Ride the Wind

One very long month ago,
after the second surgery.
Paul was hooked up to
an external shunt.












One of only 2 fond memories
from our stay at the hospital
....this moment between
brothers and the other
was WALKING OUT OF
THE HOSPITAL!






















From being hooked up to an external shunt,
to hooking up with friends at
Six Flags!
Paul and Emily - the daughter
of Ben and Cassie, who are
friends of Jerry's































Paul, Emily and her sister Claire (sitting on
Paul's left side)




_________________________________________________________________










Paul had his follow up appointment in Charlotte yesterday and it was a good thing it came when it did. He had headaches that were increasing in severity and so they ran a CT scan and it looked like Paul was on his way to over draining of CSF, which would have meant another surgery. Talk about repeat! At this same time last year, Paul had to have his second surgery due to over draining. The setting on the shunt had been at 130 prior to his last surgery in April and they had set the shunt at 80 in an effort to get the ventricle size down. It did not help that much, but it did bring Paul close to an over draining issue. So it is now set at 100. It is an issue of gauging what is the most accurate setting of the shunt and it appears they have found the low bench mark! Once they can fine tune the shunt then we can move on to other areas of concern - cause of headaches! Dr. McLanahan is going to set up an appointment with an ENT to have them test the fluid coming from Paul's left nostril. That is still a concern. In the 2 prior tests with glucose strips, it does not register any sugar, which would mean it is brain fluid. But they want to do a more conclusive test, short of a spinal tap. Otherwise, Paul is scheduled to see Dr. McLanahan in 3 months.

Today, Paul has an appointment to get fitted for hearing aids. They are wireless and he will wear one in each ear. Sounds picked up from the left side will be transmitted to his right side and to Paul, it will sound like normal hearing from both sides - he will be 'hearing' stereo. He didn't want to get them before because he said he would wait for God to heal his hearing. The reason he has now agreed to get them is because it is supposed to help with the ringing in his ears. After this last surgery, the ringing seems to have intensified. We have been told that for as many hours as Paul wears his hearing aids, he will be free of ringing in his ears for as many hours after he takes the aids out. He is ready for that to happen. He has tired of the sound of ringing all the time.

Friday, he has an appointment with a hand surgeon to see if there is anything they can do to repair the cause of the tingling/weakness in his left hand fingers. His thumb and first 2 fingers have the sensation of tingling. He said it is like after you lay on your arm and it was asleep and as it starts to get circulation in it again, it tingles really badly and is sensitive. That is what he feels in his fingers and wrist. It is why he doesn't play the guitar much - it is uncomfortable.

Yesterday, Paul also had an appointment with Dr. Matthews. After this last electrical stimulation series, the doctor said he saw some 'fluttering' in the eyelid area and Paul said he felt more than he has before. We will not have the gold weights put into Paul's eyelid yet so that he can do what is going to be needed to help his eye line up correctly. If we had been told this before, I surely don't remember it, but Paul needs to leave his left eye open and is to try as much as possible to do things with both eyes open. It is going to be very difficult at first, but the only way the other eye's muscles will repair is to have the left eye try to coordinate its movements with the right eye. So Paul worked on that last night. He walked around the house and tried to read for awhile. He did it until it caused his headache to get worse, which it will, due to eyestrain. I wish we had been told that a long time ago! Jerry, Jon nor I had heard anyone give that instruction before. We had been getting Paul to close his right eye and use the left eye for reading, but that is the only excercise Paul has done. And due to the bad headaches, it was not done as often as we would have liked. So now, Paul will need to push himself even harder and try to get the left eye moving better. He has very good function in the movement from left to right, but up and down is pretty much nonexistent. I have continued my prayers for a full recovery, no matter how long it takes. Thanks be to God we have thousands of saints that we can call on to pray for us!

This all makes me think about how it is really like being at Six Flags every day. We started out on the 'Scream Machine' which had way too many steep descents that took my breath away. We have ridden on the merry-go-round with all the repeats and now we have moved to the kiddie roller coaster - ups and downs, but to a much lesser degree. As I have mentioned before, I hate suspense. I also have never liked the rides at amusement parks. They did NOT AMUSE ME..........smile. I always took care of the younger children at the park so that I could stay on the ground or at most, ride the little planes that might go 3 feet off the ground. I am not a thrill seeker - never was. It's also very interesting to now be comparing all of this to Six Flags, because I was talking to my friend Meredith Tarantino the other day and she reminded me that her son, Jonathan, (Paul's good friend through middle and high school) had a dream in the weeks after Paul's accident. He dreamt that he and Paul were riding the roller coaster and they were both laughing and having a blast as the roller coaster whipped around the track. He said he just knew in his heart that Paul would be fine again. He has come to visit Paul every time he is home from college and he said he has seen so much improvement. He has faith Paul will continue to get better all the time. And so do we.

I do hope for another plane ride. I hope we can take a plane with Paul to Lourdes, France, where we can visit the shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes and ask Blessed Mary to intercede for a full recovery of Paul's injuries. Now that is a thrill I seek.

Tomorrow, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven , let us remember that 'Christ ascends into heaven, not to abandon us but to be our hope. Filled with certainty before this great miracle of love we pray that through the grace of the Ascension we will be blessed iwth the ability to keep our minds and hearts fixed on heaven."

May our hearts take flight as we are filled with the love of Jesus.
Love,
Jon and Rebecca