Friday, February 29th, 2008

It feels like we are winding down up here in Palo Alto. David improved so quickly for about two months, and everyone was amazed. Now the improvements are no less important, but they are more subtle. We are now refining his gate, so he has a more natural walk. We are practicing walking up and down curbs, on grass and other uneven surfaces and lots of stairs. David and I got to go to a Golden State Warriors basketball game at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. The $75 seats were donated to the Recreation Therapy program at the VA. The arena is right next to, and shares the parking lots with, the Oakland Coliseum, where the Raiders and Athletics play. We walked a long ways, through crazy crowds, up and down hundreds of stairs, did the side step walk down the row to our seats (I had visions of David tumbling down onto the court), and he did awesome. The only problem that he had was ordering Nachos and a huge Churro, and then wondering how he was going to carry it back to our seats with one good hand and a cane.

We have another week and a half up here, if things go as expected, and then we will drive home where David will spend 30 days on 'convalescent leave'. He will have regular therapy, (we don't know where yet) but can also enjoy some 'R & R' with family and friends. After the 'leave' he will go into a 'transitional' program where he can receive more advanced therapy.

Patty is flying up tomorrow morning, (the VA is paying), and the three of us will visit the redwoods, and have all kinds of fun. She has to be back early Monday morning to teach her fourth graders, so it will be a fast weekend, but we have missed her a lot and it will be worth it.

David will visit the 'PTRP' program, right next door to his 'ward' next week. It is the Poly trauma Transitional Rehab. Program, and is the next step in his rehabilitation. We are leaning towards the transitional program at "Casa Colina" in Pomona, but this 'visit' will help David compare the two programs.

David still has his wisdom teeth extraction scheduled for Tuesday, March 11th, the day that we were supposed to leave for home. We will stay an extra day, to make sure that he is ready for the long drive home. The Vicadin should help!

The 'winding down' process is quite busy, and we would appreciate your prayers so that we don't forget small details, and that all of the paper work get filed correctly, and on time. We just had to resubmit a 'Power of Attorney' paper to get the last of David's things shipped back from Turkey, as the first ones did not meet the standards of the Turkish government. He still has a surfboard, snowboard, boogeyboard, computer, TV, and who knows what else over there.

Steve