Giffords

In the last few weeks this name has become common in homes across America and the Globe. I don't know how many people are on the edge of their seats wondering what is going to happen with Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was hit with a bullet to the head. Reading the articles day after day to hear about her recovery steps. One day she is able to open her eyes another she can hold herself up in a standing position. Today she is leaving the hospital to fly to a rehab center in Texas. I am sure your heart aches for her, as mine does, and that you pray for her and hope the best for her.  I am also sure that you can see where I am going with this blog. Will is not too far off from what she has and will continue to experience. Life will go on for her associates and friends, but it will stop for her for a while.  Life will also be strained for her family for awhile.

If I could have sometime with her family-- what would I say to them. Will it tear them apart, will it pull them closer together. Will there be an end to her recovery, will she be the same person she was when all is said and done. Will she ever heal from the emotional wounds from that fateful day.  I don't know what I would say to them. I would hope that in the weeks and years ahead they will have faith in her recovery. I pray that they will see that there are some endings but many more beginnings. I hope it will not tear them apart. I hope it will help them to have greater love for one another, even when things don't work out exactly as planned-- not at first at least. My heart does ache for Gabrielle Giffords, but I don't think she'll wish away what happened- already she can see how her unintended sacrifice is bringing a community and nation together. Her pain and struggle will bring her and those around her to their knees more often. I would never wish such a difficult situation on a person, but I certainly would never wish it away.

As for Will's update he is a trooper lately. He is busy 100 percent of his waking day. Applying for jobs, and recently Physicians Assistants school, studying for a radiology test he needs to take to get a limited practice license, preparing speeches for his toastmaster class and of course continuing to study for the boards (which he has to take next year to meet the deadline). On top of these of course he continues to volunteer at the clinic, in a lab on U of U campus, and at the temple at least twice a month.  As far as his recovery- I admit I wonder how much is actually happening-- is he really recalling more information every day and organizing more of his activities, etc… These answers are not always black and white-- but I do believe he is still recovering and I know he will do amazing things with his life. I think I've said it before, but I believe a lot of his recovery is about our faith and less about what will eventually come to be. If we give up than maybe his recovery will stop. There is not time to look back -- so Will and I do our best not to look behind us and to keep moving forward. And for those reading this blog, keep dropping to your knees to ask for miracles, because I know they will come, both in your lives and our own.

Some recent highlights

So I haven’t written for a while and I guess there are a few things I should talk about. First of all, I guess you should know, my wife, Summer, broke her ankle the other day. Actually it was on our anniversary, the 30th of December. She was clearing the snow off the car and was almost done when she slipped on some ice. I actually found her a little later and brought her inside. At first we didn’t think it was broken, but as the day wore on it became more apparent to her that she needed to go to a doctor. When she did decide to go I was in Salt Lake so she had her Mom take her. Fortunately, she came back without a cast, but she does have a boot or brace for the next six weeks.

Now, as far as I’m concerned, the big thing that happened to me was that I had a residency interview in Ohio last month. I stayed with Dan Hecht, a friend of mine from when I was a med student. The interview was at Ohio State and I feel pretty good about it, unfortunately, I still have to get another interview, for years two through four, for me to actually have a place. Hopefully that will happen soon.

Concerning Benjamin, he is doing great. We are still waiting for him to roll over, but we expect that he will roll over soon. That’s the hope anyway. One thing he did do today was, while we were at church, he actually put his binky in his own mouth. Normally that’s something we have to do.

Back to Ohio

Today Will is in Ohio. I am in Utah. Last year at this time we were both in Ohio at a trial rotation back at Riverside Methodist Hospital. This year Will was granted a residency interview at OSU.

