Time flies

So it's been a couple of days since my last post.  Nothing bad going on, we've just been busy and lack energy and focus to sit down with my thoughts.

Yesterday they did the equipment swap.  It actually went a lot better than expected, we ended up easily sliding David onto our old bed where he stayed while they broke down the hospital bed and set up the new one.  The new one is much better than the old.  It's the same basic bed but they included a "geo-matt" mattress topper (like an egg crate kind of) to help distribute weight and make sure he doesn't get bed sores.  The new bed also has better rails that are more out of the way than the old ones and it's longer, the mattress is the same size but the frame is longer so his feet won't rest against the bottom.  Whew!   The wheel chair stayed the same but they brought a new lift that is electric instead of hydraulic which is super awesome and then a new sling.  The old one was called a U-sling that didn't provide enough support to his body OR his head/neck but the new sling is a full seated one like a hammock you might sit in AND this one gives him full support all the way up to his head.  Excellent.  We feel much safer moving him around this way.  We figure we'll get him up in the chair once at least every other day as he can tolerate it.

The first day up in the chair (monday) his blood pressure dropped pretty significantly but this time his bp stayed up fairly normal. That's a good sign, I hope that trend continues.

I've been told numerous times that we need to be video taping him, more for the voice than the images but we both felt silly recording him laying around in bed doing the old vultures from jungle book routine, "What do you want to do?  I dunno, what do you want to do? Now now don't start that again!"  So instead we decided that we'd dig out his old travel pictures and put them in albums and talk about them.  He always has such great stories.  We found a whole box of pictures still in the envelopes from the store from a steam train chasing trip his family took in '93 to Austria, Hungary, Poland, Czech/Slovak (a few months after the split), Germany, Sweden and Norway.  Whew!  13 envelopes of pictures!  We spent last night identifying where each envelope was from, thank heaven for google and for him taking pictures of signs.  Today I'm going to put them in an album and then we'll go through them and record his stories from what he remembers.  He has an amazing memory and is a good story teller.  He remembered basically what order the trip went in and little details like that they ate at Pizza Hut in Hungary but that it wasn't what they were expecting.  I even heard a story last night that I had never heard before!  His Mom will be amused by that since she thinks I've heard all the family stories.

We also found pictures from high school (he said I could toss all the ones of old girlfriends but they kind of make me laugh so I didn't toss them all, especially not prom!  HA!) track and cross country, an Alaska highway trip with his parents and then going to school in Alaska.. lots of random adventures.. The man was lucky and got to travel a lot with his family growing up and he definitely instilled that travel bug in me.   I can't wait to start recording him talking about all this stuff.  He gets so excited, a side of him that I get the impression not many people have gotten to know. He's more the strong silent type... or as he likes to say, when you sit there being quiet people keep talking and you learn all their secrets.  Everyone nervous now? ;)

Owen's birthday is in less than a week!  13 on friday!  He still can't decide what he wants to do, we told him he could have a party and that hasn't changed although I'm nervous about leaving Dave alone (not alone, just not with me) for very long.  O wants to DO ALL THE THINGS but I'm trying to get him to narrow it down.  He's been more engrossed in deciding what high tech toys he wants for his birthday.  He's planning to ask for money from everyone and then use it to get the "toys" he wants. He's looking at a gaming mouse, a gaming keyboard and a wireless headset because he always snags the cords and breaks them.  Since that's not something Dave has ever really cared about much he's deferring to Tim to help guide him.  It's nice that O has Dave's best friend to turn to for manly nerdy things.  Especially that Tim and Owen can bond now, while Dave is still here.  I know I won't be able to be all things to him as he navigates through the teen years but it's nice to know I've got backup in all regards.  Ok ok enough with the mushy stuff. 

Got to get back to business! Hope everyone has a great weekend.