Wednesday February 3, 2010

I was with dad today. I brought Lily along and she had a great time working with grandpa, helping him with his letters and such. He needs to practice colors and shapes. Scott and Tiff came at 10:30 to help him walk and exercise. He was tired after that. We had lunch, and he watched a little TV, falling asleep. Tahna & Ja' Brael came over and we did puzzles and visited with grandpa.

Susie

Wednesday February 17, 2010

Well I got to Mom and Dads at 9 this morning and we got him to his 10:30 Dr. Appt ok. We got home and Mom made us lunch and then I went to Walmart and did some shopping for them . The hardest part of helping out is getting him up and down the stairs (of course :) and the HARDEST part of that is getting him up onto the landing :) He definitely gets frustrated at not being able to speak his mind but sure has the swear words down! Hehe Mom was about ready to smack him . He apologized to her for his "blue" vocabulary. Mom Really needs All of Our help with Dad , and will for quite some time. Susie had a lot of good ideas for stuff to keep Dads mind busy , so every other time we visit we should bring a little something to brighten his day and help him stimulate his brain. He'll Always be the Best Grandpa on earth and loves when the Grandkids visit . Hopefully the hand rails will be installed out front either today or tomorrow. Good luck Friday Joe , its a lot of work but A lot of fun Too :) Love you all and Happy Humpday !!!!!!!! XOXO

Scott

I was at Moms house last night and had a good talk with her. I told her that her life now includes HELP. She understands and now is willing to accept help. She talked with the High Priest leader and he is going to pass along a sign up sheet. Every family member sisters, bro, extra from now on, she is going to say yes I need help. And she is going to ask for help. I will help her coordinate each week what she needs. This is what she does need help with weekly. Dads exercising (30 min a day) and helping him to bed (5 min). Which takes 5 minutes some one in the ward can help with that. And she needs breaks through out the week. Dad told me last night. Mom needs time away. So of anything just to come and sit with pop so she can leave and have a breather. So if we can at least each help one day a week, I think that is fair and not asking too much. Short notice things, she understands we might not be able to help with all the time.

WE ARE CONTINUING THE BLOG!

Sorry for the confusion, Mom wanted me to continue the blog, so I will try and do that once a week.

Yesterday I had the privilege of spending the day with Dad. I can see now why Mom is soooo overwhelmed! She has to constantly be with him for now. Mom took off for some errands so I stayed with dad for about an hour. What to do?

Last night I was working on a puzzle with Ara Lee and dad came up and "helped" us. He would pick up a piece, look at it and put it down. They were small puzzle pieces, a little confusing, so he never found any pieces, but he seemed interested, so today I took out the kids puzzles; the 24 pc puzzle and the 12 pc frame-tray puzzles that kids start out with. He loved those, but the ones mom has are...old and worn and she only has 3 or 4. He liked those (cardboard frame-tray) because he could see the shapes on them. I would let him do the puzzle by himself and he enjoyed it as I encouraged him. He also liked the bigger pieces puzzle, easy ones that he could see easily and had bright designs on them, so if you have similar ones hangin' around home, maybe you could bring them as you hang with dad.

I also got on the computer with him and he wanted to get on facebook, and see sights about guns, and other things he was interested in. He has to click with his left hand and he doesn't have a lot of control, so I took over and he would point at things with his right hand that he wanted me to click on.

I also took the Phase-10 cards (or uno cards would be fine) and I would take out the numbers 1-12 and mix them up and he would put them back in order. He did awesome. When he would get 1 number out of order, I would say, "there is 1 number that's wrong" and he would find it and put it in the right order. He wanted to do this over, and over, and over.

So...he also liked to look at my itouch and all the buttons and pics, so he loves things that he can easily put together or figure out - blocks, numbers, letters, puzzles, games, on a very easy level, but something that will keep his mind motivated and stimulated. If you have any of these things that your kids don't play with anymore, I would say bring them over. Right now, he's not interested in TV at all. He "reads" the paper every morning, so he likes to look at things, he also looks out the window at the birds a lot. He likes things that keeps his mind going.

He wanted to know why the pink chair Scott gave them wasn't working. We looked at it and he wanted me to "change the batteries" but we figured out together it didn't take batteries, so he had me turn the chair over and he would look and look and wonder why it didn't work. We figured out together it was missing a piece that needed to plug into the wall. We "worked" on it for 20 minutes and then when he was satisfied there was nothing he could do to fix it, I put the chair away and we did something else.

He wants to "put things together" and figure things out and fix things, so I hope that gives you some ideas to help your time with him. I slept over Sunday night and spent most of Monday with him and it's been exhausting, eye-opening, overwhelming, and humbling! All those years dad and mom took care of us, now it's our time to take care of them.

We also need to figure out how to make this house more wheelchair friendly. It takes mom 5 minutes just to get him to the bathroom because she has to open the closet door (across from the bathroom), wheel him into the closet, do a 13-point turn to get him where he can fit through the bathroom door. We gave her some ideas last night, but if anyone can help, or has ideas, please! Her back can't take it anymore, but she is worried about costs.

You can definately see his personality still, still a sense of humor, but much more patient now.

Susie

Last Post - Dad going home!

This will be the last post for Dad's blog. I am happy to report that Dad will be discharged from the hospital on Feb. 10th to come home. He will then get in-home therapies for a while, then he will go to outpatient therapies somewhere (not sure yet). We had a home evaluation last Wednesday by the Occupational Therapist at the hospital (Josh). He brought Dad home & we practiced what he would need to do etc. in each room (mostly the bedroom & bathroom.) He said we needed a few things like grab bars here & there, & a couple of railings on the porch outside etc. He is able to walk very slowly with help up the stairs, but they don't want him walking around the house yet.
He will be mostly in the wheelchair during the day. He can eat solids, now, but they have to be chopped up small. He can only drink thickened liquids and with a straw or spoon. He can talk, but has a hard time completing sentences, and therefore gets discouraged. This should all improve with time. He is unable to use his right arm, and it may not improve. He does remember who everyone is, but may not remember your name or how to say it. We're hopeful that everything will improve with time. We still know that it is a miracle that he is still here.

If you want to see dad, please call mom first, or email at johnutahna16@msn.com. I'm sure mom would love to hear from you, but may not want lots of visitors at first. Thanks for everyone's help and support these past 3 months. We are so grateful to our Father in Heaven for letting us dad a little longer!

The Versluis Family