Andrew Hippert Updates

THANK YOU

2010-09-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

Here is my long overdue THANK YOU to all of you who helped plan, donated, and/or attended my Second Annual Golf Benefit. It was all of you that made it happen! It turned out to be perfect weather and a great crowd.

It was great being able to compare my abilities at last years golf outing to where I am now. I was able to step into the golf cart, didn't have to be tied into my seat and had much more energy to get through the day! Again, along with my hard work it has been the support I have gotten from friends and family that has gotten me this far. I am hoping the money donated from this past event will help me make just as many gains in my next year of therapy.

I am very excited to move to San Diego next week and get back into a regimented, intense therapy program. Along with attending a program at Project Walk, I have also set up a weight assisted treadmill that will be stationed in the garage at my apartment. I hope to find volunteers to help pull my legs and want to use this piece of equipment five days a week. I want my main focus to be on therapy for at least one more year.

I am so thankful to those of you who showed up at the event as it was great seeing so many people before I make my big cross-country move. So, thank you so much to everyone that helped and attended the golf outing. Its success will contribute greatly to my continual rehabilitation.

Andrew's Radio Interview / Second Annual Golf Outing

2010-08-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Here is the link for the video from Andrew's interview on WHBY on August 17th, 2010.
http://www.box.net/shared/kkejkmotgx

This is also a reminder of the Second Annual Andrew Hippert Golf Benefit taking place on Monday August 30th. We encourage everyone to come to the High Cliff golf course in Sherwood, WI to golf. 10am shotgun start. People will be in groups of four playing best ball. It does not matter if you are a golfer - come join the fun anyway! It is $65 to golf and a meal is included. After the golfing fun is done there will be a silent auction as well as other activities such as a 50/50 raffle, jail and bail, band, etc.

If you can't make it to the benefit but have items you would like to donate for the auction or are able to contact local businesses that would be willing to help as well please contact either Andrew's sister Laura or Sarah.

Laura: 920-740-3287, laurahippert@yahoo.com
Sarah: 920-428-7341, iamshe1030@sbcglobal.net

The money being raised is crucial for Andrew to continue on to his next step in this long journey of recovery. He will be moving back to San Diego and will be participating in a therapy program through Project Walk. Project Walk is not a hospital setting, therefore insurance will not cover any portion. Project Walk is one of the best spinal rehab facilities around and is right near his home in San Diego. Andrew is currently still walking with forearm crutches and wants to be pushed to the next step - canes, then walking without any assistance. Walking is great but it is still frustrating and difficult when you can't carry anything because you are relying on your arms for help. Let's help him reach his goals!

We hope to see a great turnout just like last year! We can't wait to see everyone!!

Thanks!

Working Hard in Atlanta, GA

2010-06-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! Boy, it's been a long time. Time just seems to fly by when you are busting your butt to walk again. As many of you know, Kalli and I have been living in GA with some friends while attending a therapy study called NRN (Neurological Recovery Network). The program is going very well and they never cease to amaze me how many ways they can figure out to make you sweat. The program here has me up on a weight assisted treadmill five days a week along with guided over ground walking with new and more difficult devices than the loft strand crutches I am currently using.

Just recently we have switched up our therapist to a great guy named Brian. It has been a good experience for after 60 days we just needed a change of pace. It is amazing how every therapist has a new twist to throw into the therapy and our daily work out routine. This change gave me another positive surge of energy and renewed Kalli's and my excitement and determination to stay with the program for a longer period of time.

Even though it is harder than heck, I have been walking with loft strand crutches for two and a half months now for the most part everywhere I go. I guess the only way I could explain how it feels is like having a 500 pound gorilla on your back lugging him around everywhere you go. Luckily, this gorilla seems to be on some sort of diet plan and he keeps getting a little thinner and trimmer each month. The latest and most difficult walking device that we have tried in therapy has been a pair of downhill ski poles with little rubber stoppers on the bottom. They are more difficult because I am not able to put nearly as much weight through them as I can with my crutches. Attached is a video of me using them for the second time just this week.

An interesting thing that we are looking into this coming week is the possibilities or options that may be out there for my hands surgically. The Shepherd Center has a great specialist that works with spinal patients on achieving more functionality of their mitts through surgery. We don't know any information and have a consultation planned in the upcoming month to learn more to see if I am even a candidate. This has been something that I have been curious about and wanted to pursue. Even though my hands are continuing to get stronger, it is still very difficult for me to get complete extension and it seems as if this may be something that I could get help with surgically. Not only am I looking for something to help functionally, I also am hoping to find some relief of the pain I am often experiencing in my hands as a result of them being so tight.

Over the course of the last year an important part of our progress has been a wonderful ability to prepare for the next step. NRN has been a wonderful stepping stone where we have seen great progress but there will come a time when we will be ready to move away from this endeavor as well. I have applied to a program in California called Project Walk. This is a great spinal cord facility that is cutting edge and incredibly intensive. The program has been around for quite some time and consists of mainly personal trainers opposed to most facilities being more of a hospital setting with physical therapists and occupational therapists. The down side is that Project Walk does not have any studies to participate in, nor can you use any insurance to cover your sessions. At this point I don't have any insurance coverage for physical therapy left anyway since at the rate I was doing it I used up my sessions by the beginning of February. Since it is not billable through insurance, all sessions are charged by the hour and you can only imagine how expensive a specialty clinic such as this will run. We are incredibly excited for Project Walk and ready for the next step of this journey. One of the best things about Project Walk is that it is located only twenty-five minutes from our old apartment in San Diego. So, Kalli and I are thrilled to be quite close to picking life back up where it was so abruptly taken just over a year ago. Wow, it has been an entire year.

The next few months will be busy because not only will we be continuing therapy we also will be trying to plan our move back. Moving back will entail getting our stuff moved from GA to WI and then from WI to CA. We also need to start the apartment hunt, I need to go car shopping and Kalli needs to find a job. As overwhelming as all of this feels, the excitement to get back to life in CA gives us motivation to figure it all out. If anyone has any connections near San Diego to help Kalli find a teaching or nanny position please let us know!

In order to make my next step in this journey possible, my family and friends have decided to throw a Second Annual Golf Outing to help finance Project Walk. The only information I know of so far is it will be held at High Cliff on August 30th with a shotgun start at 10am. There will be more details soon. If you would like to sign up now please contact Mark Lee at mrk3525@gmail.com or call him at 920-851-3037. I really hope people will be able to make themselves available that day so I can strut my stuff with my new walk hopefully even more improved by then! Last years was so fun and much appreciated because it allowed Kalli and I to focus on therapy over the last year as our full-time jobs. I am truly excited to walk over to a golf cart, sit down, and ride away whereas last year around that time it took two people to lift me into the cart where I was then strapped in with belts in order to help me stay sitting up straight. Wow, how far I have come.

Can't wait to see all of you!

Forearm Crutches

2010-03-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

2010-02-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

2010-02-19T13:46:00.000-08:00

January 11th, 2010

2010-01-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hello once again. It has been a busy busy month since I last posted. With all of the holiday activities, Christmas, New Years it has been a jam packed month of family, friends, doctors and too many Christmas cookies. Kalli and I enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with both her family and mine which was great and I feel like I got everything I asked for. Health, happiness and a dehydrator for making beef jerky. A lot of things are going on right now and there is quite a bit to come in the next few months. But first, I would like to thank a few people.

First off, there has been an incredibly wonderful group of individuals that have been following my every move throughout this journey over the last seven months. Wow, seven months! They call themselves The Prayer Group. With kind words through what feels like hundreds of thoughtful cards they have continually been there showing their faith, support and love. And now, they have gone beyond and continued the support with a gift that will provide several new therapy pieces of equipment that will continue to help me reach my goals.

It is one thing to walk up to someone in front of a whole group of people and give a large gift while at the same time receiving recognition from each and every person who knows how much it costs and that you gave it to them. For this group to stay anonymous to me means even more knowing that they are doing it truly just from their heart. So, thank you very much for the love and support you have given Kalli and I through this very difficult time in our life.

I also want to thank the many others that have also physically, financially, and emotionally supported me. There is no way to go through and name each and every one of you or this blog would be ten pages long. So, thank you as well for everything.

So, in between family gatherings, Christmas parties, and holiday fun there have been a few other things going on that I would like to share. One of those is that I have decided to reach out to a group called DVR which stands for Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. DVR basically tries to help individuals who have become disabled get back into the work force. One of the services that they can provide is to help outfit a reliable vehicle for you to get to work on your own. So, I set up a meeting with one of their counselors and filled out all the necessary paperwork to get into the system in order to receive some services. After meeting with my counselor she informed me that with my situation I would be eligible for assistance on outfitting a van with the necessary equipment in order for me to drive it on my own. Their view is that everyone has to purchase a vehicle in order to drive but not everybody has to invest twenty thousand dollars on equipment in order to have the freedom to drive. So, that is where they will step in and help out. So, right now I am waiting on their decision of when services will be rendered. This is a great opportunity for me to get a reliable vehicle with new equipment professionally installed. So, I will be needing to invest in either a brand new van or a used fully equipped van in which the vehicle cost would then be subtracted from the total purchase. So I am hoping I can find a good used minivan that DVR will approve and co-fund.

Over the last five and a half months I have had probably one of the worst customer service experiences of my life which is so unfortunate because it just makes me wonder how many people have had to go through this same exact thing considering that National Seating and Mobility, my wheelchair distributor, is the largest wheelchair distributor in the country. The last week of the year, Monday morning I gave a call to Chris, NSM's corporate operations manager, who was now heading up the delivery of my chair, asking her "so this is it, this is the last week, are you guys going to be able to deliver in 2009?" Chris continued to assure me that she was doing everything under her power to make it happen. The chair was to be next day air freighted from Quickie manufacture to Chicago on Wednesday and would be there at 2:00. So, Wednesday afternoon I called Eric, the technician that would be putting the chair together, to see if it had arrived. Once again, something had gone wrong and the chair didn't make it on the plane. Mind you, Thursday is New Years Eve, the very next day. Eric responded with a new date and time of Thursday at 10:00am. Instead of the chair being shipped to my local rep and being delivered to my home like it should be, Kalli and I decided we had to drive to Chicago for there was no way that they were going to make it happen if we didn't. So we arrived at NSM around 1:00 and there Eric was putting together my chair. After three hours of patient measuring and screw turning in order to make the chair fit me just right it was finally ready for me to fill out the paperwork and sign off on my new chair.

So, at 4:00pm New Years Eve, I signed and dated 12/31/2009 on my delivery, the very last day of the year, one hour before close. Of course, even though I signed, there were still four things that were wrong, or screwed up about this chair. Even with a member of their corporate team being intimately involved in this delivery they could not get it right. Amazing. With that said, I love my new chair and the power assist wheels have given me an incredible new found freedom. The way I can easily move on carpet and any surface outdoors is truly a blessing. I used to push on tough surfaces or long distances and end up with incredible pain through my shoulders but now with these new wheels most of that pain is eliminated.

Insurance looks at any injury as plain and simply as though you broke your arm whether you broke your neck, or your arm, you receive the same benefits. At the rate in which I am doing therapy, which is only three times a week, I will eat up all of my physical and occupational therapy sessions within the first two and a half months of the year. First off, three days a week isn't even enough in my mind. Second, what do I do with the next nine and a half months? A spinal injury needs so much more attention and time to heal than virtually any other injury. As a result, it is imperative that I seek more. After searching for what to do and where to go for outpatient assistance is $500/day out of pocket and an inpatient setting is closer to $2,000/day we have decided to join a study in Atlanta, Georgia.

In Atlanta there is hospital called the Shepherd Center which is rated one of the top ten hospitals in the country and is probably the largest spinal program in the country. Shepherd is participating in a program called NRN (Neurological Recovery Network) which is an intensive walking program affiliated with the Christopher Reeves Foundation. The study is trying to change the industry by developing a large enough data set that shows distinctly that if an individual with a spinal injury such as mine is given a more intensive amount of therapy they will have an incredibly higher rate of success in rehabilitation. There was a fairly strict criteria for entering the program and my situation, function, and injury level fit exactly what they are looking for. The program works solely on ambulation for an hour and a half five days a week in a specific gym dedicated for that reason. Not only will I be able to participate in the programs activities being part of Shepherd will give me access to their activity center which is basically a YMCA for wheelchairs. Between the study, full access to the NRN program's gym, and Shepherd's activity center Kalli and I will be able to fill each and every day with therapy. Luckily, I know someone in every major city throughout the country, haha. We will be staying with one of my best friends since I was a kid, Bob Schmelzer and his wife, Bethany who have recently moved to Atlanta. There house is only twenty minutes away from the Shepherd center which is absolutely amazing and we couldn't have asked for a better situation. Oh yeah, so I forgot to mention, the way the program works, is that you have to come with a handful of insurance covered sessions of physical therapy and as soon as they run out the Christopher Reeves Foundation will then sponsor me for the program. The program wants you to dedicate at least one month initially, and then if you progress in any of the four specific categories that they are evaluating they will ask you to continue another month. Many people in the program will go on for three, four, five months. This is an amazing opportunity for me to get the best professional guidance all while being sponsored. As of now, our plan is to pack lightly and move around the 21st of February for our new home with Bob and Bethany who have so wonderfully opened up their life with open arms and are already hoping that we love Georgia and never leave.

Even though we are moving to Georgia in a search for an intense schedule of guided therapy it is by no means because we aren't working hard here. Here is our new years schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Kalli and I wake up at 6 or so and go to the Y to walk for an hour in an open gym time that we have found. It works perfectly to use the basketball court for it is such a nice big open space and there is usually no one there early in the morning. After walking, Kalli helps me get into the pool and she heads to a Yoga class held right there in the Y. I swim, do squats, and many other exercises in the water while she is forming long, lean muscles doing yoga. We then head home, have lunch, and work out in the Platinum Gym here at home until 5 or 6. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have therapy at Theda Clark. We have decided to cut back from three times to twice a week to manage how many credits of therapy we enter the NRN program at Shepherd with. After therapy is basically the same routine, back home for lunch then to the Platinum Gym. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I also do a longer swim with my brother every Tuesday night as well. So that is four days a week of swimming, I might just turn into a big prune.

As far as updates things are going really well. The new record for walking distance is over 700 feet and hard to even keep track of anymore. I believe the last time I blogged it was right around 470. Everything seems to be getting stronger especially my weaker right leg. In therapy I have even gone as far as unlocking my right leg brace at the knee while walking with the walker. After I came back from Mexico I got on the mat at Theda Clark to do some leg strengthening. Usually when I get on my side and do a set of exercises I need a leg skate with wheels to eliminate friction in order to perform the exercise. My therapist, Chris, immediately was shocked and excited saying "You don't need this skate on your weak leg at all anymore." It is moments like that that truly put a smile on your face, knowing that you are getting better. My parents bought me a set of 15 lb dumb bells for Christmas and it is truly amazing that I am using them to do curls with ease. I will never forget looking back only 4 months ago when I couldn't even hold a two pound dumb bell and I needed wrist weights in order to do curls. Between working at Theda Clark and a ton of therapy with my favorite therapist, Kalli Laflin, we will make sure to work as hard as we can so as to be ready for this up and coming new part of our journey in Atlanta.

All in all, things seem to be going well. Now, goodnight and farewell.

December 16th, 2009

2009-12-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Prayer Group,

I just got back from Mexico celebrating the blessed sacrament of marriage with one of Kalli's best friends. We had an absolutely wonderful time. It gave us the break that was long needed. Now, sorry to keep you waiting, my Christmas wishlist:

Therapy bolsters, which are vinyl cylinders about two feet long and about 8 to 10 inches in diameter. They are used mainly for putting underneath my knee while laying on the mat to do knee extension to strengthen my quads.

Half Moon Bolster, which is the same thing but cut in half so it is no longer a cylinder but a half circle.

Examples of both bolsters can be found at this website:
http://www.zearth.com/Earthlite-EARTHLITE-BOLSTER-Massage-Table-Bolster-Pillow-Massage-Therapy-Bolster-Pillows-by-Earthlite-P248.aspx?utm_source=ZFF245&utm_medium=ZBuy&utm_campaign=ZE245

Natural Fit Balancing Disk, examples can be found at this website: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=balance+disk&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=4307659997&ref=pd_sl_dr4uajjpp_b

Dumbbells 12lbs and 15lbs, preferably coated in rubber

Large free standing mirror for checking position and posture while standing, walking, or doing any number of exercises

AAA membership

YMCA renewal membership (received a six month membership that will be up in December, and I need a new membership so I can continue swimming once or twice a week for therapy with my brother. It is also a great place to practice walking longer distances, especially with the winter and all of this snow.)

Spinergy wheels for my new wheelchair, if it ever comes. Insurance doesn't want to cover spinergy wheels.

Digital Camera with video record - to take pictures of my therapy and video for me to watch to see my posture and positioning. Also, for posting updates.

WiiFit, a Nintendo Wii fitness game.

Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory

2009 xstar Mastercraft Wakeboard boat for when I am back up on my feet

I don't know what you guys have in mind but thank you for even the thought of filling Kalli and my Christmas with a little more cheer.

And for all of my readers, I had a week long break from therapy while vacationing in Mexico. I will give an update sometime soon after Christmas on my progress and what's going on in my life.

Happy Holidays!

November 20th

2009-11-20T12:33:00.001-08:00

I'mmmmm baaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sorry I haven't spoken in a while but believe me it was not for any reason but being very busy. So, for some of you worry warts out there sit back and just read all of the following which will fill you in on the entire last month that has been nothing but positive recovery.

So lets start from the beginning, last time we talked was right before I left from RIC. So, the day before I left in the middle of the night I came down with a fever and wasn't feeling that well. I broke the fever but ended up feeling a bit crummy which was no fun for my last day at RIC. So this is how it went down: I was supposed to leave on a Saturday but since I woke up feeling crummy on Friday Dr. Kim said "with the symptoms that you have, if you were an outpatient of mine I would tell you to go home, drink lots of fluids, and get some sleep. But, since you are here in inpatient we are going to need to do blood work, move you to your own room and make a bigger deal out of the little bug that you have than we probably really should. So, why don't we just discharge you now, today, since you are done with all of your therapy for the day and just basically waiting to be discharged Saturday morning." Kalli and I thought about it and it really made the most sense. So we went around and said our goodbyes to all of the wonderful therapists, nurses, and new inpatient friends. We packed up our things and headed on our way home.

Since I had been hitting it hard for a solid four and a half months I decided to quickly kill the bug and give my body a little break by taking at least a week or so rest from all therapy and exercise. Kalli and I headed to the cabin for a few days, relaxed and enjoyed home cooked meals and a warm fire with my parents. Our next goal was to really get my home gym and therapy program put together.

After a lot of hard work and dedication from many of my friends and family Andrew's Platinum Gym is now ready and open for business. What I will do to allow you a true visual of the gym is basically give you a written virtual tour which will walk you around the gym as if you had a membership. Since winter is coming my remote control garage door entry, though convenient is no longer suitable due to the incredible heat loss of opening up the overhead door. So, the Platinum Gym now has two wheelchair entrances - one from the street, and the other straight from the kitchen where I designed a quick little ramp that my dad built and installed. When I go down the ramp it is truly a trip down memory lane. When the screen door is latched I have to slowly ease down the ramp holding my chair on the downhill slope up against the door pulling my hand off the tire in order to unlatch the door. This makes me feel as if I were a pinewood derby car from my days in cub scouts being released down the ramp hoping for the win. Now, mind you I did take first place one year and third another.

When you enter the gym, immediately on your right is the handmade wood and tile bar that I had all through college so that visitors can sit and socialize, or possibly celebrate a good week of therapy with a cold beer. Next to the bar is a pedal bike with hand assist that I got from the Lion's Club and has been a great cardio tool. Immediately after the bike, is a hand crafted work out mat made by my brother, my friend Houli and myself. The mat is slightly larger than a queen size bed, made from marine vinyl, two inch foam, and a frame that is so sturdy Shamu could lie beside me in a deep stretch. The mat really turned out awesome. It even has the ability to flip up to the wall like a murphy bed for it is hinged at the wall. Towering above the mat is a really great trapeze that was also hand crafted and painted by my family. Next to the trapeze and mat was a great place for the "toddshaw" which was a machine inspired by a piece of equipment at RIC and then created by Todd Laflin, Kalli's dad. Spanning ten feet long and about four feet wide is a wonderful tool designed by me, built by my dad, and painted, stained and varnished by Kalli and my sister Sarah, a set of parallel bars. This is basically a walking path with railings on both sides for me to go back and forth in so I can safely walk at home. The center of the gym is kept quite open so that we can set up a card table for hand therapy or use small platforms to simulate curbs for wheelchair skills. When you walk across this space you reach the other side wall of the gym where a massive double stack crossover cable weight system is located. This highly adjustable piece of equipment allows me to work out doing countless different exercises. This piece was donated by my cousin and his good friend who own an anytime fitness in Plymouth, Wisconsin. The crossover is a good ten feet long which leave a large space in the middle where a black leather chair mounted on casters usually sits for people to relax in. Mark mounted caster wheels on it so that it was easily moved throughout the gym. Just to the left of the crossover is a backdoor to the gym coming from the outside. Just in front of this back door is another incredible machine donated by the Lion's Club, a standing frame. It is a hydraulic tubular steel structure that uses a harness to pick me up and allow me to stand for a good half hour to an hour most days. This back door to the gym has a window with a lake view making my time in the standing frame much more enjoyable. Hopefully after this counterclockwise tour of Andrew's Platinum Gym you get a good visual of what is going on each day and understand why we have been so busy.

After returning home, putting together an intensive home program was one of our main goals to accomplish. Kalli and I gathered all of the information that we have learned over the last several months and developed it into an entire binder worth of exercises with pictures and definitions of each. Before we left, we also asked each of my therapists to give their top 10 exercises they feel I should be doing once I was home. A good five therapists put this together for us which gave us another fifty exercises to add into this weekly plan. So once it was all said and done I had a great document to work out with keeping me focused and supplied with more activities than I can even accomplish in a week. Never have I had a specific document that tracks what I have been doing each day. So, after a whole week of doing this program last week, I went back and counted up all of the activities that I had done throughout the week that were marked down on the sheet. This calculation came to a grand total of 62 hours of therapy from Monday-Friday. This quantitative presentation of my own therapy really gave me a boost of confidence that I am trying my hardest and doing what I need to be doing to get where I want to go. It is so hard to ever feel like you are doing enough with as slow of a recovery as a spinal cord injury is. If I were being paid for therapy my god I would have twenty two hours of overtime on the books and be making a killing.

Like every good gym there needs to be members. So, as of about two weeks ago Andrew's Platinum Gym received its first member. I met a young man, about my age, at therapy here in the valley that was also a spinal injury and after talking with him for a short while I offered for him to come do therapy with me in my gym. He was getting two forty-five minute sessions at Theda Clark each week and that was really it. After I had talked and met with him we exchanged numbers so as soon as I got back in the car after therapy, I called and left him a message explaining to him how welcome he would be if he wanted to come and fight this battle together, any time he wanted. Sure enough, he is coming twice a week and I really feel like his experience with us is going to change his eventual outcome. Kalli and I have been able to share many therapeutic exercises with him and his family that we learned from RIC that they had never heard of. For instance, he had never done e-stim which is on our list to get him going with.

Once we came home and finished our week of rest I started my outpatient therapy sessions for both OT and PT at Theda Clark. We had this lined up before we even left for RIC. When we first signed up for therapy there we were given a schedule that basically had us going there every day for just one forty-five minute session which at this point I felt I would be wasting more time traveling than it would be worth for a quick forty-five minute session each day. So I got a hole of the outpatient therapy manager and expressed my concern which he completely understood and was able to change around my schedule and double up each day making it so that I go three days a week for two hours each which works much better. For OT I have chosen to mainly focus on a electronic therapy system that they use called bioness. Bioness is basically a large arm and hand brace that you calibrate locations for electro pads which you then save those locations so you have consistent placement for each time. Having it so controlled saves time setting it up each time. You know what you need, hook it up, allowing you to get stimulation the entire forty-five minute session. With PT I have been working with several different instructors focusing on building leg strength and walking practice.

About half of the sessions that I do for PT mainly consist of putting on my custom made orthopedic leg braces and then roaming the halls with my walker. My latest records from this week are an initial walking distance without stopping of 110 feet and a grand total of 360 feet with only five stops all together. Other very exciting updates are that all of my muscles are moving in some way or another and now it is truly a game of strengthening and achieving full functional motion. One way I am strengthening my legs and core is by continuing to swim with Tim weekly at the downtown Appleton YMCA. I am actually going to start kicking to twice a week for the Theda Clark group brings people swimming every Tuesday at the Neenah Y so next week I will try to swim with Tim on a different day so that I can go twice each week. The strength and safety that the water provides is truly an amazing tool that I have to continue to take advantage of. One of my favorite things to do is squats in the water. I have gotten to the point where I can stand and hold it in water to about my belly button. When we where at RIC we learned an entire packet of water exercises which Tim and I bring into the water with us to follow. This really makes my legs burn like crazy by the time we are through each of the exercises.

In between trips for therapy at Theda Clark and constant therapy at home in Andrew's Platinum Gym, (which by the way, besides a witty play off Gold's Gym, Platinum Gym comes from the fact that most of the hand crafted therapy equipment is painted with a special platinum colored paint) I am still looking for a wheelchair accessible van with the following criteria if anyone wants to help: hand controls for driving, either a low profile mini van with simple flip down ramp or a full size van with a hydraulic lift, power doors so that I can enter and exit on my own, in a price range of 5 to 10 thousand, closer to five. An old beauty is just fine.

Lastly, yes I am still rolling on a rental chair and really have not gotten any word as to when I may expect my own.

The saga continues day in and day out dealing with odd nerve pain, difficult moments, and great accomplishments but Kalli and I continue to try and look at the entire situation as best we can. Many times when I meet new people in my situation or simply realize what I have accomplished I see how lucky and blessed I have been as this situation continues to unfold.

October 21st

2009-10-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! Had another great day yesterday and today. Yesterday one of my biggest accomplishments was pushing the overall distance, without a break, of 70 feet, fifteen feet further than my past record of 55. My Tuesday schedule was packed full of walking, which was really great and the whole reason why I stayed. Kalli and I ended it by going out to eat together at a neat little sit down place, right next to the John Hancock building.

Today started out right away at 9 with the lokomat. It was finally fixed! It took them a couple days but they did it, not only did they work the bugs out of it, they actually gave it a whole new updated version of its software. It seemed to work quite well. I had a great walk on it for about an hour. After, I headed back downstairs for I had another session right away at ten working with Emily and Adrian on the mats doing both exercises with and without the slings strengthening my legs. Every exercise we did pushed me right to the end of my muscle strength, basically to the point where the leg just stopped moving and needed full assistance to carry out the action in each specific area.

Right after working with Adrian, who is the therapist assistant who helps everyone out in the whole gym, constantly coordinating exercises and handing out and cleaning up equipment, I had a session with Piper and her student therapist Tina. Tina ran to get my other leg brace, for she wanted to practice doing some walking and standing in the parallel bars. While I was standing basically until I couldn't and using the full length of the parallel bars to walk forwards and backwards, Kalli was gathering all of my things up from my room on 6 and bringing them upstairs to move in to a room on 7. We had just gotten the good news that after two weeks, they got things figured out and moved me to the right floor. Now, it seems ridiculous that it took them that long, but the reason why is because right now there are so many people on this floor that have such a high bacteria count that they label them DRO (Drug Resistant Organism) that they require them to be in their own room or paired up with someone that has the same thing going on. So, this makes it very difficult for admitting to juggle the patients. So, now my good buddy Connor and I are roommates.

After lunch, we had an appointment with Denise, from National Seating and Mobility, to re order a new wheel chair. After lots of research, demoing of other chairs, and knowing more so what we want, Kalli and I had put together a very specific set of guidelines for ordering the new chair, which made our meeting go very smoothly. We basically sat with Denise and went item by item over the order form to get it right.

After the chair was all said and done, we quickly scooted to the twelfth floor thinking we would just watch Connor swim for I was already halfway into the half hour that was scheduled due to my wheelchair ordering. The therapists felt confident enough in my swimming abilities that they had no problem with me running around doing my own thing while they worked with Connor. It was really cool because it wasn't even my fault that I was late for Denise pushed back our appointment because she was running late. So I swam around, working on many different new exercises and workout routines that I had learned from Sara the week before. An hour later, Kate, the therapist had me jump out of the pool, right before Connor so that the chair lift would be ready for when he got out.

Right after swimming we all got changed, ready to go, for we wanted to go visit Maurice, at Northwestern Hospital where he had been admitted the night before. Maurice was my roommate when I was here at RIC the first time and had an unfortunate accident during his wheelchair basketball practice the night before. His foot got banged up pretty good during a drill at practice which was enough to send him back in the hospital. Due to the nature of our injuries, any kind of wound to the lower half of our body truly needs to be properly taken care of immediately or it can result in deathly infection or God knows what because our circulation is so weak due to the limited movement that is going on in the lower limbs which makes it very difficult to heal. Our visit with Reece was really fun and it was good to catch up with him again. It was also very beneficial for Connor to meet Reece for the pure fact that the guy can bench 315 pounds in a wheelchair is unbelievable. He is a very athletic and active guy which shows you that even living in a wheelchair can be fun and exciting.

After our visit with Reece, Connor, his mom, Kalli and I headed to a nice Thai restaurant nearby and had a delicious authentic meal that sent us all home a bit more full than any of us wanted to be. We all headed back to the RIC to take care of our nightly routines and get some sleep. It was a full, long day but it was really nice to get my wheelchair ordered and take a dip in the pool. Till next time, peace out!

October 19th

2009-10-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

An interesting Monday here at the RIC. It almost seemed as if both therapists and patients were running low on energy and morale. But, of course, this didn't affect me for I had a therapy and exercise packed day from start to finish. In fact, my first therapy was OT and began at 7:30 in the morning. I tried my hardest to get my exercise routine done and get out of bed before they came but it just wasn't possible. This seemed to work just fine for the therapists for part of OT is getting dressed, brushing your teeth, putting on deodorant, so they simply observed while I rushed as fast as I could so we could get upstairs. My OT was Rebecca, a six month along pregnant therapist, looking like she was ready to pop. We went upstairs and decided to start it off with e-stim, working my hands specifically. We did this until 8:30 where I then headed to the canary room where Kalli had my breakfast tray ready.

After breakfast I had a few minutes so I decided to call and email a few people about my chair order, and several other random tasks involving this whole situation. These daily emails and calls working on all different aspects of the injury almost seem like they may never stop, but I know at some point it has got to be all figured out.

My next therapy was PT group where Kalli and I set up a sling for my leg and went through specifically strengthening one muscle at a time to all of my leg muscles. Doing three sets of ten on each muscle easily consumed the entire hour. I was then scheduled to be on the lokomat with Carey.

Unfortunately, the lokomat was still down, needing repair, so we decided it would be good to do some overground walking. Carey, for over a month now, has had an assistant intern helping her with all of her patients here at RIC. Emily, Carey's intern, had to call in sick today for she was not feeling well at all which left Carey with a very full schedule for she had doubled up most of her patients assuming she would have help. So, since Carey had me scheduled alone on the lokomat she took the opportunity to actually go downstairs with me and walk on the sixth floor. It worked well because not only were my leg braces down in my room but it also gave Carey a chance to get away from all of the craziness and clutter going on up on the seventh floor. The sixth floor is almost always really chill with a lot less going on. Carey proclaimed that this was her best hour of the day and it was like taking a break for her - being able to get off of the floor. It was nice for me too because I had Carey's undivided attention, for people are normally budding in left and right asking questions that we all have. So, we went ahead and walked well over two hundred feet and then went into the sixth floor gym parallel bars to practice many other muscle building leg exercises done while standing.

Like a flash, the hour was over and it was time for us to grab our pills downstairs, get some lunch and head upstairs to eat before we started the afternoon. 11:00 was actually my last class of the day, so I immediately jumped back in the gym to take advantage of a clear afternoon schedule. First, I jumped on the ricshaw, then I lifted cable weights using each and ever station like I always do. After that, Diane, my full time OT last time I was here, had an open hour from two until three so we began working on a second brace for my left hand. Adjustment after adjustment the entire hour flew by as Diane heated and cooled my brace to my every need while I sat on the power bike pedaling away.

After an hour and five minutes on the pedal bike, we decided to jump on the standing frame to get a little more weighted exercise in for the day. While on the standing frame Kalli and I played King's Corners, which she dominated. I stayed on it a little over an hour.

After the standing frame it was a little after five o'clock so we headed down and got food then went into the 7th floor canary room to eat our dinner. While we were eating there was a group of parents and two patients forming a circle around the other table. They were all talking about what is the best way to get return and figure out how to walk again. Sitting outside of the circle, listening to them, I just wanted to scream "there isn't really much you all can do, it comes down to each individual patient has to take this on, full steam ahead, and work their brains out." So, slowly after most of them had made their comments I rolled over there and entered into this conversation. After not too long I found myself explaining to them how and why I felt like I was getting the return that I am. Everyone seemed very interested and it turned into a conversation between mainly me and Robert, one of the fairly high level power chair patients. I always see Robert sleeping and looking like he is in a daze, just moping around. I basically ended up calling him out on it, but in a way that was telling him "hey we only have so much time, and it is really hard to get through what we are doing here but you can't just sit around. You have to take every minute that you can and use it productively, for it is like an hourglass that has been turned upside down on us and we are fighting for our own functionality as the sand continues to pour down into the bottom." Robert rolled away for he had to go and get his six o'clock pills and after he was gone his father looked at me and thanked me saying "That's what he needs. He is in shock right now. But, we can't say those things to him, for all he says to us is you don't know what I am going through." I really do think that our discussion lit a fire, or at least maybe a small candle in Robert's mind and attitude, for the glazed over look in his eyes truly did show some hope. Shortly after he had left for his meds, he came right back to the conversation with more questions about what I was doing to fight this battle.

After all of these good conversations we headed back downstairs for I had some pills that I needed to take as well and we wanted to get my nightly routine and blogging session out of the way so that Kalli could get home at a decent hour tonight. Alright everyone, I am excited to jump in the shower and get ready for bed so that's all I have for today. Another great day filled with muscle building, strength training, influential conversation, and good company for I can't say enough how lucky I am to have sweet little Kalli here by my side helping me along day by day. Goodnight.

October 17th

2009-10-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone once again life at RIC has filled itself with more activities than there is time in a day. It has been a while since I have blogged, but here we go, lets get you all updated for a lot has happened in the last week. The last update that I gave was last Friday so lets start out with the weekend. Saturday I got up, worked out in the gym, exercising and muscle building until about 1:00 when the gym closes for the therapists just come in and work a half day. After that Kalli and I went to Navy Pier to walk along the harbor with a good beer while enjoying the hustle and bustle created by the mix of people scurrying about. We decided to get some food at a cool restaurant called Bubba Gumps which was mimicking the movie Forest Gump. The restaurant has great shrimp and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Sunday my parents came down to visit for it was going to be the last weekend that I was here since my last day of therapy was going to be Friday the 16th. They came down in time for us to head to lunch and then drive to Shedd Aquarium. The aquarium was very wheelchair accessible using elevators to explore each floor. After some neat animal shows, beautiful fish aquariums, and much much more we headed back to the RIC to grab my evening medication and meet up with one of my good friends Mike Hanson, his girlfriend, and another friend Dennis. The seven of us decided on a restaurant called Ed Debevics for dinner. Ed Debevics is a very neat sixty's style diner with an unusual twist where waiters are humorously rude and quick tempered. They purposely short you menus and silverware so that you have to ask for more which they then make a huge deal about. Of course, my dad loved this routine and took it to the next level, giving it back to them two-fold. At one point my dad even threw an empty ketchup bottle clear across the table and onto the floor near one of the waiters demanding a new bottle. It was really fun and the food was greasy and delicious. We headed back to the RIC where my parents took off to get back home for it was already getting kind of late and they had a three and a half to four hour car ride ahead of them. My friends stayed and we played cards for a little over an hour until they parted ways heading back to Milwaukee.

Now onto the week's therapy and exercise routines which many are new and will be great to add to my arsenal of therapy skills in order to battle this injury. Using my custom fitted braces I have continued to work on walking through the halls with assistance of not only a therapist but a walker. Now I don't want everyone to just think that I am nonchalantly walking around, here is a visual of what it entails for me to take these first steps. Suited up in the braces, left leg fitted from below the knee to the toe, right leg braced with the knee locked from the groin to the toe, I wheel into the hall in my chair, getting lined up for a good fifty foot stretch of hall. I wear a heavy cloth strap, called a gait belt, for my therapist to control my body and help lift me. With Kalli behind me, in order to bring the wheelchair along, for when I need a break to sit in and my therapist along side of me we get ready to stand. In order to stand I have the right leg with the knee locked stretched out in front of me while I am sitting on the edge of my cushion and the left leg bent at about ninety degrees ready to push with all of its might to get me in standing position. With a count of one, two three, the therapist gives a solid upward hoist on the gait belt while I use my arms and left leg to push me into a full stance. Once we are stable, I begin stepping first with the left leg and then hiking my hip and swinging the right, meanwhile advancing the walker with each step. After about fifty feet, my forehead is beaded with sweat and my left leg is pushed to the limit at which is almost unable to support any weight at all. This is when I so gracefully collapse back into the chair for a two, three minute breather and water break before I do it all over again. Walking almost every day I have gotten myself up to the longest stint of 55 feet without a break and in one session of walking with five breaks making it 327 feet. I didn't quite reach my goal of 500 feet but that was aimed pretty high for the reason of simply pushing me as far as I can.

Since I have been here I have gotten the chance to use the lokomat five times which is such an amazing machine and I would contribute a percentage of my recent success to its unique form of therapy. I believe I have described it many times but here is a quick recap. Basically, I get suited up in a heavy duty rock climbing harness which hangs me above a treadmill where a robotic machine comes up behind me, strapping in my legs at each joint in order to assist them in a natural walking pattern. As you get better and better the lokomat allows you to increase the amount of weight your legs are holding. First time I rode the lokomat we put a maximum of 36 pounds, but by the last time I rode it I was up to 90 pounds of pressure coming down onto my legs and feet. This is almost half of my body weight which really shows the increase in strength and endurance.

Probably one of the best ways of strengthening my legs is using pulleys and slings in order to harness my legs creating a zero gravity experience in which to strengthen specific muscles using exercises that target them directly. I am so glad I was able to come back for last time all I had was a toe wiggling and I was not involved in any sling groups, or individual training. We will be going home with a much greater knowledge on how to do these properly. Over the two weeks I have already seen leg strength increase while doing these exercises. Kalli is such a huge part of this type of training for she now knows how to assist me in order to target even the weakest muscle movement which is where they all start. I feel that I have been so lucky and blessed that my body has not really rejected or lost large amounts of muscle mass. My physical size of all of my limbs have virtually stayed the same whereas many of the other patients have seen between twenty and fifty pounds worth of muscle loss which is so difficult to build back when you are already dealing with just getting the muscles to fire first.

