August Update

Yikes, another month of summer gone in a flash...time again for a Pops update. It's been a pretty good month for mom and dad, but it started out with a little bit of a scare. Mom and dad were driving one afternoon when suddenly dad couldn't speak. For about five minutes, he was fully alert but he couldn't talk...only garbled mumbling. Mom took him immediately to Froedtert where they kept him overnight for extensive testing. Apparently this mini-stroke was the result of a piece of plaque randomly dislodging itself and causing a minor blockage. A fluke thing but very scary for them nonetheless. His tests showed nothing abnormal and hopefully it will never happen again. It may have been minor, but a stroke is a stroke, even if it is "mini".

Pops got some great news earlier this month when he was able to drop his Wednesday dialysis completely. This is a major 'yahoo' for him because now he's down to just Monday's and Friday's. His kidneys seem to be on the borderline for dialysis, so keep praying that they would improve. Pops is no fan of dialysis.

After visiting the nerve doctor quite a few times, it was determined that dad is not eligible for nerve transplant surgery at this time. There are not enough good nerves in his left arm to provide for a good transplant, so right now all he can do is deal with the nerve pain and hope more nerves regenerate to allow for future surgery. His left arm is still bothering him on a daily basis, so we pray for those nerves to get down to business and do some regenerating.

Pops took his first road trip this month to join the fam in Chicago for Grandma Jinnie's surprise 90th birthday party. (Check out the new pics.) It was a great day and she was very, very surprised. I know what you're thinking...isn't a surprise party a little dangerous for a 90-year-old? Not Grandma Jinnie...heck, she runs faster than I do. P.J. and Kersta even flew in from Denver and Uncle Ward from Hawaii...it was great. A fantastic day thanks to Grandma's sweet friends, and Pops didn't mind the four hours in the car. The next big road trip??? Arizona for the winter...

Slowly things seem to be winding down for Pops as his weekly schedule lightens up. He just finished his last Tuesday occupational therapy session at Froedtert so now his Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are reserved for random doctor appointments, stopping in at Genesis, and hanging out at home. Once in a while he gets stuck shopping with mom but he makes the best of it...like last week while mom was shoe shopping he entertained himself by asking people to direct him to the running shoes. He's funny. My favorite memory of this month was watching him race across a parking lot at 8 miles an hour and then stop abruptly right in the middle to do doughnuts. Well, that and when he told the story about him slipping into the seat hole of his shower chair until he was kissing his knees and then mom had to pull him out, which, as you can imagine, did not go as planned. The most entertaining stories tend to come from shower night...but that's to be expected when you're dealing with mom and a wet, slippery quad.

On the technology front, Pops now has a new laptop and a new dictation program that types whatever he says. He can pretty much run his whole computer just by speaking, which means he's ready for some electronic communication! His new email address is patbohrman@yahoo.com...feel free to say howdy.

Long ago when he was still in the hospital, dad was told by his surgeon that this is a marathon, not a sprint. This new life with his new body takes perseverance, determination, and a steady pace. As he continues to adjust to life as a quad, there are up days, down days, and just plain blah days. But life is good. God is steadfast. Thanks for the love. Keep praying.

And if a quad ever approaches you in a shoe store and asks where the running shoes are, don't fall for it...consider yourself warned.