way, and they walked towards David’s room. This was the first time that David tried his new brace on his left leg, the one that is spring loaded, and helps lift his toes out of the way. Once they got going, and built up a rhythm, they were really moving. Of course there are still two therapists helping David walk plus the 'cool' walker, and by the time they got half way they were tired. They asked David if he wanted to take his wheelchair the rest of the way, and he said “No”. So they sped on and reached his room in record time. Then he slept for hours.

Tonight our friends Stacy Syrocki, and Gail Grimsley arrived after a long drive up, after hitting lots of traffic on a Saturday afternoon from Riverside through the Grapevine. But the troopers that they are they only made one stop, for dinner at the Denny’s in Grapevine, and got here in time to see David for a short while before he was sleepy again. We got to hang out a bit longer, and we will see them tomorrow morning for church.

We again thank you all for the prayers that we believe make all the difference in the world.

Steve