Again this week, I have been able to find time to not only do all of my therapy but also go around and use all of the equipment in order to get a full weight lifting, muscle building workout program in each and every day. I squeeze it in between my classes and different things going on, which usually keeps me working in the gym right up until five o'clock or so when the therapists have to lock up and leave.

Most of the things I am doing are physical therapy activities focused on strengthening my legs and getting my walking. But, one of the other main focuses that I have is bracing my hands in order to rebuild extensor strength and normal hand movement patterns. So, we have been working with both Piper and Diane to create braces that strap on with velcro in order to block my bad habit movement. The right hand has seen very good improvement allowing me to open my hand much further than before.

Kalli and I have reserved an e-stim machine of our own in order to continue to e-stim my ankles, legs and hands throughout the week in between therapies and different scheduled events. Both Piper and Carrie have taught us different placements so as to isolate the proper muscles so that we can continue to retrain the nerve connection where it has been lost. After using this machine it has become a very high priority on our wishlist for the machines that are specifically for e-stim, tens, and pens, which are all different types of electronic stimulation seem to elicit more results. We have not researched how much they actually cost, but I am sure, like all other medical equipment, they are probably a pretty penny.

Also this week I had the opportunity to go into the RIC therapy pool which seems like a glorified bathtub after having been going to the YMCA's Olympic pool for eight or nine weeks with my brother. Although it is small, and I can't condition with laps, or swim down into twelve to fourteen foot depths, I do have professional guidance teaching many new exercises and techniques which I will be bringing home with me. I have learned pedal biking, kickboard seat balancing, squats, side step walking, stair climbing, tall kneeling, and much much more. It has been incredibly beneficial to learn how to take greater advantage of the safety of water exercising and muscle strengthening. It is definitely one of the best ways to go when you are just starting to walk. Walking overground is definitely an excellent practice but while I am still weak, building strength in a pool is such a wonderful way to maximize muscle growth without any potential hazard of hitting the floor. I talked to my brother and we both decided it would be important to kick it up to swimming at least two or three times a week, especially in the beginning here until I am really strong enough to walk safely.

My PT, Carrie, was involved in a meeting where a group of research engineers had requested any volunteers for a study they are doing in developing a new revolutionary ankle muscle return robot. Carrie immediately thought of me, telling them "I know somebody who would be perfect for your study." So I have met with them three times now and am going to be involved in their study for the rest of my stay and then continuing six weeks after that. Basically, they have developed a simple arm connected to a boot that you strap your foot into that is then hooked up to a computer which monitors and controls your every movement the machine can both assist and resist the slightest or strongest movement. Your ankle movement is then hooked up to and programmed for many video games in which you sit and play while strapped in using your ankle movement. They even asked me if I had any requests for specific games that I enjoyed. They would then go ahead and program them to work with the device. I was very interested in the study for my right ankle has movement but is very slight and any sort of exercises like this would be great for its development. It is such a perfect idea to incorporate using your mind along with your movement so that you are continually correlating what you are doing versus just moving it up and down aimlessly. The machine also goes through a complete session of stretches before and after the games. It isn't absolutely positive yet that I will be taking my own unit home for the six week study, but it seems very likely. From experiencing return in all of my muscles throughout my whole body and understanding what seems to work best I know that a program like this will be incredibly beneficial.

On Wednesday I finally had my appointment with National Seating and Mobility to get my long awaited custom made wheelchair with power assist wheels and all. I excitedly went up to the 15th floor ready to transfer into my new ride. Unfortunately, it only took one look and I realized there were many problems with the chair. So many problems I decided not to accept the chair from the company. First off, the on/off switch for the power assist wheels was installed directly behind the break for my right wheel. This was not only completely unfunctional as well as a safety hazard for when I went to put on my break it turned the power assist wheels on. Second, the arm rests were a completely different design than I had ordered. In fact, they were the type of armrest that I could not even take off myself due to some of the limiting functions of my hands making me feel completely trapped in the chair, for every time I transfer they need to be removed. Third, the degree of angle of the front footrest was 70 degrees when we ordered it to be at least 80 if not 90 in order to fit into the bathroom at home because the 70 degree angle creates an additional three or more inches of overall wheelchair length. Fourth, the back canes, also known as the handles we use to push the wheelchair, were a foot too tall making it difficult to store, transport, push, or turn around and access my bag. Fifth, I specifically ordered break locks that you push down when locking the chair so it is not a battle to get over them during transfers, but of course they were installed the opposite resulting in four inch breaks sticking up alongside each leg when in locked position causing a chance to be pierced when transferring. All in all, this chair should not have passed manufacturing inspection, National Seating and Mobilities technicians inspection, or my reps own personal inspection. It most definitely should not have gotten all the way to me where I then have to be the one to show them the multiple malfunctions and safety hazards of this chair I have waited three months to get. So, now imagine, Mark, Kalli and myself sitting with this rep and a counselor from RIC frustrated and heated up to say the least wanting to explode knowing that my options were either to hope and pray they would somehow be able to fix all of these issues or wait god knows how long for another try. So, Mark, Kalli and I decided to ask them to wait a moment while we stepped into the hall and discussed what was going on before we made any decisions. The three of us sat and talked about all of the issues and came to the conclusion that no one in their right mind would accept this chair knowing the headache it would involve in order to get everything redesigned and fit to meet my needs. So, we reentered the room and I basically explained to Denise, my wheelchair rep, that I was not willing to accept the chair and that I would be rejecting it completely. She too was incredibly frustrated with the situation and totally understood the basis in which I made this decision. So, as a group, we then began trouble shooting the issues we were having with this chair and came to a general consensus on a new Quickie GT rigid frame chair that would fit many of my needs much better. So, the waiting game begins again but all in all we learned a lot about what will really work for me and I think I am going to end up with a chair that I enjoy as the end result.

As if all of what as going on wasn't enough stress and complications I also was given a strict discharge date of Saturday the 17th which I did not feel was long enough of a stay to feel strong enough in order for Kalli to assist me walking alone. So, Kalli decided to call Mark, our roommate back home and asked him to come for a day in order to learn the techniques needed to safely assist a big guy like me while walking with a walker. Mark, of course, being the good friend he is, also saw the importance of having someone stronger than Kalli educated in these techniques needed to assist me. So, he checked his calender and work schedule, as well as talked to his boss and headed to Chicago that day. Along with getting Mark to come and learn and help we began another battle with insurance. Many times in this entire process of recovery I have been told "no" in one way or another but each time being the fighter that I am I have decided that there is nothing to lose in giving it one last try to appeal certain decisions. My gosh, the worst thing they can say is no again. So, the reason I was being discharged was solely because my insurance coverage of sixty days of inpatient had come to an end, but even insurance deemed it medically necessary for me to continue to work at RIC towards my new goal of running a marathon. So, I decided to pull out the big guns and go to the top for help. A couple months ago when I was staying at RIC the president of my company and several others came to visit me and Dennis, our president, asked me if there was anything he could do to help me, let him know. Right there and then I told him that at some point or another I will reach the end of my insurance coverage and I very well may need to fight for an extension. So, here we are at the end of my coverage and that is exactly what I did. I called and emailed Dennis, the president of Sheffield Plastics, and Denise, the HR director, and several other key people that I thought would be important in this process. After two whole days of an incredible roller coaster, up and down, I was basically told that Blue Cross Blue Shield does not make an exception on the sixty day coverage and it has never been done before. Then, after sending my medical recovery status notes to Dennis, which he had requested in order to have some data and real facts to share with his counterparts, somehow right at the end, literally hours before the last night of my discharge my case manager gave me a call letting me know that insurance had just called and there was an extension granted. Sometimes, you have to climb out of the box and fight against the norms for the greater good of your own care. It also helps to take a good look at your support team and reach out to those who may be able to make a difference. I now get an entire extra week which may not seem like much but it is probably worth another $14,000 to $20,000 of therapy. Choked up with joy and so thankful for all the efforts everyone involved put forth I began calling everyone I knew sharing the good news and thanking those who had helped make it happen. Interestingly enough when I heard that I was going to be able to continue working on walking I was actually in the middle of one of those breaks, catching my breath, ready to stand and take another fifty steps. Once again, I will push as hard as I possibly can to make every minute here at RIC worth the effort and energy people put in to keep me here. Not only was I grinning ear to ear thrilled that we had beat yet another huge roadblock so were all of the therapists around me for everyone erupted with cheers and clapping the moment we got the news.

So everyone keep the positive energy and prayers flowing my way and I will hold up my end of the bargain by pouring blood sweat and tears day after day in this amazingly fought for last week of therapy here at the best rehab facility in the country.

October 9th

2009-10-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

Day five. Another full non-stop day of therapy, working from start to finish. This morning my printed schedule didn't start until ten o'clock but I figured I would get up early anyway and try to get up there by 9 for at least one more hour before my first class of recreational therapy. So at 8:00 while I was doing my routine out of no where my wonderful PT, Carey, comes flying in the room cheery as can be saying "I don't have anybody at nine so get your butt up there by then". I think it is really impressive that all of my therapists here care enough about me to go out of their way to keep me busy on their off hours. Not only could she have taken the easy route and pretended to do paperwork or something else she jumped in the elevator, came off the floor she was on, came down to my room and found me at 8 in the morning an hour ahead of time to make sure that I was out of bed and ready to go. Even though I was planning on it, it felt really good to see how much she cares. So, I got dressed, out of bed, teeth brushed, old spice pure sport on, and wheeled upstairs for my nine o'clock session with Carey.

I got up there and jumped on the power assist bicycle and pedaled for a good forty-five minutes. After that, I went into the main lobby area to join my recreational therapy group led by Mike. Mike had a good half dozen state of the art wheelchairs, tire samples, the latest and greatest tools and several other things incorporated in wheelchair maintenance. He showed us some of the new designs that are out on the market from tippy bars to fold-able hidden wheelchair breaks. It was great to learn what is out there and how to maintain your wheelchair.

After the session, Sarah, one of the other PTs, had a PT Group in the gym. I jumped on the mat and she had me time myself as I broke down my chair all by myself. I broke down the chair and then put it back together in five minutes. After that, I jumped back in my chair and went over to the ricshaw pumping out 6 sets of 15 slow and controlled of 90 lbs.

After I was done pumping it out on the ricshaw it was time for lunch and my noon medication. So, we stopped by the sixth floor, grabbed my pills and then went down to the cafeteria to get some food to eat back up on the 7th floor.

After lunch in the canary room with a whole new group of buddies filling solid elbow to elbow one of the large oval tables Kalli and I headed back to the gym for some more therapy. I didn't have any sessions at 1:00 so Kalli and I grabbed the wrist weights strapped in and did five sets of 15, both horizontal and vertical on each hand. After thoroughly exhausting both of my wrists, which I really need to strengthen in order to have proper extension of my fingers, I ran to the bathroom and took a quick pee before my two o'clock psychology group with Dr. Wilson put me in again.

On my way over to psychology group Ed, my 6th floor case manager, stopped me and told me some great news. Ed has the same position as Rose, who was my case manager last time I was here, which is the communication between RIC and each person's insurance provider. Ed had put together all of the Dr. and therapist's recommendations and field notes to present to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. Now, Carey had mentioned that she was fighting her hardest by putting together a great set of notes explaining my progress day by day. So, Ed explained that he had reported all of this to Blue Cross Blue Shield and they came back with a different tune than we have heard in the past. First off, they approved me for nine more days of therapy which brings us to the 19th and he also talked with my benefits group and they assured him that there was no limit on my inpatient therapy as long as it was medically necessary and I was seeing progress. Of course this news lit up my face and excited Kalli and I immensely.

Whistling dixie I rolled into the canary room for the psychology group. We went around the table and talked about progress that we have seen in the last week and what our goals were for next week. My goal was to walk 500 feet by the end of next week which everybody seemed to think was maybe a bit high but I knew was totally achievable at the rapid pace I am seeing right now. We ended the session with a breathing exercise that Dr. Wilson felt would be very helpful for any of us and that proper breathing is definitely important in a lot of situations.

After the psychology group I headed back into the gym to meet up with Sarah, another PT, who I was scheduled to be with from three to four. Sarah and I decided to start out in the parallel bars for she had not seen me standing yet and wanted to get a feel for where I was at. As I started wheeling towards the parallel bars, Vari my orthopedic consultant showed up with my KAFO for my right leg. A KAFO is a leg brace that is custom fit from my upper thigh all the way down to my toes. So, I slipped it on for its first fitting and it felt like a nice leather glove, the kind a limo driver would wear on a cold winter day. So we did a couple steps with both my braces on and then decided to take it out into the hall where we would have a lot more room to play with. We got out a measuring wheel that looks like a blind persons tapping stick with a four inch wheel that counts the number of feet you roll along. I got up between the walker with Sarah's guidance and started trucking along. With several breaks in between I crushed yesterday's top score of 140 feet by walking a whopping 229 feet before total exhaustion!!! It was really a pretty fun trek for along the way I had Kalli and Sarah and there were several PCTs, like Given and Zebe, my Drs, Dr. Kim and his resident Sam, and then at the end Carey, my primary PT cheering me along. For those of you that have been here, you realize that the floor is a big rectangle with the main reception desk in the center. 229 feet is achieved by starting in the middle, on one side by the reception desk and walking all the way to the back, around the nursing station, and back to the center reception desk area on the other side. So, basically, half of the loop. So, Wednesday I walked 52 feet, Thursday I walked 140 feet, and today I walked 229 feet. There you go Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield - how's that for progress?

After I caught my breath I headed back into the gym to pump some iron, starting with the bench press, military press, peck deck, lap pull down which brought me to 4:30 which is all the time I had for we had a 5:30 movie to catch and I still had to go downstairs, grab my sweatshirt and take my pills.

It was kind of funny, while I was working out a couple of the therapists commented "after all that walking you still have energy to pump iron? That's amazing" Then, Rose, my old case manager said "You get results when you work hard, he is a great example of that". We headed to Couple's Retreat for it was the opening night and we had tickets reserved. After the movie, we came home, blogged, and got ready for bed for I was tired and we had some fun plans in store for tomorrow.

Again, a full day from 8 to 4:30, solid therapy, workout and exercise. It has been really great being here and it just supports what I had mentioned yesterday when I was talking with Sarah I had told her how happy I was to be here and her response was "not only is it for you, but it is great for the whole floor to have you here. For I have seen some of the other guys picking up on how hard you are working and pushing themselves a little more than before." Probably more than anyone, I have seen Connor, one of my buddies here from Las Vegas, putting in the extra time between e-stim and pushing it on the ricshaw just like I did during my last stay. I can't wait to see his progress as he moves forward.

October 8th

2009-10-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone. Day four at RIC, once again hardcore from start to finish. Unfortunately this one started a little earlier than normal. Kim came down to my room while I was in the middle of my morning stretches and exercises at 7:30. So, I jumped into my chair, put on some deodorant and headed upstairs to work on getting my boxers and shorts on and off while sitting on the royal throne. So we went into a mock up bathroom that they have on the 7th floor that is jammed full of every bathroom assisting equipment you can think of. Kim was really amazed how well I was able to dress with shorts on and asked me to please wear pants tomorrow. After I was done with my therapy session I headed into the canary room where Kalli had my tray waiting for me to eat some breakfast. One of our friends Mac, Adrian, Kalli and I all sat talking and putting down our breakfasts.

As soon as I was done I went into the gym to do a session of wrist exercises which I am really trying hard to do twice a day and I am realizing now that I forgot to do the second set, so I will have to make sure I get that in tomorrow.

As soon as I was done working my wrists it was time for my 10:00 Lokomat appointment with Carey. So, Kalli, Connor, Carey and I headed upstairs to get harnessed up. Connor is an 18 year old kid from Las Vegas who is really cool and positive all of the time. We have been sharing a lot with him since there are a million questions in the stage in which he is at so it seems pretty fun to be able to help him out and actually have a lot of the answers. Connor wanted to come up with us to see the Lokomat for he is also incomplete and has hopes of getting his legs moving. I rode the Lokomat for a good fifty minutes with a little more weight on me than I had the day before. My doctor told me today that the Lokomat also really seems to help people with their spasms and I honestly think that I already am noticing that a little bit.

We headed back downstairs for it was time for my OT Exercise at 11:00. Kate was our instructor and she really worked us the whole time. It was really cool to actually be able to go just as fast as Kate and use five pound dumbbells versus the three pound wrist weights that I was up to when I left. The exercises were still really hard and got me sweating nicely.

After OT Exercise group we headed downstairs to the cafeteria to grab some grub in order to come back upstairs and eat on the 7th floor. Right after lunch I went back into the gym and started working out by first pounding away six sets of fifteen with 90 pounds on the ricshaw. After that I moved over to the crossover machine and began doing bench press and military presses. As I got about halfway through Piper came over and asked me if I wanted to work on some e-stim. So, of course I went with her and e-stimmed my hands in two different places. While doing that, Justin came over for we had a two o'clock PT walking session.

First, we put on my AFO for my stronger left leg and then a metal forest gumplike KAFO for my right leg for only the AFO was done at this time. We stood up and I immediately could notice how out of balance the two were since the KAFO was made to wear without a shoe and had its own fairly tall heal to it whereas you put on the AFO and slip right back into your tennis shoes. This severely threw off my walking abilities and it was difficult to advance the right leg. I then remembered that I had seen a custom made KAFO in the corner of the gym the day before and wondered how well it would possibly fit me temporarily. Justin went and got it and sure enough it fit alright, just a hair too big. So then we did a couple steps in the parallel bars to test out the new set up finding out that it wasn't too bad, definitely better than the off kilter forest gump brace. So we headed to the hall where we had some more room to roam. I totally blew my walking distance from the day before out of the water! This was really a great feeling. The day before I only walked 54 feet and was tired as can be. Today, with much better form and a lot less weight on my arms for both days I have been using a walker, I walked an astounding 140 feet!!! The best part is I just KNOW that tomorrow, Saturday and Monday will be more and more and more, but today walking three times as far really seemed like a HUGE improvement. I was telling Justin before we walked that I definitely was feeling stronger already for this morning it almost seemed natural the way I was turning over in bed, using my lower body to help me flip. After walking with Justin I was thoroughly exhausted but felt that after a really good leg workout like that it would be good to get on the mat and stretch out my legs.

After stretching out my legs, Kalli and I stayed on the mat and began a whole series of e-stim on both my hands and my right ankle on our own. Earlier in the day, Kalli went down to the sixth floor and got an e-stim machine for me to check out and put in my name for the remainder of my stay. It is a really easy machine to work with and we were getting pretty good results from what we were doing. So, after zapping up everything that we wanted to work on I decided to get back on the weights and finish up my workout. I went around starting off with the bench press and military press then moved over to the peck deck doing three sets of ten on most machines. After the peck deck I moved over to the lap pull down followed by a one arm pull down across my body exercise that I really don't know the name of. That one I do three sets of 25 which really gets me sweating.

Once I was through with all of that it was five o'clock. So working seven to five we both felt that I had a good nine hours of work out in and I could probably call it quits. Plus, the girls were all going home and we needed to get out of the gym anyway because they wanted to lock it up. We ran down to the cafeteria, got some food, ate dinner with Connor and his dad and then headed down to the room to take my pills, blog, and catch the long awaited episode of The Office where Jim and Pam are getting married.

Today was once again balls to the wall, non stop therapy which is exactly what I came here for and I am so excited to be getting that kind of attention. Once again I will be sleeping like a baby. With this intensive therapy and the amount of weight bearing exercises and walking practice I am getting Carey told me to be ready for some great return. It is so exciting to see myself getting stronger and stronger each day that I am here. The way my left leg is really naturally walking along I really have no doubt that I will walk again. For the last two weeks I have not been thinking about walking I didn't want to make that my goal all I can think about is that I am going to run. I had a long talk with one of the PCT's that has worked here for over ten years and I asked him how many people have you seen come back that can run - he looked at me funny and said that's a really good question. He sat there and thought for quite some time and then answered "honestly, there has only been three." He began telling me a little about each and strangely enough they were all C7 spinal injuries. So I know that it is possible and definitely not out of reach and I can't wait to make it four. So, don't worry everyone I am still busting ass and trying my absolute hardest in everything I am doing.

October 7th

2009-10-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

So day three begins just the same as every day ends - with stretching and exercises in bed. So, I have to wake up around 6:30 for my first session is at 8:00 with Justin one of the newer PT's. Justin had me get on the mat in the gym in order to stretch a few muscles out quick that I hadn't covered in bed already before he had me strap into some braces and go for an early morning stroll. Unfortunately, my stroll didn't go quite as well as the day before for one, I think the braces were strapped on a little funny, two, I felt quite fatigued from the previous day's intensive workout and three, who really knows. We did several short jaunts, sitting back down in my wheelchair taking breaks in between until our hour was up.

I again didn't have anything for the nine o'clock hour, but of course, one of the girls jumped right in and asked me to work with her. The group of therapists on the seventh floor have done such an awesome job of giving me extra attention on their free hours since they all know I have so much potential and have such a short visit. So, Kate got out the e-stim machine and we worked on a new part of my hand that I have never shocked before. It was really great and I can't wait to do it again. After we were done working on the hands, I asked her if we could please work on my right ankle for I would like to see it to become as strong as the left which basically has full range of motion now and has become incredibly strong. She let me know that she is really an OT and has never worked on anyone's legs and really doesn't know how. I told her that's not a problem I happened to be an expert and would be more than willing to teach her for free. She looked over at Carey, my PT, as if asking for permission and Carey right away said of course, go ahead, he knows what he is doing! So we hooked up the machine and got really great muscle contractions which Kate was really excited about, kind of freaking out every time the ankle would pull back all the way.

After working with Kate I had a PT group so I was able to just stay on the mat where we began a whole series of leg exercises and stretches. All of these different exercises are really great and totally new to me because when I left RIC last time I had just gotten some good toe wiggles and definitely not the full leg movements that I am having now. After thoroughly exhausting every movement in my legs we went and found a wrist strap that you add weight to and began doing exercises in the canary room that will really help my hand movements. But, while we were working on the hand exercises, in came Emily, one of the therapists, who had worked with me earlier that day asking if I wanted to work with her for she had some free time because one of her patients actually refused his session of physical therapy. It is crazy and almost maddening when you hear people refuse therapy. It makes you think my goodness there are people trying so hard to even have a chance to get in here and bums like that are sitting around taking for granted where they are and the talent they have to work with here at RIC. So, of course, I went with her and she strapped me into one of the motorized pedal bikes where I also continued to do my hand exercises simultaneously. Emily really pushed me to pedal the machine on my own as much as possible and it was really amazing how much more I was able to pedal on my own without the machines help compared to just the day before. Another example of what such intensive therapy can so quickly do for you.

After working on the bike with Emily we ran down to get my meds and lunch tray from the sixth floor just to bring it right back up and eat with everyone on the seventh floor. We sat and talked with everyone while eating our lunch until one o'clock where Carey came and got me saying "it's lokomat time again!" We went up to the 12th floor, strapped me in, and again I started walking with the assistance of this amazing machine. When we get back home, Kalli will post videos, unfortunately the internet connection is a little too slow here. Because we didn't have to measure me and work out all of the kinks I was able to walk even longer this time, almost an entire hour.

After working on the lokomat we went back downstairs for another PT group. I got strapped into a standing frame to do around 50 minutes of standing. These are such cool machines where you basically get strapped in and a simple hydraulic arm picks you right up, holding you very steady and secure so that you can practice having the pressure on your legs for extended periods of time without getting so tired. While I was standing Adrian stood there with me continually whooping my butt in Kings Corners four games in a row. After an hour of standing I got my daily session of ricshaw, bench press, military press, peck deck, lat pull down, and a few other exercises that you can do on a really nice crossover machine that they have in the gym. Now, thoroughly exhausted after a full day of therapy and lifting weights Kalli and I headed down to the cafeteria to get her some food and go eat dinner in our room.

After dinner, we got a pass to leave so we could run over to Treasure Island, the local grocery store, and get a little present for JJ, a very high level C3 who has been in hospitals and RIC for three years now. Tomorrow he is heading to his own home, a four bedroom, three bathroom ranch that is finally ready for him to live in with twenty four hour nursing assistants. He is an amazing guy with a great attitude and I wish him all the best. I think I have talked about this in the past but JJ is one of those injuries where he will be on a respirator for the rest of his life and is in a power chair in which he steers with an air pressured straw since nothing moves for him from the neck down. Good luck JJ. It is injuries like JJ that make it easy for me to keep positive and realize how lucky I am, to not only be alive, but as functional as can be.

October 6th

2009-10-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning started as every day does with my entire routine of stretches and exercises that I do in bed. As I was in the middle of my morning stretches in popped Carey to let me know that I had the lokomat scheduled for 9:00 since it was not printed on my schedule for some reason. So, at 9:00 I headed upstairs to meet up with Carey and together Carey, Kalli and I went up to the 12th floor where this amazing machine lives. Once again, Kalli assumed the position and pulled out the camera for this was truly a photo worthy event. Carey began measuring me in order to calibrate the machine and strap me in for the ride of my life. Once again, the lokomat is a million dollar machine that I call a giant johnny jumper placed over a treadmill which also has robotic legs that you strap on in order to magically walk all on your own. As wonderful as the harness feels digging in to your groin and abdomen it truly feels exactly like a natural walking stride. As I get stronger we will continue to increase the amount of weight in which is put on my legs while I walk. For some reason or another I kept saying "Here I go, I am just walking to go get a doughnut." It was quite funny and Kalli, Carey, and I had a blast as I walked along for a good 45 minutes. Amazingly, my blood pressure is 100% under control and I didn't once get light headed while using the lokomat.

After the lokomat we headed back downstairs where I had leg slings with Adrian. This is where you lay down on the mat and hook up ropes, pulleys, and slings from the ceiling in order to do zero gravity exercises with your legs. This is exactly what I have rigged over my bed which my dad, and Todd, Kalli's dad, helped me create at home.

After slings, I was with Carey again where we put on braces and went into the hall to do some more walking with assistance and a walker. Although my legs were tired we had a good session of walking which brought us into lunch.

Right after lunch, I didn't have anything so Adrian again asked me if I wanted to work with her where we did some more slings. After the slings, I got on a bike and did some pedaling and then I went throughout the entire gym from machine to machine and worked out until two o'clock where once again another therapist, Piper, jumped in and grabbed me because her schedule was open. Piper and I worked on two really great exercises. One being mat to floor and floor to mat transfers which got me sweating like a pig and two, sitting and balancing on a giant work out ball which is not easy at all. While we were sitting on the ball Piper had said she had actually never seen anyone balance on a ball as well as I was. This is really an amazing comment since these girls see hundreds and hundreds of spinal patients week in and week out.

After working with Piper for an hour I then had on my schedule a 3:00 psychology group. Dr. Wilson, a wonderful psychologist, had asked me on Tuesday if I would be willing even though I didn't need it, to sit in on a psychology group and tell my story in order to motivate and inspire others that she was working with. The group was a table of about 8 people of all different levels of injury both power chairs and manual. Dr. Wilson asked me to start out the group and explain a little about myself and what all I have been doing for therapy rehab. I probably talked for fifteen or twenty minutes trying to explain and inspire the others in our group to work hard both physically and mentally as they go through this very difficult experience. I explained to them how important work out routines, reaching out to the community, and staying positive is to getting return and good results. Everyone seemed very interested and happy that I had shared my experiences for a lot of questions came out of the group from what I had shared.

This stay at RIC has been very different than that of others, mainly due to the fact that now that I have returned I am realizing how far along I have gotten and how strong I really am. I remember when I had my roommate Maurice who was a twenty year spinal injury strong as an ox, benching 315 lbs, and moving around like he wasn't injured at all. I remember the way in which everyone looked up to him, thinking and feeling I hope I can be like that someday. Strangely enough, that is exactly how I feel now as all the other new patients ask me questions, and make comments about my recovery. This sounds really arrogant but there was one point where Mac, a fairly high level spinal patient, was sitting next to me while the therapist came over to him and said "Mac, we need to go downstairs you have a lifecenter class on the first floor." He looked at her and said: "No, I just want to get on the bike in the gym so I can be like Andrew and get out of this chair." I looked at him and said "Don't worry Mac, you just have to keep on working and you will be, but you should really go down there. They are going to teach you all about different ways of re-entering into the community, how to modify your home, get wheelchair parking passes, and find ways for financial assistance." He immediately changed his attitude about the lifecenter and went right down with her. It really made me feel good, showing me that the second time around I am almost like a role model to a lot of these kids and I have to work even harder so I don't let them down either.

So, Kalli and I quickly ate some dinner, came down to the room and got ready to head north of town where we were going to meet up with my old roommate Maurice who is on the RIC wheelchair basketball team. The team was having a scrimmage against another team in Chicago for the season had just begun two weeks before. We went to the game which was absolutely amazing how quick and athletic all of the players were even with being stuck in a wheelchair. We headed home, Kalli went to her friends house where she is staying and I headed to bed so I could get some sleep for I knew I was going to have another full day tomorrow.

October 5th

2009-10-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone. Another week at RIC starts. Unfortunately, I didn't get very much sleep last night because my roommate is not doing well - he had a 101 fever and needed to be checked on every hour. If there is one thing I could change about night time nursing it would be to teach them to use flashlights, or some sort of small dim light source to come in and check on people. Every time they come in they feel as if they need to turn on every high powered light in the room which pulls you right out of your sleep and makes it very difficult to fall back into your slumber. The next morning started with nurses, doctors, and a group of paramedics coming into the room and making the decision to bring Dave, my roommate, back to Northwestern's hospital for more intensive care. Although this is terrible and I hope Dave the best, it is definitely going to help my sleeping situation which is important for me these next couple weeks for I plan on going 110% all day every day during this short stay.

In order to assist me walking and one of the main reasons why I wanted to come back to RIC we need to have a set of leg braces custom made to fit me. So, Vari and her orthodics crew met with me first thing in the morning to cast my braces. It is a really neat process where they take a roll of fiberglass mesh to wrap around my legs and create a cast, as if I had a broken leg, they immediately cut it off while it gets hard to use in order to form the pieces of the leg brace which then become a perfect fit. While we were casting Vari was so impressed with my movement on the left leg, my stronger of the two, she wanted to make sure Carey came down to make the decision with her to only make a shorter AFO brace for the left leg. An AFO is a brace that only goes from below the knee to the foot. On the right leg they are making a KAFO which goes from your thigh all the way down to the foot giving you even more support.

After the casting was complete, I headed upstairs with Carey to show Vari where I was at with walking with a set of temporary adjustable braces. While showing them with a walker and some assistance with my therapists I was able to walk about 18feet, three separate times, taking rest breaks in between. These are not just simple stroll in the park type strides they are pushing, pulling, forcing everything I've got fighting gravity like a ninja warrior step after step, but an amazing beginning to this saga. After walking for a little bit, we went into the gym and practiced standing up and sitting down time after time in between the parallel bars. This concluded my PT session from 10 to 11.

After that I really didn't have much on my schedule until 2 o clock so therapist after therapist began filling in my time with all sorts of exercises and strength training. We then had lunch, worked out in the gym, and then met up with Piper for an OT session. My main concern with my hands for OT was a hyper-extension that I was doing due to over compensation with my wrist. After explaining what I was dealing with and what was happening, Piper devised to great hand splints that I am now wearing on each hand. They basically block the movement that I was doing, creating the hyper extension in my hand. I wear these all day unless I run into an activity that they hinder.

After working with Piper I did a few more activities and then Kalli and I got some food and did my nightly routine in order to be done and ready so I could watch the unfortunate Packer Game up on the seventh floor 50" plasma.

After the game, I went to my room to be left alone for a good nights sleep.

BACK AT RIC - Sunday October 4th

2009-10-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone. A lot of things have been going on in the last couple of weeks, so it is time for me to get back on the old blog and get everyone updated. So after my last evaluation at RIC both Dr. Kim and my therapist felt that I was ready for their second look program where I come back and really start working on walking. So RIC went ahead and sent in to my insurance the recommendation to be readmitted to the seventh floor for the last two weeks of my inpatient coverage. Blue cross blue shield then seemed as if it was really taking its time to get RIC an answer. RIC was holding a bed for me for this past Wednesday and needed an answer by then. So, I called up insurance to see what the hold up was and they informed me that nursing normally makes the decision on thisbut they didn't feel as if they were qualified in my case. So, the nurse had to send the case to be athorizedby a doctor instead. Then, later on, Wednesday night Margaret from the admissions office at RIC called me lettingme know that the physician from Blue Cross had denied RIC's request. Thoroughly dissasspointed andfrustrated
to say the least I immediately got on the phone with Theda Clark looking to get started with an out patient program here in the valley. They were able to get me in the next day for an OT and PT evaluation which was great and went really well.

While I was sitting with the PT from Theda Clark doing my evaluation RIC's admitting office called back letting me know that Kim my OT and Dr. Kim my physician at RIC went to bat for me and appealed the initial denial for inpatient rehab. They got on a conference call with Blue Cross Blue Shields physician and convinced him that it was necessary for me to come back to RIC. I was so thrilled and excited it was hard to even finish my evaluation with Theda Clark. They too were excited for me for they know how experienced RIC is and she even mentioned that in medical school they referenced it quite a bit. The main reasons I really wanted to get back to RIC were to take a ride on that giant johnny jumper called the Lokomat for they are the only facility in the area that has one. And also, Theda Clark does not even have an orthodics department so I would have had to go to some small local clinic to get my leg braces made. Kim, my therapist called me on Friday letting me know that they had tried their hardest but not heard back from the insurance yet. I was able to let her know that admitting had already called me and I was going to be coming this Sunday so lets get the balls rolling! She was so excited on the phone that the appeal had worked she started telling other people around her that were walking by in the halls "hey Andrew is coming back, he is coming back on Sunday!"
This felt good because it reminded me how much they cared and wanted to see me succeed. So, one more weekend here at home and then we will be packing our bags early Sunday morning for a noon check-in for what I think will be a two week stay at RIC.

So, it was really nice to have gotten the evaluations out of the way at Theda Clark so that when I am finished at RIC I get home and jump right into therpay with the new therapists at Theda.

The next really good news/blessing that happened this week was another jackpot win at The Lions Club. Tuesday, Kalli and I had a few things that we wanted to get from the Lions Club, a walker and a back rest for my commode. So, we headed out to Larson to see my good buddies out at the shed. As soon as we got there, they remembered me right away saying "boy are you looking good!" and "you must be having some great progress if you are asking for a walker."
While we were there, I decided to also take a stab at a little wish list that I had been thinking about and sure enough they had the two machines that I had on my mind. A standing frame and a assisted pedal bike. Collecitng dust in the back of the shop was this beauitful standing frame with a hydraulic arm that picks you up and straps you into position so that you can safely stand and begin teaching your legs to withstand some good pressure. The unit didn't have a harness with it which I obviously didn't see as a road block and just planned on creating my own, but before I left I asked them to go check the back shelf where I had seen a couple hoire harnesses and maybe there would be something that would work. Sure enough, there was a standing frame harness that they brought over to me, not even knowing what it was, saying
"Hey, I think this might work." I flipped the harness over and sure enough it was exactly what we were looking for but just for a different model. Again, another blessing. Next, we were about to leave for Kalli's dad ran over with his truck so that we would be able to bring the standing frame home and one of the Lions Club memebrs goes "Alright, before you leave maybe we can get you to take one more thing." I look behind me and sure enough what do I see but a pedal bike with an assist, made specifically for a wheelchair to roll up onto, strap in your feet, and pedal away with hand pedals in which you can assist the feet with. Again, probably a couple thousand bucks new. Besides these two amazing finds of course they had a walker and a back rest which were my initial reasons for heading out there. Just another crazy successful day out at the Lions Club I guess. So, with the Hippert and Lee Gym continuing to grow we needed to make room for expansion. So, I called up one of my buddies, Trout, who I knew had recently purchased a small farm and had a few barns that would probably have space for Mark's wonderful red Jeep Cherokee that lives in our garage. Trout immediately was more than willing to help out and store the jeep in order to make my expansion dreams a reality. Thank you very
much Trout, it really means a lot.

As you all know, my brohter Tim and I have been going to the Appleton YMCA every Tuesday since I have been home.This week was no exception to the rest, another measurement of continual improvment was presented for I swam twelve laps, compared to seven the week before, increased my standing time and ability by probably double and began swimming face first all the way down to the bottom of what is probably a twelve to fourteen foot deep olympic swimming pool. It is so crazy to me for just eight or nine weeks earlier I was timid as can be, wearing a life jacket, and nervous in three feet of water, to completely let go of the edge. Now, I am swimming a pool length in under a minute, diving into the deep, and standing in four feet of water like it is nobody's business. So, I can't thank my big brother Tim enough for setting aside that time - every week - to help me reach my goal.

And last, but not least, the best part of all, is new movement. As you also probably all know I do a vigorous routine every morning before I get out of bed and night before I go to sleep of exercising and stretching different parts of my body. Just recently, as part of my routine, I began doing three sets of ten, wishing and squeezing my glutes to get my butt working. Like a slap in the dark, completely out of the blue, I went to do that same butt squeeze that I have been doing for a couple of weeks and like making a fist, both my left and right came firing in, truly showing they were alive! I began squeezing them again and again until they wouldn't squeeze anymore. So excited for last time I had the evaluation at RIC they had expressed how important it was to get my glutes working in order to walk properly. Next, probably a week after that I was doing what they call some prone exercises where you lay flat on your stomach and hold your arms down towards your feet and up in the air pulling your chin off the bed as high as you can. Again, out of no where, my chest and head raised a good two, three inches higher than I had felt in months. Two very distinct muscles in my lower back were pulsing and twitching, showing their presence, screaming like little kids that wanted attention. Again, I too was excited as can be having to push and shove Kalli saying "wake up! some new muscles in my back are working" "look at how high I can go". She hugged me and we enjoyed breakfast more than ever, celebrating the muscles that joined the show. Sure enough, ever since a lot of the pain in my lower back has gone away, probably due to those darn two not pulling their weight this whole time. Along with the glutes and back my right leg, which is my weaker of the two, has showed good improvement, being able to kick it outwards, slightly pull it up in bed, and continue to move the ankle. And, so slowly, but surely, my hands continue to show progress as they strengthen and straighten showing extensor strength day by day. I was just on the phone the other day with my old roommate Maurice who was a great encourager when I was living at RIC. He was so interested in how I was doing and what all was new. He said to me "Andrew, how are the hands?" And it made me realize wow, when I left RIC to do exercises with my arms I was wearing three pound wrist weights that velcroed on because I could not even hold a two pound dumbell with my hand. And, just ten minutes before I talked with Reece, I had been doing curls holding ten pound dumbells in each hand. What an amazing improvement in such a short time. But, unless you look back, and think about where you were and how you used to do things it is so hard to tell any improvement from day to day and easy to take it for granted.