Plenty has changed since last year's Ohio visit. First I'll mention Will's improved capacities and then move on to our family's changes.  As for the "now and then" stroke recovery comparisons. I went with Will to Ohio last year because he had a difficult time keeping track of schedules, appointments and organizing his time. This year none of these deficits are issues. I do not worry that he will get lost in the airport or that he will not be able to locate his baggage or that he will be late to any of his interviews. I know he'll do fine. Last year Will's organization and processing speeds deficits tended to make Will seem less "with it." My husband's above average intelligence was masked because of his inability to retrieve information.  This year however, he is different. And while he is not all the way "back" the brain connections are continuing to mend and I believe those who knew him will see a difference.

As for our situation, last year we returned from Ohio jobless and again with no guarantee that Will would ever be a doctor, but nonetheless with family as a first priority we decided to have a baby.  We put our newly remodeled condo up for rent, moved into mom and dads basement apartment and set a strict budget (Will has a disability benefit). Now instead of a my working and planning trips and gatherings with our friends, I am waking up three times a night to feed Ben and I send my hubby off to volunteer for eight hours and then to class for another three. But as any happily married wife and new mother can attest-- I have never been happier.  The proof is in the pictures, it's in this video. The truth is that while life and it's expenses and hardships have gotten harder -- it's also much, much better. I love Will more everyday and I couldn't ask for a better son.

Meanwhile, only time will tell if tomorrow's OSU interview evolves into a position for Will at their hospital, or if he'll be accepted back into any training program for MD's this year. But no matter the outcome we'll continue working towards our goals, because we both believe someday he will be able to return to the demands of being a doctor.

Summer

ps the pics are Ben, Will and I and Will's sibs at Temple Square.

My life

Well, its sometimes hard to know what to blog about. I think my principle purpose is to talk about me and my progress back to getting a normal job and life. I guess thats why this is called my Recovery blog. On the other hand, I also like to talk about Benjamin, since he is my only son and he is so cute. I guess I'll just have to spend a little time talking about both.

First, my progression on the job front. Right now I'm spending three mornings a week at the Maliheh Free Clinic which is a clinic for the poor. I mostly translate there. I spend five afternoons a week at the CVRTI which is the Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute at the University of Utah. On Thursday and every other Tuesday night I have a radiology tech course which I'm taking at the DATC. On Monday and Wednesday mornings I apply for jobs. I guess I'm pretty busy. Hopefully something will come of it soon.

Now, as far as Benjamin is concerned, he is just such a cute little guy. He is now about seven weeks old and was ten pounds last time he was weighted. He's a pretty good boy, and mostly obedient. Well, okay, he really can't be disobedient yet. Anyway, he's cute. Last week we went up to Beus pond in Ogden and took him for a little stroll. We also dressed him up for Halloween.

Time is….

…a whirlwind right now. I don't know if it's going too fast or slowing down. Being a new mom is out of this world. Between little sleep, recovering from the delivery and spending so much of my day caring for Benjamin- emotionally, physically, mentally I'm being pushed to really focus and learn to keep life and baby balanced.

Since this blog is not Summer's Blabbers Blog, I'll move on to the comparison - we are in the midst of "pushing" Will. On top of all the clinic work, lab work, and school work -- Will is still applying for residency, jobs, and studying for Step 3. This schedule is bringing added focus and organization into Will's recovery that he has not had prior.  He is doing great. I continue to see recovery in Will week to week. He is remembering names and details more than he ever has.  It's fun to see improvement after such a length of time.

However, despite all of this recovery/work/effort, Will is still unemployed. There are plenty of reasons why Will could hang up his gloves and quit trying at this point, it's been two and a half years and he has still not had a break in the career arena.  He has been told that he is not going to get any better and that most of the stroke recovery happens in the first year. But as you can guess, we don't believe we are as far as we are going to get in terms of his recovery. We won't believe that he can't be a doctor. So we'll continue to write in this blog and time will continue to roll forward at whatever pace it needs to in order for Will to achieve what he is dreaming. So keep with us on our journey because we're getting to the good part, and in the meantime enjoy the photos of the cutest little guy (and bigger guy) you've ever seen.

