~1993~

I Know what you are thinking "Who are those totally hot people?" Gay sent me this picture today and I couldn't resist sharing. I know I thought I was a total rebel. This was 1993 when Brian and I were dating. Boy that brings back a lot of memories.

The Anatomy of Getting Ambulatory

On Friday I was able to finally get to the hospital to see Brian. I had been praying the kids were better so I could be there when he stood up. It was quite the process to get him up. First he had to transfer to the mat, which he did unassisted.
Then they had to put his "girdle" on him. Then he had to go back to his chair.
They wheeled him up the ramp and attached his "girdle" to hooks.
The machine then lifted him in a upright position. They had to make sure his leg braces were on properly.
They then lowered the tension so he was bearing full weight.
As you can see it was alot of work for him just standing and bearing full weight.
After the 3rd time he wanted his chair to sit in so he could rest. They were ready to unhook him but he wanted to give it one more try.
He worked really hard and was pretty worn out when he was done.
But not too worn out to make jokes with his buddy Jake. This was Brians first roommate form VA and he is back for advanced rehab also. They are good motivators for each other. Brian has been at the VA for 4 weeks already and he is hoping for a few more so he can continue to get stronger. For a video of Brian standing go to youtube and put in the search "susienbrian".

Bakersfield And Vegas

We spent a few days with my Brother and Sister in law (we were not able to visit my other Brother and family because we had been directly exposed to fifths disease and his wife is pregnant) We headed down to the dust bowl of the West, Bakersfield to visit Grandma Gay. This is the first time we were able to stay at her new house that she bought right before Brian got hurt.

We went to the Kern County museum which was free because of my OMSI membership. The kids had fun exploring the 16 acres.

Brians Brother Aaron came down from the lake with his new baby and girlfriend and we all went to pizza at Johns incredible. We had a good time and the kids wore themselves out once again.

Then it was off to Vegas to see my other nephew Christian that I havent seen since he was one. He is 16 now. We had a great time getting to know him. Since we stayed at the Excailber Hotel we went to The Tournement Of Kings dinner show. That was such an awesome exsperience for all of us.

We drove over two thousnad miles on our vacation. Despite being in the car so much the kids did pretty good. We were all glad to be able to go on a little vacation but we were even happier to finally make it home.

Vacation or so I thought

As many of you know Brian went back to rehab and so I took this opportunity to hit the open road. I took Andrew and Jenna out of school and with Quinton in tow we headed down to California. It was a long drive, 12 hours to the Bay Area.

We had to take some pictures in front of MT. Shasta. Our first stop was my Brother Dougs house. We had a really good time there. We went to The Montery Bay Aquarium with him and his wife and then we headed to the beach for a picnic. The kids had alot of fun and were worn out by the time we made it back to their house.