It seems we’ve had some pretty good traffic on here lately and I truly appreciate your visits and comments.  Thank you!

We had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to see what 2010 has in store for us and if it’s anything like the first few weeks of January, it’s gonna be full.

We’ve all returned to our prospective roles; I’m back at work, Danny is back at Shepherd and Corbin is back in school.  However, each of those places may be getting tweaked a bit.

Back in October, one new leaf I failed to mention, I went back to working four days a week.  Not by choice, but by necessity.  In aligning our company benefits, new policies required that employees work a minimum of 30 hours weekly to receive full benefits.  Since I was only working 24 hours, the news was a bit overwhelming.  Thankfully, I was able to increase my hours and we’ve had no disruption in our benefits.

However, for those that live work in corporate America, you know the ever roaming rumors of, well, anything.  And, where I work, it’s no different.  After surviving through three mergers, our small regional office may no longer be flying under the radar.  Many of the regional offices have closed when leases come up for renewal and with our numbers down to single digits, I fear the inevitable is finally among us.

So, rather than be reactive to the news, I’ve become proactive in searching for a new job.  This is a great time to be looking for a job, right?  Thank God, it feels like He has already taken care of it.

Those of you who come here regularly know that I have this desire to help people that find themselves in a tragic situation like we have.  Although I have no time to volunteer, I’ve felt this desire to do something; I just wasn’t sure what that looked like.  Well, it seemed like a natural progression for me to see what employment opportunities were available at Shepherd.  I mean, I’m there a lot, right?  And, I have a built in reference section in all the therapists and those we have worked with when Danny was in-patient.

I met with the Hiring Manager a couple Fridays ago to talk about future possibilities.  It went really well.  Honestly, I want to get out there and make an impact.  I don’t want to hang back in the shadows, in the background anymore.  I’m tired of supporting others to be successful in their own careers; I want to be successful in my own.  I just need the chance to break out of this mould and I’m praying the Lord opens the door; although, it feels like He already is.  There is one job that I talked to a Shepherd contact about and I really think I’d love it and be perfect for it.  I’m not going to go into details, but I’m actually excited about the prospect of this position.  Please pray that the Lord will place me where I’ll be effective and excited about working.  I’ll keep you updated.

After the first of the year, we did meet with Dr. M to go over Danny’s results from his neuro psych tests.  The results showed that Danny has great speech and language skills, problem solving skills, has a respectful personality and is compulsive.  The most difficult deficit that Danny will have to overcome is his memory.  In fact, Dr. M told Danny that he will not be able to rely on his own memory, but needs to use something to keep track of each day’s details.  Danny already uses his cell phone to keep most appointments, so we’re on the right track.

We also talked about Danny’s misbehavior.  Specifically, I wanted to know if any counseling or therapy could be effective for Danny, could he apply the principles discussed?  Dr. M feels that Danny can benefit from counseling and actually, wants to see us together which I’m looking forward to.  As you can tell from my last post, I’m struggling and I’m hoping that talking to Dr. M together as a married couple, might help us.

Dr. M planned to meet us at our appointment with Dr. Kaelin and had a challenge for Danny.  He asked Danny how many outbursts he thought he would have in the twelve days separating the appointments.  Danny said eight and I’m happy to report, we only had one issue.  It was amazing!  I was so encouraged by that and hope that with regular visits with Dr. M, maybe we can get Danny out of the dumps and working hard to be more positive.

Based on Dr. M’s suggestion of getting Danny outside of Shepherd and outside of the home to do something to make him feel more productive, we’ve been exploring some things Danny might be interested in.  At the same time, Danny kind of feels like he has hit a wall in his physical progress.  After much thought, we’re actually thinking of taking a break from Beyond Therapy.  Now, before everyone questions my sanity, again, I’ll explain.

Danny has been in BT for more than two and a half years.  The longest break he has ever had was 10 days.  Now, for those of you working regularly, do you take vacations?  Well, Danny hasn’t.  So, we’ve been thinking based on what feedback we get from Candy, we’ll take about a month break.  Because Danny is a fan favorite, it doesn’t appear that we’d be in danger of losing Danny’s place in the program.  Plus, Danny still wants to go to Shepherd and exercise and then use the remainder of his day to figure out what that thing is that will make him feel productive.  Then, once we know what that is, we’ll work it back in his schedule with Beyond Therapy.

Many clients of BT have taken breaks and actually return stronger than they left.  We’ll keep you posted on what we decide to do.

Last week, we met with Dr. Kaelin and Dr. M again.  We had a wonderful appointment with Dr. Kaelin and touched on many subjects, especially the findings of Dr. M and what things we can do to get Danny looking beyond Beyond Therapy.  Dr. Kaelin wanted to add a new prescription for Danny to see how it helps him.  It has double benefits as it should help Danny be able to process information faster and also it will help with the irritability. PTL!  Danny has only been taking it a few days now, so we’ll see if it is effective.

We talked to Dr. Kaelin about Danny’s power wheelchair as well.  We’ve been trying since the first of June 2009 to get Danny a power wheelchair without much help.  We’ve been denied by our primary insurance provider and will now submit to Medicare.  If Medicare approves, then we will still have to pay 20%.  If not, then I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to afford the chair as it is $7500.  However, check back as we may be dedicating a fundraiser specifically for the wheelchair once we know what Medicare decides.

Danny and I were contacted to be included in an article for the Spinal Column publication that Shepherd produces.  We’ll be in the Spring issue along with three other families discussing how we find ways to cover expenses that are uninsured.  A photographer came and took pictures of Danny at therapy on Friday and I look forward to seeing how those turn out.  I’ll let you know when the new issue is out and you can read it online.

Corbin is wonderful, as usual, thankfully.  He had a fabulous Christmas and is now a Star Wars fanatic; an interest that is growing.  It has actually been fun to watch the old movies with him, play with the toys and read the books.  He continues to be such a joy for us and it is awesome to see the relationship between he and Danny grow.  Corbin is now coming home a bit before I get there, so Danny has time with Corbin which is special.  It gives them time together, but also gives them both the time to understand their roles; Danny as father and Corbin as son.  Sometimes, those roles can get blurred by Danny’s behavior, but when put in the position of total control, Danny has risen to the occasion and has done a great job, even during the tough times.  I’m very proud of him.

Check the photo gallery as I added some pictures recently.

I’m working on another post that is more from my thoughts and ideas, rather than details of our daily lives.  So, subscribe to the posts or check back often.  Plus, I think the “ghost” may be speaking again soon.  Love to you all!