So, I am here at RIC, just getting ready to go to bed. As I had mentioned earlier, I had just talked to Reece, who lives here in Chicago letting him know that I would be back. Being the good friend that he is, he said when do you get here? I said around noon on Sunday. He said "alright, good. I will see you at six for dinner." So, him, Abby (his wife), Kalli and I
walked down to the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue and ate dinner together telling stories and catching up over the last couple months. I am actually down on the sixth floor for they don't have a bed right now on seven but as soon as one opens they will move me up to keep me close to the action. It is good to be back again where you know the therapists truly care for surprisingly, around four o'clock we were sitting in our room waiting for Maurice and his wife when out of nowhere Colleen, one of the first PT's that I had last time I was here, came down knowing I was here asking if I wanted to get in a quick session before she left for the day. Thrilled and anxious to get going we ran upstairs where she, as excited as I was wanted to see me stand with all the incredible progress I have had in my legs since I left was just a wiggle in my left toe. We did about three or four reps of sitting and standing between the parallel bars, followed by a half hour on a motorized bike. This bike is really unique and a little more sophisticated than mine for it can tell you exactly how much you are helping and how much the computer is pushing. Wonderfully, the screen read that my left leg was doing 98% of the work and the right leg was doing 29% of the work. This was so exciting and made me want to push harder and harder knowing soon that both would be reading 100%.

I should be back here for about two weeks and Kalli and I will blog periodically, letting you know how things are going and about all of my new adventures with the new equipment I never got a chance to touch since my legs weren't really working dring my last stay. Continue the prayers because they are obviously working and my wonderful prayer group I will have to think a little bit more about that wish list and get back to you soon.

September 21st

2009-09-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Once again we have had a longer moment away from each other than either one of us bare to handle. So let me get you updated on what is going on and the latest movements.

But first, I need to take the time to thank everyone that worked on, attended, and donated to my benefit at the Wave. The benefit turned out so awesome. I enjoyed strolling around all night talking with friends, family and people I had not seen in years. Again, I was amazed by the support and generosity people continue to show. Helping me in this time of need has created an incredible sense of security and comfort which means the world to me since the last thing I need to be worrying about right now are finances. Through my experiences I have learned and seen that there are many out there that are not as lucky as me. As you can see, if you were at the benefit, there is such an enormous support group helping me along the way to stay strong and move forward. My family and all those who helped on the benefit did such a great job putting it together. People continue to comment on how wonderful everything was put together; from large prizes, like the moped, to cute and hilarious Mike Brown on the mic for the paddle wheel spin and win, everything came together as a huge success. So, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to each and every one of you that made that day a great success!

So, basically I have gotten a second job and it includes working out, doing therapy, and keeping up with all of my medical paperwork and phone calls. This is what every day consists of for me for at least another year or so. When I am not working on this second employment I am heading to RIC for my second evaluation to determine when to finish up my last two weeks of insurance covered inpatient therapy. So, last Wednesday, Kalli and I headed to RIC around 10am to make it in time for my 3:00 appointment with Carrie and Kim, my physical and occupational therapists. We once again met them on the third floor so that we could check in and head to a evaluation room. Kim and Carrie each took their turns poking and prodding as they took notes while reviewing their previous notes to determine the progress I have made. Since I had seen them three weeks ago, my finger extension was continuing to improve, my right ankle mobility has also improved, my right leg (hamstring and quad) have both increased strength and have begun to move,and due to many prayers my left butt cheek has started to fire. There are many other muscles that are also included in the movements that I am now seeing but I just don't know all of their names. All together the evaluation went well and the ladies were once again very impressed with my home program between equipment we have created at home and the Theda home care ladies that have been coming every week to work with me. They mentioned that they never really heard of such a wonderful homecare therapy program. Both Kim and Carrie felt that I was ready and they wanted to get me back at RIC to fulfill my inpatient therapy. After they finished evaluating me, there was some extra time before Dr. Kim was scheduled to see me. So, they brought me to a set of parallel bars in the center of yet another large workout gym. Every time I go back to RIC they bring me to a different floor, or area of a floor where I continue to learn how huge and extensive their abilities are. Carrie and Kim have me wheel my chair up and in to the center of the parallel bars where they once again have me stand. But, this time Carrie wanted me to really push it and had me attempt to walk for the first time. Guiding and helping me Carrie and I took about six steps before I was exhausted and needed to sit back in my chair for a little break. Then, Carrie strapped my legs into a set of KFO's which are basically leg braces. The leg braces were straight out of the movie Forest Gump, metal with leather straps that harness your leg straight from hip to ankle allowing you to walk while supporting the legs straight. Now, unfortunately, I didn't take off running breaking them into little pieces like Forest but I did walk a good ten feet or so with the braces shifting my weight back and forth from one leg to the next. The braces really support your leg amazingly and allowed me to feel very comfortable with all of my weight down onto them. Without the braces, my legs really want to buckle and collapse at the knee and butt. Thoroughly exhausted, I sat back down onto my wheelchair again, excited and grinning ear to ear. Kalli of course stood by videotaping catching this moment on tape for us to enjoy in the future. It was very encouraging and truly made me feel as if walking was not out of reach.

With both of my legs showing movement now it is really encouraging as I strive for my walking dreams. Before when I was having great success with the left leg while watching the right sit idle it was difficult to feel as if I was going to be successful in this path towards walking. But now that both of my legs are in tune with my dream of walking again my hopes are renewed.

After meeting with Carrie and Kim we had my appointment with Dr. Kim. Dr. Kim went through a simple question process, asking how everything is going; meds, physical, bowel/bladder, pain. He expressed that he too felt as if I was ready to come back and finish my time at RIC but it came down to having an open bed. Dr. Kim was adamant that he wanted me to have a bed on the seventh floor and for me to start on a Monday so that I got the most of my short two week stay. After they took my vitals and we finished talking with Dr. Kim we headed up to the seventh floor to drop off four slide boards that my dad hand crafted for the therapy gym. We handed them off to Colleen, one of the physical therapists who was really impressed and went on to tell us how the one board we left with them last time that my dad had made was a real hit in the gym. Everyone was requesting it, saying they wanted to use the "hippert board". I told her once again it is the least we can do and as long as they don't paint on them we might even bring some more.

We jumped in the car and headed back to Appleton. But, on the way home we decided to call a couple of our friends to get together for dinner in Milwaukee. Amazingly, within the hour and a half or so it takes to get to Milwaukee from Chicago we were able to get 15 people to meet us at a cool mexican restaurant on the south side called LaPerla. Most of them were all college friends and it was really great to see them! After dinner and a margarita we got back on our way.

At this point RIC has called me back and let me know that there were no beds available for this week and they will keep me informed on when they can get me back there. There are two or three people being discharged this week but there are also a couple people waiting to get in to the seventh floor straight from injury. So, depending on how it goes, I will hopefully get in next Monday or possibly the Monday after that one to finish up my last two weeks.

This past weekend we took advantage of the wonderful weather which could be some of the last summer temps we will be seeing in 2009 by getting out on Baxter, my ski boat. We had a full boat filled with our friends and my sister Laura and her daughter Grey. It was Grey's first time out on a boat and she of course behaved wonderfully and even got a chance to drive on Mark's lap. Even though I am disabled and can't walk I am trying to continue to do as many of the things that I used to which helps a lot dealing mentally with the situation. It of course is always difficult to keep your mind off what all you can't do anymore and activities like going boating help to remind me that there are so many things I still can do.

Thank you to those of you who are still following my progress, sending food and praying. Please keep up the prayers!

Sunday August 30th

2009-08-28T14:34:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I last blogged and I am excited to report many new changes and updates to my life and physical recovery. First off, my cervical collar that has been choking me and limiting my turning radius for three months now is GONE! The morning of Monday August 24th was Dr. Yazbak's recommended last day for wearing that horrid contraption. The entire week before hand I slowly and carefully removed the brace for an hour or so at a time to ease into taking it off all at once for good. This method worked really well to eliminate feeling like a total bobble head Monday morning. My neck feels really good and it seems as if I have full normal rotation from side to side which is really a big relief since that was one thing I wondered about quite often.

After being home for about a month I had a follow-up visit scheduled with Dr. Kim and my PT and OT at RIC. Kalli and I decided since the appointment was at 12:00 in Chicago we would go down the day before my appointment and stay in a hotel about two blocks away to make the whole ordeal much smoother and simpler. Otherwise, I would have to wake up around 4 or 5 in the morning in order to get everything done and drive down by noon. So, we stayed at The DoubleTree which had a wheelchair accessible room for us with a walk in shower and extra high toilet which worked out just fine. Wednesday morning we arrived at RIC early for our appointment so that we could talk with some of the people still left on the 7th floor. Once we got up there we were kind of surprised that in only a month we only saw five patients that we really knew from before. Now, we didn't go room to room to see who all was there but it just had a different feel with a different crowd of spinal injuries. It was nice to see all of the therapists, nurses and doctors, giving them hugs and filling them in on how things were going. We met Carey, my PT, and Kim, an OT in a evaluation room on the 3rd floor to show them all of my new movement before I met with Dr. Kim. I transferred onto a mat without a slide board and began showing off muscle by muscle what all was now working that was not when I had left. Just so that you all know here is a list of what is either new movement or strengthened movement:

Left leg: hamstring, quad, hip flexer, toe extensors, ankle, toes, and God knows what else is in there
Right leg: toes, slight ankle movement, quad, trace hip flexers
Torso: abs, side muscles (love handles), pecks, back muscles
Arms: increased strength, able to do a seated push-up for 45 seconds
Hands: grip is much stronger, finger movement doing well but beginning to get bad tendencies over using wrist to compensate weak finger extensors

After Carey and Kim went through full analysis of all my muscles that were working they both expressed their thorough excitement with my progress. Both of them felt as if my home program was definitely being successful and I should continue to work as hard as I can the way I am. After the evaluation Carey felt that I was ready to stand on the parallel bars that were in the eval room to see how I react upright for the first time. So, I wheeled over in between the bars, locked my breaks, and Carey helped me stand up. Once I was up I used my arms down to my sides holding each bar to steady myself and carry some of my weight. The majority of my weight was being held on my legs which felt so weird for it had been three months since they had carried a load of their own. With the improvements that I have continually had over the last four weeks in blood pressure control I really didn't get light headed at all. They had me standing for about two minutes and then I was ready to take a seat. It is amazing that just two minutes of standing really tuckered me out from head to toe. Now, mind you, I wasn't just completely standing on my own with no support at all - Carey was supporting my knees, back, and butt so that they were not giving out. But once I am fitted for braces Carey was confident that even at the level I am at right now I would be ready to start practicing walking.

We said our goodbyes to Kim and Carey letting them know that we would see them again soon and thanked them for their time. After that, Dr. Kim came to discuss how we were doing and where we were at in order to have a proper recommendation for re-entry into RIC in order to use up my last two weeks of insurance coverage in an inpatient facility. Dr. Kim had extensively talked with Kim and Carey right before we saw him to get their recommendations after the examination. We talked about the way in which I was dealing with my bowel and bladder programs, pain control, and physical recovery. After talking through everything Dr. Kim seemed happy with the way we were taking control of our own rehab. I asked him what is your recommendation for when to begin the last two weeks I have coverage for 2009. He felt that although I have gotten great return so far, which most of it has come back in the last two and a half weeks, where would I be if I went back home and did another three weeks of strength training before being re-admitted into RIC. I thoroughly agreed with this thought process. So, as a group, we made the decision to set-up another follow-up examination on September 16th at RIC where the plan is to have me readmitted the following Monday, the 21st. Due to insurance, being readmitted needs to happen within two weeks of an examination. So, in order for him to make a recommendation for me to come back we have to do a full evaluation again at that point in time.

Lastly, I was contacted by a friend of ours, Erin Frawly, who has an aunt who also recently experienced a spinal cord injury. Her aunt was dealing with all kinds of nerve pain similar to mine and researched the drug lyrica to manage the pain. I brought lyrica up to Dr. Kim and he was very familiar with it and felt that would be a good idea and possibly a way to get off oxycotton which is one of the more drowsy pain meds out there. He gave me a prescription for lyrica and it may take a while for me to experience results, so we will see in the coming weeks how it goes.

A huge part of my recovery is restrengthening muscles throughout my entire body. In order to do so, I have been creating all kinds of workout programs. In the garage we have set up a wonderful professional grade cross over machine donated by my cousin Bill and his business partner, Brett. This has been great for working just about any muscle. With a crossover machine you can change the angle that the weighted cable is used in order to simulate almost any exercise out there. Also, Kalli's dad, Todd, has taken a set of blue prints that I made while at RIC of a machine called a ricshaw that works your shoulders and triceps really well, in order to re-create my own version of it. I just received the "toddshaw" this past Thursday and it is truly much nicer than the one I was using at RIC. Todd did such a great job welding, carpeting, and painting the toddshaw. I have used it every single day since receiving it and don't plan on breaking that pace. We also have hand weights, work out balls, and different tools to work with out in the garage. I really have to thank Mark and his old roommate Dan for taking the time to completely clear out and clean up the garage in order to transform it into Lee's Gym on Lakeshore Drive, the valley's newest full workout experience. The final touch that really brought the gym together was a rockin' stereo system that gets your mind and body tuned in as one as you pump iron to the beats.

Along with working out lately in the gym I have started a daily workout routine which is done both when I wake up and before I go to sleep. When I get into bed and once I wake up I have developed a set of stretches and exercises that include several leg stretches, ab crunches, love handle crunches, and back exercises in order to relax my legs, keeping them limber and stretched and strengthen my core in order to reduce the back pain I had been experiencing daily. The whole routine takes a little over an hour and really has been helping reduce the back pain I was experiencing. I can tell already when I bend over to pick something up the strength that I have built in only the two weeks I have been doing this. It always feels great to see and feel results from hard work in order to feel like it is truly paying off.

In order to work with return that is so weak that the body weight of its own muscle is too much to move it I have been swimming with my brother weekly. We go to the Heart of the Valley YMCA every week. We usually end up swimming for two hours or more and it is a full body workout. The last two times I have worn a life jacket in order to be able to work on my balance and stretching my back easier in the deep end. Swimming is a wonderful way to experience the movements that I am getting back. I can't thank my brother enough for taking the time to do that with me each week. It has been fun and a great workout.

In order to get my hands back into shape I have been working with several tools we have either created or gotten from RIC. Pieces of foam, therabands, putty, velcro blocks, rice buckets, and much more have helped me strengthen my hands. My good friend, Andy Houlihan, built me a wonderful black walnut board that has velcro dowels and blocks positioned all over it in order to help strengthen my wrists and finger extensors. We got the idea from RIC and again, took pictures in order to give him a good idea of what the piece looked like so that he could recreate this tool. Also, to begin retraining my hands and strengthen my finger extensors I have ordered a pair of hand and wrist braces to wear during the night so that my hands don't naturally curl into a fist by morning. I received the braces about a week and a half ago and they seem to be helping as well.

The latest tool in my belt is a trapeze harness that was donated to me by the Lion's Club and then rigged up by my dad in order to make it work above my bed. This tool is basically a harness point that has a large footing underneath the bed to support a bracket that reaches up at the foot of our bed and over in order to place my legs into a sling to create zero gravity exercising experience. This is something that they did at RIC in order to develop very weak leg muscles that have started to fire. Between all of these exercises and workout programs I am feeling stronger every week which is definitely the goal.

I have a wonderful update on the situation of my vessels. First off, I had to figure out what to do with my twenty five foot sailboat which is in Mission Bay on a mooring in San Diego. This was something that was heavily running through my mind. My good friend John Horan made the decision to help me out and purchased the sailboat. He has always wanted to have a sailboat and has sailed with his parents his whole life. His plans are to keep the boat in San Diego until March which is when my mooring spot comes due and in the Spring, buy a trailer and bring it back to WI. I can't thank him enough for taking it off my hands and having the intention of bringing it back so that we can use it in the future. For the ski boat, I have different intentions. Since Horan purchased the sailboat I have decided to take those funds and bring home my ski boat which needs to be moved from the situation it is in now. Kalli and I have been looking all over for other boats that we could possibly afford with the sale of our ski boat and have not found anything that really compares in our mind and would be useable in my condition. One of the deciding factors that made it possible for me to bring the boat back was the generous offer Kalli's father, Todd, made to me. He said that he knew how much it would mean for us to have our boat back and that he would not mind taking care of it, storage, docking, and winterizing. That made me feel so good, knowing that someone incredibly knowledgeable would be helping me take care of the boat and keep it in the great shape that it is in. Kalli's neighborhood is such a big family environment, where everyone helps each other with everything in their lives. It also makes me feel better that I know the whole neighborhood will in some way or another pitch in and even Todd won't be alone with the burden. The Lion's Club once again came through with another great piece of equipment that will make my boating experience incredibly safe and fun. The last time my therapist was there she was able to pick up a Hoir Lift that someone had brought in for me to use. The lift is basically a system that will mount to the dock and to the boat lift creating an i-beam like structure above the boat that I will be power lifted in a hammock chair like harness over and into the boat. We set the system up in the gym so as to test it out to make sure it will work for this function. It is an amazingly well engineered device and will work out just perfect. It is all aluminum and plastic making it completely weather resistant and easily used outside all summer. The motorized lift portion of the unit is about the size of a toaster and actually comes right off and in with you each time for it is cordless and battery powered so that it is not left out in the weather at all. Truly, an amazing find and another example of how God is looking after me throughout this experience.

One of the only things that I could not do for myself and was something that Kalli had to help me with was pulling my shorts back up and on after going to the bathroom. Just yesterday, for the first time I was able to complete this task. It took me almost twenty minutes but I did it all myself! I would accredit all of the strengthening I have been working on to being able to get just enough lift in order to accomplish this. This is definitely worth a "thatta boy" in my mind, for it was one of the last tasks that I was dependent on others for.

One of the things that really affects my sleep at night is having to use these medical booties called prafos which prevent foot drop. Without using them, your toes will start pointing down which causes you to tip backwards once you begin working with leg braces, training to walk. Because of my continual strength in my ankles i have been instructed that I will only have to wear them every other or every third night from now on. This will help out tremendously. If you don't understand what I mean when you go to sleep tonight go into your basement or garage and get out your ski boots or snow shoes and put them on before you crawl into bed - see how well you sleep tonight!

Over the last two weeks, I have also been sleeping better because with the return in my bladder usage I am now able to wear a texas catheter at night. This is basically a condom with adhesive on it that you wear so that you can go when you need to opposed to waking up and cathing every couple hours which takes a good ten, fifteen minutes. Can you imagine waking up and doing a wonderful task such as that every three four hours throughout the night? How well would you sleep? Using a texas cather I now only have to get up once during the night to take my pills and to turn.

I am sorry that I haven't kept up as promptly as I had mentioned on the blog but I hope this update helps everyone understand what I am up to and how things are going. Between the therapy, eating, sleeping, showering, and going to the bathroom each and every day seems to be packed to the gills. I have to once again thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for the donations and consideration that everyone has given to me which has helped me be able to get the gym set up, allow Kalli to be here with me helping me through the tough times and given me the strength without having to worry as much financially about my situation. I can't wait to see everyone at the next benefit on September 11th at the Wave in Appleton, WI. My family and friends have been doing a phenomenal job setting it up. It should be a really fun and exciting event for us all to get together with music, food, raffles, games, fun giveaways, silent auction, and much much more! I truly cannot wait. Hope to see everyone there! Have a great week and I will try my hardest to blog again soon.

Wednesday August 12th - Week Three at Home

2009-08-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for the wonderful responses about my needs for eventually getting a wheelchair accessible van. Many people have gone out of their way to locate local vans for sale. After going and seeing one of them and having been surrounded by constant pick-ups with wheelchair vans at RIC I now understand that it is going to be quite a learning process to figure out what the best set-up will be for me. It's going to take a lot of research to determine what is all available for there are many different set-ups on the market. I really need to determine what type of lift or ramp makes me feel the safest and most comfortable using it independently. This is going to be one of the most important aspects of the van. So, thank you to all who have been helping me on this search. I appreciate the help!

It really has been wonderful all of the meals that have been made and served to Kalli, Mark and myself. Saturday morning my cousins Josh and Bill Hippert and Josh's girlfriend came over and made one of the most amazing breakfast I have ever had served to me. Josh has his own chickens, so of course we had farm fresh eggs which were delicious. When I was at RIC I went 47 days in a row eating bacon, because I was able to choose each morning what I wanted to eat and it just appeared. Knowing this, Josh brought what I now know as the world's best bacon which is created at Newton Farms somewhere between Manitowoc and Kohler. This bacon is close to a quarter inch thick per slice and truly nothing but meat. One of the neatest things that they did that morning was bring a juicer that made delicious fruits and vegetables into a succulent nectar for us to partake in. They also put together some wonderful homestyle potatoes and cinnamon rolls. We had breakfast sandwiches, omlets, scrambled surprise and more! You would have thought there were over a dozen people eating in our kitchen but really it was just the six of us making complete pigs of ourselves! What a wonderful morning.

After partaking in possibly the best breakfast I have ever had we looked out onto the lake and noticed that on that particular morning it was almost glass. I had been wanting to get into Mark's ski boat for some time and it seemed like there was no better time than right then when the water was nice and we had three strong men to pick me up and put me in. So, we went down to the dock, wheeled me down the stairs to the lower section for Mark's dock is bi-level. From this lower area we then lined me up about 45 degree angle from the boat and assumed three positions. Mark down in the boat holding underneath my knees and around my legs, then Bill and Josh each around an arm, cupping me underneath the armpits. Between the three of them it was one of the very first times I really felt light. With everyone preparing for a massive load it made each person's around 65lb lift feather light. Each of the guys seemed to be looking at each other after I was placed in the boat saying "who had all the weight?" "that wasn't too bad". As we were moving me down into the boat Josh's girlfriend grabbed my roho cushion from my wheelchair and got it down into the boat so that I could sit on that for the ride. The cushion is by far the best in the industry and gives really great cushion support throughout your entire tush. After getting me comfortably positioned we all loaded into the Red Dragon, Mark's 15 1/2 foot tri-hull speed machine. We took a nice ride around the lake, looking at all of the beautiful houses and then headed back for we had a full day ahead of us of family events.

One of the best forms of therapy that I was able to do at RIC was getting into the water on the 12th floor in their pool. I really want to continue this therapeutic activity here in the valley. So, I looked into getting a YMCA membership in order to take advantage of all the pools in the area. Of course, once again with all the people that are supporting me Betsy Lee was able to step up and donate a six month membership to the area YMCA's. With my brother being a member it made it very easy for him and I to begin what will be our weekly swim night. So, Tuesday night my brother came and picked me up, along with my godson Sam, so that the three of us could get me signed up for my membership and take the first plunge. With the Heart of the Valley YMCA being the newest in the area it has the entire layout on one floor so to make it very easy for me to get around. All of the Y's in the area actually have lifts to put you in the water which is a crucial part of the whole process. So, we jumped in the pool, swam around for over an hour which was a really great way to move all of my new movement that I have gotten in the last couple of weeks. On a normal night, I get my leg to bend and pull up maybe four or five times and then the muscle is pretty much exhausted from its own weight. In the pool that evening I was able to bend my leg probably a good forty times which is truly unbelievable. Zero gravity of the water is really great for new incredibly weak muscle movement. I can't wait to go again next week and keep up the great progress!

Today Kalli and I were able to finally cross off our to-do list DMV. We have been meaning to go for probably two weeks to get a wheelchair parking sticker so that we can take advantage of all the great parking spots that are available. The new DMV was really quick and we were actually in and out of there in twenty minutes or so. While we were there we also learned that in order for me to drive again while in a wheelchair I am going to have to take a written test to get my temps, then take the driving test to prove that I can use my hand controls well enough. This was a little bit disappointing that I have to go through all of that in order to drive again but I understand where they are coming from and why they would need to make sure people are safe enough to be on the road.

After my visit to the DMV we rushed over to the Neuroscience Group's new building out off CB for my first follow-up appointment with Dr. Yazbek. We showed up just on time, checked in with the receptionist at the front desk, and then waited very briefly to be x-rayed. After being x-rayed we went over a couple questions with a nurse and then met with Dr. Yazbek. He reviewed the x-rays, letting us know that they looked great and there was nothing wrong with them, for he was really checking to make sure there were no major problems because it is really too early yet to be really checking for full fusion. We went over several aspects of the surgery and learned more about what actually went on that crazy night under the knife. Dr. Yazbek is a great guy, easy to talk to and very down to earth. We met for maybe fifteen minutes then he was off to another meeting. Then we quickly met with the scheduling nurse and headed on our way. One of the coolest things that we learned when going over the surgery with Dr. Yazbek was that the bone that they used to replace and fill in my C7 vertebra was actually a piece of fibula from a clinic down south. The fibula is a very strong and hard bone that works great for this type of procedure. Crazy.

Everyday, along with all of these great adventures, I also have continued a constant regiment of exercises and muscle therapies on my own. Thedacare at Home is providing great in-home PT's and OT's that also continue to come two and three times a week. Most days are non-stop from morning to night filled with muscle building therapy. It is really exciting seeing constant improvement in my hand strength, leg and feet movement along with continual improvement in my daily activities such as showers and my morning routine.

I am going to keep on fighting day in and day out to rebuild and teach each and every muscle in my body so that I can simply just walk in to that DMV and get a new license without them telling me due to your wheelchair you will now need to retake all of your testing. How is that for a goal?

Wednesday August 5th - Week Two at Home

2009-08-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! It's kind of weird not blogging every night, but with everything I have to do on my own now because I don't have 24 hour nursing and PCT staff here to help there just isn't as much down time. Living at home has been really great being able to see friends, family and people I haven't seen in years. A lot of things have been going on over the past week so I better just get started.

I'll dive in to this weeks blog starting off with the new OT and PT staff. I am using Thedacare at Home for my first physical, occupational and nursing needs in the Valley. Thedacare at Home seems to be a good organization that is linked with Theda Clark which will be my next step in rehab. Twice a week I have PT and OT visits here at the house. My PT Lynn is a really nice lady and has been working on stretching and e-stimming my legs each time she visits. Lynn has not worked with a spinal injury in thirty years but seems very willing to try to help me out. On our first visit together she made a real effort to call around and see if anyone else had more experience with spinal cords that could possibly help her shed a bit more light on my situation. Our main focus has truly been e-stimming and movements that are occurring in my left leg which has shown great improvement and probably one of my most exciting advances in the last week. First we e-stimmed my ankle movement pushing down which I now can freely do on my own with a decent amount of movement range. Next, we e-stimmed the muscle that controls pulling the ankle up and back towards my knee. Just this morning I realized that I can on command pull that muscle now which is really neat that as soon as you notice a movement on a muscle if you do a good e-stim session on it it most likely will then begin to move on my command.

I also have been working with OT whose main concern is working with my hands and making sure that different functions such as dressing, shower programs and bowel programs are under full control. First I had a temporary OT for the OT that was in my area was on vacation. We worked on a couple different sessions. She put together complete notes for the local area OT. I am now working with a lady named Shelly. She is really energetic and excited to work with me. Thedacare at Home works with elderly home bound people ninety percent of the time so when I work with Shelly I get the impression that she is excited to have an ingenious young man with lots of potential on her schedule. Just in our first session, I already was asking her to push her own comfort limits by learning to use e-stim and any other treatments that are available for spinal injuries. She mentioned a type of arm sleeve that was also electronic that you would wear and was going to look into it for me.

One of the main objectives with OT for me is definitely a pressing issue that has been giving me a lot of grief since I moved home. Lately, my hands have been giving me trouble because of the way my muscles are contracting and giving me a very closed fist hand position. Every morning when I wake up my hands are completely closed as if they are ready for a boxing match with Muhammad Ali. Throughout the night, I unconsciously close my fists and this action makes it so that when I wake up it takes a half hour to an hour of stretches and different finger extensors exercises to get my hands open. Because of this change going on in my hands I came up with the idea of talking to my doctor about getting a prescription for hand splints that I could wear every night to keep my fingers straight and extended while I am sleeping so that it isn't this constant battle I have been going through. Each night I wake up and I almost feel that I am stepping two steps backwards with my hand function. It is odd with as much trouble as I have been having with my hands lately, there have been different improvements in their function as well. My grip is probably close to twice as strong as it was three weeks ago. Also, there is an exercise that I do quite often to keep my fingers moving where I touch the tip of each finger to the thumb one finger at a time. This exercise has also become easier.

The next large discomfort that has occurred since I moved home has been terrible back pain that is happening from two different agitations. One, is the hospital bed that was provided by Walgreen's. This bed is adjustable but probably thirty years old. The mattress is warped and flexible as can be making you feel like you are stuck in a hot dog bun and the motors that bring the head and foot of the bed up and down are louder than a Mack truck. When I go to adjust the bed I literally wake up the neighbors and most certainly my roommate which I share a bedroom wall with. And secondly, is the back of my wheelchair. The new rental wheelchair that I got from National Seating and Mobility has a back on it that is giving me crazy lower back pain every day now. The combination of these two is creating quite a monster in my lower back. So, in order to try to eliminate this problem I have been getting a hold of the chair company so I can meet with my local distributor to have the chair modified and Kalli and I have been searching for a new bed. This leads me into one of the best things that has happened this week.

The other day Kalli and I went to VanVreedes and a couple sleep shops in the mall looking at tempur-pedic, sleep number and very nice latex and flexible mattresses that will work on an adjustable frame. These types of mattresses are the only kind that bend enough so that the adjustable frame can lift up your head and feet. Of course, the frame is expensive and so are these type of mattresses that work on it. But, Kalli and I came to the conclusion that my sleep is really one of the most important parts of my recovery. For me to be able to do therapy during the day I need to be well rested so that I can stay awake and focus on what I am doing, especially because I am in so much pain and needing to take a regular schedule of pain medicine which makes you sleepy as well. The combination of bad rest and pain killers is enough to put anybody in a 24 hour nap. So, after online searching and a full day of running around to different stores to lay on mattresses we had researched we decided to do one last test drive and then it was time to pull the trigger. We were on our way to VanVreedes to pull the trigger on a Donald Trump flexible mattress and adjustable frame when I said to Kalli before we walk in there lets call American and WG&R to make sure they don't have some cool deal going on right now where I could get a free TV as well since we are spending quite a bit of money on this bed. So, we realized as we pulled up to VanVreedes that WG&R is right next door. Kalli ran in to talk to the salesman there as I called American from the car to find out if there was anything special going on right now. No more than two minutes later Kalli came running back out of the store, excited for sure enough exactly what I had hoped for was the deal going on at WG&R. With the amount of money we needed to spend on our bed, we were going to be able to get a free 42 inch LCD, HDTV. Ecstatic, Kalli and I began transferring me out of the car into my chair to get inside to see what they all had available. WG&R has a HUGE inventory and great display of mattresses for us to choose from. The salesman that worked with us was truly a well informed mattress extraordinaire. He made us feel very comfortable and educated about our purchase. After an hour and a half of transferring onto half a dozen beds or more so I could lay and really try them out we made a decision on a particular latex cushion top bed that was really comfortable, the right height for transfers and queen size. Amazingly, they had both the power frame and the mattress we wanted in stock and could deliver it the very next day. Kalli and I drove home incredibly excited about our new purchase of a bed and the fact that WG&R was going to throw an awesome $600 tv on top of that.

Meanwhile, while we were shopping I had my cousin Bill and Mark working at the house getting rid of the horrible bed Walgreens had sent to try to slowly kill me. So, when we got home the room was cleared out and Kalli and I had to sleep down in the basement where Mark has a guest bed. So, the only ways to get down there are have two people slowly let me down the stairs, or, go outside and roll down the steep backyard and go in through the bottom basement door. Mark's basement walks out to the lake as well. I was convinced that Mark and Bill could fairly easily let me down stair by stair using the staircase. So, I convinced them to give it a try. This idea was one of my worst that I have had so far. Mark ended up being dragged stair by stair fighting for both his and my life. His staircase is not built to code by any means and has incredibly short treads so the wheelchair wheels were not able to stop on any of them. It just wanted to keep going down. Being around 200 pounds didn't help the situation at all, but we made it down with only one monster rug burn all over Mark's ankle. I, on the other hand, was just fine.

Along with new OT and PT's I also had to choose a new local primary physician to help me with drugs and any other needs that I would have. I had an appointment this week with Dr. Revolinski at Theda Clark. He turned out to be a really nice guy, young, patient, and very understanding. He seemed to be one of those doctors that really sits down and listens to what you feel are your needs so that he is able to help you the best he can. To me, that seems to be probably one of the best features you can have in your doctor because so much of your care is based on what you take into your own hands. A doctor is never going to know what is going on with you and how he can fix it if he doesn't listen to what your needs are. After sitting down and talking with him for a while we made several small changes to my prescription and I got him to write me a few prescriptions for my hand splints, a power bed for tax reasons, and a longer lasting pain med to trial. Before we left, we also got his signature for my disabled parking pass which we will be going to go get at the DMV today.

Before we left the hospital Kalli and I decided it would be smart to go look at the 6th floor so that we knew what to expect for my outpatient therapy that I will be starting at Theda Clark after I am done with homecare. The sixth floor is theda's brain and spinal therapy inpatient floor. Much to our surprise, the 6th floor was very similar to the 7th floor of RIC. They also had a workout gym with mats and several pieces of equipment that would be helpful when I am there. Everything was a little older looking but definitely still functional. We left the hospital feeling confident in our decision to use Theda Clark as our next step of therapy.

Every week a wonderful organization, called Lions Club, is open from 10-2 and 6-7 on Tuesdays. Yesterday I went there for the first time with a good family friend Larry Plia. Last time I saw Larry he had explained to me that he recently retired, had been following my recovery and was more than willing to help me any time with a ride or whatever I would need. Larry is a great guy and I have always enjoyed the little bit of a time I have spent with him over the years so I took him up on the offer. He is a close friend of my father's and lives only a mile or so away, basically just across the lake. So, Larry picked me up Tuesday morning around 10:30 so that him and I could investigate this highly spoke of Lions Club. The club is in a small unincorporated town called Larsen, just a few minutes out past Willie Beamons, west of Neenah. We pulled up to a pole shed with a big Lions Club sign on the side. A few old dodgers approached our car as we began transferring me out. Friendly as can be, they began asking us what we could use to help my situation. The Lions Club is a group of old, retired men that take in donated medical supplies and rehab equipment so that they can turn around and redistribute it to anyone that is in need. The equipment is free of charge and there for the taking. As I rolled around the large pole shed I felt like a kid in a candy shop. They had so much great stuff that was exactly what I was looking for. I had a handful of different items on my wishlist that I was hoping they would have. Virtually, every single thing I was looking for was there and they were more than willing to let it go. Basically, they put a number on all of the items you take and record simply that you have them. They ask that if there comes a point that you no longer need them that you just return them so that someone else could benefit as you did. But, if it is something that you will continue to need it is yours forever. What an amazing organization. There is so much equipment that people receive which is paid for by insurance, they use it, get better, and don't have a clue what to do with it after that. Here is the list of all the wonderful things that I was able to find in this handi-cap play land: adjustable bedside table on wheels, shower wheelchair, space heater, portable aluminum ramp, trapeze set-up for leg exercises, small support cushion for my back, power lift for transferring into a boat which will swing out off the dock, exercise back wedge, toilet seat extension. All of this equipment would literally be thousands of dollars and I can't wait to put it all in use. Especially, the power lift so that I will be able to use my ski boat once I get it back from CA, which by the way is a HUGE need that I have right now. So, I am going to just throw it out there to see if anyone would be willing to help me out - I will pay for a plane flight from either here to CA, or CA to here and rent the vehicle to tow the boat back. I have a twenty foot ski boat that I would like to be able to have while I am home because it is one of my favorite things to do and is something that I still can do since power boats are set up for a quadriplegic. There are no foot controls, the steering and throttle are both done with your hands.

I mentioned on my last blog that food was always appreciated. Several people came through with some wonderful dishes. I just wanted to say thank you, thank you! With everything that is going on, therapists coming and going it has been so nice to have good meals in the fridge that are easily heated and enjoyed.

Another important part of my therapy is to exercise and continue building muscle strength. Mark and I have taken a section of the garage and dedicated it to this cause. My cousin Bill and his business partner Brett have donated a piece of equipment from their anytime fitness in Plymouth to get us started. Bill, Brett - thank you so much. I can't wait to have the garage all put together and start working out in there. If anyone else has useful equipment that they are not using right now I would love to add to our Lakeshore Gym here in Mark's garage. Things that I could use are: peck deck, curl bar with weights, pedal bike that I could convert into something where I use my arms to pump my legs. And, anything else that people feel would be useful.

In response to my vehicle needs: Getting a van is definitely at the top of my list in order to achieve true freedom. I will be searching for the next several months for a vehicle that would work for me to modify or that is already converted. I believe the best way would be to either have a quick lift that puts me into the back of the van or a ramp that is easily flipped down where I can wheel in, then have the drivers seat removed so that I can simply wheel into the driver's position, lock down and drive away. The vehicle would then need to be converted with hand controls for driving as well. Any help or information that people would have on vehicles that are available would be wonderful! The time it takes to break down the wheelchair and load it into the car is what I am wanting to avoid. With this style of vehicle this way I can just roll right up into it and drive away. With as long as it takes to break down the wheelchair and transfer in and out, it becomes so common for me to take the easy way and just say why don't you just run in I will just wait in the car. I really hate that concept which is one of the main reasons why I want to be able to just quickly roll in and out of the car.

Upcoming events:

August 16th
THE GIG: 1132 East Wright Street, Milwaukee, WI 53212
*Noon to 5pm
*LIVE MUSIC: Nick from Delta Routine, a local band, will be playing along with possibly a few other great bands.
*Raffles
*Cheap Drinks
*I WILL BE THERE! My good friends Ski and Nolen are helping put on this event and I can't wait to be there. I think it will be a really good time and a great way to see all of my close friends from Milwaukee. I hope you can all make it! It should be a lot of fun. Ski will be selling raffle tickets throughout the event for he has collected tons of prizes from local businesses that will all be given away through the raffle. If anyone else has something to add or that they want put into the raffle please contact Ski at 262-442-8049 or Nolen at 920-379-0214. Or, get a hold of me and I can help coordinate as well at andrew.hippert@bayerbms.com

My family is also planning another benefit on September 11th at the WAVE in Appleton. A benefit meeting was held yesterday and details are soon to come!

