A Prayer In Song

Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Barbershop Harmony Society's Rocky Mountain District Fall Convention attendees, meeting in Layton, Utah, dedicated a wonderful musical performance of "Irish Blessing" to Christian's recovery. It was a tender out-pouring of love and good will from barbershop harmony friends. Thank you.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rain fall soft upon your fields, And,
Until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Speed Typing

I type with two fingers now. It’s not fast but I am typing and I am grateful. This is my first post and written document that will be longer than two sentences. I’ve written a few emails and text messages but nothing more than a sentence or two. This is good therapy until I buy some good dictation software.

I am doing very well. I’ve been home for almost a month. It’s been nice to be home and the adjustment from hospital to home was easier than I expected in large part due to my wonderful wife. She does most of the work keeping our house and me up and running. If you ever break your neck I hope you have a great wife like I do to take care of you.

My days are filled with lots of therapy. I spend two to four hours, Monday to Friday in occupational or physical therapy. It’s going very well and I continue to get stronger and more coordinated every week. My walk is getting more natural. It’s far from perfect but I can safely get around on my own in almost any condition.

My physical therapy now includes working in pool. It’s fun and extremely tiring. I’ve now run in the pool. It’s not pretty but it’s a miracle that I can do it. I hated running before the accident and I don’t think that feeling has changed. I’d rather be learning to ski or bike but all in good time. The pool running is good for now.

In addition to walking and running I am working on lots of strengthening exercises especially on my hips, core and shoulders. I also spend a great deal of time stretching. My muscles are very tight. This is common for spinal chord injuries. I lack range of motion and the stretching helps increase my range of motion, reduces injuries and just helps me get better. I think in a few months I’ll be more flexible than I was before the accident.

Nikki, my occupational therapist suggested I bring my fly rod to therapy, Thursday. We spent the last 20 minutes of our session working on my cast. It was better than I than I expected. I was able to throw 30 to 40 feet without to much trouble, now controlling the direction is a different story, but I’ve got months, until next summer, to work on that. It’s exciting to discover that some of the things I love to do will be possible sooner than latter. Stay tuned for reports on skiing, snowmobiling, biking, rowing, diving and kite surfing. Speaking about adventure I am getting close to driving again. I need to increase my reaction time a little, but I am hopeful by the new year that I’ll be behind the wheel again. I’ll make sure to warn you all so you can stay clear. It was only few weeks ago that I was struggling just to move my arms.

I do want to thank everyone for your continued support and prayers. Jessi and I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family. We are so grateful that you are all part of our lives. I am certain that your prayers on our behalf have not gone unanswered.

I will do my best to keep the blog updated as I make additional progress. I appreciate all the posts that were made by our family and Matt. There were many, many, hours spent writing and posting entries on the blog to keep everyone informed. I have had so many people tell me how much they have appreciated the blog. I want to especially thank my brother Justin, and Dad for their numerous posts.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and finds many things to be grateful for this holiday.

Note: there may be some overlap between this and the video. i forgot what i said on the video that we shot we shot two weeks ago

Home Sweet Home

Where you been all my life?

Justin here.  Sorry for the long delay, but it's honestly not my fault :-)!  Christian is home and doing well.  He continues to make small improvements each day.  He is walking without help and can complete most daily tasks on his own, although some take more effort and concentration than others.  Jessi has taken a leave of absence from work for a time so she can help Chris adapt to life at home.

Therapy continues 5 days a week.  3 days at Neuroworx (www.neuroworx.org) and 2 days at TOSH (the old Cottonwood Hospital).  Physical therapy is covered at Neuroworx and occupational therapy at TOSH.  I haven't personally seen any of these sessions take place, so honestly can't give you much detail on them.  Which leads me to the main point of this blog...

The blog has been "officially" turned over to Christian and Jessi.  Now that myself and all the other family and friends who spent time at the hospital with Chris, witnessing the miracle that is his recovery, are back into our daily routines, we don't have near as much detail to share with you all.  Christian and Jessi are the main source of the detail now.  With that said, I encourage all of you to shoot Chris and/or Jessi a phone call, e-mail, Facebook message, or even a personal visit at their house to deliver the following message:  "UPDATE YOUR BLOG!"  Or, you could send them a more, mild mannered message, that might go something like this, "We so miss getting multiple, detailed updates from your blog each week.  We're still so interested in your recovery process and want to somehow share in your daily struggles and successes, even if it's through a distant computer screen"!

Either way, I think they'll get the message and jump online to share with us ALL how things are going, day to day :-).