Go Cards!

Okay...this has been a busy week. We went to California to check out a possible therapy place for Luke, and to go to Disneyland. Luke did awesome...way better than I was expecting him to! I promise pictures in the next few days. But....now it is time to say...GO Cards! Believe in now!

Watch out...here I come!

The video shows Luke's new trick of the week...riding his big wheel. Sorry it is sideways...not as tech savvy as I would like to be, and my camera changed settings, not sure how to fix that one either...bear with me. Now, we tried to get him to ride this many, many months ago, but no luck. I brought it out again on Monday, and since then he has been riding it up and down our halls. Once, again lefty leg poses a problem when it tries to turn it, but we velcro it to the pedal to try and stop that. Mike is working on "adapting" his old bike to see how he does on that. Go Luke...we are so proud of you!!!

On another note....how about those Cardinals...they made it all the way to the Super Bowl. Have you seen what their slogan is..."Believe in now!." I love it. If you need a reason to root for the Cardinals...read this...thanks to my friend Holly for passing it along:

In a supermarket, Kurtis the stock boy, was busily working when
> a new voice came over the loud speaker asking for a carry out at
> register
> 4. Kurtis was almost finished, and wanted to get some fresh air,
> and decided to answer the call. As he approached the check-out stand a
> distant smile caught his eye, the new check-out girl was beautiful. She
> was an older woman (maybe 26, and he was only 22) and he fell in love.
>
> Later that day, after his shift was over, he waited by the punch
> clock to find out her name. She came into the break room, smiled softly
> at him, took her card and punched out, then left. He looked at her card,
> BRENDA. He walked out only to see her start walking up the road. Next
> day, he waited outside as she left the supermarket, and offered her a
> ride home. He looked harmless enough, and she accepted. When he dropped
> her off, he asked if maybe he could see her again, outside of work. She
> simply said it wasn't possible.
>
> He pressed and she explained she had two children and she
> couldn't afford a baby-sitter, so he offered to pay for the baby-sitter.
> Reluctantly she accepted his offer for a date for the following
> Saturday. That Saturday night he arrived at her door only to have her
> tell him that she was unable to go with him. The baby-sitter had called
> and canceled. To which Kurtis simply said, "Well, let's take the kids
> with us."
>
> She tried to explain that taking the children was not an option,
> but again not taking no for an answer, he pressed. Finally Brenda,
> brought him inside to meet her children. She had an older daughter who
> was just as cute as a bug, Kurtis thought, then Brenda brought out her
> son, in a wheelchair. He suffered a severe brain injury at 4 months old.
>
> Kurtis asked Brenda, "I still don't understand why the kids
> can't come with us?" Brenda was amazed. Most men would run away from a
> woman with two kids, especially if one had disabilities - just like her
> first husband and father of her children had done. Kurtis was not
> ordinary
> - - - he had a different mindset.
>
> That evening Kurtis and Brenda loaded up the kids, went to
> dinner and the movies. When her son needed anything Kurtis would take
> care of him. When he needed to use the restroom, he picked him up out of
> his wheelchair, took him and brought him back. The kids loved Kurtis. At
> the end of the evening, Brenda knew this was the man she was going to
> marry and spend the rest of her life with.
>
> A year later, they were married and Kurtis adopted both of her
> children. Since then they have added two more kids.
>
> So what happened to Kurtis the stock boy and Brenda the
> check-out girl? Well, Mr. & Mrs. Kurt Warner now live in Arizona , where
> he is currently employed as the quarterback of the National Football
> League Arizona Cardinals and has his Cardinals in the hunt for a
> possible appearance in the Super Bowl. Is this a surprise ending or
> could you have guessed that he was not an ordinary person.
>
> It should be noted that he also quarterbacked the Rams in Super
> Bowl XXXVI. He has also been the NLF's Most Valuable Player twice and
> the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player.

What a class act guy! You can also read more about the story here: http://www.snopes.com/glurge/warner.asp Go Cards! Believe!

Hard worker!