Monday July 27th

2009-07-27T14:13:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone- I finally got out of rehab and was able to head back home. Thursday morning RIC asked me to be packed and ready to go by 10 so they could begin cleaning my room for the next patient. So Kalli and I packed up everything and had it ready so that on Thursday morning we were able to all jump in the car and head to Menasha where I would be living with my good buddy Mark Lee from now on. Thursday morning I walked around and said my goodbyes to everyone that has been there for me over the last two months. As I walked around there were so many people to give hugs and goodbyes to, it was slightly overwhelming... but yet I was excited to go. You can only stay in a place that isn't your own home for so long before you get a bit antsy to get back to a normal life. So after saying goodbye to everyone we jumped in the car and headed back. The drive went really well even though the car was packed to the gills with each of our things. Once we got to Mark's house the working crew (my parent's, Kalli's parents, and Mark's parents) were all just finishing up odds and ends in the bathroom and throughout the house so that it was ready for me to live in. We moved in all of our things and re-arranged my room so that the hospital bed and a futon would all fit and it turned out just fine. Things are going really well and each day we continue to adapt to the new surroundings which change the way we do my nightly routine and many other daily tasks.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing in the blog each and every day. Now that I'm back to what is a fairly normal schedule and living at home, I'm going to try to just blog once a week, usually on Sunday, so that I can give highlights of what is going on. Now when really exciting things, such as wiggling my toes occur, I'll most likely jump on the blog and make sure everyone knows. Thank you everyone for following my progress so intently, but it's a bit more difficult to stay on a good therapy schedule and live in a normal household, so my time seems to go by even faster. I would love to keep up and continue blogging everyday but I think it's time to just move back to once a week. I wanted to make sure everyone knew that, so that people weren't worried or thinking that something was wrong when they didn't see a blog for days and days.

I'm going to be living at Mark Lee's house, as you all know, and his address, if you need to send anything, is the following:

Andrew Hippert
1124 Lakeshore Dr
Menasha, WI 54952

Please continue the prayers- I have an extremely long road ahead of me and I need all of the support I can get. Also, because everything takes a bit longer to do and people have been asking if there is anything they can do to help - Mark, Kalli, and I are always looking for a hot meal. I can't thank everyone enough for all of the support that they have shown through prayers, charity outings, and helping me in endless ways. Thank you all!

I also want to thank the whole group of individuals that put together a special rehab program by getting me a handful of games and a Nintendo Wii. A couple weeks ago, Mark had called me asking me if there was anything that I would like for people had been asking what they could do to help. I told him that RIC had a Nintendo Wii and it truly was a great way to rehab. So Mark and several others put some money together to go and get me exactly that. I can't thank you enough for I have already played it and it's truly a great work-out, and really fun.

So, I look forward to talking to you all again in about a week, where I will again give an update of the weekly highlights and ups-and-downs in my new life back in the Fox Valley.

Love you all,
Andrew

Wednesday July 23rd

2009-07-22T18:43:00.001-07:00

I woke up immediately wiggled my toes and moved my leg to make sure it wasn't just all a dream. Checking my phone it was flooded with text messages and emails from friends and family expressing their excitement for the night's events. The word had truly spread like wild fire and I was far from experiencing this wonderful event alone even though I may have been the only one in the room I felt like the whole world found out as quickly as could be. I put down some breakfast and in walked Carey for someone had mentioned that I had something to share with her. I showed her what had happened and she of course freaked out feeling my legs, making me do it again and again, bubbling with joy, sharing the moment with me. She then decided "You are not going to hand group, you are coming with me for we need to teach you as much as we can today about how to exercise and strengthen these legs." I got out of bed and headed straight to the mat in the gym where we went through several exercises that I could do with my new found movement. She put me in a leg sling hanging from the ceiling to eliminate the gravity and allowed me to move my leg back and forth to strengthen these wonderful firing muscles.

After my session with Carey I met up with Diane who just returned from her two week vacation from Montana. She had a great time with her sisters and was happy to be home. Diane was also truly excited for me for all the improvements she could very easily see having been gone for two weeks. My fingers have also come a long way and increased their own movement drastically. She showed me a bunch of new skills and we figured out a couple of tools that my dad could easily build to work my hand muscles to the fullest.

After working with Diane, we ran to the room, continued to pack up some things and then headed to the canary room for some lunch. After lunch I headed to the gym to go over some more stuff with Carey about my care in the near future. Then for the next few hours I ran around just finishing up odds and ends so that we would be ready to leave tomorrow.

At 2:30 I had a swimming appointment up on the 12th floor which I had been looking forward to all day. I ran up there, jumped into the swim chair, got put on the lift, dropped in the water and began swimming. Swimming is unbelievable and really really fun! I could float on my back, swim under water, and even do laps. It is truly quite amazing. After about an hour in the pool, we headed back downstairs to the 7th floor where I got dried off and changed just in time for my next appointment which was another massage. It felt like another spa day between swimming and massages, how could you ask for more? Truly, the perfect ending to my last day of therapy at the number one spinal cord Rehabilitation Institute in the country.

After my massage we finalized the first ordering of my medications I will be going home with. While on the phone with Walgreens in walked Pat Keagen, a good buddy from high school that now lives in Chicago. Pat, Kalli and I decided to walk over to Walgreens to go pick up my new prescription. We then headed to subway, got some food and came back to RIC, ate dinner, talked about the latest and greatest then headed to my room to start my FINAL RIC nightly routine.

As excited as I am to go home it is going to truly be hard to say goodbye to all of the people that have gotten me this far. RIC is truly an institute that allows you to learn all the skills needed to help yourself and get back on your feet. I have learned SO much about not only myself but every facet of my injury; from training sessions to therapy this place is the total package. I feel completely confident to leave and begin my journey towards an independent lifestyle and there is definitely no way I could have done it alone. There are endless amounts of people that have created this new found confidence in which I will never forget. Thank you all.

Tuesday July 21st

2009-07-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

My day started awfully early today with a 7:30am PT with my favorite physical therapist in the whole world, Carey. She came in my room, made sure I got out of bed and we headed right for the bathroom to practice a tub transfer for what was my very last attempt before the real deal over at Mark's house. The transfer went well and I used some leg loops that I had made with my part time OT, Katie. They are basically some straps that you velcro around your ankles and thigh so you have a place to grab and lift from so you can use your wrist power opposed to my non-existent grip in my hands.

After PT I headed back to my room to eat some breakfast before my next hand group session which was done by the recreation therapists as they have done in the past. We headed upstairs to play some pool. In the group was just Anthony and I and we went back and forth shooting the balls as best we could. It is strange these last couple days because I've gotten to know all of the employees here at RIC really well and you never know if they are going to be working the next day and you don't want to miss being able to say goodbye for what seems like the very last time even though I plan to return. Our game of pool took so long we weren't able to actually finish it but it was another great feeling for it was twice as easy as the last time I had played. I remember playing with my sister Sarah and breaking into a full sweat only about half way through the game whereas this time, it was pretty nonchalant due to all the muscles I have gained.

After pool, I had a little break so I began to finalize a bit of paperwork and decision making that needed to be done to establish a local doctor in the Appleton area. Kalli and I researched a handful of doctors that were recommended by friends and family coming down to Dr. Jason Revolinki at Theda Clark. I set up an appointment with him for August 3rd and by that time I was twenty five minutes late for my last OT Exercise Group. So, I quickly scurried off to it. I threw some four pound weights around my wrist and finished it out with excitement.

After exercise group, we grabbed some lunch. I ate quickly for I had a examination that I needed to be in bed for at one o'clock. So I jumped in bed and a group of three doctors came to do the same test they had done on me the day that I arrived at RIC. It is basically a sensation test where they use needles and q-tips to prod and poke all over my body while I gave a rating of what amount of sensation I was having in that particular spot. The doctors had the initial results with them as well so it was interesting to see what areas had gained back sensation and movement.

As soon as the examination was done, I had an OT session as well as a very special visitor. Kalli babysat for the cutest little girl named Ellie in Milwaukee all through college. Ellie and her family are moving to Baltimore very soon and really wanted to make sure they saw Kalli and myself before they left so they took the train and came to visit for the day. Probably almost two years ago Ellie, Kalli and myself were sitting down by the beach in Milwaukee. Kalli was babysitting and I met up with them for a little lunch. All I brought with me was a cucumber some salt and a little knife to cut the cucumber into thin slices to be eaten. I showed Ellie how much I liked the salted cucumber and got her to try it. She absolutely loved it and ate over half of my cucumber sitting down by the beach. So as cute as can be Ellie walked into my room with a beautiful drawing and a bag with a humongous cucumber. It was so cute and it was really fun to see her, her mom and her grandmother I had heard much about.

After the quick visit, I finished up a simple session of tying my shoes, putting my clothes on and convincing my OT I needed a few more tools before I left as backups incase I was to lose or break the ones I have. As soon as our time was up I had an appointment with my wheelchair distributor and the RIC representative for wheelchair seating and positioning. We all got together on the 15th floor to hash out all the decisions that needed to be made for a different chair because of my decision on which power wheel brand to purchase. We went through all the Quickie brand options and came upon the Quickie2 with an 80 degree front. I think it will work out just fine. One of the main decisions was to get a collapsible chair versus a rigid frame so that I don't run into the chair not being able to fit into someone's car. After all of the decisions were made it was practically 5 o'clock and time to go grab some food.

I went to the room to take a leak while Kalli went and picked out some food from the cafeteria for us to share. Now comes the much more exciting part which all of you heard about last night. Kalli and I began blogging in bed when all of a sudden I got this urge to move my toes. She took off my socks and sure enough those darn little buggers just started moving for me just like I knew they someday would. It was absolutely amazing but it gets even better yet...

We finished up our celebration and Kalli headed home while I sat in my bed just wiggling away my toes and watching TV and calling people to share the news. But then, around 12:30 I all of a sudden got this other sensation running through my leg where I said to myself "oh my gosh I think my leg is going to move!" Sure enough, I put my mind and everything I had into it and my left leg up and picked right up sliding my knee into the air! I did it about three times until the entire leg was thoroughly exhausted and couldn't move. I thought for a minute that it was just a fluke but then I waited about five more minutes and sure enough I did it again! I yelled for the nurse and she came in and said "What is going on?" I explained to her the situation and she immediately exploded with excitement and took off my night time booties which prevent foot drop. We took them off and again I began moving my leg as my face flooded with tears of joy.

During my injury I always told myself that I would try and try until I walked but never was I just filled with the overwhelming feeling that I truly will walk as I did this evening. Between my toes wiggling and my whole leg moving I knew that moment that I would prance around once again.

WIGGLING TOES!!!

2009-07-21T18:29:00.000-07:00

JULY 21st, 8:15pm.

After explaining to the blog how wonderful everyone was to me at the golfing event the love and support just now blessed me with the most amazing thing ever, a true full on toe wiggling, foot moving amazing sweet action of my fat feet!! Kalli and I were sitting here in bed and had just finished writing today's blog when I got this feeling, like my feet might move. Now, prior to this all I had ever gotten was my middle toe on my left foot to just barely at all wiggle the smallest amount. Whereas, just now, all of my toes on my left foot and about half on my right foot were able to do a full-on wiggle. It made me want to scream from the highest mountain "I'm gonna walk!" Kalli recorded it on her camera and as soon as we can we will try to add it to the blog.

Monday July 20th

2009-07-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

Today was a BIG day. Not your normal big day, a life changing kind of amazing big day. I woke up around 3 to take a leak. I was really excited about my upcoming day but knew that I should try to get at least another half hour of sleep before I got it started. I had set an alarm for 4am so that I could be ready to just head right down to the car once the girls arrived at 5am. I finished up all of the last minute touches for leaving for a whole day, pills, passes and cathing supplies. It is a little different than normally just running out of the house like I used to. Everything went smoothly and we got to the car to load up. I transferred into the front seat of Alex Wilhelm's car, a tiny Saturn. The girls then broke down my chair and began attempting to fit it in the trunk. Because the chair that I use at RIC is a rigid frame it doesn't break down like a folding chair would. The beautiful lime green frame wouldn't fit in the trunk, so my mom and Kalli had to ride all the way back, four hours to Appleton, with it between them in the backseat of the car. This was a good learning experience for it made me realize that I definitely have to get a fold-able chair when I go to pick my own.

We arrived at Reid Golf Course where an amazing charity golf outing was being held for me all day long. A few people had already arrived and more and more just kept showing up as we got closer to the ten o'clock shotgun tee time. We ended up with ninety-seven golfers making up 24 teams which dominated the entire golf course for almost the entire day. Kalli, Mark and I rode three across in our own golf cart so that we could run around like a marshal and harass all of the teams on the course. Not only was it an amazing turnout out on the course, but the clubhouse was also filled all day long with friends and family showing their support. We had a ton of fun going from group to group, handing out snacks, beers, and taking pictures.

Every hole had a fun contest to partake in from closest to the pin to shortest drive, everyone had a chance at some prizes. After a full day out on the course everyone began piling into the clubhouse where there were tables and tables filled with many different prizes and packages for a silent auction. I can't say enough to thank all the people that made it possible by donating prizes, services, and so much more!

There was a spread of food surrounded by a sea of conversation which filled the room as everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time for it was truly a perfect day. The weather was great, the turnout was amazing, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to come back to Appleton for my first time. After rolling around talking with so many great friends and family I hadn't seen in years I got a plate of food and mowed down as quickly as I could for I had to get back to RIC by around 8:30 or so. After eating, I snuck off into the back locker room to take a leak when no one was looking, it is pretty funny the places you can take a leak when you are peeing into a catheter bag.

The silent auction continued to be a great hit as the people circled the tables bidding on their favorite prizes. You could see people keeping an eye on things they wanted, going back and outbidding to make sure they got what they wanted. After a while, Jill Long, Mark Lee and David Lee began announcing the winners from each hole. Prizes were handed out and it was fun to see who was beating up the course and who was letting the course beat them up.

The giving spirit of the entire group was absolutely unbelievable. The whole time I rolled around in the club house speaking with different people I was so filled with love, support, and comfort it was hard to keep it together. At one point, I took a quick stroll around the tables filled with all of the silent auction prizes and each item made me think how much everyone loved me and was willing to do so much to help me get back on my feet. I couldn't believe how much was donated and offered towards the cause of the day.

After all of the prizes were announced, grand prizes were awarded to Brian Much and Bob Rodesavich for several hundred dollars each. Without blinking an eye each of them took their winnings and stuck it right in the donation box making the clubhouse explode with celebration and emotion. Choking back the tears at this point my heart started beating faster and faster for I don't think I have ever experienced such a rush of love in my whole life. Shortly after these tremendous acts of selflessness the crowd all placed their eyes onto me for I wanted to try to thank everyone with a few words. Although there aren't even words in the english language to describe emotions that were flowing through my body I tried my hardest to speak from my heart. With tears running down my cheeks and my voice continuing to leave me I professed how grateful I was to be surrounded by such wonderful people that beautiful summer day. I can't thank each and every one of you enough. Thank you, thank you, and yes I am going to say it one more time, THANK YOU.

After saying goodbye Kalli, my mom and I got into the car to head back to the RIC. On my way back I thought about how excited I am to move back to Appleton and to be near so many of my family, friends and everyone that is supporting me. It truly made me realize how far my rehab has already gotten me and that I am ready to move on to the next step towards an independent life.

Sunday July 19th

2009-07-19T17:29:00.001-07:00

I woke up in my room all to myself around 8:30 which is probably the latest I have ever slept in yet and I didn't have anything until 10 so there was still plenty of time to have breakfast, get ready, and head to hand group. In hand group, I started out with a man's wallet, thank goodness, for last time they stuck me with a ladies wallet. I practiced pulling out all of the money and credit cards that were inside. The first time I did this drill I slightly struggled and it took a couple minutes. This time, I had every credit card and drop of money out and back in, in probably about thirty seconds or less. Again, this is always the most encouraging, when you do an activity, then experience it again a week or two later and truly see the improvement due to the ease the second time around. After the wallet, I grabbed my favorite bucket of putty and puttied my way through part of the hour. Once again, I got every bean out. Next, I finished up the hour writing a birthday card to my Big Bro Tim. Which, as long as I am saying it in here, I will be giving it to him tomorrow at the golf outing.

After hand group I made sure everything was settled and ready for my day pass for the big golf outing tomorrow. I am so excited to see all of the people which consists of friends and family and people I haven't seen for years and years. It is truly going to be a really fun event.

We ate lunch, took pills, drained the dragon, so that we could head out for a movie at 1:30. Kalli, my mom and I walked over to the local AMC just a few blocks away and watched Public Enemies with Johnny Depp. It was neat seeing the scenes from Chicago, Oshkosh and Rhinelander but really all in all thought the movie was too long, a bit slow, and not really all that good. I am not trying to discourage anyone from seeing it but it just wasn't quite worth the nine bucks to me. Either way, it was fun. On the way home Kalli and I walked passed a sushi restaurant right next to the theater and some people were out on the patio where we saw a couple of rolls they were eating which looked delicious. We looked at each other and both felt the urge to go try it out. My mom headed back to the apartment to make some food while Kalli and I decided to give it a whirl. We ordered a couple rolls, edamame and were not disappointed at all! One of the rolls that we ordered had ten pieces in it which for any of you that enjoy sushi know that is a humongous roll! The food was great, we paid our bill and headed home!

Once we got back I decided to transfer into an armchair we just recently got in the corner of my room. The chair is pretty comfortable and actually turns into a bed for patients visitors to stay the night if they so desire. While sitting in the chair Kalli and I decided we really needed to catch up with our blogging for again, we have been really busy and kept not having time to keep everyone updated. So we did four days of blogging until about 8 o'clock at night where it was then time for me to start my nightly routine and try to get to bed early for Alex Wilhelms is coming tonight to pick us up and drive us to Appleton in the morning, really really early. Can't wait to see you all tomorrow. Just a reminder again, it is a 10 o'clock shotgun tee time and a 9 o'clock check-in time. We have around 100 people signed up so please everyone be there on time or early so everything can be started by 10! Sounds like the food, silent auction and activities are all ready to go and I am so excited to get out of here and see all of you in the AM! Again, wonderful day full of fun and activity. Normally, when you are done with a day and you felt fine all day you don't sit back and think how great it is that I felt fine today. But, now, with this new injury it really makes me think at the end of a good day how wonderful it is to be healthy, feel good, and have another great day! See you all tomorrow, Love Andrew.

Saturday July 18th

2009-07-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I sat in bed eating breakfast and talking with Kalli as she set up Maurice a Google email address so that we could keep in touch. Maurice is going to buy a computer within the next week for while he was here he had decided it was time that he finally had one of his own. So, we set him up with his first email address while he finished packing up all of his things. We both got out of bed and headed out to the canary room to get a couple last pictures with my big black bodyguard which is what he called himself. It is interesting how while you are here you create these great friendships that unfortunately will become difficult to keep up due to the fact that in only a couple days I will also be leaving and heading back to Wisconsin. Maurice lives right here in Chicago and promises to come visit me on Tuesday before I leave.

Around 11 o'clock all of Maurice's papers were signed and his ride was here to bring him home. We said our final goodbyes where I gave him a big hug and promised to stay in touch; which I definitely plan on doing. I can't wait to get him up to visit the valley and get him in a boat for his very first time. For, somehow, after 42 years he has never even been in a boat at all. So, as soon as I can I am going to have him come visit for a guys weekend.

At one o'clock I had a PT session with a guy named Vince, whom I have never had before. Vince turned out to be very knowledgeable and taught me several exercises that were really great for strengthening my core. After my session with Vince, I decided to sit down and draw some very detailed diagrams of my beloved rickshaw. With all the dimensions down on paper I really think it is going to be a fairly easy piece of equipment to recreate. Now, I haven't really mentioned this to Mark yet, but I am hoping he is down for creating a workout/gym somewhere in the house or garage so that both of us can get buff.

After completing my drawings, I of course needed to make sure the rickshaw was still working so I pumped out another six sets of fifteen. After pumping iron, I came back to the room where Kalli and I pulled out my Uncle's E-stim machine and did another session of therapy on my hands. While we were shocking me, Mike and Ruth Schmelzer, the parents of my good friend Bob, stopped by for a visit. We all decided to head out for dinner at a local restaurant called Timothy O'Tooles. Again, it was incredibly interesting the way in which we needed to enter the restaurant being that I am in a wheelchair. In fact, this was probably the most interesting entrance that I have experienced yet. Basically, we went into another building's ramp, through a tanning salon, into a back beer keg storage room, where we then entered a 140 year old freight elevator filled with fruit flies. This very interesting elevator then brought us to the restaurant's level where we entered in through some back secret entrance. Finally, we appeared at the table where everyone else was already seated. The food was great and we all had a cocktail and then headed home.

On our way home, my mom once again parted her way and Kalli and I headed back to the RIC to start my nightly routine. This was the first night without big Reese which was kind of strange and a bit lonely, but I had absolutely no problem passing right out for really I was only working on about 3 or 4 hours of sleep from the night before.

Friday July 17th

2009-07-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

I woke up feeling great as I have now for the last couple of days. My mom showed up and began helping me get ready so that I could get to hand group on time. Today was Maurice's last day for he will be leaving on Saturday. Maurice has again been a wonderful roommate as Joey was. He has had a lot of great insight and suggestions for he has twenty years of experience in a wheelchair. Him and I over the last two weeks really bonded, learning so much about each other. It is going to be hard to see him go as well. We got me up and going in my chair and I headed to hand group. In hand group we had another fun Friday and played Uno. In hand group today was Anthony, Matt, Paula and myself. Matt won the first game and there wasn't quite enough time to finish the second.

After hand group I had an hour break so I went into the gym so that I could pump some iron on my favorite piece of exercise equipment, the rickshaw. After six sets of fifteen at seventy pounds, for I upped it another five pounds, it was time for exercise group.

Leading the group was Margaret, another one of our wonderful OT's here on the seventh floor. Margaret's approach to exercising our arms was a much slower but very effective workout. Again, for our group really enjoys playing with the beach ball we began bouncing it around trying to keep it up for as long as we could for the second half of the session. The group hit an all time high of 46 touches before the beach ball hit the ground. For a bunch of people in wheelchairs, with limited arm and hand motion, I would say that is pretty darn good.

After exercise group, we ate some lunch, I took a leak and fooled around until two o'clock when I had PT with Carey. When I did my fitting for my wheelchair, which I will actually not receive for two or three months, I was able to test drive a set of Quickie Power Assist Wheels. While I was test driving the Quickie wheels, my distributor and wheelchair representative from RIC, both kept telling me how much better another brand, E-motion, was and that will actually be what they should order me. Because the power wheels are such an expensive purchase, I let them know that I would really like to try the E-motion wheels before I made a decision on which to get. So, today was the day that the manufacturer's rep from E-motion brought by a demo-wheelchair for me to test for the weekend. Carey promised the rep that I would be formally trained on how to use the wheels before they were handed over for the weekend. So, her and I went upstairs to get briefed on how they work and what to do to activate all the functions. After the briefing, we brought the chair back downstairs and I jumped out of mine and into the demo. We then headed outside to see how this baby worked. First, I took on some grass and wheeled all over. Then, we found a ramp across the street and I practiced going up and down. After all this test driving I came to the conclusion that I actually really liked the Quickie Power Assist Wheels better than these fancy dancy E-motion brand Power Assist Wheels. I liked the Quickie's better for the following reasons: 1. They have an extra battery that you can keep on a charger and then swap out when your batteries die, opposed to the E-motion where the batteries are in the frame of the wheel and once you die you either have to sit and plug in or hop out of your chair and just wait. 2. The E-motion comes with an enormous remote control which they expect you to either hang around your neck, hold between your legs, or strap onto the chair. This remote is the way in which you switch the wheels speed from high to low, which they call indoor and outdoor speed. The problem is, the low speed seems a little too slow while you are indoors and the high speed is a little jumpy and out of control for tight spots outdoors. And, why would I want to have to stop, hit a button, and switch speeds whenever I want to go a little faster? So, the Quickie wheels basically have more of a automatic transition between low and high, which is activated based on the amount of pressure you apply to the wheels and a nicely mounted on and off switch on the side of the chair. So, with this conclusion of wanting to purchase the Quickie's over the E-motion's it creates the need to choose a different wheelchair for the one I had chosen is not compatible with the Quickie wheels. From what I have been told, Quickie and Invacare are the two best brands in the wheelchair game. So, it really isn't an issue and there are lots of great Quickie chairs as well.

For my last night with Maurice we decided to eat dinner in bed and sit back with our ladies and watch the new movie Hangover in the room. One of the front desk ladies had a pretty good bootleg that we borrowed. We watched the movie, relaxed in bed and began our nightly routine. After the girls left, Maurice and I began some great conversation, like we do most nights. Unlike other nights, we ended up talking until 3 in the morning going back and forth telling stories about our lives. We then finally realized how late it was and said our last goodnight and headed to bed.

Thursday July 16th

2009-07-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

I woke up got dressed, ate breakfast and hopped out of bed to head to hand group with Kalli. Kalli had a pile of thank you cards that she wanted to work on from her birthday while I joined the hand group. I began working on my putty, pulling each and every bean out of it that I could find. The putty is really starting to do the trick for I am noticing more and more things that I can do with my hands. This is encouraging me to think that I will get full use of my hands at some point or another. I definitely still have a very weak grip and a long way to go on this road towards fully functioning hands but I can see progress and that is just a wonderful feeling. Adrian, one of the assistants - who I have definitely not talked about enough throughout this blog, she is such a wild character and really creates a great energy throughout the entire 7th floor. She is the only therapist assistant on this floor and has worked here for 29 years. She has the funniest laugh that is more like an explosion than a giggle and you can hear it coming a mile away. Adrian brought over a bag full of cloth and string for me to work my hands by sewing. Mainly, just to be funny, I grabbed some beautiful pink silk material to match my pink thread and began to sew a small hand purse. I really don't think the hand group expected me to go as far as I did and actually produce an entire beautiful little purse that Prada will soon be after me for the design. I cut a red rubber band to use it as a very stylish handle, which really completed the small hand bag. As silly and metro as it may have been creating the bag, it really was a good exercise for my fingers.

After hand group I had an hour break so I ran to my room to fill the cute little bag with M&M's so that I could give it to Carey, my PT as a thank you gift. She of course loved it to death and asked me where I got it for the craftsmanship was exquisite.

Next I had exercise group led by Katie, a floater, fill-in OT that has been filling in for Diane while she has been on vacation. During exercise group we worked our arms with many different movements and then gathered around in a tight circle to play catch with a beach ball again. This activity is really fun and involved everybody quite well, working your shoulders and arms all together.

After exercise group we went into the canary room to throw down some lunch where I came close to losing my life. In the canary room they have these very heavy tables that are oval shaped. We all sat down to have some lunch and sitting with us at the table was a gentleman we have come to know as Crazy Larry. Larry must have at some point bumped his head a little along with his spinal cord injury. He pretends as if he is a child calling all of his nurses "mama" and in general always just a bit strange. So, on this special Thursday, one of the PT's came up with this crazy idea that Larry was ready for a power chair; even though by no means should he ever be trusted in a powerful vehicle like that. So, every time they park Larry in some place or another, they go and turn the power off so that he doesn't try to take off by himself. But, at lunch, whomever parked him didn't throw the off switch that's down below that he cannot get at. So, we were just sitting there eating lunch while Larry is getting more and more impatient and upset that no one had come to feed him yet. It also didn't help that he has this enormous obsession with snacks and Joey's mom brought a couple dozen cupcakes for everyone to share on Joey's last day. These cupcakes are sitting at a table next to us and Larry is just dying to have another one, for my mom had already fed him one because she felt bad that no one was coming to feed him. So, in Larry's rebellion and frustration of not being fed he began just pushing any buttons he could to try to make his chair work. Well, sure enough he figured out how to put himself into a pressure break which is where the chair tips backwards and lays him on his back. Now, Larry is sitting on one end of the table and I am on the other. He's underneath the table just like I am. So, as he leans back into this pressure break he begins picking up the entire table pulling it probably about two to three feet into the air. Meanwhile, smashing my legs and dumping my entire food tray into my lap trapping me under the table. As he goes up I am yelling "Larry, stop! Stop Larry! Stop! Larry stop!" but of course, being Crazy Larry he just continues to yell "no! no! no!" Kalli quickly jumps up and helps pull me from the table to my rescue, like superwoman. Luckily, the table, which is literally at least 200 pounds, didn't bruise me at all and I was fine. But, it definitely frustrated me a little bit that they put Crazy Larry in a power chair and didn't have someone to feed him. All in all I was just fine and looking back at it it is kind of funny and really crazy.

So, next I had a one o'clock OT with Katie. We created a pair of leg loops which are straps that you velcro to your ankles and thighs so that you have loops of webbing to grab and help move your legs around during different types of transfers. I don't think I will need the leg loops very long but there are definitely certain things they will come in handy to help me do. So, after the leg loops we ran upstairs to the fifteenth floor where they have a humongous sewing room where a couple people sit and create different tools and devices to help out patients. By the time we came down from the 15th floor, it was time to meet up with Carey for an hour long PT session.

For our session of PT, we decided to do several different kinds of transfers practicing all over the 7th floor. First, I did a floor transfer and then Carey taught Kalli how to help me back into my chair if I was ever to tip over or fall out. It is a fairly interesting process and it takes pretty much two people to tip me back up. Next, we went into the canary room and I practiced transferring on to the yellow couch they have in there. Lastly, we jumped back into the gym and I got on the mat to do some side crunches and stretch myself out.

After PT we went back to my room to make some calls to HR Direct for we had a couple different questions for insurance and disability. We then ate dinner and after that jumped into bed for that night I was going to try doing my bowel program directly over the toilet for the first time. The process was extremely successful and a great step towards an independent nightly routine which I will need in order to really feel independent.

Wednesday July 15th

2009-07-15T19:32:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning feeling much better than the last two days! Although it is strange, even when I feel good, getting up in the morning is truly such a task. So, I ate some breakfast which actually ended up mostly on my shirt for I dumped my cereal bowl onto my chest and ended up having to change my shirt quick before hand group. I got to hand group and again Sarah and Matt were both there. I worked on putty for it really seems to be the best therapy for my hands that I have found so far. After hand group I had an hour break so I went over to Joey's room and talked with him for a little while for he never gets out of bed until 11 o'clock or later and he is leaving tomorrow so I just wanted to say hi.

At 11:00 I had an hour long PT session with Carey. So, I quickly wheeled from Joey's to the gym where Carey had big plans for me. She really wanted to work on working on getting up and down to the ground from a chair or mat just incase I was ever to fall. Getting down off the mat was fairly easy and well controlled. Getting back up is really pretty tough. I have seen people that have five, ten years under their belt make it look so easy. But, for me right now, it is still an incredibly difficult task. There are several different techniques that Carey showed me and we worked on which one was best for me. I was almost able to get back up by myself but Carey did have to help me a little bit.

After PT I ate lunch, then headed out to the center room, near the reception desk to do a OT exercise group led by Margaret, one of the other OT's. Margaret has a very nonchalant, fairly easy style of arm exercise. So, we did that for about 25 minutes and then really changed it up and tightened the circle of wheelchairs by each of us moving forward a bit so that we could throw a blue ball around the circle; practicing hand coordination by throwing and catching. After we threw the blue ball around for a while we tightened the group up even closer and got a beach ball out where we had a really fun time tossing it around the circle, counting how many times we could hit it and keep it moving without it hitting the ground. With all the different levels of function and ability it was absolutely hilarious to watch us all struggle and try our hardest to keep that ball moving. One of the new patients, named Matt, has a halo neck brace apparatus in which is literally screwed into his skull, holding his head incredibly still. This makes is so that he can't look off to the sides at all so it was really funny watching him taking basically blind swings at the ball as it came flying at him. We all have a great attitude and it was really fun. Everyone was laughing and having a good time.

Once exercise hour was over I headed back to my room to take care of some paperwork and make some calls that were needed. Unfortunately after about an hour and a half of paperwork my eyes started shutting and we decided it was time for a little nap. My nap turned into staying in bed for basically the rest of the night. Kalli went and got me dinner and we ate and started some blogs. I had a great first attempt at doing my bowel program independently. For, I put to use the tools that Katie found for me the day before. I have to give props to whoever invented the arm extension that I used for my bowel program. It was designed perfectly and I got it on the first try! That is about as much as you all need to know for I could get pretty graphic when it comes to this subject.

After my nightly routine, Kalli and I finished up some much needed blogging. The last couple of days were just too difficult and by the end of the day I was so tired it was right to bed. It feels good to be caught up with the blog for I hate to keep all of my fans on the edge of their seat waiting for an update. I look forward to all of your responses and I just wanted to make sure you all know I read each and every one. I am also incredibly excited for my trip home on Monday to see so many of you for there is close to 100 signed up for the golf outing on Monday. Just a reminder - Tee Off is at 10, but check-in is at 9 so we can get everything moving on time with such a large group. It would probably even be helpful if some people showed up earlier than that. We have tons of wonderful silent auction prizes and all the people involved with planning the outing have a ton of fun things in store for us! One of my good friends, Alex Wilhelms, is going to be picking up Kalli, my mom and myself. She is coming down to Chicago Sunday night so we can hit the road nice and early Monday morning. My doctor says I have to be back all in one day so shortly after the outing I will be heading back to RIC, but don't worry soon there after, on the 23rd I will be heading home to live with my good buddy Mark in Menasha.

Today was a really good day and I can tell already tomorrow is going to be even better. My spirits are up and I feel like I have everything back in order physically throughout my body. I will try to keep blogging each day so you don't all have ten pages at once to catch up on with my crazy new lifestyle. See you soon and I love you all.

Tuesday July 14th

2009-07-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up in the morning unfortunately feeling more awful than I had in a long time. This weekend I sat in on a bowel program hot topics lecture where they talked about how nice it is to eventually teach your body to do your bowel program every other day. Since I only have about a week left here at RIC I wanted to try to get my bowel program going every other day here before I went home. So, last night I skipped the program hoping to easily start an every other day situation. Unfortunately I woke up with this bad stomach ache and just an overall crummy crummy feeling. After discussing with Kalli we both felt that it was probably a BM sitting inside me that just wasn't going to work. So, I called in a PCT and requested to start a bowel program right away that morning. I had things to do and was desperate to start feeling better. Sure enough, about 15 minutes later I had a nice BM and some relief followed. With all of this going on I definitely missed hand group and rushed to get out of bed so as not to miss my 11:00 PT with Carey.

Carey and I worked on the next important task on my getting home checklist. This was transferring onto a shower bench. There is a bathroom that is filled with different style shower chairs so people can figure out which is best for them and practice on them. We have a certain style picked out that seemed to work well. We began practicing the transfer and you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to lift my legs over and into the tub. This is mainly due to spasms that I am now experiencing and have increased over the last week. Carey and I decided that I definitely need what they call leg loops. They are simple straps that you put around your legs that you can grab with your hands to better lift your legs. Later this week I will be working with my OT to create these. After we got me in and out of the tub, which is such an important skill to master because it can be incredibly dangerous to be slipping and falling in a porcelain tub.

After PT I went into bed for my next therapy was another massage from the volunteer massage school. Kalli and I each received a massage from the students around 2:30 for a good half hour. I fell asleep almost immediately for I am still getting used to the baclofin, which is the muscle relaxer I take to help with my spasms.

After the massage I headed straight upstairs to the 15th floor, which is wheelchair seating and positioning. Up there they have brand new wheelchairs everywhere and a neat area that is set up just for going through the measuring or your body and chair in order to order a chair in which you will go home with and live with for possibly the next four years. A representative from RIC and a wheelchair distributor that has access to all of the best wheelchair lines in the country met with me for two hours of talking over each and every detail of my new chair. The distributor brought in several different wheelchair brands and designs for me to look and and test drive. The best part of the whole fitting was test driving a pair of power assist wheels. Because of my level of injury and the stress that pushing a wheelchair will put on my shoulders it makes me eligible for insurance to cover power assist wheels. Believe it or not, but this amazing technology of amazing speed and gentle slow touch costs $8,000. Let me say that again, $8,000. Unbelievable, that is like a nice used car. It just blows my mind. So, I transferred onto a table and then into the chair with the power assist wheels on it that they had there for me to demo and test drove it up and down the halls. It was the most exciting and unbelievable thing I had experienced since my accident. It created this incredible joy and new excitement to explore life. I can't explain the enlightenment and freedom that I felt with the speed and power that it put at my finger tips without placing me into a humongous bulky heavy power chair. With these wheels I will be able to go on grass, run through gravel, and climb ramps with ease. I don't know if any of you have ever hopped in a wheelchair and actually tried to push yourself up a wheelchair ramp but it is far, far from an easy task. These wheels even have technology built into them so that while you are going up a ramp you could let go and it will hold your position opposed to flying backwards which is what would happen without them. I was literally so excited that for a moment I was happy that my legs didn't work and I got to now drive a go cart around for the rest of my life. Which is what I loved doing every moment that I could as a kid, in my dingo by manco 5 force go cart. We finished up the fitting and I was really excited about the wheelchair and wheels and all the accessories I had picked for my new chair. Unfortunately it takes two to three months to get the chair and I will be in a loner for quite some time.

After the fitting we went down to go get food for I had a voucher for The Red Tomato. We ate dinner and it was pretty much time to start my nightly routine. Again, my day started rough as can be and I was able to fight through it and end with a glorious go cart ride on my new wheels.

Monday July 13th

2009-07-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

I woke up in the morning after a rough night and struggled a bit with blood pressure, slight stomach ache and just overall ache body. I was able to eat a little bit of breakfast, get out of bed into my chair and get to hand group about ten minutes late. During hand group I worked with some putty, pulling beans and little pegs out of it. This is a great workout for my hands. Two new people were in the hand group; a girl named Sarah and a guy named Matt. Both are right around my age. We all chatted and continued to work on our separate hand group activities.

After hand group I got together with Katie, a fairly new OT. She is filling in for Diane while Diane is on vacation in Wyoming with her sisters. Katie and I hooked up the e-stim machine to work no getting hand extensors which are the muscles that stretch your hand our flat, pulling the fingers back. Usually, we work on pulling the fingers into a fist; totally different muscles. The hand extensors are a much weaker muscle and it is difficult to find them. It feels a bit different. We targeted different areas and were able to get some good reaction. After working on each hand, one at a time, back and forth, we left about 20 minutes of our hour long session to go over in the gym and strengthen my wrist muscles. Once we got in the gym we strapped on some weights and I did several sets of strengthening exercises. After that Katie searched in large cabinets in the gym filled with different types of tools and devices to help with all kinds of functions different people struggle with. Katie found two different tools that would help me start doing my bowel program on my own. We threw them in my backpack for later practice and use.