Summer

ps I know it is Will's time to blog but he's awful busy and I didn't want too much time to pass without updating the blog.

Things are picking up

Forgive me if this entry is shorter than usual (Actually, you'll probably be thanking me that it is shorter in contrast to the novels I usually write). But I have just a minute before our baby, Benjamin David, wakes up. As you've guessed Will and I are the proud parents of a little boy. He was born Saturday night, weighing 7 lbs 9 ounces. He is healthy and strong and everything a parent could dream of. Sweet and quiet, a disposition much more like his dad than like his mothers. What luck ;)

Well the purpose for this entry is to complain. O I mean give thanks. I don't know what the purpose of this entry is other than I am a full fledged mother-- tittering around the home trying to figure out how to take care of a tiny human being and Will is not around. He is swamped with work (unpaid but great for preparing him for a good career). Will works at a free clinic in the mornings, as a lab technician in the afternoons and at nights attends classes to get a limited practice license in preforming Xrays. In his free moments-- which are few and far between--- he is applying for jobs, residency and preparing for his upcoming class.

This crazy schedule is just what the doctor ordered for returning Will to his pre-stroke capabilities. Really I imagine he'll have a lot more capabilities once he has picked up a few more trades along the way to becoming a doctor.   He is doing wonderful. He has changed his doctor emphasis from internal medicine to radiology (a much more family friendly practice). Hopefully we'll dig up some interviews from residencies around the country in the coming months. If not well try again next year.  Thanks again for following our story!

Summer

Scofield

Last weekend Summer and I went on a trip down to Scofield. Scofield, for those of you who don't know, is located about two hours south of Salt Lake. It's a nice little town on the edge of a lake. We, however, didn't actually go there. We went to a friends cabin which was actually quite a ways away and in the middle of no where. I guess it was still part of Scofield, but it was definitely out of the way.

We went there with our friend Matt and his wife and two other couples, one of which included Matt's sister. We went on Friday night. It was labor day weekend and so most of our group was going to stay until Monday, but we decided to go back home on Saturday night.

Anyway, are activities included riding ATVs, fishingand paintball shooting. Most of this happened on Saturday, after we had gotten a good nights rest. The ATVs were fun. I had never ridden on one before, but it certainly wasn't hard to figure out. I went out several times including once or twice with Summer. Unfortunately (or fortunately I guess) Summer, due to the pregnancy, felt better driving because she could stand up more easily when we were going over rough patches.

On Saturday afternoon we went out to the "lake" and fished. I put lake in quotation marks because it wasn't a lake. It was a pond, but lake sounds better when your telling your friends about it. Anyway, it was big enough to canoe on, and there was a thing in the middle that you could just sit and fish on. I cast in my line several times (it was legal because the pond was owned by Matt's father and so I didn't need a license) and reeled in several times, but caught only some sea weed. Apparently it was too early in the afternoon to really hope to catch anything. It was fun though, and a nice way to relax.

In the evening before dinner Matt invited the boys to go paint-balling so the four of us headed out while our wives cooked up some fixings. We drove to a wooded place and got ready. We divided into teams. Matt and I on one and the other two on the other. Then we went our separate ways and at the appropriate signal began approaching each other with the intent to shoot. We of course had on our camouflage and our protective helmets so that we couldn't actually hurt one another. Unfortunately one of the guns malfunctioned and wouldn't shoot, then another gun did the same thing. Turns out they wereout of compressed air which is necessary to propel the ammo. Mine wasn't one of those guns but I gladly gave it up so that one of the other guys could have a good gun. We then had a one-on-one competition and then went home to have some grilled chicken.

After dinner Summer and I took off for home. It was a nice trip and we were both glad that we went.

As far as pregnancy goes we are hoping that all will go well and counting down the weeks until Summer's due. Right now were at two and a half. I've also got a position at a lab at the U which I am starting soon. Its not payed right now, but it could be in the future. Finally this Thursday I will start taking a radiology class which will go until the end of the year.