Luke standing in his Lite Gait machine

Luke has had an awesome week this week and worked really hard! His big pay-off...he gets to go hunting with dad this weekend. I started this week doing his therapies in his room, and he loves that. He will walk (with max-assistance of course) down the long hallway to get to his room from the family room. Then, we sit at his table and chairs and do school work. This is mainly me reading him stories then asking questions, have him read me words or identify sounds and some math. He has done really good with using his words this week. We also have PE time where he will ride on the stationary bike (he had stopped wanting to do this awhile ago, but so far this week has done great), play basketball, throw bean bags, play t-ball, or have him stand on his lite gait. He really doesn't like this machine too much, but I try to keep him busy to take his mind off of it. You can see in the video he gets a little crazy and decides to go swinging on his own. I figure this has to help him somehow so I let him do it (never mind my arm shot, I thought he was going to hit his head, he did not:) . The past few times we have tried to get him swinging, he tells us to stop, so I was just glad he was initiating it on his own. So praise God that he starting to show more motivation to work...who knows maybe he just needed a change of scenery from doing everything in the family room. Whatever it is, let's keep this momentum going because the best is yet to come! I just talked to Mike also, and he said Luke had his best day ever at horse therapy today (his first time back in a long time.) Go Luke!!! You rock!! Thanks for checkin' in....have a great weekend...GO CARDINALS!!!! I saw a great quote in the paper the other day about the Cardinals, and how no one expected them to make it this far in the playoffs, some people even went so far as to say they should have been kicked out, but as one of their players said, "Hard work and perseverance will eventually pay off." I have said this all along for Luke, we will never give up until he is doing everything we know he can be doing. Believe and GO CARDS!

Ok...I can not get the video to upload after many tries. I will try again sometime this weekend hopefully!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow! This has been a crazy week full of appointments for Luke. The good news is, as of now, no more dr visits until March. On Tuesday he had a follow-up with the eye dr and an appt with his neuro-rehab dr. The visit with the eye dr went great. He is very happy with how Luke is using his right eye and mentioned in the far future he may want to try lifting his left eye again....not so sure we will let that happen. The best part is we do not have to go back for two months...we have been going to Downtown Phoenix every two weeks for follow-ups so I am thrilled not to get to see downtown for awhile! The neuro-rehab visit was a disappointment. The first question she asked was if Luke was walking yet...um NO! Glad she believes that he will, but frustrated she has no answers as to how to help him more. The problem is he turns his left foot in so much that he ends up tripping over it. Well...no one seems to know what to do. I think the most frustrating thing is they spend all of 10 minutes looking at him, then pass the buck on down the line. Then they wanted to see us again in two months, um hello for what?? Yesterday, we had an appointment with an orthotic place and with the NACD. Again, no real answers at the orthotic place as to what may help Luke and his left foot...someone has to have an idea. Then we went to our visit with the NACD. The crazy thing is, our insurance will not pay for our visits with them, and they spend the most time of anyone really looking and assessing as to what Luke can do. We were there with the evaluator for an hour and a half. Luke was doing pretty good at showing off for her. She spent some time looking at his left foot, and said she has some ideas of things that could help, but wanted to discuss it with one other person at her office. So at least there is a glimmer of help! Then she said, you know this kid is really smart....yes I know, sometimes I think too smart for his own good, as he knows how to get out of doing things that will help with his healing. He was always better at sharpening his pencil than doing the school work. I have always said it is that stubborn side that kept him here. So, you can imagine the look on my face when she told us we really need to put his right arm in a sling and force him to use his left arm. The thing is, he can use it, but only if he is forced because he has learned how not to use it. So, she wants us to sling his right arm and force him to eat with his left. I am hoping he doesn't just decide to go on a food strike. She is also going to beef up the academic portion of his program for the next session. She really feels he could be talking and using his words more, but again it is one of those things where he has gotten so used to telling us yes or no with his hand signals, that it is easier to do that. Well..we all know practice makes perfect...so he needs to practice talking. She asked me how many words he will say, and I was amazed as I started telling her the words, that it is over twenty and probably even more than that on a good talking day. Overall, she was very pleased with the progress he has made since his last visit, especially when you consider all the issues we had with his eye the last four months. We will continue to press forward using their program as our guideline, because truth be told, that is what has had the most impact on Luke's healing and recovery, and they believe in him!

Now, I have gotten many emails the last few weeks asking for a baby update so here goes: As of now I am almost 30 weeks, the due date is March 22nd. I had an ultrasound this week, and she is weighing in at 2 lbs 11 ozs. She is laying sideways now, so we really need her to move, otherwise they will schedule a c-section at 39 weeks. I am really hoping that does not happen!

Thanks so much for continue to faithfully check-in on Luke. I truly believe the best is yet to come! Believe!