I headed out to the middle area by the reception desk for some hard-core exercise group with Kate as our leader. After going to town, sweating my butt off and again using 4lb weights in the second half I really got a great workout. This was good because I wasn't really feeling very good the first half of the day and a good exercise like that always helps me get back on my feet. Kind of a funny phrase to say now - get back on my feet - since there isn't much walking going on as of late.

After exercise group my mom, Kalli and I ate lunch in the canary room and then went to take a leak. After I was done cathing Kalli came in to my bedroom and Maurice and his wife Abby and I all gave Kalli her birthday presents. Maurice and Abby got Kalli some world famous Chicago cheese and caramel popcorn which is unbelievably good along with another bag of chocolate covered mixed with caramel popcorn. I also presented the second half of her present which was some nice pieces from Victoria Secret which she had been needing since most of her clothes are still stuck in California.

We sampled some of the wonderful popcorn and chatted for a while. Then, I headed back out to the center area where I looked for Dr. Wanda Grant Knight for a while. We had a 2:00 appointment, but with no luck finding her, I decided to go hit the weights. After pumping some iron for a while, I met up with Carey for our 3:00 PT session. One of the important things that I need to work on is making sure I can do a good car transfer. So, her and I headed up to the 12th floor to practice. I lined myself up to the 92 dodge spirit with a beautiful silver paint job which has been used and abused by all the apparently drunken wheelchair drivers lining up to practice. I had the best in and then out transfer that I have ever had, doing everything completely on my own. Doing it on my own is truthfully not even necessary, for if I am transferring into someone's car they are definitely going to be there to lift a leg or pull a butt cheek if needed.

After the very successful transfer I felt good and as if I had really accomplished that portion of my checklist for going home. After PT I headed back to bed to lay down and take a quick nap before we went out to dinner for Kalli's birthday. Once I refreshed myself a bit Kalli, my mom and I headed to a nice tapas restaurant nearby called Emilio's. The restaurant had indoor and outdoor seating both wheelchair accessible. We decided to sit inside because the tables were larger and easier for me to tuck underneath and get close to the table. Strangely as it seems, getting underneath restaurant tables is one of the more difficult things for a lot of restaurants have a table leg set up that just doesn't work well for a wheelchair. We picked a handful of different tapas plates and each got a different flavor of sangria to sip on. Enjoying some nice bread and wonderful butter, the plates began to come and we slowly enjoyed sharing each of the very interesting combos we had chosen. We cleaned just about every plate and then shared a piece of flan for dessert. The dinner was very enjoyable. We paid our bill and headed home.

My mom headed back to the apartment and Kalli and I went to RIC to start my nightly routine. Another unfortunately fairly difficult day from the start but again, I learned that the only way to pull yourself out is by forcing yourself out of bed and getting your blood flowing with either some exercise or activity of some sort.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday July 10th-12th

2009-07-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

It's been another great weekend with of course lots of visitors, good food and fun. Friday started off with some breakfast while hurrying to get to hand group. At hand group there were four of us gathered around the table in the canary room fighting for the championship title of the classic American game, UNO. The game went round and round, people throwing draw 4's, skips, left and right and somehow or another, Beverly pulls out this crazy win. No one saw it coming. Most Fridays the therapist try to make it fun and simple, giving us a little break. Truthfully I would rather they didn't and we just work on stuff that is as hard as possible, but nothing wrong with having a little fun too.

After hands group Kalli and I stayed in the canary room but moved to a different table to work on some E-stim together. After having a couple therapists look at my Uncle Paul's electro-therapy machine, we got the okay to go ahead and use it on our own. Kalli and I have a system down that seems to work really well. We mark my arms with a sharpie when we find a good spot for the electrodes to be placed. That way we save a lot of time looking for the right spot. Basically, we go through about 4 5-second cycles of electro-massage, then a 20-second break and then repeat this process for about ten minutes per hand. After I am done with the E-stim my hands feel really good, loose and functional.

After working on both of my hands, I headed to my next therapy, OT Exercise Group. One of the therapists, named Piper, was leading the group. It's interesting how every therapist has a very different approach to the OT Exercise. Some go faster with more reps and others slower with less reps but more control. Both are very effective and wear you out in different ways.

After sweating like a pig and working my muscles I was ready for some lunch. We ate lunch in the canary room and had three hours before my next therapy. So we took advantage of this nice long break to get some paperwork done. We posted up in the canary room with Kalli's laptop and my personal information binder we had put together here at RIC so we could start applying online for Social Security Disability. The application is much like a financial aid, hardcore, long as heck, asking more questions than you could ever believe type form. It was really a pretty interesting form to fill out because it made you explore and think about all the different ways this injury is affecting me for those are the type of questions they are asking. They want to know how my situation truly affects my ability to provide for myself financially. And, the way in which it will affect my performance.

As we were filling out the form, my mother's sister, my aunt Marge, arrived and joined us as the group worked on the form. Marge lives in Florida and her daughter Francee and her are visiting for two weeks. We got as much of the form done as we could without the assistance of my case manager Rose. (Portions of the form wanted to know who worked on me, what specifically they did...) Over this process there has been so many names and assessments, it would be difficult for us to get all of that correct.

Three o'clock presented itself quicker than I thought it would and it was time to join my last therapy of the day - psychology group with Dr. Wilson. There are large curtains that can be pulled across portions of the canary room to divide it up and create some privacy so that a section can be used for group or class while people can continue to enjoy the room. I rolled into this sectioned off portion of the room and realized I was extremely out numbered - in the room were about 8 power chairs. Three of the power chairs were on ventilators and eventually in rolled my roommate Maurice and one other gentleman as well. This made for a very diverse group to talk about different issues that were going on for each and every one of us. Dr. Wilson led a very interesting conversation encouraging people to reach out and explain their successes, failures, fears, and temptations that they have encountered over just the last week. We talked about all different types of issues from fear of leaving RIC and going out to eat to realizing that not only are some of us injured and it's difficult but we need to think about our spouses and significant others that are going through a difficult and much different life change as well. The conversation shifted continuously from heavy to light making for enlightening realizations learning from each others experiences. After we had all gone around and shared successes and difficulties we have experienced in the last week, Dr. Wilson led a meditation relaxation to finish up the hour.

Before we go any further, I have been meaning to tell everyone another funny story about the fart machine. After two or three days of having my way with the entire 7th floor farting on them and playing them like puppets the staff finally became aware of the trick I was playing. My roommate was at the park with a recreation therapy group and overheard a group of therapists and volunteers talking about what they should do to get me somehelp for several people had complained and mentioned about how gassy I had been for the last two to three days. They were talking about getting a specialist involved, possibly putting me on some medication, but weren't sure how to approach it. My roommate, dying inside, finally felt as if he needed to inform them about what was going on. He didn't want it to go any further or get out of hand. So, he explained to them the situation. Immediately, all of them felt tricked as can be and wanted revenge. So, apparently, for the next several hours they all plotted as to how to get me back. The final result was the following. I am sitting in my bed and just had taken a nap, relaxing a little when in comes one of the doctors who actually happens to be in a wheelchair herself. She is a really nice lady and asked if I had a moment to talk. She said "Andrew, I know this is a little bit of an embarrassing subject but several people have noticed that you have had very heavy flatulence over the last several days. We are quite concerned about your situation and we have made a decision to give you a colonoscopy. We are going to bring you downstairs in just a couple moments on a bed so they can perform the procedure." I immediately looked up at her thinking, oh my gosh this is going a little too far. Now they are trying to stick things up my rear end for no reason! I said to her "okay, okay, about this gas it has all been a joke. I have this little machine and I have just been messing with everyone. Here I have it, I will show it to you." As soon as I fessed up in ran my therapist, my roommate, all laughing so hard saying "We got you! We got you! You son of a gun! We got you!" The whole situation was quite hilarious. They really did get me, for after the doctor had said it I was a little embarrassed thinking I had let it go that far. But, actually, this was the best way for the whole situation to end because had they not found out everyone would have continued to just think I was that stinky kid that could not hold his gas for the life of him. I mean, literally, no one was aware that it was a scam and I must have tricked thirty, forty people. So, for the rest of that day everyone on the floor began learning and there were jokes to be told every where I went.

Now that I got that great little story out we can continue on with the rest of Friday. I just felt that everyone needed to know how my little fart machine ended. So, after therapy group I went into the gym to pump some iron so I could get as buff as Arnold. After working like the Schwarzenegger it was time for dinner. My mom, Kalli, Aunt Marge, and I looked up a Thai restaurant nearby, made sure it was wheelchair accessible and headed there for dinner. The food was great. After we were done, we all went our own ways and I began my nightly routine.

Saturday morning I was running a little late, mainly because right before I was about to get out of bed I had the sudden urge to call my old roommate Joey to see how he was doing. I talked to him for a little while, jumped out of bed and got to hand group about ten minutes late. During the group I played with play-do, pulling little game pegs, kind of like the people pegs that you place in your car in the board game LIFE. After finding each of the people pegs, I then had a pile of beans in front of me and worked on picking them up and holding them in my hand as I picked up more and more, trying to keep the beans in my hand at the same time. I got to ten beans in my hand, then there was just no way I could pick up another one without having one fall out. You will all have to try it sometime it is pretty tricky. We had some good conversation around the table for it wasn't just patients. One of the other guys here, Anthony, had four of his buddies from out of town joining him for the day.

After hand group I headed to the gym to work out and once again pump some iron! After doing several exercises I left about ten minutes to cool down and catch my breath before OT Exercise Group. Exercise group was led by Kate on this fine Saturday. She is by far the most intense leader. Her style is fast and furious, balls to the walls, don't stop until you drop! I am now using four pound weights which has been an exciting improvement. Moving from twos to threes and now fours which is twice as much as what I started with. Today's exercise was no exception for Kate worked us to the point of dripping sweat and pure exhaustion.

Once she was done having her way with us, in came my entire posse. People must think I pay strangers to come and visit with me just so I look cool. For in walked Marge, Francee, Camilla, Margaret, Rose, and my Mom and Dad. They joined Kalli and I and we headed downstairs to the cafeteria to get some food for lunch. After eating we decided to break into groups and all enjoy the day running around downtown Chicago. The girls broke into two groups and my dad and I took off on our own for there were several things that I wanted to go and get, especially a birthday present for my little sweetheart Kalli Ann. So, once the girls all took off my Dad and I sat and looked up as many jewelry stores as we could up and down Michigan Ave. so that we weren't just running around like a chicken with our heads cut off. Him and I had a great time rolling up and down Michigan Ave. purchasing all the different things on my list. We probably went to eight or nine different jewelry shops, searching for that perfect promise ring that I wanted to get for Kalli. Her and I have been dating for four years and I love her so much but the hospital is no place to get engaged and there is just a lot going on in our lives right now but I wanted her to know how much I love her and appreciate everything she has been doing for me in these last four years.

After a long search my dad and I found ourselves at Tiffany & Co. one of the nicest jewelry shops on Michigan Ave. There, I found myself in love with a ring that shouted out promise ring and matched the beautiful pendant necklace that I had given Kalli about three years ago. I purchased it and headed to the Water Tower Plaza to pick up some of our last items on the list. On the way home, I was so excited to give the ring to Kalli and could barely wait or stop talking about it. The plan was to all meet back at the apartment around six o'clock for dinner. We pulled out several days of leftovers and covered the counter with a schmorgus board of options. Almost like a China Buffet right there in our apartment. After we ate, mainly due to my own excitement, I asked Kalli if she wanted to get her main birthday present now while everyone was still here to celebrate and that way my dad could also give my mom a neat ring that he found and purchased while we were out and about. For, she too, has given up so much in this last two months and my dad and I wanted to thank her with something. Knowing Kalli so well, I knew there was no way she would turn up the chance to open a present early. So, out of my backpack I pulled the beautiful little blue Tiffany bag which she never saw coming. My sister Margaret was just joking, saying "Kalli I think I saw them at Tiffany" as if there was no way she would really get something from there! She opened it up in front of all of us and you could tell that she really loved it. She gave me a big kiss and whispered in my ear "I love you so much".

We all talked as my sister Margaret trimmed people's hair and I lounged in a couch for I had transferred out of my chair for a change of pace. After a while, it was close to my curfew and it was time to go. I headed back to RIC to start my nightly routine.

Sunday morning came and it as time to just be lazy. I laid in bed until 10 or later and was basically forced out because everyone began arriving, piling up in my room, staring at me like "hey get out of bed, we are here to play". So we headed to the canary room and snacked on some fruit and other food that my mom brought while we just sat and chatted. I then got a haircut and we all decided to head outside and throw around the bean bag. The whole gang needed to be leaving around 1:30 which came quickly and they all said their goodbyes.

Kalli and I then headed to Tiffany & Co to go and get a different size for her hands were tinier than I thought. After that, we came home, took a nap, went to Chipotle for dinner and came home to blog.

Sundays are always kind of a just a nice cool down, lazy day getting you ready to bust your buns during the coming week! We came back to my room so that we could blog about the weekend and start my nightly routine. Over this last week we have made the decision to implement a strategy that we have been thinking about for a while. Basically, my insurance covers 60 days of in-patient rehab, so I am going to save two weeks of that coverage so that I can come back in a couple months without a neck brace and hopefully more leg movement than I have now and all around more healing simply due to time. With that being said, my discharge date it now July 23rd and I will be kicking it in high gear in order to take advantage of the little time that I have left. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the visitors and support that I have received over the last five weeks here but am going to encourage people for my remainder of my stay to possibly only come on the weekends. This way, I can take every moment in between therapy to work on the the handful of issues in which I need to improve in order to be independent when I leave this facility. By no means, do I want anyone to take that the wrong way, I just simply want to focus all my time and energy towards these tasks that I have to learn in order to go live with my buddy Mark. Which, by the way, is where I will be living - in Menasha Wisconsin, with my good friend Mark Lee.

Once again, it was a wonderful weekend and I look forward to celebrating Kalli's birthday tomorrow because she is going to be a whopping 24 years old!

Thursday July 9th

2009-07-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

This morning started out like every morning does. Some good breakfast in bed just before heading to hand group. This morning's schedule threw me for a little loop in a positive way. Before I could get out of bed my PT Carey came in and said "let me see your schedule, lets get rid of this, this, and this and you are going in the pool!" I was really disappointed yesterday when I found out that there were no therapists scheduled to help in the pool and my session got canceled. So, this was great news and a wonderful way to start off the day!

During hand group I got the wheelchair boys to fix the back of my chair for there were some screws loose and missing. So while I sat at the table playing with staples and paperclips for therapy I was being worked on like the number 4 car in a Nascar race. As soon as hand group was done I did a good long pressure break and then my mom and I decided to just head up to the pool early.

We got to the pool room and in the back they had an area with a miniature elevated exercise mat similar to the ones in the gym but about half the size. I transferred onto the mat and they brought a pool chair over to the mat for me to then transfer into. This chair hooks right into a small lift at the edge of the pool that swings from the edge and then lowers you down into the water. Once you are in the water the chair stays put and off you go! There were two other people in the pool with me that were also working on different forms of therapy. The instructor was a very knowledgeable and kind lady that you could tell had a lot of experience with all different kinds of injuries. The first thing she did was flip me over to my back to see if I could float. The many years at Sunset Beach, as a lifeguard and swimming instructor, really paid off for this moment. I immediately pushed my belly up into the air and pulled my chin to the sky floating like a champ. I used my arms to do some beautiful sculling action on each side which kept me afloat and allowed me to maneuver around as well. Once she saw my floating skills she said "boy you're going to make this really easy for me aren't you? I'm not going to have to do anything at all." After floating for a little while she put me in one of the corners of the pool and gave me several different exercises to focus on strengthening my abdomen and torso. We also worked on standing and moving all the different muscles in my legs. It was really amazing because on land I can't get any movement and it is really hard to see if the muscles are twitching. But, in the pool she said she could feel all kinds of muscles throughout my legs working which felt so good. Swimming in the pool has got to be one of the greatest therapies I have experienced yet. After the stretching and strengthening she said "why don't we work on a little swimming." Now, without my legs I thought my gosh I am going to sink to the bottom of this glorified bathtub. The pool was plenty large for me and two other people to all be working in, probably 35 feet by 20 feet, but was truly just a huge stainless steel tank about four feet deep. She taught me the best way to roll from my stomach to my back to get air each time I was to run out while double front stroking, two arms at a time, with my face down in the water. It was the weirdest feeling but once I would get my arms going and enough momentum my legs would lift up to the surface of the water and I really was swimming. I did several laps back and forth across the pool until I was so tired that my last lap was almost completely underwater and my mom right away when I came up at the other end and grabbed the side said "I think that's enough." The instructor gave me a really cool pair of goggles to wear while swimming. She mentioned "it's been a while since we have had any swimmers. You did a really great job today." After catching my breath and just screwing around a little bit, dunking under water and pretending to snorkel, I back floated over to the chairlift and got plucked right out of the pool. We showered to get the chlorine off, dried me, and got me back in my chair. We headed back downstairs to get me in bed for I was ready for a nap. The pool worked so many muscles and was so incredibly tiring yet satisfying. It makes me want to have a very small, at the least, therapy pool somewhere in my house someday. So, if anybody has experience (Uncle Peter) in building tile pools I think we could take that on as an awesome project and turn a spare bedroom into a pool therapy room someday.

I ate lunch in my bed and relaxed until my next therapy which was a therapeutic rec massage. A local massage therapy school is associated with RIC and many of their students put in mandatory hours with the patients all throughout the building. Basically, your therapists just request that you get a massage every once in a while and they come right to your room and rub you down. Lucky enough two students came and my mom and I both got a 40 minute massage. Both girls were in their last week of the program and really seemed to know what they were doing. It felt great, especially after working so many muscles in the pool earlier.

After my massage we headed straight for the gym for my last class of the day, PT with Carey. Carey got me onto the mat right away to go over trying to take my chair apart piece by piece as if I was going to break it down to put it in a car. The cushion comes off easy and the back was just two little clamps that you flip, but the wheels were pretty hard for me to release. The wheels pop off by pushing a button into the center of the room and pulling them off. Carey let me know that there are special center release mechanisms made just for quadriplegics that have limited hand function. So, when I order my wheelchair that will be one of the bells and whistles that I have added to it from the factory. I definitely feel as if I will get full strength and a great grip back but until then these adaptations will help me cope and once I get the grip back I will still be able to do it either way so I might as well have it added to help me now.

After working with the wheelchair Carey wanted to put my legs in slings hanging from a steel wire grid that is mounted above all the workout mats. She made it so my legs were just floating as I laid on my side. We then proceeded to check each of my leg muscles to see how they were firing. Several different areas were easier to tell if there was anything yet or not. After working each leg she then started checking some of my muscles in my abdomen and love handle area (medically known as my quadratis lomborum). Carey was really excited to see that my side (love handle) muscles were obviously active and much stronger than she had anticipated. She kept making my mom and Kalli come and feel the muscles as I performed different sit ups or side crunches. The presence of these muscles now working made me quickly realize why my stability and balance has increased over the last few weeks because as soon as we were done I felt a bit wobbly with those muscles having been worked to the max. Our time was up for the session but I figured since I was already on the mat I should definitely get my legs completely stretched out using the newly learned self stretching methods. Once I finished stretching out I hopped back in my chair and went to the rickshaw to do a quick 6 sets of 15 with 60 lbs pumping up and down. Endow, I will definitely be moving up to 65 or 70 if I can manage tomorrow. Tonight 60lbs became just a hair too easy.

We then headed back over to the canary room for some dinner and fun conversation with Joey and his mom. After dinner we headed back to my room to do a little blogging and start my nightly routine. Today almost seemed like I was living in a spa, a little therapy in the pool, then a massage, followed by a good stretch session. Life isn't too bad at the RIC!

Wednesday July 8th

2009-07-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

I woke up to what was going to be the gassiest day of my life. I ate breakfast and hopped out of bed. Kalli put the toot machine in my backpack which hangs right at my butt on the back of the wheelchair creating the perfect set up to make people think the noises were really coming from my rear end. So I headed out to my first therapy with my remote control between my knees, easily accessible to trick anyone.

My first therapy was PT group. Sally had several different activities set up all over the main center area by the reception desk. One of the activities included bending over to pick up horse shoes and plastic rings. Every single time I would bend over created the perfect situation to let one rip. This poor volunteer girl that was working with me and trying her hardest not to laugh at this poor boy in a wheelchair with incredible gas he could not control each time he bent over. This went on and on every moment I could I would pull the trigger and get an incredible reaction from someone or another. In the hospital is by far the best place in the world to have such a device because everyone thinks "oh he can't control it" or "don't worry, that is fine, that is natural" and the therapists don't let it get to them as if it is out of the ordinary at all. We worked on wheelies, hopping over obstacles, keeping your momentum, and also time to ourselves to find out how much distance we were comfortably covering with our normal wheelchair pace. After making probably twenty some people on the floor think that I had the most amazing gas I headed to the canary room for my next session.

We had set up a meeting with Rose, my case manager, in order to discuss all the questions from yesterday. So Kalli, my mom, and Mr and Mrs Lee and I sat down and went over everything from top to bottom as to where we need to be, what we need to do, and how we do it in order to successfully provide for my future.

After that, I headed to the gym to work with a neat piece of equipment I had requested Carey to reserve for me. RIC has a electronic sensor mat the size of your wheelchair seat pad that you place on your wheelchair and then sit down on. This mat shows where your weight is distributed on the chair. The mat hooks up to the laptop and shows your pressure points in a color sensored map of the seat. This allows you to perform different pressure relief breaks and see which ones work the best to get your weight off your tailbone. I really wanted to work with this piece of equipment because there is no way for me to really tell how well I am relieving the pressure when I do the pressure reliefs on my own. For in the beginning, Kalli and my mom would almost always tip me back to do them for me. Now that I am stronger I am totally able to do them myself in a couple different ways.

After the mat we ate lunch in the canary room. Next, was OT exercise group. Once again, this incredible gassy-ness overcame my body. Almost every time I moved I was having terrible flatulence. The guy sitting next to me was about ready to move and several people kept laughing as I continued to play it off as if I couldn't stop and definitely couldn't control it. My roommate now because of last night was the only one aware of the machine and was sitting next to me while we were exercising. He could not stop laughing, especially knowing that it was fake and that no one else knew. It made for quite a bit of fun.

After exercise group Maurice and I had a double PT scheduled with Corey a physical therapist I had never had. Corey put us both on a mat together and we worked on different stretching which felt good for due to the bladder infection I was experiencing increased spasms in my legs, so stretching them out felt really good.

After therapy,I stayed in the gym and did several sets of exercises on a couple different weight machines. Everyday I will continue to build up my arm strength which makes everything so much easier as I begin to feel lighter and lighter.

After a good workout we went and hung out in our room for a bit and then all went to get some dinner and eat it in the canary room. Of course, a couple good toots were released there as well and still people just laughed and understood because I am just a guy in a wheelchair that can't control it.

After dinner Kalli and I headed into my room to do a little blogging and start my nightly routine, which I am sure will include some gassy bowels and a lot of laughter. I don't think I could have pulled off an entire day of fake farting anywhere else and it definitely helps that I am in a wheelchair. For some reason or another people are just a little more understanding and it is absolutely hilarious. I wouldn't doubt if I got a funny look from over 40 people today from a good toot! Throughout all that laughter and funny looks not a single person, except my roommate, the nurse and PCT from last night know that it is all just an electronic machine.

Tuesday July 7th

2009-07-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

Finally I received a full schedule! For it felt like it had been about a week or so since I really had five or more things on my schedule. But, of course today started out with hand group. I ate my breakfast, jumped out of bed and headed for hand group. Thank God, the medicine they got me started on to fight my bladder infection worked like a charm and had me feeling so much better already! We got out into the main area and Mike, the activity coordinator, stopped us to tell us hand group was actually going to be upstairs again on the 9th floor. He also let me know that one of the other patients, a young punk like myself, named Matt, was having trouble getting out of bed and was supposed to be in our group but saying he wasn't going to make it. So, I rolled right over to his room to go harass him and see if I could help him fight whatever he is going through and come and join us for our activity. I got into Matt's room and began asking him what was going on. He also had a bladder infection and was feeling bloated. He mentioned that between the bladder infection and his pain he just wasn't feeling like eating or even getting out of bed. I encouraged him to try as hard as he could to fight it and explained to him I had a bladder infection as well and yesterday was a tough day for me but I just MADE myself get out of bed. I told him by noon or so he would probably be feeling fine. Next, I explained to him that Kalli had gone and gotten me some cranberry pills and those are supposed to help quite a bit as well and asked him if he would like to take some. Right away he said yeah that would be great so I buzzed over to my room, grabbed a handful, and brought them over to him. Continuing to encourage him not to let his poor condition get the best of him. I could tell he wasn't quite going to just pop out of bed and I needed to get going, but I left him with one more thing. I said Matt, don't let the multiple symptoms pile up and all get you down. I was referring to not eating. He was planning on not touching his breakfast at all and I told him if you don't eat then you are going to be hungry and not realize it and you are going to think it is urinary infection and then also you won't have any energy which makes it even harder to try to fight anything. I think coming from me, who had already gone through that, it kind of clicked for him. He said "yeah I will try to eat". So, I just encouraged him to try his best and that I was going to head up there and if he was able to get out of bed in the next half hour or hour he should come upstairs and try to join us.

Kalli and I headed upstairs and when we got up into the activity room, Haley, Mike's intern, was running the activity today. She had purchased several small plants for us to transplant into some nice pots. We used soil and decorative rocks to cover the top. I think I picked the nicest two plants in the whole bunch. It was fairly enjoyable to shovel the soil and decorate with the rocks creating two nice potted plants for my room. After getting my green thumb on we headed back downstairs for an OT session with Diane.

The two of us wanted to focus on a tub transfer so that I could move from my chair into a bathtub for a shower. Unfortunately someone was in the therapy bathroom at the beginning of our time together. So, we sat in the canary room and talked for a little while until the bathroom was available. Diane is actually going to be leaving on vacation for two weeks and I won't see her for a little while. The tub transfer went really well. I was quite easily able to slide board onto the tub chair. Then, the most difficult part was lifting my legs over the tub in order to get them both inside. It pretty much took all the energy I had and was really a great accomplishment.

After I thoroughly exhausted myself in the tub, it was time to push the limits even further with Kate, by far the toughest OT exercise group leader I have had. She pushed and pushed us as we sweated through each move and weight lifting exercise. After a great heart pounding workout it was time to get some chow. While I was in my exercise group some very good family friends of ours, David and Patti Lee, arrived for a two day visit. They decided to get a hotel two blocks away so they could stay overnight and visit with us. So, we all sat down for lunch in the canary room and caught up on how everyone was doing.

My next therapy was to go down to the life center and I asked my mom to come with me with a notebook and pen to take some notes for me. I have been meaning to go down there for a while to get some answers on questions I have pertaining to financial assistance, home re-entry, social security, disability, etc. During the meeting with some of the advisers down in the life center we basically found out our first point of contact needed to be addressed with my case manager Rose.

After the life center I needed to take a leak and I was a little bit past my scheduled time so I was actually breaking into my next scheduled appointment which was with Dr. Grant with psychological services. The meeting was only a half an hour and by the time I got out and done with my business it was almost 3 o'clock, the time in which our meeting would have concluded. So, soon there after I headed down the hall to see if I could find her and she came walking down the hall and said I am so sorry I missed you I was in another meeting and it went much longer than I thought with some pressing issues. I said no problem, no problem I actually needed to take a leak anyway and it sounds like that person needed you more than I would have. So we left it at that and quickly talked about how each of us were doing.

Starting then, I had my last therapy with Carey for a little PT. It has been a week since my last encounter with the tilt table and I certainly wasn't willing to take it on yesterday with the slight lull that I was battling with my bladder infection. But, today I was feeling very strong and said bring it on! So, Carey strapped me to the table and began tilting me up ten degrees at a time. Our session was only a half an hour long and normally we dedicate an hour to getting me up in about twenty five minutes Carey had me at 90 degrees, standing straight up. Our goal for the week was to be able to withstand 10 minutes without losing blood pressure control at 90 degrees. So, once I got all the way up, the clock started ticking. I of course was swinging my arms, doing tai-bo, and acting goofy in order to keep the blood flowing up to my head. I hit ten minutes and we were five or more minutes past our scheduled time. So, even though we didn't go until I was light headed I had hit my goal so I told Carey just let me down I don't want you to be late for your next appointment. It felt great to get one step closer to be able to use the lokomat, which sounds like an incredible machine.

The tilt table was the last activity of the day so the rest of the night was open for whatever. The Lees wanted to take us all out for dinner so we burned some time playing cards in the canary room and headed to Kamehachi, a nearby sushi restaurant that we enjoy. We had a great meal and it was fun to be able to spend time with the Lees. Kalli and I headed home and my mom and the Lees headed to the apartment.

When Kalli and I arrived back at the RIC up pulled Steve, Barb and Anna Wilhelms for a quick visit. They were passing through and took the time to come visit. It was really great to see them again. As we walked inside the RIC Steve asked where is the bathroom I really need to go and proceeded to have one of the largest flatulent I have ever heard come out of a person. Then, we got back from the bathroom he continues to impress us with his trumpet behind. Then, we went up the elevators to show him the 7th floor and all of a sudden Steve's flatulence felt like they were practically coming out of me! Slightly confused and dying in laughter for I couldn't believe Steve was just letting them rip like he was the Wilhelms finally let me in on the joke they were playing with me. Steve had slipped am electronic farting machine with a remote control trigger for making it toot. It was absolutely hilarious and I was so excited to start playing tricks on people here at the RIC. We had a great visit and they headed their way so I could start my nightly routine.

So, I got in bed and Kalli placed the toot machine underneath my bed. Now I had the trigger in bed and for the next 45 minutes I tricked my PCT, roommate, and nurse into thinking I had the worst flatulence a human being had ever experienced. My roommate after 45 minutes of letting them rip became incredibly concerned of my safety and ordered the PCT to get the nurse to help me. Soon thereafter the nurse came with medicine in order to help my gassy situation. Now, the nurse actually had to call a doctor in order to get the pills prescribed for this kind of situation. So, when he started trying to make me take them I finally confessed and showed him my toot machine. The nurse just about shoved the pills down my throat anyway and everybody couldn't believe that they had been had for forty five minutes of me pretending to be in incredible pain from some bad sushi. The whole thing was incredibly hilarious and made for an absolutely hilarious end to the evening. Steve, Barb - thank you so much for the great toy. I know I will have more fun with it tomororw!

Monday July 6th

2009-07-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

I woke up and began sitting in bed trying to get my blood pressure under control as I slowly worked myself upright. I could tell something was a little off today and I was not feeling 100%. After I took my morning leak I noticed that I still felt as if I had to pee after I had already gone. Also, my legs have slight spasms, usually triggered by some sort of movement or touch. These spasms seemed to have increased significantly. They don't hurt at all, just a strange uncontrollable feeling. Both increased spasms and the constant urinary pressure are symptoms of having a bladder infection. So, I reported these symptoms to my nurse and asked him to please do a urine culture so that I could get the situation under control. It is very frustrating because the system that I have down for cathing myself is incredibly sterile and has very, very little chance of infecting myself. But, in the middle of the night there is one cathing in which I have to wake up from a dead sleep in order to perform it myself. So, in that weak moment, tired, usually under-dosed in pain meds, I allow the PCTs to cath for me. Most of them are tired, don't have a very sterile conscious outlook on the process and when it comes down to it, what do they care? It's not like they are going to get the bladder infection. It is very frustrating and from now on I am going to make an incredible effort to slap myself awake and start taking care of it myself. Eventually I will have to anyway and for now I can't afford to get another bladder infection and allow it to put a damper on my therapy.

So, I got out of bed eventually about ten to fifteen minutes late for hand group with a cold sweat and just a crummy feeling all around. I worked with some nuts and bolts, threading and unthreading them to start off as a warm up. Then, I was engaged in a game of connect 4 with my buddy Anthony who is also a high level C injury. He has less mobility than myself and he rocks a power chair. Taking the pieces and dropping them in to the connect 4 game board is a good workout and struggle for Anthony but for me it is very easy and not a challenge at all. So between feeling crummy and being bored with a much too easy task I let that sun of a gun beat me.

After hand group I had an hour break so I went back to my room to try to relax. My mom offered to put me into a pressure release, where I lay back onto her lap. We ended up both taking a 45 minute nap in that position. After the nap it took a second to get myself to wake up and head out into the main lobby for OT Exercise Group. As soon as I got into the group Kate, the leader, took one look at me and said "Are you feeling alright Andrew?" I told her that I had a bladder infection and wasn't feeling up to par. Somehow or another I was able to push myself and keep up during the whole exercise session.

Afterward,we went into the canary room to eat some lunch and socialize a bit. After lunch Kalli and I decided to go outside to try to get some fresh air. It was beautiful out and really the perfect temperature. But even with the beautiful weather I wasn't able to kick the way I was feeling. I've always known since the beginning that there were going to be days like this. Times in which, even the strongest person in the world, can't help but break down a little. As we were sitting outside I began thinking about how it is so strange any time in life when you break an arm, or catch a cold you know that it is just temporary, whereas this is something that is going to stay with me for life and that became difficult to think about, especially in a moment when I was already down a bit. Kalli, of course, hugged me and let me know that it was all going to be okay. She made me feel a lot better and we headed back inside.

Once we got back inside we had a bit of time before my two o'clock appointment with Carey. So, we went to my room and Kalli and I set up the E-stim I am borrowing from my Uncle Paul to do a little electro therapy on my hands. First we did the right and then the left, imitating the same timing in which the machine RIC uses controls on its own. It worked great and I got some really good movement out of my fingers.

Once we were done, we headed for the gym for my last therapy of the day. Carey also could tell that I wasn't my same cocky, jolly self. Her and I love to joke around. She said well, why don't we take it fairly easy and just do some stretches on the mat. She said you can work on the ones we learned last time where you stretch yourself. So, I transferred from my chair to the mat and followed the exercise packet Carey had given me and stretched myself out one page at a time. The stretching felt good and I was beginning to feel better than I had earlier. After stretching for the whole hour I decided that I wanted to get some weights in as well. So, I went over to the corner of the gym to my favorite machine that they call the rickshaw and worked on my triceps. I bumped the weight up 10 pounds, from 50 to 60 because it was becoming too easy, which is always a great feeling. I did six sets of fifteen and called it a day while my mom sat and watched, doing some bicep curls of her own. Most of the exercises I do really work my shoulders as well. So, I asked Carey if she would mind hooking me up with the heat pack for my shoulders, for they were pretty sore from the rickshaw. There were a couple other people in the gym and we all sat and chatted while I relaxed with heat on my shoulders for 15 minutes.

Several people are leaving this week which is making me realize that I too am going to be going home eventually. It really is not that far away, could be as soon as three weeks from now. This place teaches you a lot, but also cares for you quite a bit. It is exciting, yet interesting to think what it will be like back in my own home.

After we left the gym we headed to my room for it was time for me to take a leak again and then figure out what to go get for dinner for I had chosen a voucher for tonight's meal. My mom, Kalli and I headed downstairs to the second floor to get some food from the cafeteria. My mom and I got gyros and Kalli picked delicious looking pepperoni pizza. We brought it upstairs and ate it all while watching this crazy show on Animal Planet that was basically about when animals turn on people. It was amazing from crazy elephants to arm swallowing alligators we couldn't believe what we were seeing.

After dinner I gave my mom a hug and she headed home. Kalli and I headed to my room to do a little blogging and get ready for bed. Today was probably the most difficult day that I have had in the last three weeks or more. But, truthfully, I am still really proud of myself because even feeling crummy I didn't miss a single therapy and I did three or four extras with Kalli or on my own. Most of the people in here would have either just laid in bed all day or maybe made it to half of their classes. In fact, while I was sitting in the gym working my triceps on the rickshaw there were two other people just sitting and chatting and one person working with a therapist but the rest of the gym was empty even though any one of the 27 people on the floor could have been in there working on other things, putting in a little extra credit. But, of course, I was the only one in there working out and I have a fricken urinary tract infection. It blows my mind how some of these people feel like they are forced to be here and in a way they fight it as if it is punishment. But, what they do will not affect my therapy for I have a plan and many goals in which I will continue to strive for, even if every couple weeks I get challenged with a day like today.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday 3rd-5th

2009-07-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

Friday morning I had the whole Sarah Hippert crew joined by Ali, Annabelle and Jack to help me with my morning routine. We got out of bed and went upstairs to the activity room for hand group. Hand group is usually held in the canary room, but every once and a while the activity planners get in on hand group and make it a little more fun. So, we went upstairs to the 9th floor and played pool for therapy. You wouldn't think that playing pool would be much work but holding the stick, leaning over for the shot, all of it really works all kinds of muscles throughout your body. To make the game fair Sarah or Ali, whomever I was playing at the time, also had to sit on a rolling computer chair. As we were playing Annabelle and Ali drew me some beautiful pictures with those awesome smelly markers we all love.

Once our hour was up we headed downstairs with stinky pictures in hand and went to my room for I had an hour break until exercise group at 11. Before group started in walked Wes Block one of my really good buddies from college. It was strange I remember meeting Wes and it was almost like love at first sight. Him and I hung out one or two times and felt like we knew each other forever. I said Wes you are just in time for exercise group! If you can make it through the whole class you would be the second person ever. Wes had just come out to CA to visit me the weekend before the wedding and was a real trooper since he was sporting a full leg cast for his broken ankle. We started pumping and pushing, rocking and rolling through exercise group. Sweat was flowing and the jokes were getting thrown around the room left and right, as usual. Turned out to be a great exercise group and somehow or another, both Kalli and Wes made it all the way through without breaks. So, that makes three people that have now made it. Sorry Guillermo your solo record didn't last too long.

After exercise group we headed into the canary room to all sit down for some lunch. Wes was also in town to watch the Brewers play the Cubs at Wriggly. So, he grabbed a little deodorant and ran to meet his family at the game.

After we all ate, my next class was PT group with Sally. Sally had several different wheelchair skills activities set up in the center area near the reception desk. We had the wheelie tree, orange cone obstacle course, wheelie ride up pad, and several boche balls and bean bags scattered throughout the floor to work your core practicing picking them up and throwing them into bean bag boards and buckets. We took turns practicing and working all of the activities, ending the session playing catch with a two and a half foot rubber ball and ten minutes of textbook wheelchair pushing doing laps around the outside of the 7th floor.

Once all of my therapies were done I began getting ready for Kalli and I had a really fun night planned ahead of us. We made reservations for a really cool hibachi restaurant about four blocks away. After the hibachi bar we went another five blocks to the lake to catch the Friday night fireworks show near Navy Pier. The hibachi restaurant turned out absolutely top notch. Fresh food, great entertainment and some nice company placed at our table with us. It turned out to be either lucky or quite a blessing for Kalli normally doesn't like the style of most hibachi restaurants but she loved everything here. I would recommend this place to anyone. After dinner our timing was absolutely impeccable for by the time we got to where we wanted to watch the fireworks from it wasn't more than 30 seconds and they started. I think they lit the fireworks about 10 minutes early because the whole way home people walking the opposite direction kept asking "are the fireworks already over?" "did we miss the show?" It turned out to be a perfect date night for Kalli and I which we have not had in a while.

Saturday morning I hopped out of bed for my nine o'clock hand group where I worked with my new putty and retrieved all 15 beans within the hour. While I pulled and prodded for bean after bean Michael and Ruth Schmelzer sat with Kalli, my mom and I for a nice visit. Schmelzers were passing through on their way to South Bend.

Again, we had a full day of fun planned for the rest of the day. We had four tickets to the Brewers Cubs game here in town. My dad arrived shortly after hands group just in time for an 11:30 cab to pick us up in front of RIC and bring us right to the stadium. This was the first handi cap accessible cab I had ever taken and it really worked out well for us. Once we got to the stadium we grabbed our tickets from will call and headed in to find their elevator which brought us right to our box seat wheelchair accessible tickets. They were directly behind home base and had a roof which was great because 80% of the game there was a gentle mist/light rain soaking the rest of the crowd. Wriggly field was really a neat baseball diamond with crazy extra seating on houses, bars, any building that was across the street from the outfield. There were huge bleachers sections built on top of the building. We took a bunch of pictures and it was really neat. A crazy coincidence occurred when I sat down. Sitting next to me was a guy who grew up in Appleton and Kimberly Wisconsin his whole life and had basically the same injury as me four years prior. He instantly shared many of his experiences involved with his accident. We exchanged information and Tim invited me to check out his home and converted vehicle next time I was in Appleton.

After the game we headed home to take a quick nap and then go out to dinner, the four of us, my mom, dad, Kalli and I to celebrate the 4th of July. Oh yeah by the way Cubbies got smoked, Brewers 11, Cubs 2. We headed over to The Cheesecake Factory about 6 blocks away. The food was absolutely delicious and I think all four of us thoroughly enjoyed our plates. We finished the night off sharing a delicious piece of raspberry cheesecake and headed home to go to bed.

After two days in a row of go go action and lots of fun and celebration of the 4th of July weekend, I was ready for a relaxing Sunday. I slept in until about 8 and didn't get out of bed until about 10:30. Once I did get out of bed the four of us went upstairs to the 12th floor where they have a mock kitchen and a big table. My dad and I went over all my insurance bills and some of the donation information in which was all being forwarded to him. After we got everything squared away and handed over to me we decided to go downstairs to eat some lunch and play some cards.

We played Euchre which surprisingly was the first time since I have been here and we ended up tying 8 to 8 because my dad had to hit the road in order to catch his train home. We said our goodbyes with hugs and prayers and then I headed to bed for another nap. After feeling guilty for just laying around all day I transferred back into my chair and we went and hung out in the canary room where we ate dinner and chatted for a bit.

Over dinner we decided it was time to play some more cards but first we needed to do something active to get rid of some of the soreness I was experiencing in my arms and body due to just laying around. So we pulled the bean bags out of my backpack and my mom, our friend Joey, Kalli and I made a diamond in the center area and we simply played catch, throwing the bean bags all over the place. After getting a little workout in it was time to get another game of Tricks in. Joey and my mom got into some serious crashing slumps but Kalli ended up pulling it all together and winning. She claims it was her first win ever and we were all really excited for her.

By the time we were done it was past 8 o'clock and it was time to head to bed and start my nightly routine. What a wonderful weekend with great food, fireworks, a dynamite baseball game and wonderful friends and family. It was really kind of nice just having my mom and dad and Kalli and I able to spend some quality time together. A much different fourth of July for all four of us than we have had in many years. After the long weekend I am excited to get a good nights rest and wake up refreshed and ready to pound out some new goals in the coming week.

Thursday July 2nd

2009-07-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

I had a strange addition to my schedule today, there was an eight o'clock appointment called meal time. Apparently there is some sort of breakfast club where they try to fancy up the canary room, putting white table cloths, which are really just sheets, some flowers and play some music, getting people together to eat and chit chat. But, this event, like I said starts at eight and I am pretty sure that I already mentioned to the scheduler I'm not much for getting out of bed until 9. So, I decided to keep with my schedule and skip this little breakfast club. One, I've got more than enough people to chit chat with all of you great visitors. Two, with the transition of when they can dress you and when your food comes, being up and ready by 8 o'clock doesn't really work that well. And, three, aren't breakfast clubs for girls?

So, like usual, my morning started with a nine o'clock hand group. This ended up being really fun for they broke out the WII on what is probably a 50 inch flat screen in the canary room. Nintendo WII, crazy as it may sound, is truly an amazing rehab tool. The therapists use it a lot because the different sports games really make you move your arms, focus on pushing the buttons on the controller and it is pretty tough for anyone, no matter how young or old not to enjoy it. So, I was up against Steve, who is probably 55 or 60 years old, and we were truly some tight competition. First we played tennis, which I just barely won two out of three. Then, we played baseball and Steve whooped my butt three to nothing. That is the tough thing about baseball - one good inning and you can take the whole game. Then, we bowled and somehow I squeezed in a win but, truthfully with the functions that we each had in our hands bowling wasn't really even do-able. Lastly, we played another intense round of tennis which was by far the most fun for each of us and Steve somehow or another beat me two games in a row to sweep me best of three. But don't take a sweep the wrong way - we were going back and forth in deuce, he just somehow kept taking advantage of me some way or another. I will get him next time! Darn silly old fart!

After WII I had OT with Diane where we decided to do some E-stim because we hadn't done it in a while. Again, this is an electric shock therapy where you stimulate the nerves with electricity in order to re-introduce those nerve connections. My Uncle Paul was kind enough to give me the device that he had, which is similar to the E-stim machine RIC has. Diane and I played with it for a while as well to make sure that it was the correct machine to be using. It was very similar in many ways and after playing with it we devised ways in which it could be used the same as her machine. So, thank you Uncle Paul. I will be able to use yours and especially continue the therapy once I leave. We had a great session going back and forth stimulating both hands and as quickly as we started the time was up.

Next on the schedule was a PT session with Carey. So, I headed to the gym where I met up with her and we decided to go up to the 12th floor and practice a couple of transfers with the props up there. First, we lined up next to a double bed that they have in a mock bedroom. I was able to slide board over to it, lift my legs up on to the bed and lay back as if ready to take a nap. I then got back up which is much more difficult on a soft bed than the firm mats we practice on in the gym. I threw my legs off the bed again to slide back into the chair. It is crazy how the process of just getting in and out of bed is enough to really tucker you out. But, Carey won't let you just get away with one little exercise and nor would I want to. So, next we went outside the bedroom and in between the kitchen and the dodge spirit transfer car they have a quaint little living room set up. So I parked the chair next to a loveseat and did a board transfer onto the little couch. It really felt awesome to be sitting in a regular loveseat as if nothing had ever happened. I wanted Carey to pull my wheelchair away and put it in the other room so as if someone could come in and not even know whether I was injured besides the giant neck brace I still have to wear for what could be up to six weeks. It really did make me excited for when I get back to normal living and can just transfer in to some home furniture and recline and lounge just like I used to. I never really thought about how easy that will be now that my strength is up. You kind of think your just going to be sitting in your chair all the time because that is what I do here with how busy they keep you from activity to activity. So, once I was sitting in the loveseat I needed to get back in my chair. Couches are fairly squishy and lower than you realize so it is a pretty good uphill battle getting up into the chair. Again, I surprised myself with how well I was able to position myself correctly with textbook form and slide right up into my chair even though the chair was probably a good 6 to 8 inches above the loveseat.

We had fifteen minutes left and Carey asked me what the heck do you want to do now. So I said why don't we quickly run outside and go practice jumping curbs in the parking lot next door. She was all for it so we proceeded to head over there. Once we got over there my newly found skill of popping monster wheelies definitely got my front wheels up on the curb with no problem but boy all the weight is really on those back wheels and it is harder than heck to push the chair up onto the curb. I was so close but needed just a minimal amount of assistance from Carey to really get the chair up on top. Carey has the best positive attitude and is so fun to work with because of that amazing trait. I mean most of the therapists are pretty positive, but there are a couple I really wouldn't want to have. Carey and I laugh and joke around so much it makes our sessions really fun. She told me I feel like I am her brother the way we tease each other back and forth.

PT was actually my last session of the day for they basically wam bam thank you mammed me right in the morning. So, it had been a while since we sat back and just relaxed so we decided to take advantage of the open afternoon. Now, I can't believe that I forgot one of the biggest events of the day which was Joey's official discharge this morning around 10. He cleaned out all of his stuff and they emptied his side of the room. This felt really weird, seeing it empty. While I was in OT he made sure to come and say his final goodbyes. We hugged and promised each other that we would not lose touch and we would make an effort to visit each other or plan something in the near future to see one another. I honestly think that we will keep in touch for both of us enjoyed each other's company and learned a lot from each other. Joey if you end up reading this blog I love you man and I will talk to you soon!

After PT I went back to the room and my wonderful, number one assistant, and beautiful girlfriend had already had virtually everything moved over onto Joey's side. We figured I might as well claim the window side of the room before some chump gets moved in and takes it. You can see the John Hancock Building and several others from my bed and it is a lot better than staring at a curtain. Once we had everything in place Kalli and I crawled into my bed, sharing the tiny little single mattress, and fell asleep for a quick nap. It felt really great and was different to have the privacy and quietness of having the room all to ourself.

After my nap we began figuring out the details for attending a Brewers game here in Chicago this Saturday. The Brewers are coming to town to sweep the Cubbies four nights in a row. So, that should make for a great 4th of July activity. Joey had given me a contact number for a woman named Jan that coordinates handi-cap wheel chair accessible seating. She hooked us up with a box that apparently is in a great spot and also has a private wheelchair accessible bathroom. So my mom, dad, Kalli and I are going to take a cab down to the game on Saturday and watch it with some style up in the box! I'm thoroughly excited, but after talking to my dad I don't know exactly who is more excited him or myself.

With everything figured out and all the details set in stone, in walked a good high school buddy of mine, Pat Keegan. Pat lives in the area and works downtown and makes an effort to stop by every now and again. We sat and chatted as I prepared for my evening cath. It was a nice little visit but we actually needed to be going for my sister Sarah and her three children, Jack, Annabelle and Ali had just arrived and we had plans to go over to the apartment and all make dinner together. So, we went over to the apartment and of course my mom had a great meal already to go. Corn on the cob, a big bologna ring, which for some reason or another I feel is a Hippert tradition or childhood favorite, along with butternut squash, baked potatoes and butter, and some big plump strawberries and blueberries. After dinner the kids and I played with the plethora of gifts that they came bearing which were the board game Operation, one of those fun pin toys that you place over your hand, or face and it shows the imprint, and some pretty neat disc launching zoomer toys that you play catch with. I think I enjoyed watching the kids play with them more than anything which was really fun. Of course, the time flew by and it was time to get me back to RIC before my 8 o'clock curfew. We got hugs all around and headed home to do a little blogging and begin my nightly routine. Another great day between therapy, a wonderful nap, and good friends and family. Bring on 4th of July weekend! I can't wait to see my dad.

Wednesday July 1st

2009-07-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

My peaches, pears, bacon, milk and orange juice came as usual. Truthfully, it was a little difficult to put down for I was feeling a little bit under the weather. I have been feeling great for days and days so I guess it is to be expected to finally have a less than perfect morning. Part of why the morning started out poorly was I woke up extremely soar and in some pain. I don't want to blame it on it but I think it may have been due to the fairly thorough massage I had received the day before. It doesn't mean it wasn't good but I think it might have been a little more than my muscles were used to. So anyways, acting kind of slow and sluggish I tried my hardest to get going. While I was eating, my mom showed up, for Kalli was off buying a cake for Joey's last day and looking for some new shorts that will help with my cathing for me. Mom spotted me as I got out of bed and I headed to hand group. One of the things I was experiencing was kind of a strange, cold sweat that made me feel both hot and slightly cold, very unsettling. I got to hands group and just tried to ignore it.

First, in hands group, I undid and put back together a couple pairs of socks. Then, an older gentleman named Steve, who seems to be pretty loaded and has a couple boats, and I began a really slow game of battleship. Steve has even less hand movement than I do and was taking five plus minutes to put in each peg after I would launch a missile. We played battleship for around 40 minutes and I think I launched 5 or 6 pegs. So, it was a bit of a slow game and I even fricken lost for he found one of my ships and we considered that a win. But, it seemed to be helping him and it was encouraging because I had played battleship two weeks before with a guy named Ed and it was kind of the opposite story. It was taking me three or four minutes to get each peg in and now it seemed pretty easy to pick them up and slide them in. So, I definitely could notice an improvement in my own hand movements. Repeating an activity is really the best way for me to judge and notice my own self improvement. Otherwise, it is just slowly day to day and from my own perspective it is hard to tell if I am improving at all. Whereas if I repeat an activity it is quite obvious to compare it to my first try.

After losing in battleship to the slowest missile launcher ever I had an hour break until my next PT with Carey. Carey could tell right when I got into the gym that things were going a little sour for me today. Her and I talked over my symptoms and she took my blood pressure just to make sure there was no need to get a nurse or doctor involved. We realized that I was about an hour late on my pain meds and from my experience in the past if I let that get overdue I experience a very strange tired feeling where I believe my body is fighting the pain and becoming exhausted due to it and I don't even realize it. We got me a pain med and I wanted to just keep plugging along so she got me up on the mat and wanted to practice the proper way to stretch myself out now that I was able to sit up on the mat. Several of the stretches include laying down and getting up and if you can't do that on your own, well then, you might as well have the person with you getting you up stretch you out too. So, using what looked like a karate belt we proceeded to go through several different ways to stretch out my legs on my own. There was only one that was fairly difficult, the rest I was able to pull off without any problem. My new skill of popping up from laying down was quicker and quicker each time I tried. As I started getting into the stretches and working my body, meanwhile my pain medicine kicking in, I really started to feel better. The slight nausea I was feeling had gone away and I think I was able to work right through my morning gloom.

After PT Kalli returned from the store with a surprise cake to celebrate Joey's last day here at RIC. He has learned so much and improved so many of his functions and daily activities. It is hard to see him go but it is really exciting to know how much easier his routine will be when he returns back home. So many of the things he has rediscovered and accomplished here create an enormous amount of freedom in many ways. So, I went into the room and asked Joey if he would come and eat with us in the canary room because it was his last day and I was going to miss him. He agreed and we got our trays of food and headed in there. When we got there Kalli had the box with the cake and we popped it out on him, letting him know how much we are going to all miss him. He was very appreciative and the cake was delicious. Now, I'm not usually a dessert or cake guy whatsoever, but the simple, moist, just vanilla cake and the type of frosting that was on it was really delightful. We shared it with several other of the people we have become close with throughout our floor and had a great lunch celebrating Joey's departure.

After lunch I was supposed to go to OT exercise group but needed to go and cath first. This was the first time I did it without any help from RIC staff and there were three different options of catheters to use that we needed to trial to see what would work best. So, I tried two different kinds and it took longer than I thought it would. I ended up being 40 minutes late for exercise group and was able to just squeeze in at the end to throw down a couple beats.

After exercise group I had another hour break so I took that time to read a really interesting article in the ESPN magazine Endow brought me about a 17 year old and his struggles circumnavigating the world completely on his own in a 36 foot sailboat. After I got done I headed back to the canary room for my last therapy, OT with Margaret, one of the other therapists. She asked me what I wanted to work on and I had just been thinking about it - I really wanted to focus on working my hand function and getting back as much as I can in my mitts. So, first off to get an idea of where I was at she pulled out a box full of containers and had me pop open lid after lid, cap after cap, to get a quick assessment of where my abilities were. Once she had the picture figured out, she pulled out some pretty neat putty that had about a dozen beans placed within it for me to dig out. So I proceeded for the next 40 minutes or so just slowly pulling and stretching the putty as best I could with the grip that I have to get each and every one of those beans. This activity worked great and I was really happy with the way I could feel it working my hands and making them buzz. Margaret also felt like using the putty was going to be one of the best therapies for rejuvenating my hands so while I was digging for buried beans she went and got me some putty of my own. Interestingly, the putty comes with four small squares of the same material, but much stiffer. As your hands get stronger over time, you add about a half of one of these squares each time you experience the present putty becoming too weak for your new found strength. So as you get better and stronger you can stiffen up the putty and continue to challenge yourself.

After rolling back to memory lane, playing with putty like I did when I was about 8 years old, Kalli and I started figuring out what we were going to do for dinner and the rest of the evening. I had picked a voucher for dinner so we decided that I would jump in bed and she would run down to the cafeteria and pick us out some stuff to share for dinner. After dinner, we did a little blogging and I started my nightly routine.

This day started off a little rough, but I worked through it and didn't let it keep me in bed, or away from my activities - which I have seen too many times from other patients. We all know that each and every one of us is going to have a less than perfect day every once and a while. But, when they come you can't let it take over and hold you down. Kalli and I are looking into catching a Brewer's game this weekend for they will be in town for four days beating up on the Cubbies. I was able to get a number of the person at Wriggly Field that coordinates handi-cap seating. I plan on calling her tomorrow and seeing what the deal is; pricing, transportation, etc. Also, several people have signed up for the golf outing but we still need several dozen more to really make it a booming success. I am getting so excited to be able to attend and can't wait to get out and do something fun, like cruising around on the course for a whole day. So, if you are just waiting to sign up, or may be on the fence, get your butt in gear and come join us for some fun!

Tuesday June 30th

2009-07-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

My last day with my good buddy Endow. Again, so amazing that he flew all the way from California to visit a gimp like me. Thank you so much Endow. My food came around 8, as it always does and Kalli and Endow showed up shortly after. We hung out as I finished my breakfast and Kalli helped me get in my chair so I could get to the wonderful hand group. Usually we always meet in the canary room and work on different activities. But, today they set up bean bags again and Endow and I got to go head to head. So, we had blue and yellow bean bags and to keep things on the up and up Endow was throwing with his left hand and the therapist wanted me to get an equal work out, so I was throwing every other, left then right. The game was neck and neck. No one controlled the lead for it was going back and forth, but like usual, right at the end I flipped the switch. The last round we went into it was 19-19. Endow missed the board on his first throw and I barried both my tosses for a 20-21 victory for Andrew Hippert! After I smoked Endow in bags, the therapist brought out boche ball. It really is a pretty interesting set. The only boche ball I have ever seen throughout my life were hard round balls that were good for throwing in grass. This set is an indoor and outdoor set where the heavy balls have a bit of a bean bag-ish outer layer to them so you can toss them on a hard flat floor without them rolling forever. So, Beverly and I played about 4 games and she got the best of me in the third game. But I have to admit,and with Endow as my witness, I probably made the sweetest shot boche has ever seen to win the fourth game! Beverly had two balls pressed up against the white ball and I sandwiched mine pushing hers out of the way, in between hers and the while ball. So, it literally went her two red ones, my blue, then the white - all touching in a row! I couldn't have thrown that shot over again for my life, but I guess I was playing for the victory to make it 3-1 instead of tied up.

After boche I had an hour break so I decided to take advantage of my free time and go and pump some iron in the gym. The gym has one of those weight machines where the cables all lead to stacks of plated weights and you can pull on the handles to strengthen different muscle groups. I did about three different set-ups before it was time for my next session. Endow and Kalli kept mentioning while they were sitting there watching me sweat my butt off that "We feel bad just sitting here watching you work. I don't know why we don't grab some weights and get going on this too." We didn't have to go anywhere for my OT with Diane. She wanted to stick in the gym to work on wrist strengthening. This activity is pretty simple. Basically, I lay my arm on the table with just my wrist hanging off the end. She then straps a three pound weight around my wrist and I began doing a series of different exercises pulling it up and down. Three pounds doesn't seem like much but it was really the perfect weight for me, for by the end of the reps she asked me to do I was struggling to finish them up. To finish off the session we worked on putting together some tools to help me with my catheter program. All the little devices or tools they create, or have in stock already, are what she called the cost of doing business. For I had asked her "so, does every one of these little devices get tacked on to my bill as we continue to fill my backpack with things to help me?" With the answer she gave me, I'm thinking bring it on! I am going to suck as many things that can help me out of this place as I can as long as they are all "on the house".

After OT, it was lunch time so we grabbed my lunch tray and we all gathered down in the second floor cafeteria for the crew visiting was a little too large to try to pack in the canary room along with the regular crowd. Meeting me down there was my Uncle Paul, his good friend Jim (an older gentleman that I love dearly and worked with all the years through college when I would go home to work for my uncle Paul), Endow, Kalli, my mom, one of her close friends Amy Pable (Amy didn't come alone - she somehow figures out a way to leave the house with four kids between the ages of 1 and 9, two girls and two boys), my sister Laura and her one year old, Grey. We all sat and struggled to put down the wonderful RIC cafeteria food. I only say that because like I have mentioned in the past - the food here is hit and miss and boy did I miss with the driest chicken sandwich anyone has ever tried to choke down.

I'm on a four hour cathing program and by the end of lunch it was time to go and pee. So we went upstairs, got the duty done, and headed to my next therapy, a PT with Carey. First, I jumped onto the mat without a slide board, which has been a difficult thing because my tricep strength isn't quite there to get enough pop for it. Then, she had me moving across the mat sliding my butt from one side to the other. Then, and this is the biggest thing of all, and is a huge accomplishment for me, was she had me laying down on my back and I used a technique where you put your hands in your pocket, push your elbows down onto the mat, then throw you arms back to catch yourself and then push yourself up so that you are sitting all the way up. Before I was able to accomplish this, there really was no other way for me to sit up from laying down. That can be a pretty frustrating thing knowing that once you are laying down on a flat surface you can't even sit up if you want to. Carey, Kalli and I were all thrilled with the new accomplishment and now I am doing it like nobody's business and it is really pretty easy.

When PT was done we headed back to my room to meet up with my Uncle Paul, Jim, and my Mom. My Uncle Paul had brought a massaging machine and his magical fingers to give me a good shoulder and back massage. He worked my muscles all up and down my back and throughout my shoulders. It really felt pretty good and was relaxing. When he was all done with me my back felt like a pillow. From there, we decided to go and play some cards. The whole group, plus Joey, headed to the canary room where we proceeded to play an entire game of Tricks. Somehow, my Uncle Paul pulls off the game of his life without crashing even once, winning it by 20 some points. I came in second and who really cares about the scores after that. Paul was so excited about his perfect game that he asked to have the score sheet ripped out of Kalli's notebook and he stuck it in his pocket to be framed.

After Tricks, we had decided to head to a nearby sushi restaurant. It is pretty interesting how many places have wheelchair access that you don't realize. The restaurant that we went to, we actually had to use a lift in the building next to it, then come in a special back door in which one of the employees went and unlocked for us to enter into the restaurant. But, one way or another, they did have wheelchair access which was great because it was a nice place and I think we all enjoyed it! Thank you Uncle Paul for treating us all - it was wonderful to see you and Jim.

Kalli pushed me home and Paul and Jim headed their own way as did my mom. By the time we got back to the RIC it was time for our nightly routine and I was thoroughly wiped out. In fact, I fell right to sleep and didn't even remember to call Kalli, which I do every night before I go to sleep. I actually woke up at 5 in the morning and realized it so I called her anyway cause it is better late than never. She seemed to appreciate it and I fell back asleep. Another great day of therapy and good friends and family. The highlight of my day was truly the new popping up technique on the mat which was huge for being able to stretch myself out.

Monday June 29th

2009-06-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day my mom was back from her weekend away back in Appleton. She spent some time with friends and family and headed back to the cabin for about half the weekend as well. I had talked to her Sunday night on her way home and she was excited to see me early Monday morning. breakfast came as usual right around 8- I had already been dressed at about 7 by the night nurse who was just finishing his shift. So when my mom arrived at 8:30 I was fully dressed and sitting up about halfway done with breakfast. She told me all about her weekend as I finished up and then spotted me as I transferred into my chair.

Like usual, my first activity was OT Hand Group where I started out by placing these small little pegs into a series of holes, pretty darn simple. After I was done with the pegs the group leader handed me a flannel button down long sleeved shirt and asked me to unbutton and rebutton all of the buttons going down the front. With my hand function that I have, I basically had to use the palms of my hand to pull the buttons out of the holes which worked pretty well. Now, buttoning the shirt back up was a totally different animal. You really need to hold onto that button in order to shove it through the slit in the shirt for each one. So after struggling for about ten minutes trying to even get one I came up empty handed and a bit frustrated. So the therapist dug into her box of magic tools and pulled out a device for buttoning. It was a type of holder that slipped onto your hand and had a wire piece coming out of it that created a little loop that you first put through the slit and then grabbed the button and pulled it through. This device worked great and in about two or three minutes I had the whole shirt buttoned. It's pretty amazing, all the little tools, whether it's a knife for cutting your food or a wire handle for buttoning your shirt, that have been created for people with low-functioning hands to do normal everyday activities. After the shirt was completely unbuttoned, OT Hand Group was pretty much over and it was time for OT one-on-one with Diane.

We headed to my room where she wanted to work on a couple different things in my bed. I transferred over into the bed which again I need to mention, keeps getting better and better- seeming to be less and less effort for me every day. The first thing that we did was testing me on my balance in order to cross off one of my goals which was five minutes sitting on the edge of the bed without assistance with my balance by using my hands. So she had me holding my hands in the air and then swinging them from side to side over my knees without having to use them to correct my balance. This was totally achievable but definitely wore down my abdomen because afterwords I felt a bit wobbly having worked my core so hard. After achieving the sitting on the edge test, Diane had me lay down in the bed and begin taking off my shoes and then my socks so as to put them right back on and try tying my shoes. I was able to take everything off with ease, but then when it came to putting on my socks and tying my shoes- there's a little higher difficulty level there. I did get both of my socks on and eventually had my shoes completely tied, but it was crazy- with the first shoe I tied the laces in probably 6 or 8 minutes and the second shoe I had tied in no more than 2. Talk about learning quickly! My roommate Joey was actually sitting in the room watching because he was bored and didn't have anything going on at the time. Both Diane and him were quite amazed how quickly I was able to tie my shoes with the function I have in my hands. Joey even said, "Boy, RIC should have video-taped that. That would be good for one of their learning sessions."

Once the shoes were tied our time was up and it was time to hurry up, get in my chair, and out by the reception desk for my exercise group. Since I've been here Kate, one of the full time PTs, has had an intern in which she has allowed to take over and run the exercise group. Now Kate has been telling me for over a week that she is excited to get rid of her intern and get her exercise group back. Just simply because it's boring for her to sit back and watch and not be leading the show. I had heard rumors that Kate really works you hard but as hard as Stacy, the intern, was working us and making us sweat, I just assumed that it couldn't be much worse. Boy was I wrong! Kate is some sort of animal/incredible hulk that doesn't let up for a minute. Truthfully, I couldn't completely keep up and every once in awhile I had to lay my hands in my lap and take a couple deep breaths while she just kept pumping along apparently trying to kill some of the people in our group. She kept asking Mr. Crocket, "Mr. Crocket did you fall asleep?" but we all knew that he was just pretending to fall asleep so that he wouldn't have to keep up with her intense work out. He's probably one of the sweetest old men in the world and quite comical too. At half time we took a break, got some water, and strapped on weights to our wrists. The second half is always pumping iron along with the arm motions. I did a little better with the weights as far as keeping up, but my god, was i soaked in sweat by the time the hour was over- and thoroughly exhausted. After exercise group I had lunch and a total of three hours before my next activity. So I went into the Canary Room, gobbled up some food with mom and decided to hop back in bed for a little nap. Not very often do I jump back in bed and take a little break, but truthfully, this morning took it out of me. I knew I had a physical therapy still to go at 3 and I wanted to be fresh for that because I had a couple of things that I had been wanting to do again and I figured a nap would be just the right way to recharge my battery a bit. I slept for about an hour and then in walked my good buddy and number one blogger, David Endow along with another great friend, Kevin Wilson. The two of them of course, came bearing gifts: the newest Dave cd, ESPN Magazine with an article about a 17 year old who is sailing around the world alone, and some cheese curds but really they certainly didn't need to bring a thing. It's pretty amazing that Endow and Wilson had come all the way from Long Beach, CA, and Albuquerque, NM. We all hung out, shared some stories and got me out of bed for my 3:00 PT. The two of them joined me into the gym where we found Carey and I let her know what I wanted to work on today. Over the weekend, for some reason or another, I got excited about trying to load myself into the beautiful '92 Dodge Spirit practice car on the 12th floor again. WIth all the other activities I've been doing, it's so obvious to me the strength I had gained, and I hadn't done the car for at least two weeks and was eager to try. We headed upstairs and of course it wasn't really too hard. Not saying that I didn't battle and struggle to push myself in and out of that car, but compared to last time, it's so much easier. We headed downstairs and the second thing on my agenda was to practise transferring onto a tub chair that sticks out of the tub and you slide yourself across to get into the shower. My wheelchair was able to line up pretty close to the tub chair so I asked Carey if she minded if I tried to transfer without the slide board, which is really the next step in transfers to eliminate that board. She said, "heck yeah- if you're ready and feel like you can make it, let's do it." So I went and gave it my best, throwing my body as hard as I could from chair to bench- and sure enough, I was able to do it! Now, I need a little bit more strength to get a bit of lift so as to be doing that type of transfer 100%, but boy, it felt good to be that close already. These two activities gobbled up the hour quite easily and my time was up. Endow, Kevin, and I headed back to my room to hang out and talk about everything that's going on. We came to the conclusion that Endow wasn't willing to come to Chicago without trying Gino's pizza so Wilson and him headed out to bring back supper for all of us. This worked well because it's been a month and I've been counting down the days til they need to take my catheter out. The catheter and bag are supposed to be changed after a month of use. Today just happened to be that lucky day. I wanted to wait until I was done with all my therapies to yank that puppy out. So while they were gone, the nurse came in and let her rip. Surprisingly, it was virtually painless, which was a huge relief- for I had been dreading it for somewhere around a month. The next question now is whether my body is ready to start peeing on it's own, or if I need to start a cathing program where I get on a schedule and start cathing myself, which is much safer than having a full time catheter and foley bag for my urine. With a catheter in all the time, there is a very high risk for infection so this is the best option and the smartest step to stay healthy.

Once Endow and Kevin returned, we all mowed down on some deliciously amazing pizza which is full flavored and piled with meat to the max. Once we were done eating, my sister Laura also arrived for a day and a half visit. We all sat around organizing my room, cleaning out my closet, and talking about anything that came to our minds. It started getting late and it was time to start the nightly routine. Today was definitely a great exercise-filled day and I will sleep like a baby tonight. Truthfully, I sleep like a baby every night. My mom has said I was always a really great sleeper- able to shut my eyes and be clocked out within minutes. Today is no exception. Good night, and farewell.

Sunday June 28th

2009-06-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Sundays are probably the easiest going, quietest days here at the RIC. I woke up around six, thoroughly in pain, for I no longer take any pain medication throughout the night. So, I immediately requested one of my narco's to ease the pain. Maggie came in quickly and dosed me up. Shortly after I feel back asleep until about 7:30. Then, I began trying to get myself oriented. My breakfast came around 8 o'clock so I requested my knife and foam handle for my fork so that I could begin cutting up my french toast and throw it down. Shortly after I was done eating Kalli and her parents showed up and we all sat and talked for a while. Our goal for the morning was to get down to the beach and enjoy the beautiful waterfront Chicago has to offer. Kalli and I wanted to get a little blogging in to try to catch up so her parents decided to go and figure out the best way to wheel down to the beach. We blogged for about an hour, got dressed and out of bed so that we could go and meet Kalli's parents outside.

We followed the new route that they had figured out. Basically, we went behind the 680 building to a ramp about three blocks away that goes under the road and to the beach. It didn't take long at all and we were sitting front row seats in the grass to the entire beach. Boats slowly gathered, mooring one after another in the water about fifty yards out from the beach. People were sunbathing, reading, running and biking everywhere around us, it created a pretty neat atmosphere to just sit back and relax. To the right of us stretched out the beautiful Lake Michigan and off to our left the edge of downtown's expanding skyline. The entire waterfront of Chicago has been quite neatly created into a park and aquatic play land for people to exercise and enjoy.

After about an hour and a half of people watching and great conversation we headed to the apartment to make some lunch. With out apartment being about half way between RIC and the beach it was just about two and a half blocks away. We flew up the speedy elevators of the McClurg building where Kalli and my mom have become best buds. In the apartment there was hoards of food, taco makings, guacamole, two or three different pasta salads, and also the fixings for a Hippert family favorite radish sandwiches. I am sure many of you have never had a wonderful radish sandwich - so why don't I explain how to make one so you can all run out and get the fixings. It is very simple. You toast some white bread, spread on mayo (Helmans is my choice) on each piece of toast, then you thinly slice some nicely cleaned radishes and layer them on in a nice assortment, one to two thick. Then you sprinkle the spread of radishes with just a touch of salt to take the bite away. Place the second piece of toast on top and enjoy! I have even seen people, like Kalli, that don't particularly enjoy radishes ask for seconds! So, I filled my plate with a wonderful radish sandwich that Kalli prepared for me and a pile of one of my favorite recipes that Kalli's mom makes called Summer Salad. It mostly consists of cauliflower, broccoli and bacon. Rose, Todd, Mary, Kalli and myself all had our fill and then decided it was time to get me back to RIC for another dose of meds.

It was wonderful having Kalli's mom and dad around while my mother took the weekend off. But, it was time for them to depart and catch the train. So, we said our goodbyes and they were off to hail a taxi. Once I got back, my roommate Joey reminded me we had a recreational therapy session with Mike, the activity coordinator. So, I got dosed up and we headed up to the ninth floor where they have their activity room. On the agenda today was simply playing some pool. I mageivered up a velcro strap fastened to my hand to attach to the already affixed velcro strips on the end of the pool stick. It helps me a lot to hold the stick with my weak ass grip. Mike, Joey and I racked up some cut throat and began knocking each others balls around. Joey won the first game and the fun went on and on. Once we had our fix of playing pool we headed down to my room to get some more blogging in, again in order to catch up for we really did let ourselves get behind.

After we got in about a half a day of blogging, a handful of my friends all returned for another visit. Teale, her husband Kevin, Ashley, Anthony, Crazy Carl and Maeghan all came storming in to my room. We began telling stories and reminiscing which turned in to a loud thunder of about five people talking at once. So, I decided why don't we take this out of my little room, so that my roommate can hear himself talk to his mom and head to the canary room where we can all have a little more space. Plus, I really wanted to put together my new toy, a mini Foosball table that Kalli's parents got for me. Once we got in the canary room we ripped open the box and assembled the table. Crazy Carl did most of it, for my hands are kind of weak and Anthony has a humongous cast still on his hand from surgery. Once all put together, Kevin and I began a fierce game of foos. We went back and forth, neck and neck the whole game. But then, when it counted, right at the end I suckered schooled three goals on him, one after another to finish it in glory! All of a sudden I realized that it was after 5 and time to get some chow. So, Kalli and I headed down to the cafeteria to use my voucher for dinner. The pickins were more than slim this Sunday evening, so bad that I decided I want to just head to McDonalds and go get me a Big N' Tasty. So, Anthony, Crazy Carl, Kalli and I all headed to the McDonalds about a block and a half away. We got in there and ordered our food to go so that we could come back and eat with everyone back in the canary room.

When we got back they were playing foosball and all just sitting around and chatting. So, I proceeded to open my food and get my eat on. Meanwhile, everyone decided they really needed to get going to catch the next train back to Milwaukee. So we all said goodbye and there were hugs all around until next time. Once everyone was gone I finally got the chance to open my McDonalds burger box with my wonderful Big N' Tasty. To my disappointment, I opened the lid and there sat not a Big N' Tasty but a Big N' Fishy - some sort of disgusting square fish laying on a bun. My gosh I have been swimming and fishing so many times and have never seen a square fish just swimming around. But, somehow or another McDonalds manufactures millions of these special square fish. I was truly disappointed in this colossal mistake, the non-english speaking cashier made. So, Kalli, being the absolute sweetheart that she is offered to run back and get the Big N' Tasty that was rightfully mine. Meanwhile, I decided I would jump into bed and eat my food there when she returned.

After pounding down the real Big N' Tasty, not the disgusting Big N' Fishy I got the first time, I sat back satisfied and Kalli and I began to blog again. This session of blogging finally got us all caught up and back to our normal schedule of just one a day. I promise within the next two days I will do an Andrew speaks again, but for now I hate to make Kalli's fingers type another single word after the probably nine pages we wrote throughout the day today. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend for I certainly did. With over a dozen visitors and a fun filled weekend I am ready bust ass and begin another week of therapy. Keep you informed and talk to you tomorrow! Goodnight.

Saturday June 27th

2009-06-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

I woke up in the morning and one of my favorite nurses, Maggie, went and hand wrote out my schedule for me because the person that normally delivers them never came. To my surprise, on a Saturday, I had two PT groups on the schedule. So, I began to eat breakfast and Kalli and Ashley showed up around 9 o'clock. The three of us talked and began getting me dressed so I would be ready for my first PT at 10. I transferred out of bed and headed for the lobby to ask where this PT would be held. One of the PT's, that I very rarely work with, named Kristin, was there gathering our group to go outside. She had a pretty intense hour planned for us. Now, I have been over to Treasure Island, the grocery store in the 680 building across the street, before but pretty much was always pushed there by Kalli or some visitor. Kristin had in mind for us to all push ourselves there and then practice going up and down the ramp that is built in to the back of the building to get inside. It is really a beautiful, humungous building that has not only a grocery store, but a hardware store, pharmacy, laundromat, and most importantly it is Playboy's corporate office. So, we headed over pushing ourselves, which on an angled sidewalk, which most of it was, is really way more difficult than you think. Basically, when it is angled the chair really wants to veer towards the downhill side of the angle, so that arm is working really hard and the other one is actually almost pulling backwards on the wheel to counterbalance the twisting as well. It is thoroughly annoying and difficult enough to make you stop and take a break every 100 feet or so.

On our way over to the ramp, JT had just pulled up. He is one of my really good buddies from San Diego who is also Swedish and heading home to Sweden shortly after his visit with me. JT had with him a check for $1,300.00 which was raised at the cookout fundraiser that him and Guillermo and I am sure several other of our friends in San Diego all planned and hosted at our apartment complex last weekend. We took turns one at a time going up the fairly large ramp in the back of the 680 building. When it became my turn I hauled ass into the ramp, getting most of the way up but then when I got to the steepest and last part of the ramp with only about 6 to 8 feet left it brought me to a stand still. JT started saying "you want this $1300 bucks you better go 8 more feet, otherwise I'm taking it home with me! Come on! 6 more feet and this money is all yours! You can do it!" harrassingly/encouragingly he chanted. Slowly, I inched, push by push to the top where I practically collapsed into my chair as I made it over the last inch of incline. The money was mine and I did it! I made it up a good sized wheelchair ramp for the first time. It showed me that I have a lot of strength yet that I need to build and there is definitely no stopping now with the weights and exercises if I want to be able to get around by myself.

At the top, we took a minute to take a breath. Then, it was time to try a whole new ball of wax and head down this curvy ramp. Basically, where my hand function is at now, I just have to push as hard as I can against my side wheels with the rubber gripper section of my gloves and try my hardest to evenly slow down the wheelchair. With my left hand being quite a bit weaker than my right, it's difficult for me to get an even grip to slow myself down. Trying my hardest, I couldn't quite control it well enough to do it on my own. So, the therapist helped me stop in the middle of the ramp because I was getting off to one side too much and about to hit the railing. The therapist then began to explain to me how I should have even pressure on each side and if I want to go right, I should push harder on the right side and if I want to go left, push harder on the left side as if I didn't understand the mechanics of how this would work. This was a bit frustrating to me because the way she was saying it was as if I didn't understand how to control the chair, when in all reality I was trying my hardest and it just came down to I wasn't quite there yet with my left hand, strength wise. That is one of the only things that can be frustrating, is when people talk to you like you are a child or as if you don't understand what you are trying to accomplish, when really it is the physical disability that is holding you back. It is difficult to get frustrated with them because I know they are trying their hardest and they don't realize how they are talking to you, or even that they are frustrating you, with their inflection or unnecessary instruction.

While I was writing this, Kalli brought up a good point. This kind of frustration usually only happens when I am working with someone that isn't one of my two primary therapists. They simply just don't have the hours with you and don't know you as well as your primaries do.

We headed back to RIC, which is about two and a half, or three blocks away, again battling the slanted sidewalks. Once we got there there was a parking lot right next to the front doors. In this parking lot are two curbs that create one of those gated entrances for the lot. These little island sections of curb are perfect for practicing curb jumping with your wheelchair. So, the second half of the session, or I should say the last ten minutes or so consisted of learning the techniques in which to jump and drop off of a curb. Now these ones were fairly short, maybe three inches tall, and I was able to get up on top of it and then hop down with really not too much trouble at all. In fact, I wish we would have had more time and I would have tried a little taller curb, because truthfully it was kind of fun. Something that I have forgotten to mention and is kind of a big deal, and Mark is going to be pretty excited, that's for sure, is that I have now learned how to do a pretty mean pop-a-wheelie! I can't sit and hold it and ride the back tires, but I can definitely get the front ones probably six inches off the ground. It is crazy because not more than a week ago I couldn't get them off the ground to save my life.

So after the PT session we came up for some lunch and Kalli's mom and dad, my niece Rose, and some really good friends of my brother Tim and sister-in-law Lori, and JT and I all sat in the canary room and chatted as I ate my lunch. The meal provided for lunch today was a BLT sandwich, which has always been one of my favorites. I wolfed it down and headed to my next session, another PT, in the gym with Adella, a weekend fill-in PT. I started out by pumping some iron with my triceps on this great machine in the corner of the gym. I put more weight on there than I have ever tried before and really put her to the test. After four sets of fifteen I wheeled over to the mat and decided to practice sitting up and getting my legs onto the mat. After a true battle of slowly easing each of my legs up onto the mat, I straightened out and Kalli proceeded to do a series of stretches to get my legs all loosened up.

After the stretches I worked on spinning to my side and getting myself sitting up on the mat. Once I got myself sitting I proceeded to move my legs off the mat so as to be sitting on the side of the mat with my feet on the floor. Then I transferred into my chair and we all headed outside. The mat was quite hilarious because Joey and I were both on it together, trying to share half and half. Every time one of us would slide or scoot towards the middle we would end up super close and start taking cheap shots, punching each other in the belly, side, or arm whenever we had a chance. I don't think therapy is supposed to be that fun but it sure did make all of us laugh.

Once we got downstairs and outside, we began throwing around my favorite little maroon hacky sac. Darnell, Joey and I created a triangle and threw the bean bag from person to person. After about a half hour of working the arms and coordination, it was time to head out and go grab a drink at this neat bar and bowling alley, called Lucky Strike, just a couple blocks away. Lucky Strike is in the same building as the AMC theater we went to last weekend. The nine of us, Kalli, her mom and dad, Rose, Maeghan, Ashley, Darnell, Joey and I, found a booth for the six walkers to sit in and the three of us wheelchair fellas pulled up on the outside. Our waitress came and we ordered some drinks. We had a great time sitting and chatting but before we knew it, it was time to start getting dinner ready. So, Kalli, her mom, and Rose left the bar a little bit ahead of the rest of us to go start getting a deluxe taco dinner ready.

The rest of us finished our drinks and slowly headed to the apartment. Mike Lord, a good friend of mine, met us at the apartment. When we got to there the girls had everything ready for us. They served up some wonderful tacos, guacamole and chips. After stuffing two huge tacos into my stomach, which is actually getting smaller and smaller, for I have lost 17 lbs since the accident (I weighed a beefy 215 when I jumped into that pool and now weigh 197 pounds), we decided it was time to get back to RIC in order to take my medicine. Kalli's mom's tacos combined with Rose's guac was probably one of the most enjoyable meals I have had since Marsel outdid himself in San Diego with an incredible surf and turf.

Upon arriving at the RIC I was exhausted so I took my meds and jumped into bed. Shortly there after, one of my best friends, Anthony Wilhelms, who's wedding I was best man in, showed up. So Kalli, Ashely, Anthony, Maeghan, Mike, Rose and I all sat and chatted while I relaxed in bed. They all wanted to go out that evening so the girls took off a little early to get ready while Anth, Mike and I sat and talked a little longer. Around 8:30 the boys realized they better get going or they would be in trouble with the ladies and as they were leaving in walked my ex-ex-ex girlfriend's mother and sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Walters. She had with her one of her friends and colleagues. The three of us chatted for a while. I gave her several hugs to share with her daughters. It was getting late so they headed out.

After everyone left it was time for me to start my nightly routine, it was shower night. What a day full of fun and visitors and even a beer! My first beer since the accident.

Friday June 26th

2009-06-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

I want to start off by apologizing to my many fans for the delayed posting of the last two days. Things have been busy with visitors and activities.

Friday morning was the first time my mother had finally taken time for herself and planned a trip to head for home. It has been four straight weeks basically since the moment of the accident that she has dropped completely unselfishly every activity in her own life to dedicate her time and energy towards my rehabilitation. I can't thank you enough Mom for all you have been doing for me over the last several weeks. Her good friends were going to be swinging through so they had plans to stop by around noon to grab my mom for a ride home. Because she is not going to be with me all weekend she made a point of coming right away around 8 o'clock that morning to help me with breakfast and hang out before she left.

My mom and I were talking about how it has been really great how much time we have been able to spend together due to the accident because really, since the day I graduated high school I've totally flown the coup. That first summer I moved to Sturgeon Bay to run the sailing school with Mark, then off to college for five and a half years and I didn't miss a beat not more than a month after college I moved to San Diego. So, really besides family events, holidays, and visits to the cabin I've been gone more than any of my other siblings over the past seven years. So being able to hang out with my mom every day has been awesome.

So, once I piled my food down my throat and we got me into my chair, we headed to hands group. The therapists were all ready to get us rockin' and rollin' for fun Friday. Basically, fun Friday means we play cards instead of with children's toys, nuts and bolts, or women's wallets. This week, one of the other patients, Martel, was hell-bent on playing his favorite game, King's Corners. King's Corners is a fairly fun game when you are playing one-on-one, but in a group setting its a little slow when you spend most of the time sitting there. Truthfully, not the best therapy game, but Martel won the first game and then I robbed the second game, just dominating. We got half way through a third game and the time was up.

After hand group I had some free time from 10-11 so I had my mom grab a white towel for me to do a little independent therapy that I learned from Diane. Basically, you lay the towel on the table in front of you and you place your hands on it and slide forward onto the table using your trunk to pull you back up. You continue to do this in all different angles across the table. It is a great way to strengthen your core and get your abdominal muscles going.l

After doing this for a while I was ready for my next therapy which was Exercise group from 11-12, but while heading over there my PT, Carey, came over and said "hey I don't have anything going on right now, can I steal you from exercise group and we work on the tilt table again?" I said hell yea! I have been wanting to get on the tilt table again because when working in a lot of my other activities I could physically tell that my blood pressure control was getting better and better every day. I used to get a bit dizzy and need to take breaks when working different PT exercises on the mat. Now, I can go almost an entire hour rolling around and pretending to be a monkey without any breaks at all. So, we strapped me to the tilt table and began the process of elevating and tilting me about every five minutes. Five, ten degrees at a time. Normally we would hook me up to a blood pressure machine to monitor how low my blood pressure would drop as we raised me higher and higher. At a certain point I will pass out if my blood pressure gets too low. But, I told Carey you know it is very simple and easy for me to tell exactly how low my blood pressure is getting. Here are the symptoms I experience every time I put my blood pressure to the test: first, I feel slightly light headed. Next, my hearing goes to about 50%. Third, I get tunnel vision and slight spots. Fourth, complete whiteout. Fifth, I wake up with thirty people around me because out (only got to this stage once, in the ICU). So with having a good understanding of how much I can handle we decided we didn't need to hook me up to the machine and I would just monitor it with my wonderful five step symptom guide. Carey brought me up again and again and we reached all the way up to 90 degrees, which is standing straight up! I was so fricking excited by the time we got to that point, but also tuckered out beyond belief. It seems like it would be easy to just lay on a table and get tilted up but controlling that blood pressure by working my arms, and breathing properly is like running an entire marathon within that hour. After we got me up to that position and I held it for a little while the entire hour had passed and my t-shirt was ready to be rung out with sweat. We headed back to my room to get me a fresh shirt and lunchtime had arrived. One of the important parts about the tilt table is that is basically the first stepping stone for me to use the lokomat, the crazy johnny jumper, robotic treadmill machine I have mentioned in the past. My goal for next week is for me to stay at 90 degrees for ten minutes. The following week I am hoping to have a goal of 20 minutes, because that is the requirement in order to use the lokomat - standing at 90 degrees on the tilt table for twenty minutes. This could also be added to people's prayer list because it is no easy task and boy do I want to get in that johnny jumper.

We ate lunch in the canary room and shortly after Diane, my OT, came over and we headed to my room to work on my contacts. I tried and tried to get them out of my eyes but for some reason or another, and mainly due to my weak grip, I could not peal them off my eyeballs. Kalli took them out of my eyes for me so that I could try to at least see if I could put them in. After about two or three attempts I was able to put my contacts in, but still I am looking for suggestions or tools to help me get them out by myself. Sounds like Lasik would also be a very interesting option as well, but with as much as I have going on right now the last thing I need to do is add to the list. So, that may be an option down the road. After poking my eyes for a good twenty minutes Diane and I headed back to the canary room to do some arm exercises with a variety of different colored bands, which represent levels of stretch strength that each has. We stepped me up a color for I am getting buff as can be and began several different arm stretches that work on strengthening all different parts of my body. I also talked to Diane about how tight and sore my shoulders were getting after all the different kinds of weight lifting and exercises I was doing for strength training. She advised me that there is a heat pad that only the doctor can order for me to use during these situations. While I was with her she could go and grab a heat pad to throw on my shoulders. So, while we did the stretches I wore a fairly large heat pad across my neck and shoulders. I didn't even seem to notice the heat pad that much besides just an overall warm sensation while I was working out. But, amazingly at the end of our session when she took the pad off, my shoulders were as loose and a goose and completely pain free. So, I am really excited to receive the heat pad from the doctor in which I can use when I experience that kind of tightness in my shoulders.

After working with Diane for what was supposed to be an hour and turned into about an hour and forty-five minutes (which shows the incredible dedication the therapists have here any time they can help) I headed to the gym for my second set of PT with Carey. We decided to hook me up to a bike that they have in the gym that is motorized and really makes me feel like I am pedaling myself. We had an awesome conversation with Carey while I biked away for an hour and forty-five minutes, again WAY over the scheduled time in which I was allotted to work with Carey. We were only scheduled for a half hour and again, another one of my therapists went above and beyond on a Friday when I was the last person they had for the day. Carey had a hot date all planned out with her husband and she still took the extra time to sit and work with me to get my legs moving.

At about quarter to five, Kalli and I decided we wanted to go and see if we could find a Jamba Juice. We were told it was in the bottom of the John Hancock building, just a handful of blocks away. After battling the sidewalks, bump after bump, we found Jamba Juice right where they said it would be. Kalli went and got a peach smoothie while I explored this really neat courtyard area that Jamba Juice was located in. Right next to it was a Best Buy which was perfect for I wanted to purchase a flash drive to fill with pictures of our stay here and all the activities that we have done to give to my roommate Joey. Joey is leaving on Thursday of next week, the second of July, and boy I am going to miss him. We have become really good friends and he has been an unbelievable resource for me as I go through all of these new challenges. Every time I run into something that doesn't make sense or I feel like, boy there must be a better way, I bounce it off Joey and sure enough he has a tip, or a whole new way of doing it. Now, not all of his tips are free - for the other day, I had to trade him a bag of chips for a really great pooping tip. Don't think I am just going to give it away to all of you, I'm looking to get a little something out of it as well before I pass it on to just anybody. As we walked back home to the RIC, a good friend of mine, Jaci Skalla was just a few blocks away to visit.

We met Jaci and her boyfriend Rick shortly after we got back. I hadn't seen Jaci in a while and it was really great to catch up with her and her new boy toy. Rick seemed like a really nice guy, not shy or bashful but easy going and I enjoyed our visit thoroughly. After they left I started my nightly routine where I had really great results - an extra large and a medium, to be exact. Since my mom was gone, a great friend of Kalli's and mine, Ashley Wilhelms, came down from Milwaukee to spend the night with Kalli. They went out to dinner and watched a movie, sounds like they had a great girls night.

More to come about Saturday!

Thursday June 25th

2009-06-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

It was another wonderful morning at the RIC. I woke up early, around 7 o’clock and my night PCT, Bonnie, helped me get dressed and even squirted a little cologne on me – got me smelling good for my upcoming day! My breakfast came like normal, around 8 o’clock and I sat with my mom and ate. Then she spotted me as I transferred into my chair and then we headed to hand group. We had a much different hand group than we usually do. They brought a couple buckets full of all kinds of different paint. They had printed out several logos of different baseball teams in which the patients each were rooting for. They knew that I was a Brewer’s fan so they had several different printout logos for me to choose from. Of course, I chose the throwback Brewer’s logo where they incorporate MB (Milwaukee Brewers) in a baseball mitt. That symbol is by far the best baseball logo ever made. I took the printout they had provided and had it taped to the window of the canary room. I then got set up outside the canary room so that I could paint the symbol right onto the window with the pattern behind it for me to trace. The logo turned out perfect and I strategically placed it right next to my roommate Joey’s stupid Chicago Cubs painting he had done the day before. My beautiful mitt made his Cubs logo look like weird children’s chicken scratch. The competition between teams here is fierce, but deep down everyone knows the brew crew will always come out on top.

After an hour of painting a majestic logo, we all gathered by the reception desk to head to the park to ride hand bikes on a nearby running track. Once everyone was gathered we headed to the park and when we got there they had two three-wheel hand bikes and four different sports chairs for us to try out. A good buddy of ours, Darnell and I hopped in the hand bikes first. The bikes are no joke – they run for over $3,000 and able to really get cruising. It took a little while to get it all fitted and sized to my body but once we were all set up I was able to really get cooking. By no means do I want you to think that this was just easy-peasy, for I would get about a third of the way around the track, find the closest area of shade and take a little break. I know my arms are getting stronger and stronger every day, but they aren’t quite there yet to take one of those bikes out for a full ride out on the town. The RIC coordinates the use of the bikes every two weeks for patients to try and play with. The bikes are also available, kind of like a book in a library, for you to just check out and take a ride once you feel confident. The way in which the RIC coordinates so many activities, showing you all the different things that you still can do, is one of the most amazing parts of the program. It is so important to continue to keep the mind set of look at all of the things that I can do. You really aren’t going to get yourself anywhere sitting around thinking about things you can’t do. From biking to sailing, even painting I can’t believe how many opportunities I have already had here at the RIC.

After sweating our butts off in ninety degree weather, we headed back. As soon as we returned my mom was waiting in the canary room for Kalli and I with food to start snacking on before my lunch came. I threw down some lunch quickly because I was pretty excited about a demonstration that was going to be put on at 12:00 down behind the building. A company from Europe was displaying a system in which they install into your car so that you can drive throttle and break with your hands while still steering your car. I have heard of all different systems and after talking with some of the people that had showed up as well that have different systems installed already – they were all really impressed with the set-up being displayed today. Basically, there is a smaller ring installed on top of the steering wheel that you press in with your thumbs while you are able to still hold the steering wheel and this becomes your throttle. Then, mounted on either the left of right side a couple inches away from the steering wheel is what looks like is a handle that looks like a shifter knob that you simply just grab and pull down on for the break. The system is about 12-14 thousand dollars to install into any automatic transmission vehicle. A little pricey, but it is hard to put a number on the freedom in which being able to drive your own car creates. The car that they brought with them, in order to model the system, was a top of the line Volkswagen with a 6.0 liter V12 engine in it, beautiful vehicle and boy must it go! I talked with the owner of the car and he was really happy with the system and he turned out to be a really neat guy and entrepreneur doing well for himself here in Chicago. After talking with him for a while, he gave me his business card and asked me to email him when I got all my stuff together and was done with rehab. Could be a great connection down the road.

After that, I had some time to blow so I organized my RIC binder with some of the stretches and handouts my therapists have given me over the last three weeks. Then, jumped into bed and Kalli did several of the stretches with me until Diane, my OT, came into my room for my last class of the day. She had asked me to be in bed when our class started so that we didn’t waste any time transferring and we could get started on seeing how well I could dress and undress myself this week. It seems so easy and we all take it for granted that we can very simply throw on our pants and quickly toss on a shirt, but for me now it is a drawn out and quite difficult task to get a pair of pants on. But, today, I really had a great improvement and am thoroughly excited about it. I was able to take off my pants, put them back on, take off my shirt and put it back on all in about 40 minutes. This may seem like an eternity for the rest of you, but for me a drastic improvement over last week. For last week, we did this same drill, trying to take my pants off and on and my shirt off and on and once we were done Diane rated me as being able to do only 25% of the task myself, meaning 75% assistance in order to dress myself. Today, I did it all myself and it was really an awesome feeling. I know that every day that I try I will save thirty seconds, or a minute, maybe even five minutes off those forty minutes and keep getting better and better at it. But, to simply be able to do it all myself is an amazing feeling at this point. Diane mentioned again, that it is incredible that I can even change myself this soon into the injury, at this level of injury and with wearing a neck brace. These words of encouragement really help me to continue to be that boy wonder ahead of the curve.

After the session was done Kalli and I sat and chatted and then figured out what we wanted to do for dinner. We came to the conclusion that this amazing accomplishment of being able to dress myself needed to be celebrated by ordering some sushi by delivery. We both love all different kinds of sushi rolls and were spoiled in San Diego with having ten, fifteen really good sushi places within walking distance of our house. So, we ordered a handful of rolls and enjoyed them very much. It was the perfect amount and delicious. After dinner, we did a little bloggin’ and then began my nightly routine. Tonight was a shower night so it takes a little longer.

Once again, just like yesterday with being able to go sailing, I was impressed by the RIC’s ability to put together an activity like being able to go biking, showing you that there is so much out there to help and assist us so as to live completely normal lives even with the challenges we may face.

PS: Thank you so much David and Joan Sier for the tickets to Six Flags. I can’t wait to skip to the front of every single line. It is going to be a blast! Also, I want to continue to say thank you, thank you, thank you to EVERYONE that has sent me a card. It is such a great feeling to come to my room and there is either a box, a card, a basket of cookies, something just showing me the overwhelming support that is out there, carrying me along the journey each and every day.

PPS: There will be a golf outing charity event on July 20th at Reid Golf Course in Appleton, WI in my name. I am so honored that again several individuals have taken it into their own hands to support me in this way. There are just no words to describe how loved I feel as people continue to go above and beyond to help me through this incredible hurdle in my life. I talked to my doctors this morning and told them it was very important to me to be able to attend this charity golf outing. I told them don’t worry I will have them duct tape me really tight to the golf cart and strap a three wood to my arm so that I don’t need to even leave the cart to participate. But in all seriousness, I am really excited to be able to get together with all of you that would like to attend. It is going to be a really fun day with lots of prizes and games from hole to hole. All of the details will hopefully be posted tomorrow and there are three different ways to hear about them. First, through a facebook group that has already been established, second, right here on the blog there will be a spot to click on the right side that will have details, and lastly, there will be an e-vite coordinated through Mark Lee. The e-vite will be the official way to register for the outing. Please stay tuned for more details. I can’t wait to see you all then! Remember, these kinds of events are only for fun and not even really recommended for any serious golfer. It will be done in a scramble where it doesn’t even matter if you can hit the ball; you just take the best of four players each hole. So please, don’t be discouraged to attend if you are not a golfer.

Wednesday June 24th

2009-06-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

The day had finally come where Joey and I were going to be off on our much awaited adventure sailing out on Lake Michigan in the afternoon. Breakfast came as usual around 8 o'clock. Guillermo and Kalli showed up in my room shortly after the food arrived. We sat and chatted as we ate breakfast. Guillermo has been a really great help over the last two days that he was able to spend with us. It was time for 9 o'clock hand group and Guillermo spotted me as I used my slide board to transfer into my chair and head to the canary room. Oh yeah forgot to mention, as my torso has been getting stronger and stronger, I was able to free myself of the silly velcro strap that I had around my upper chest to keep my balance while in my wheel chair. The strap was very limiting, making it difficult to do several tasks such as pulling my breaks off lock, leaning all the way forward, or side to side to do my own pressure break and many other tasks in which I would want to lean over in some way or another.

At hand group I was given some old wheel chair parts and allen wrenches and was asked to start taking them apart. This was fairly simple but worked the hands well as usual. Next, they had a device made where five threaded rods about 20 inches tall were positioned vertically with a nut on each rod. I was asked to thread the nut all the way from top to bottom, not by just simply spinning it with my hand but actually grabbing it with my fingers and twisting it half a turn at a time. By the time I got through about three of these rods, my hands were really buzzing and they switched me to the next task. I'm not really proud of the next activity they asked me to do, it felt a little strange but I'm going to share it with you guys anyway. I was given a woman's wallet full of monopoly money, fake credit cards, and seventeen pennies. The purpose was to pull everything out of it and then put it all back in. So, I did one step up and not only pulled it out, but counted every single piece of money in the wallet. I ended up with $657.17 and a sack full of credit cards. By the time I was done with that the hour had flown by and I had a half hour break.

My PT, Carey, stuck her head in the canary room and said "hey want to learn a little more about the weights? I've got some extra time." So, I followed her into the gym and she showed me several of the different pieces of exercise equipment and how to use them properly. This was not only educational but incredibly tiring. The weight machines really tucker me out and I can really feel the burn.

After a half hour of demonstrations on all different kinds of exercises with Carey, it was time for my next appointment which was an OT session with Diane. Since a day or two ago I discovered a very slight amount of movement in my left hand for the first time we concentrated on doing E-stim therapy on that left set of digits. It's interesting, depending on where she puts the electrodes we either usually get a couple of my fingers moving, or the thumb. We did several different positions about ten minutes each and then it was time to head to the next thing on my schedule.

At 11 o'clock I got back together with Carey and she continued to show me how to use the different weights and machines in the gym to strengthen my biceps, triceps, and shoulders. The wheelchairs here get some pretty heavy use, patient after patient, adjustment after adjustment needing to be made to fit each individuals body, size and shape. So, once again we had some issues with the wheels moving around and rubbing and we needed her to get into the shop. So, Carey adapted our session and moved me to my room and into bed so that they could take my chair and her and I could work on some stretches that I needed anyway. After stretching for a while, the wheelchair returned and my session was up so we transferred into the chair and unbelievably, the wheelchair had the same freaking problem, but now on the other side. I don't know what these wheelchair guys up on the 12th floor are smoking, but they were definitely off their game that afternoon. So, I was supposed to have exercise group next, which I did join and got a couple reps in but then I saw one of the wheelchair guys walking by and flagged him down, expressing my emergency. Normally, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to struggle through a rubbing tire or some sort of issue, but at 2 o'clock I was about to be heading off on my sailing adventure and I really didn't want to be dealing with a problematic chair, not knowing exactly what all we were going to be taking on. So, I flagged down the guy, had him come into the gym with me, I quickly transferred onto the mat, explaining to him what the problem was and laid there doing my own exercise routine while I waited for the chair to be fixed for the second time (that day).

About 25 minutes later, the chair returned in a good working order! The boys had finally gotten it right and I was ready to go sailing. Then, as soon as I felt like I got my wheelchair fixed and everything was ready to go I looked out the window and saw black clouds as I heard the rumble and crack of disappointing thunder. I headed to the canary room, where Melissa, another one of the patients was on the computer. I asked her if she would please check the weather and see what the radar was showing, for just ten minutes ago it was perfectly sunny and beautiful out. She types in the zip on weather.com and the radar came up showing just a small blimp over our area that looked like it was going to pass quite quickly. With incredible relief, for I had been really looking forward to this opportunity, we decided the show must go on.

Mike, the activity coordinator, went and got the van and Joey and I loaded up to head to Judd Goldman's Sailing Center for our fun-filled afternoon. We got down on the dock and one of their instructors gave us a brief "how to" on sailing. He asked us if we had any experience and I let him know that I own a 25ft sailboat and ran a sailing school for five years. We loaded up into the boat with me positioned as the skipper, in the back of the boat so that I could steer with the tiller, and Joey placed as crew towards the front of the cockpit to be able to reach all of the many lines for adjusting the sails. In the boat, we had Mike, his intern Haley, our instructor Paul, and Joey and I. The five of us pushed off the dock and headed through the harbor under motor zigzagging through the docks and out into the open water. Once we got out of the harbor we raised the sail and very slowly sailed along in a light breeze. Even though the weather was warmer than necessary and the wind was light, Joey and I were grinning ear to ear being out on this Freedom20 that was amazingly being provided for us to use. I just kept thinking I cannot believe that just three and a half weeks after I broke my neck I would be a mile and a half out into Lake Michigan with a tiller extension in my hand sailing away. The Chicago skyline from that distance out is absolutely breathtaking and there is no where in the city that could even give it a run for its money. After about an hour and a half of cruising around, we found ourselves back in the harbor. The second half of our voyage the wind had kicked up at least five or more miles per hour, making the whole experience just perfect. Paul, our instructor, must have had pretty good confidence in my abilities for he didn't blink an eye when I said I want to take it all the way into the dock, just please throw the engine in neutral when I say. Coming in at a perfect thirty degrees from the dock, I placed the hull number five, Freedom20 just one inch from the dock, gliding to a perfect stop. The docking was worthy of a round-of-applause and I couldn't have done it better, even before my injury. We transferred out of the boat and on shore was an older gentleman, in a wheelchair, who was in charge of the racing portion of Chicago's quadriplegic sailing teams. He was gung-ho about getting more people involved in racing and wanted to get me started training for their Olympic team. Unfortunately, I don't know how long I will be in Chicago and although everything in me said wow that would be pretty amazing to be a part of, but right now there is just too many questions and more important things to be focused on. We loaded into the van and headed back to RIC.

Back at RIC, Kalli her mother Mary, their neighbor Karen and her three girls were waiting to see me. We ran down to the cafeteria to get me some chow and we all visited while I put down a sandwich, bag of chips and a frappucino. After dinner, we said our goodbyes and I headed to bed to start my nightly routine. All evening, I just kept going back to that same thought of wow I cannot believe I got to go sailing already.

Tuesday June 23rd

2009-06-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

I was able to talk with the scheduler yesterday and asked for her to not put anything on my plate until 11 o'clock because visitors from Sheffield that were very important to me were coming around 10 o'clock and I wanted at least an hour to visit with them. So, I didn't have to really rush it much this morning. My usual french toast, bacon, 2% milk and orange juice, and three fruit cups came right around 8 o'clock. I got myself sitting upright in bed so I could start throwing it down. About half way through my breakfast Guillermo and Kalli came waltzing into my room ready and willing to get me dressed and going for the day. The two of them battled with my pants, ted hoes (basically, mens tights), and the whole shebang! Once dressed I was able to just sit up in bed and catch my bearings, like usual. I am still battling a little with dizziness, especially right in the morning. By 9:30 or so we began transferring me into my wheelchair so that I could brush my teeth, comb my hair a little, trim my beard and get myself looking spiffy. Then we headed to the canary room and dealt out a hand of golf. As soon as we had the cards dealt and our first two cards flipped in walked Sheffield's, the company I work for, president, vice president, and director of new product development. In town to visit me and see a couple clients. It was really an honor that these gentlemen took the time out of their busy schedules to sit and shoot the shit with me, listening to all of my stories, trials and tribulations, basically my day-to-day over the last three weeks. I had a few requests for these particular gentlemen. First off, a piece of polycarbonate to be sent to my dad to be crafted into a really cool slide board for transferring into my wheelchair. Second, and much more importantly, for them to investigate if there is anything humanly possible to be done with my insurance policy in regards to the amount of time I am covered for inpatient care here at RIC. My policy currently covers 60 days each year which would only give me two months here at RIC. I am so far ahead of the game and really would like to try to stay longer than that. This facility is top notch and I don't want to step back for one second. Dennis, the president of Sheffield, mentioned to me he was actually going to be meeting with the director of all of Bayer Material Science, which covers probably around ten billion dollars worth at Bayer that evening. He said he would try to corner him and see if there is anything he could do at his level as well. So what I am asking is for prayers from everyone. So many of you I know are praying for me, so lets get specific here and shoot some prayers directed completely at this issue. I need more time at RIC and I am sure God knows that. There must be a way to make it happen.

After having some fun conversation, mostly geared towards good rips on Brian Heine, I gave hugs all around and wished them best of luck in their meetings for the day and headed off to OT exercise group. Today I would say was by far my best OT exercise group performance yet. I would like to give a special shout out to Guillermo for being the FIRST and ONLY person so far to start and finish, with no breaks, an entire OT exercise group. More than a half dozen other people have started the exercise group with me, saying "oh yeah, no problem. That should be fun." and like I have mentioned in the past, come ten fifteen minutes, half an hour, Mark and Houli, all of a sudden they are no where to be found. They got an important phone call, they were sweating too much, or plain and simply just couldn't handle it. BUT, Guillermo, he stuck in there even though he started crying for a little bit, he made it. Even through the weights at the end he pounded it out. Unfortunately, I am guessing he will be a little sore tomorrow, but that kind of burn feels good, so he will enjoy.

After Guillermo and I rocked the shit out of exercise group we headed for the canary room and downed some lunch. Today during my lunch my OT, Diane, wanted to observe me to see what kinds of goals we could check off, as far as putting jam on crackers, eating soup, cutting my sandwich with my ninja knife, and several other small tasks that we all kind of just look over as daily actions while eating. I thought I did great and pretty much was able to accomplish every task she requested. Except for when I accidentally threw my crackers into my cup of apple juice, a pretty funny moment. I was so excited that I finally got that darn little cracker wrapper open I decided to throw the crackers in celebration, kind of like I used to do when I finished a beer, tossing it onto the floor.

After lunch I headed into the gym to thoroughly get my butt whooped by Carey with some good PT. Carey had me transferring from my chair, learning to lay down, roll over, pick up my legs off the ground, put my shoes on and off, seated push ups and much more that took just about everything I had out of me. It was a really encouraging PT session because I could literally feel how much stronger I had gotten in the last week. Many of the tasks were nearly impossible only a week ago and now quite achievable. After feeling like I had been in an UFC match against Shamrock I transferred back into my chair and Carey finished the session showing me how to use a really simple, but great piece of equipment for strengthening my triceps - which is a HUGE part of being able to move my body around. Many quads with my injury really don't have very good tricep strength but mine is all there and just needs to be rejuvenated back. That is something that really makes me quite excited and I am really glad to now have access and knowledge of this machine to keep building the goal of being able to do a full seated push-up, where I lift my butt completely off my chair while I am sitting. I am close right now, but just not quite there.

Another really great improvement that I noticed yesterday is realizing that I now have a small amount of non-wrist finger movement in my left hand. My left hand is far weaker and mobile than that of my right and it can be a little frustrating sometimes. The therapist call it my weak hand. The reason why I am so excited about this new discovery is in this next therapy now that I am experiencing small movement we are able to do the E-stim (electronic stimulation) on that hand as well. So I sat down with Diane and we hooked the electrodes up to my wrist and forearm to get my fingers moving with a little shock therapy. It is weird feeling, but for some reason or another, when I am done it makes my whole hand feel really good and I can almost see the improvement after each session. Oh yeah, Uncle Paul, I remember you purchased one of these a couple years ago and if you would be willing to borrow it to me I would love to use it for a little while. My mom is coming home this weekend and the therapists are very interested in taking a look at it and training me with is before I go and just start zapping myself without any guidance. So, if you don't mind I would love it if you could send it with my mom when she comes back on Monday.

After the session, my wheelchair needed a little air in the tires and a couple more small tweaks. You wouldn't believe how many things there are to adjust on a tricked out wheelchair like mine. While we were up on the 12th floor, where the wheelchair room is, we kind of snooped around and checked out all kinds of different rooms that seem to be hidden all over the floor. First, we discovered this incredible machine where a woman was being held in an adult sized johnny jumper and then what made her look like she had complete robotic legs that guided her into a perfect walking pace on a treadmill below her. This machine looked like something straight out of a science fiction or transformers movie and was so amazing. We poked our heads in and asked if we could watch. Of course, they had absolutely no problem and seemed kind of happy that we were curious about the machine. The machine was called a lokomat. The woman that was all geared up and walking with it said that this machine has changed her life and brought her so far in her ability to walk. We stared in awe and then continued on our hunt for the wheelchair room, in which has obviously changed locations several times since there are arrows that point for it to be all over the place. After finally finding the wheelchair room and getting my wheelchair tuned up, we then satisfied our curiosities about the RIC pool, which is also on the 12th floor. Again, we poked our heads in and the pool was a little bigger than we had imagined. People had mentioned it was just a small pool. It had a neat lift for getting you into the pool and got me excited about trying to get some pool time in my schedule as well. So, the 12th floor has a crazy robot walking machine, the wheelchair room, a 1992 Dodge Spirit car for practicing transfers, and a swimming pool, not to mention a mock full kitchen for learning different ways of cooking. I would say the 12th floor is pretty bad ass.

We headed back downstairs for the next set of visitors for the day, my boss John Skalla, his wife, Kelly and one of my counterparts, Brian Heine. We had another great visit with them in the canary room, also giving them a tour of the place, showing them all it had to offer. Heine said show me around a bit, I have been reading the blog, what is this canary room, where is the gym - you read the blog and you kind of make up your own mental image of what it all looks like, show us around. Bayer was putting on a huge dinner and event tonight where they rented out the entire House of Blues and also hired Frank Caliendo for an hour of stand-up, which the whole Sheffield crew were all going to attend this evening. So, they all needed to get on their way so they could get ready for the event. It was great seeing them and unfortunately, Chicago is part of Heine's territory so I will have to see more of him as well.

We walked them out for Kalli, Guillermo and I wanted to go down to Michigan Ave to look around and grab a bite to eat. We found a food court, slammed down some food and headed back for my nightly routine. I am actually really proud of this - so I am going to throw it on here - I pooped in only three minutes tonight! This is a new record and something for me to be really proud of. I hate to always end this thing on some sort of note about my poop, but that's just the way things are going right now and unfortunately we are all just going to have to deal with it that way. So, this is Andrew Hippert, checking out. Talk to you all soon.

PS: Thank you Jeremy for the poster, it really added some spice to my room. And, Mark Sier what an incredible book, Wind and Water, some of the photos are unbelievable. What incredible sailboats from all over the world - great choice! Lastly, I cannot thank all of you enough for the incredible support through get well cards. I have a basket that I put each and every one in after I read it and the basket isn't small. There are over 80 cards filling the basket now and I don't see any kind of slow down for every day there is a small handful to read. Truly amazing. Nick Wilz and Jenny, not to rate any of the cards, but you had the funniest one yet!

PPS: Tari, The Shake of the Day has been a great success. Two people have already won, Kalli won on Sunday and Guillermo won today! We upped the anti to fifty cents and are seriously thinking about making it a dollar.

PPPS: Luke Peters, the nerf gun sat in the basket for a while but today got some great use. We put a dollar out in the hall to bait people and then sat in here in my wheelchair loaded and ready as they came and found the dollar I would blast them when they went to reach for it. Absolutely hilarious! The amazing part is, even after I would shoot these doctors, nurses and volunteers almost every one of them grabbed the dart and gave it back to me, idiots!

Monday June 22nd

2009-06-22T18:11:00.001-07:00

They woke me up early because my schedule, for some reason, was starting at 8. I got completely dressed and ready to go when someone came in and informed me that my PT, Carey, had called in sick and was not feeling to well. So, luckily I had another hour to get some breakfast and a little extra time sitting upright in bed, to get my bearings and handle on my dizziness which can occur if I just go and try to sit up or jump out of bed right away. My Mom came right away in the morning, because Kalli was down by the river working with Mercury and my buddy Mark to set up for a marketing event. They were having kids park and drive 38 and 43 foot yachts with a new parking technology that's based on a joy stick system. We got a PCT to come and monitor me while I slide boarded out of bed. Every day I seem to get better and better at it, getting down the technique of where to put my body weight so that I can slide more easily. Then we headed for my first group which was an OT hands group.

In hands group, they gave me a board filled with holes that would fit all different size bolts. So, the drill was to get a washer on a bolt, skip it through the hole and thread on a nut. Something that I am very familiar with but yet is so hard to do now. It is crazy how a simple task like threading a nut can make me now sweat, cramp up my hands and make my entire arms tingle and buzz. But, the good part is when I get those kind of sensations I know that the drill is working and it is a great challenge!

After OT hand group, I had a little break in the schedule. So, I created my own OT session and practiced a technique that I learned last week. Basically I put my hands on a towel and used my torso to slide my hands across the table going in all different directions, trying to strengthen my core. My break went by quickly and all of a sudden it was OT exercise group time.

The group was large today and actually very focused. I got one of the best workouts that I have gotten from this group so far and I was able to still stick with my upgraded three pound weights.

After the exercise group, wheeling away with jello arms, I headed to the canary room for my second to last therapy of the day. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that my wheelchair over the weekend was kind of our of whack, with several different repairs that were needed to fine tune the driving. So I actually jumped in my old Cadillac jumbo chair, weighing in around 90lbs, for the morning so I could get my new hot rod in the shop with the wheelchair fix-it boys. So in the canary room I had another session of OT scheduled, where she wanted to work on my writing and penmanship. So, we decided to list and write out all of my OT goals that I have achieved and all of my OT goals that I still have in progress. With each type of therapy we determine weekly goals in which I try to continually knock down. Of course, the list that I had achieved was ten items to six that I still have active. It felt good to see all the things that only a week ago I couldn't do and now can. One of the goals was actually to be able to write half a page of words in one sitting. Well, because of this session and writing out all of my goals, I was able to cross that one off too! The funny thing about my penmanship is that if you know me well enough it is absolutely terrible, even before the accident. So, when I am working with my OT's I feel funny explaining that "boy this is about as good as it gets" and I am almost back to where I was at, just a little slower. We are thinking of bringing in my notepad from work for the next session so we can prove to the OT that I truly don't have much further to progress unless I plan on getting better than I once was.

After the session we noticed that my wheelchair was back and all fixed up and so I was eager to get back in my hot rod. So, my mom and I headed back to my room where I didn't have my last session for another hour and a half. The way I was sitting in my Cadillac created some stress in my neck and I was ready for a quick nap. So, I slide boarded into bed and caught a half hour of shut eye. Then, fifteen minutes before my class I woke up, sat up in bed to get my head together, and then slide boarded back into my newly tuned up hot rod.

Last class of the day was a psychological, one-on-one, therapy session. This session is probably really important for many of the patients around here that either don't have a whole lot of support or are just plain old really down on their new injury. But for me, it is really just a chatting session for about a half hour, going back and forth on how was your weekend, how old are your kids,etc. The psychologist is a really nice lady and I get the impression that she has no worries for my psychological state and just enjoys sitting down and catching up with me.

Next, we went outside and our good friend Guillermo, from San Diego, arrived. Guillermo is actually Uruguayan but has lived in Sweden almost his whole life. He spent the last year in San Diego with me studying abroad for a business certificate. he hopped out of a cab, which didn't have AC, a thirty minute cab from the airport in 85-90 degree weather - lets just say he looked a little hot. We then headed over to the apartment to show him where he would be staying until he heads back on Wednesday. Guillermo came with an arm full of gifts and banners. One from my good buddies Marcus and Jonathon and the other a 25 foot long banner that was created during a fundraiser cook-out at our apartment complex in San Diego - sounds like it was a blast and a great turnout! Not only did they have fun, do a little drinking, and eat some good food, but they somehow managed to raise around $1,000 for my fund! It's truly amazing the love and support that all my friends have shown. I mean, none of these people have more than rent and beer money. Most of them are still in school, or just finding their way and covered in student bills, but somehow all reached deep into their pockets and donated money. That was really cool.

We went over to the apartment and hung the banner up across the longest wall we had and it just barely fit. It was covered in signatures, great sayings, memories and notes. And amazingly, fifteen different flags representing different countries of all the friends we met in San Diego - from all over the world. What a unique group of people that we have gathered in the last year for most of them drew their flag after they signed their name. I never thought that I would meet that diverse of a group of friends and it truly made for a neat experience in CA.

After that we headed back to RIC to show Guillermo my room and get some food for dinner. After we ate, once again, I began my nightly routine. Guillermo and Kalli stuck around so we could write this blog. Another day, showing me so much of the love and support that I have received every step of the way. Also, thank you Nick Wilz and Jenny Reh for sending FMH's 100 hottest women of 2009 - Guillermo and I savored each page as we went through making all of our own judgments of who should have been when and where.

Sunday June 21st

2009-06-22T17:52:00.000-07:00

So, Sunday - wonderful day for Fathers has arrived. Sundays are really easy going and open-scheduled with not much therapy in the works. I stayed in bed until about 9 o'clock, then headed to the canary room to eat my breakfast. Meanwhile, my parents and sisters headed off to church, to a nearby cathedral that is actually under construction right now. It is a hot day in the 80's. Thank goodness we are right near the lakefront or it could be really bad, sounds like it hit 92 inland a bit. Shortly after I finished breakfast, my parents showed up from church and the plan for today was to order pizza from a local delicious Chicago style restaurant called Geovannies. While we were waiting for the pizza, every Sunday a different nurse takes turns presenting a hot topics lecture - this week's was on bladder control. You can only imagine how interesting a presentation on your bladder and different ways of controlling it could be. So we all sat through and listened to the wonderful bladder presentation. It took about 20 minutes and she was through her power point. Most likely because it was father's day there were only two other participants besides the Hippert family plus Mark and Kalli listening to this wonderful world of bladders.

Then, of course the card playing began. We started up a game of Tricks, in which we didn't get real far for around noon pizza arrived. One thin crust, one mega thick Chicago style crust. Really gives a new meaning to pizza pie. This pizza is like two inches thick and just full of cheese and meat. Pizza was delicious and it was great spending time with my Dad on Father's Day. Once we were done with the meal, Theresa, Dad, Laura and Grey (my little 1.5 year old niece) loaded up in the car and were heading back to Appleton to get together with the rest of the Hippert gang at my brother's house to continue the Father's Day celebration.

Once the gang departed, Kalli, Mark Lee, Maeghan Verhagen who lives here in Chicago, and my cousin Bill Hippert all headed to a close by AMC to catch the latest and greatest movie, Hangover. The AMC was only about six blocks away and completely wheel chair accessible. We went and got our tickets and realized we had about a half an hour before the show so we ventured over to a really cool bowling alley/billiards/bar/lounge called Lucky Strike and sat down for a quick drink before the movie. Kalli made me get a root beer because I am still using narcotics, controlling my pains from surgery. Although, I am doing a really good job of slowly weening off of them for I have gone two nights now without my 12 hour release morphine and without any of the painkillers throughout the night. And, I have been stretching my day time narcos - some sort of painkiller - as long as I can, going between 6 and 8 hours and I could get them every 4 if I would like. My goal is to get completely off of them in the next two weeks. This will increase my energy due to the drowsiness they cause and also let the poop keep rolling (they make you a little constipated).

After the movie, which by the way, was fricking hilarious. There were many points in the movie where I would kind of hold my neck, trying to brace it, while my whole body was shaking from laughing. We headed over to a nearby Potbelly sub shop to grab a quick bite to eat before bringing me back to RIC where I start my nightly routine.

Another great day and it really makes me realize how lucky we are to have the location in which RIC is placed, being right downtown, near Michigan Avenue and all that this area has to offer. How many places could you be where you have got, literally 50 - 100 restaurants and kinds of things to do within a wheel chairs pushing distance? Hope everyone was able to spend some time with their fathers and I just want to say Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there!

Saturday June 20th

2009-06-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

My third Saturday here, for I got here on a Saturday in case anyone didn’t know that. The weekends are nice for I don’t have any appointments or few appointments that don’t start until 11 like this Saturday. All I have planned is an exercise group, and a PT session. It actually turned out the PT I was going to work with went home with food poisoning from the food here at RIC, so a different PT came into my room and said she rearranged her schedule from 12 to 12:30 if I would like. I thought that was really nice of her to go out of her way to make sure I still got a session because my other PT was sick. That morning before we started any of our session, Mark Lee, Bob Schmelzer, Andy Houlihan and Kalli all were hanging out in my room visiting with me. We had some fun joking around then I really wanted to get out of bed. I pushed my call button and after 20 minutes no one was coming. Finally I pushed the button again and the lady said “can I help you?” and I responded “both of my legs fell out of the bed. Can you please send someone to come help me?” Five seconds later we hear an announcement “730 bed 1, both his legs fell out of bed. Someone please assist him” About a minute later my nurse Angel walks in. I said “Yeah, my legs didn’t fall out of bed, but I really want to get out of bed so I’m not late for my class.” She gave me a funny look and said she’d go get my PCT (personal care techniction). My PCT came we got changed and went to class. So at 11 we started our exercise program. Mark and Andy decided to join in. I told them before we started that no one has been able to keep up and do the whole exercise program with me. So we all sat down and started the exercise program which is usually kind of a hoot between making fun of the music, and making goofy exercise moves it can be a lot of fun. So we rocked out the whole first half of the arm movement session and then we took a little break and get weights put on our hands, take a pressure break, and get some fluids. Then after the break, oh my goodness, Mark and Andy were nowhere to be found. I guess the first half really tuckered them out (author’s note, Mark here, and it really was pretty tough and Houli and I really didn’t want to have anything to do with weights after the first 30 min). and they couldn’t handle it like some of the fine tuned participants such as Mr. Crocket, a 70 year old, hunched over African American man, who’s hunched over worse than the hunch back of Notre Dame. Mr. Crocket is a great new addition to the exercise group for he just started this week. He’s got a great attitude and is pretty funny.

We finished out the second half, weight portion of the session which went really well. I forgot to mention that there was another new addition this other guy, probably about 45 years old who’s got a white ninja turtle shell on, he seems alright too.

So then I met up with the PT that offered to do a session with me because mine had been cancelled. We went in the gym and I transferred virtually all by myself from my chair to the mat. She wanted to work on strengthening my core so I sat on the edge of the mat balancing on my own and she did several different drills where I go down on my elbow and balance on my side and then the other side, then we did another drill where we take a ball on my side, a red ball about 10 in diameter where I roll it around my back and grab it on the other side. We did this several times; it seems like an easy enough task to roll a ball around your back from one arm to the other but boy it took a lot of concentration and balance for I couldn’t put weight on the ball because it would roll away. Then she did some of the drills where she would push me around while sitting on the mat to try and throw me off balance. I, of course, gave her a good push back just for fun. The session went well and I did another transfer virtually all on my own which really feels good; my transfers are going really well with a slide board into the chair.

After that we came into the Canary room to have some lunch. Joining me was newly arrived sister Theresa, Laura, Pat Keegan and my dad. My sister Theresa got me a t-shirt that said ‘bomb squad if you see me running, you might want to try and keep up’. I said to her “is this some sort of sick joke, because I can’t run?” We all had a good laugh, it’s a cool shirt.

After lunch we went outside to throw around the bean bag and get some fresh air, probably around 80 degrees and sunny. We had a good group throwing the bag around; Kalli, Mark, Andy, Pat and I were all getting in some tosses while Pat finished off some of Mark and Houli’s ultra meaty pizza from Gino’s. Probably the thickest and meatiest pizza I’ve ever seen. Thanks for the suggestion Gina.

After that we headed to the apartment to meet up with my mom and dad, and the whole gang for a nice dinner. My mom asked me what I wanted and I requested pork tacos with her special salsa combination sauce. We had dinner played, cards, and then I needed to head back to start my nightly routine.

In case any of your are wondering for I had mentioned I didn’t poop in four days, on Friday night the thunder from down under finally came. Those poor poor nurses that were on staff that night took really great care of me cleaning up what had to have been four pounds of poop. On that note, that will be the end of the blog today. Hope you all have a great weekend. Remember to wish your dads a happy father’s day.

Friday June 19th

2009-06-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

So, they got me up earlier than normal, for we switched my schedule so I wouldn't be having classes before 9 because it was a little difficult for me to get my bearings for 7:30 and 8 o'clock classes. Anyways, somehow they scheduled me for 8 o'clock PT where I practiced stretching my legs in bed. Carey, my PT, came in and worked me really hard. Now, I'm not sure if what I was doing was really that hard or if just attempting anything right away only twenty minutes after waking up, just wears me out instantly. But, after she was done with a half hour of stretching with me I was thoroughly tuckered out. At the end of the session she helped me get in my chair and I wheeled over to the canary room to have a little breakfast before my next hands group session.

On Fridays, hands group is called Fun Friday and they try to just do something a little more fun. So, the four of us in the group rocked out a little bit of UNO. I won the first game, of course and during the second game one of the four players actually began having some stomach tightness and needed some attention and she dropped out. The three of us continued to play and we ran out of time with Charlie, this older gentleman, and myself only having two cards left - so the second game was really up in the air. But, if I was willing to bet, I probably would have won that one too!

So after dominating games of UNO I didn't even have to move from the table I was at, Diane, my OT, came right to me and we started her session. I did some more core abdomen strengthening with a neat technique of basically stretching out my arms and placing my hands on a towel on the table. She then had me lean forward as far as I could and move in different directions using my abdomen to bring me back and forth. This too was a good exercise and I could feel it working my core.

When we were through I did one or two laps just to kill a little bit of time because I had a half hour open between sessions. Next, was our wonderful OT exercise group. Today we jammed out to James Brown, which was a nice change of pace for Stacy usually picks this annoying elevator/techno/African drums music. I moved up to 3lb wrist weights, instead of two pounders and really didn't have any problem with the transition, so that was nice. Feeling like I must have achieved some sort of improvement in my strength. Watch our four pounders - here I come! Exercise group was the last of my four sessions for Friday.

Now, I have the rest of the day to do what I want! The weather outside was black and windy, thundering and lightning a bit so it didn't look like we were going anywhere today. So, we decided to just go back to my room and hang out a little. My Mom, Joey and I were just sitting here and I ate a couple cashews and all of a sudden my stomach just turned upside down to the point where I requested a bucket. Sure enough, I threw up my lunch and those darn cashews in about thirty seconds. Right after, I pretty much felt fine again. I would contribute this little session to the fact that I haven't taken a crap in four days and my stomach is so bound up it feels like I am going to explode! Also, they are pumping me full of laxatives of five different kinds or so. Tonight I am sure will be my lucky night! With that being said, I think that will be enough blogging for today. Not everyday is perfect but I just have to keep on pushing!

Thursday June 18th

2009-06-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Another busy day at the RIC. Started out with hand group where I played with several different peg board type developmental tools to work on my hand motor skills. It's fun going to the different groups, you get to know the different patients better and better.

Because I didn't have occupational therapy exercise group today, Kalli and I went back to my room and turned on the music and did our own arm exercise. We did many of the same moves from class.

After our own interpretation of Richard Simmons,was physical therapy where I got back on the tilt table. Carey, my PT, slowly moved me up higher and higher as I could handle it with my blood pressure. I go tall the way up to 50 degrees, which is only five degrees more than last time. But, really I was able to stay there a lot longer than last time! I was on the tilt table for a full hour which is a really long time. It is kind of funny, we did the exercise in my room on our own because I didn't have arm exercise group that day but of course while i was on the tilt table Carey made me do arm exercises for the whole hour to try to keep my blood pressure up. So, I ended up doing an hour and a half of arm exercises and it made me feel like jello.

After getting nice and lightheaded on the tilt table we rolled over to the canary room for some lunch. After a bite or two, of an actually pretty darn good ham and cheese sandwich, in rolls Tari, Kelly, and Taylor VanHoof, a good friend of mine, Ashley Wilhelm's (previously VanHoof) mother and sisters. They didn't come alone - they came bearing gifts galore - books, food, and best of all a homemade "Shake of the Day". This is a fun dice game that includes a shaker, five dice, and a custom decorated money jar designed by Tari. It is a simple game - basically you pay a quarter to take three shakes on the dice in order to achieve five of a kind. If you get five of a kind you receive half of the money that is in the jar. The kicker is, just like the name of the game, you can only play once a day, that way some fool can't just sit and keep paying in until he wins. Anthony, Al, and myself had a "Shake of the Day" behind our bar when we lived together in Milwaukee on Bartlett street. It was such a fun game and people always wanted to play. I believe Ashley even won about $70 on it one time! It paid out several times and was just another fun part of the bar. Now, I don't have a bar in my room here to put it behind, but it will just have to sit next to my stereo and I expect everyone who visits to shake. We had a great little visit and it's nice to know that Kelly is living just a short distance away in Chicago here now too. The longer I am here the more and more people I end up finding that live here. My cousin, David Denor, also stopped by again to drop off a couple of good newspapers and magazines that the publisher he works for has accounts with. One being Plastics News, which was a newspaper that I received back in San Diego twice a month and is kind of an interesting insight into the plastics world, in which my industry is engulfed in.

After lunch, Mike, the director of recreational activities here at RIC,found me so that he could give me a tour of their facility and show me what was all available in his department. Mike is the guy that set up my sailing adventure, which I am still so freakin excited for next Wednesday. So, we went upstairs to the 9th floor, which is also the pediatrics floor, and he showed me their main room. The room had all the equipment to do pottery, a pool table, the same TV that I have back in San Diego to play WII on, lots of plants and supplies to do gardening and much much more. Mike made it sound like even if there is something that they don't have but are interested in, they are willing to go out and find what is needed to make it happen. He takes people fishing, biking, all kinds of fun activities to get you out and about and not just sitting in your room, which sadly a lot of the patients here I feel like do.

Also, in the afternoon, I got together with Diane, my OT, and learned more about my options with controlling my bladder. Soon, I am going to have to make a decision to keep running around with a pee bag or start cathing myself. Cathing myself is much safer, avoiding bladder infections, but time consuming and probably not all that fun.

After a great little session of bladder management I got together with a new OT, one I have never been with before, Piper. Piper is a really nice lady and put me on the mat and started a drill that turned out to be something I felt was very useful. I have been wanting to really work on strengthening my core abdominal area so that my balance gets better and better. Right now, I actually have a chest strap on around the back of my chair to help me balance and I would really like to eliminate that strap and just balance on my own. So, in order to do this, she basically had me sitting on the edge of the mat table and she would kind of shove me from all different directions and I would have to keep my balance. It was kind of funny in the beginning she shoved me about three or four times and then I took an arm and gave her a good shove back. Her and Kalli both started laughing. She said that's funny, for all these years no one has ever done that and she was really surprised they haven't. After pushing me for a while she then had me lift one arm at a time and then both arms out in front of me which made it even harder, but really worked my entire core. I hope we do this drill more and more because it is something I would like to work on right now and I could feel it after we were done - that it had helped.

Soon after all of my classes were done a good friend of mine from middle school, high school and college - Anjali and her boyfriend, Ryan, came to hang out and visit. My roommate, Joey, wanted to head to Treasure Island (grocery store) to grab a couple things and I had never been there before so I wanted to go on that adventure as well. So, Anjali and Ryan actually became our pushers and pushed us about a block and a half to the grocery store. It is a great, old store with all kinds of neat little treats. I even saw the biggest cheese wheel I have ever seen in my life! It made me think "Baxter, you ate that entire wheel of cheese? I'm not even mad, I'm impressed!" After the cheese wheel we picked up some flowers and brought them over to the apartment for Kalli because she was off babysitting then and it was one of the first chances I had while she was gone to get her something nice for all the wonderful things she does for me. After getting the flowers in some water we scooted home to start my nightly routine.

Andrew speaks again

2009-06-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Somerville,
The run you guys put together was so incredible. The way you support me, and in a way you all supporting my Dad, through this meant so much to me when I saw that picture. I don’t know that I have even met very many of you, I have met a few of my Dad’s co-workers through the years, thank you all so much for the encouragement.

Mark – can’t wait to see you Thursday. Find out of if I can drive the Zues – so easy, a cripple could do it. I can see it now, best headline advertisement Mercury has ever had, creating record sales of your new pilot control system and giant sea rays to go with each system. Peace brother.

Tari – odd as it sounds and I really can’t believe it myself, beer and alcohol is really the last thing I want in my system anymore. It just doesn’t ring any bells for me as of now. I’m not saying down the road I’m not going to enjoy a cold beer again, but right now, no kegger attachment needed. Everyone here is pretty darn jealous about the dual cup holders. Some folks don’t even have one and I just sit back and laugh with my iced coffee on one side and a foam cup filled with crystal clear, cold ice water on the other.

Maeghan – don’t you worry, I had enough of you at the wedding and I’m not experiencing any Maeghan withdrawals yet. I will see you when you can! Thank you for your thoughts. Talk to you soon, the best groomsman you ever walked up the aisle with.

Natedawg – all I need to know Nathan is when you are going to be back in Door County this summer. Hopefully towards the end of summer so I can get a couple months under my belt so we can get the Paragon out to sea and visit our friends on Green Island.
Sarah Z – it’s great to hear from you. Means a lot to know that you and sounds like other people you know are supporting me as well. Keep throwing love my way, every bit helps.

Tari – it is hard enough just to get the stuff to come out – I really don’t think I should be throwing it around, but if you want I could save a little for ya and you can do whatever you want with it. Shoot it out of a canon, put it in a brown paper bag and light it on fire in front of an unexpected neighbor’s house, or even just simply flush it down the toilet – your pick. LOL.

Sarah – every color of the rainbow is an incredible amount of love. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! It was good to see you and thank you for all of your help while you were here. I love you so much and I am sure I will see you again soon. Thank you for the prayers and daily thoughts.

Dear Blazers, keep rockin’ on. I had so much fun with you guys when you came to San Diego to visit Brad. Those were seriously some really great nights between going out to the bars and dancing and hitting up the dueling piano bar, what fun and great guac! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Jaci – sounds good! Call anytime, I am usually laying in bed getting ready for the night between 6 and 9. Have a great time at the cottage and as far as blogging goes – Kalli and I sit down and go through the comments together, usually two days worth, and I just say what I want her to type in and she types it for me. I use the blackberry to read the comments each night thought – it really works well. I just lie in bed and check out the blog.

Dear Jenny – thank you for sharing that. I didn’t have a clue. Way to fight through it all. Sounds like you are doing great. Those kinds of stories are very inspiring for me because I don’t plan on letting this stop me from doing anything either. Love, Andrew.

Dear friend of Grant – I know a couple Grant’s and you forgot to label who you are. Very curious as to whom this mystery writer is. Blog again and I will shout back understanding who you are! Lol.

Keith – I do have a bar that I am not using right now, but unfortunately the shipping cost from CA would be astronomical and probably cost more than what the bar is worth. As far as washers go – sorry Endow but I would have to say the set that Keith has with the chains that pull apart and you have three holes where you stand on top of the boxes is pretty much the coolest style I have ever played. The ones with the cans are just too damn loud. Good to hear from you Keith, love you brother, Hippert.

Shorty – why the heck would I need to get you one of the stickers – you are under five feet tall which is legally a midget so all you would have to do is go fill out the form and get one. I have been wondering for years why you haven’t done this – my gosh – front row seats at target, free parking meters, there are endless opportunities with that beautiful red or blue sticker in the window.

Katy/Shorty 2 – same to you, go get a parking sticker.

Evan – man have I not been able to hang out with you enough in these last two years. First you go out of the country and then I leave the state. We had so many good times at 3369 Bartlett. There aren’t enough toes to wiggle to count that. So glad to hear that you are keeping up on me and thinking about me. Love you man.

Endow – I have been practicing with bean bags on a daily basis, working on different kinds of drills from longest throw javelin style to simply playing catch with my roommate. Don’t you worry; when the tournament comes around I will be in prime condition and your number one player! Funny that you mention going sailing, today I found out that I am set up and ready to go for next Wednesday at 2 o’clock. My roommate and I are going out of the Chicago harbor on a Freedom20 which is a specific class boat set up for disabled sailors. I am so excited to get back out on the water for its one thing that I would really be bummed about if I was not able to continue doing.

Patti – thanks for the scripture – those are a couple great lines. They are very meaningful. Hope you guys are having a great time in Yellowstone.

Al – thanks for shouting out for me. I always kind of assumed that little cheer “hip-hip-hurray” was pretty much for me, so thank you for using my cheer. It kind of makes me feel like I was with you, sitting around a campfire, definitely one of my favorite things to do. Have a great trip and enjoy your new adventure!

Kelly – that’s really great that you’re living in downtown chi-town. Just from all the times I have visited throughout my life it really is a pretty neat city with a lot to do, especially it sounds like in the summer. I keep hearing about festival after festival in different parks and amphitheaters all over town. Stop by any time you want. Enjoy the city! Andrew.

Mark Sier – it is great that you are listening and reading. I just can’t believe how many people this blog is touching. It makes it so fun to respond knowing that it is not just going out into space, there really are people taking it in, enjoying the fun, happy humor canter between me and all of my loved ones. If you have time on your way back that would really be amazing, I hope it is not too out of your way. Until then, see ya brother.

Endow – sounds great! We will put you on the calendar. Any day works for us and of course that is what the apartment is for. Definitely stay with us – it is so close and convenient and really it is right downtown to do something fun too. Can’t wait to see you then – you are my number one blogger!

Endow- that really sounds great and maybe we will need his help, but my guess is I take one look at this boat I am going out on Wednesday and you know me – I will have all my own ideas and the Esclapion will be rigged by yours truly in no time flat. Again, that is, if needed. The only thing I will maybe need help with is finding a small helicopter to fly me out to the boat sitting on the mooring. Just seems a lot cooler than taking my dingy out there, that’s all. You work on that and I will get these legs moving.

Marcel – the food here at the RIC is by far the weakest link. This could definitely be a nitch market for you. Even though RIC is rated number one already, you and Kai could come into a great hospital like this and really turn around their patient’s dietary intake by getting them some real food that they would love to eat and be excited for each meal. I miss cooking with you so much. You are, besides Kalli of course, my favorite person I have ever cooked with. I always would learn little things or understand temperatures and timing better after a session of either beer can chicken or one of your beautiful much more eloquent conglomerations. Remember that one night when you made some beautiful thin slices of steak, breaded king crab, succulent shrimp scampi, some delicious sides all topped with a Marcel special sauce and if that wasn’t delicious enough, the most creative looking Caesar salad with baked parmesan, almost cracker like disc perfectly placed on top to go with. Man, what a meal. Even Bob, the best maintenance man in all of CA, said that it was the best meal he had ever had in his life and the guy is like 100 years old! In fact, if you see Bob, definitely give him my love and tell him I miss him and the RIC could use him here too. The washing machine has been broken for like a week, Bob would have had that up and running again in say five to ten minutes! That’s enough rambling, love you Marcel. Keep on keepin on.

Wednesday June 17th

2009-06-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up and had a nice breakfast - a bagel with cream cheese, cereal, two milks and an OJ. I got dressed in bed with a PCT's help so I would be ready for my first class at 9 o'clock which was practicing dressing and undressing. Diane, my occupational therapist, came and we proceeded to undress my sweatpants, t-shirt, and shoes and then redress. This is probably one of the hardest things I have practiced for moving my legs and bending over to grab them is really quite difficult yet. It is a combination of my weak torso, weak finger grasp, and fat heavy legs.

After that I transferred with a slide board into my wheel chair and headed to physical therapy group. Here, a PT had set-up four different obstacle courses to go through and work on with your wheelchair driving skills. From slaloming cones to working on wheelies, which I cannot do alone right now at all, again due to low hand grip and balance with my torso. Sally (the PT) would basically lean me back while I practiced balancing in a wheelie. We also practiced 360's on a blue athletic mat. This created a much different surface and a lot more tension. This was also slightly above my strength level. I was really only able to get about 3/4 around. This kind of class is good for me and allows for me to have several goals to get stronger in many different ways. Sometimes, when the tasks are presented and I do them on the first try, sure it feels good to know that I did it right away and it was an accomplishment, but it also makes me wonder how much harder should they have had that task so that it pushes me more.

After this class we went into the day room where the director of the program, Dr. Chen, did a presentation on spinal cord injuries 101. I learned a lot, but unfortunately, slowly started physically feeling quite crummy, sweating a little, bit of an achy body, short of breath and quite tired. After about a half hour, I began realizing that my binder, a huge white piece of elastic that goes around me, was larger than what I usually wear and placed really high up on my chest, over my ribs (where it should not be) restricting my breathing to the point where I think it was really wearing me out. We informed a PCT named Mary and she swapped it out for a shorter, better fitting binder. After getting the new binder in place, I slowly started feeling better and up next on the schedule was one of my favorite classes - OT workout. OT workout, like usual, was hard, sweaty, plain old physically taxing, but at the end of it I always feel so good - loose and awake.

Before OT exercise the plan for the end of the day was to go take a nap and try to fight the crummy feeling I was dealing with, but after OT exercise I was feeling way better so we decided to go outside for some fresh air. Kalli and I tossed a bean bag back and forth and Joey (my roommate) decided to join in the catch game. After being outside for an hour or so we went back in. Joey and I did a couple laps in the hallway and then hung out in the day room.

Around 5 o'clock Joey, Kalli and I went down to The Red Tomato (the 2nd floor cafeteria)for dinner. After dinner I came back upstairs and Kalli and I looked through my schedule for tomorrow; it came kind of early tonight. There were five activities planned with several half an hour breaks in between. I do so much better when I stay active, one activity after another, so there is no time to sit and get tired, so we took the schedule and filled in several of our own activities such as leg stretches, nerve-mind connection, bean bags, and exercising (like OT exercise bc I don't have that scheduled tomorrow). Then it was time to get started with my nighttime routine, shower night again tonight! Another great day at the RIC! Again, with its ups and downs, achievements and failures and hope for the future!

Tuesday June 16h

2009-06-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

I started off my day with a little physical therapy, which is usually the toughest class that I have. We worked on transferring from my chair to a workout mat and back from the workout mat to my chair. My body just feels so heavy sometimes, especially my legs. That kind of stuff is extremely tiring and very difficult. But, I do get a little better every time I try.

After that I ate my breakfast - french toast - in the day room. Then, I went to the middle area by the front desk and they set up "bags", the game where you toss bean bags onto an angled board with a hole in it. There was some pretty fierce competition in the group, but I would say I was probably the best. The guy I was up against was only about a foot and a half away from the board and i was throwing them overhand about ten feet, draining threes left and right with my left hand.

Next, I had a little break so I came back into my room and for the first time trimmed up by mustache a little by the nostrils and my lips just to stay looking good for Kalli and a couple of the cute nurses. After that was one of my favorite things we do - because it really works my muscles and even makes me a little sore afterward, OT exercise. Basically, an upper body workout routine, kind of like you would see on TV where half the time we just keep the arms and body moving and the other half the time we strap weights to our wrists and pump iron.

After that good workout I headed back to the day room for a quick lunch, I only had a half hour. My mom and Aunt Maureen came to eat with me. Aunt Maureen bought me three different books, two informational ones to help me understand the body better, especially dealing with my spinal cord, and one Joke book to keep me laughing. While at lunch in pops his head - Bill Pelke - one of my coworkers on the marketing team for Sheffield Plastics. He was in the midwest and didn't feel like he was going to get this close again for a while so he took advantage of being able to come and see me. It really meant a lot and it was great to see Bill. Bill came bearing gifts of incense and myrrh, also known as sailing door county t shirt and a deck of cards from door county, which really brought back a lot of memories for me.

After our visit, we all went up to the 12th floor to try for my first time transferring into a car. The 12th floor has a 1992 Dodge Spirit cut in half ready to load and reload. The car was pretty funny looking and had a slight odor, but what a great challenge and prop for achieving what is a pretty difficult task as well. Getting in was easier than getting out. I can't wait to try again.

After practicing with the car, Bill helped me get down to the first floor where they have what is called the Life Center. This is an interactive library information center to help people find information about themselves, activities of life, basically anything that you may question and would like help with. During the class there were a couple experienced veterans. One, five years in a wheel chair. One, twenty-five years in a wheelchair. They volunteer so we can talk with someone and really throw ideas back and forth about anything from sex life to putting up a wheel chair ramp on your apartment. One neat thing I found out was they have a class to help you learn all your rights and regulations of traveling in an airplane as a disabled passenger. This could be really helpful as I move towards getting back into my daily routine, which definitely involves travel. They also mentioned they have the form you need to fill out in order to get a handicap sticker - so I am going to get that soon and I will find out if I can get some spares. I asked about getting 150 of them and they gave me a pretty strange look, as if I owned a fleet of some sort!

After talking with the group for a while, I went back upstairs and got together with my occupational therapist Diane and just worked on techniques for brushing my teeth, washing my face, general hygiene and operating my wheelchair in different ways.

Three o clock came around quickly after a day of seven different classes and boy I was exhausted. Kalli and I basically sat in the room and chitchatted for a while and then around 4:30 or so I was ready to just be sitting in bed relaxing, getting ready for dinner.

Today was another great day, activity filled and spirits up just as much as always! Maintaining enough energy is really my only battle, the rest just seems to keep coming as they feed it to me.

Monday June 15th

2009-06-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

It was another full day at RIC. Knowing that my schedule started early, at 8 o'clock, I wanted to get a jump on it. I was ringing my bell at 6:00am to get dressed and get out of bed so I could brush my teeth and go get a couple more final touches done on my chair. First thing I had was physical therapy where they got me on a mat and they called down the wheelchair maintenance guy to take some of the lean to the back out of the chair. While on the mat my goal for the session was for me to roll onto my side from my back. After several tries and advice from the PT I finally was able to turn over onto my left side with no problem! I could not get onto my right side but that will just have to be another day. Little steps at a time they say.

Next, Mom showed up and had some breakfast with me and quickly after that I had OT hand group. During hand group Ed (the gentleman who is leaving for good tomorrow) and I played Battleship. Battleship was quite the challenge with such small pegs. We ended up calling it a tie because the time ran out.

Right after hand group was occupational therapy. We did another great session of E-stim and several exercises with large rubber bands and my arms for strength training. To continue occupational therapy I then had OT exercise group. During exercise group there is about ten people sitting in a circle doing swinging arm exercises with weights - it really takes it out of you!

I ate lunch and then took a quick 15 minute nap and was headed on for psychology group. Four of us had a chance to talk about what was on our minds and how our time at RIC has been so far. I met another patient from this floor who gave me hope and more encouraging words.

After psychology group I decided to take it upon myself and do a few laps pushing around the floor. Meanwhile, Mike, Sarah, Dennis and my Aunt Maureen were all on their way to come visit. They came and we played a few more rounds of golf (cards) and Kalli and I had our dinner in the canary room.

Probably one of my biggest goals and accomplishments of the day was a new record of eleven and a half hours sitting in my wheelchair. This is truly amazing and I am really getting comfortable wheeling around in it as well.

I received a lot of mail today and want to thank everyone for thinking about me, commenting to me, and sending me cards.

Sunday June 14th

2009-06-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Andrew relaxed in bed for a while in the morning. We updated the blog and read through the comments. At 11 Andrew attended a hot topics lecture - he learned about skin care. Andrew managed to finagle a second cup holder for his wheelchair so he can rock around with a water and iced coffee. After the meeting, Andrew headed over to the apartment where we had a wonderful spaghetti lunch made by Kathy. After we all stuffed ourselves, Norm, Kathy, Mark, Rose, Andrew and I (Kalli) played a game of Tricks. It was a beautiful day out so we went across the street and sat outside of Starbucks and enjoyed a coffee. Most of our visitors left at this point and Kathy, Andrew and I headed back to RIC for dinner and conversation.

and AGAIN from Andrew

2009-06-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Jonathan and Marcus,
Thank you so much for checking on my majestic vessel, the Esclapion. (Some of you may be wondering – it means “a place to heal”, which was also the name of my grandfather’s boat and the reason why I named my boat after her.) I could use some healing now, I have all kinds of things that need it, so it would be nice to get back and go sailing on her. We had so many awesome sailing Saturdays, week after week, on the boat. From sailing downtown to sailing to La Jolla Coves and then just bombing around the bay drinking brews, San Diego is such an awesome aquatic play land. I can’t wait to get back to play with my boats. As you said, unfortunately you guys will be heading back to Sweden soon, but I know, as I have made good friendships in the past, that we will not lose complete touch. We just need to make sure that you guys let me know how I can keep up with you once you are back at home. My number and email isn’t going to change, but I am guessing yours will. Don’t worry about not being able to see me before you go I will never forget all the fun times we have had. Love you darn Swedes, Your captain.

Tari – I would love to have you visit. The afternoon should be just fine. Stop on by if you get a chance. If you want, you can call Kalli first, but otherwise just stop in.

Amanda - thank you so much for passing on the prayers. We will make sure to get that on the map!

Oh Maeghan – can’t wait to see you. But, don’t worry just because I am taking a shower doesn’t mean I’m doing anything in there. I pretty much lay in a chair and they scrub me down. It’s wonderful, some of the most relaxing experiences I have had since the accident are just sitting in that shower chair with some nice warm water running over my face and getting scrubbed head to toe. It feels great.

Jaci – you have definitely been entered in to the gauc-off competition. As soon as I get out of rehab, it’s on! Just a warning to all that will be entering the competition, my mom has been making guacamole for probably 40 years and can do it blind-folded and with one arm tied behind her back. So, watch yourself and start practicing, Kathy is in.

Holly – I am actually having a book signing and autograph session next Thursday at 5pm. It will be held in the Bradley Center in Milwaukee in order to contain the crowd. Get your tickets soon; I think it is almost sold out. Tickets are available by donating through the blog. I haven’t seen you in a while Holly, it is great to hear your typing voice. Give little Brooke a smooch on the forehead for me. Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Rachel – this might have been the funniest blog of the day. I have forgotten about someone throwing up upstairs in the front hall bathroom. How your parents never found out until now is awesome. It is funny how even parents can get a good laugh from an event like that (that was right under their nose) after years and years have passed. PS Mrs. Gonnering, it is so great that you were able to find it humorous now and thanks for hosting such a great boozer of a party – your chips and snacks were great too!

Dear Beth, everyone has been saying such wonderful things about me and you call me a girl. Thank you.

Gina – thanks for the suggestion. It is actually right down the street from us (or so I have been told). I can’t wait, now that I am getting out of this place every once in a while, to go and try a slice!

Tari – sorry, can’t hang things on our door, so you will just have to enter at your own risk. Basically, flipping a coin whether or not I have pants on, odds are against you.

Laura – sounds like Grey wants to be part of the pantsless party too – I can’t blame her, it’s going to be a blast. See you next weekend. Love you too.

Hey Luke – as long as we are being inappropriate, remember that time we put a camera in George’s room – and you hurt your back from snowboarding?

Guillermo – that would be sweet if you brought those cookies I really do love devouring them. You are pretty much my only guy friend that makes good cookies – haha. Can’t wait for you guys to visit, now that my mom and Kalli have an apartment everything is all set so you guys have to come and crash with them. Just let me know when you guys are going to so we can get it on the calendar and make sure we have room for you. Shouldn’t be a problem though, can’t wait to see ya! DJ Hipdog.

Oh Heine – can’t wait to see you. Thanks for throwing me under the bus. Have a good one.

Anjali – sounds good. Can’t wait to see you when you get back. Have a great time in Canada – tell your whole family I say hi.