Tuesday, May 31st

Wow, I am pooped! I had a full day of sessions. In occupational therapy, I had to stand up and fold a small basket of clothes. Right away the therapist told me that I was cheating by leaning against the table. I had to stand on my own while folding the clothes...well, that was interesting. I was wobbling and swaying all over the place, it felt like I was dancing, lol. It took me 7 min 40 secs to complete the task. Gues what James will be doing for a while :-)

Physical therapy was entertaining as well.I had to walk down the hallway using the rail (and a lot of assistance from the therapist). Next, I was hooked up to a pulley system in the ceiling. They placed a velcro vest around me and attached the wires to the pulley. They entered my weight, minus 20 lbs, and set it to catch me if I fall 6 inches. I had to walk, on my own, quite a distance - that was so scary. They kept telling me to lean to my left, but I just couldn't figure out how to. They placed a mirror in front of me & all I could do was laugh - I was leaning so far to the right, I looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

On a good note though, I can pretty much open my right eye all the way now. I still have double vision, but at least it is progress.

James is still holding down the homefront & visiting me daily. Joshua & Matt droppeed by & my sister Stacey came down from Maryland. She is going to help James shop for some items that I will need once I come home. My other sister, Kim, is going to come down when I come home, she is going to help me with the transistion.

The Warren family stopped by for a visit - I cannot believe that they did that on Jodie's last day before he leaves. I am truly honored - what a great family! Please keep them all in you prayers while Jodie is overseas!

Tomorrow, my team of doctors, nurses & therapists will meet to discuss my projected timeframe for completing in-patient therapy. So hopefully by tomorrow night, I'll have an idea when I may go home.

Monday, May 30th.

Well, today is mine & James' 9th anniversary, not exactly my ideal way to spend it :-(
James came by & gave me a beautiful anniversary card & some watermelon :-)))))
I had a wonderful visit from Alan & Robbi Foster. I am truely honored to have such great family & friends!

I didn't sleep very well last night, but hopefully tonight will be different. I had one hour of physical therapy & it kicked my butt; didn't too well walking today with my wobbly legs. I was a little frustrated, but realized that I am just beginning. Full therapy starts back tomorrow, maybe that will get my rear in gear!

I am usually always a happy, cheerful person....but for some reason today, out of the blue,  I caught myself shedding a tear once or twice today. I just wanted to kick myself! Just wanted to share my thoughts.. I'm really ok & don't want anyone to worry about me = honestly!  I'm going to have good moments & bad moments, EVERYbody does. As long as the good moments far outweigh the bad ones, I'll  breeze right through this!

Sunday, May 29th

Today was a "free" day, I did not have any scheduled sessions. Even so, I am still exhausted at the end of the day. I was a little wobbly today, I guess some days will be better than others. I had some great visitors today, which kept me going. James spent the 1st half of the day with me, then Jamie & Jessica stopped by. Butch Pearson & Debbie Bell surprised me by handing me a framed photo of Mollie & me during our visit yesterday. It's sitting on my window sill where I can easily see it :-)
To top things off, my friend Debbie Tate stopped by = she gave me an incentive to recover quickly...before the end of July. Keep those prayers coming!!!

Saturday, May 28th

It's Shelly again...
Today started off much better & ended GREAT! I had Occupational Therapy at 7am, then breakfast. James stopped by and bought me new sweatpants & v-neck shirts, he can actually shop, lol. He also bought me a container of watermelon (which I think was SUPPOSED to last a day or two) and rolled me out to the garden to get fresh air. The watermelon was so good, I ate every bit of it...oink, oink. I was supposed to go to group therapy at 11am, but ran into a little trouble (to disgusting to mention here) and missed the session = oh well, there is plenty more were they came from!
Joshua and Matt stopped by for a few hours :-) Karla Gerner stopped by and brought me some homemade chocolate chip cookies & strawberry salad - yumm-o!!!  Susan Watson & Karla Hartle surprised me with more goodies - Susan packed a picnic bag full of wine glasses and 2 bottles of sparkling juice, and she gave me some chocolate from Trader Joes :-) Karla made an awesome Get Well Soon poster (I'll take a pic of it tomorrow) and a Skittles bouquet! James, Keith, and Michelle stopped by & brought Mollie!!!! I have missed her so much & it was great to be able to hold her! I wish that Zack could have come too, but right now Mollie is quite a handfull. I am so thankful to have the best family & friends anyone could ever ask for. I love you all!!!!

James got promoted!

Yup, this is Shelly.... I'm going to try again to post something. I just wanted to say how proud I am of James for being promoted to Lt! In the middle of everything going on with me, he managed to pull it together for the interview panel. He was debating whether or not if he should even go... I gave him a gentle shove :-)
James has been my rock, waiting on me hand & foot. It's good that he cannot stay the night with me since I moved to rehab. He needs thbose "sanity" hours! Consider kidnapping him in the evening, make him get out & have fun! I feel horrible that we cannot go celebrate his promotion now. Hopefully, one day in the near future, we will be able to celebrate.

Sheltering Arms Day 1

       May 27th was Shelly's first day of boot camp.  She did not have a great start to the day.  They came and got her at 8:30, told her to get dressed because she was late for breakfast.  Then she was pushed in the wheelchair to the front of the mirror so she could brush her teeth.  The nurse said she would be back in a minute, 45 minutes later a doctor found her.  She fell asleep in the wheelchair.  There were a lot of sessions of physical therapy and speech therapy.  She said she got a 100 percent on everything and they said she was very intelligent.  "LOL boy do I got them fooled"  Shelly can still only swallow a little bit.  It turns out that trying to learn how to walk again is not very fun.  They had her walk down the hallway holding the guardrail. "That was scary"  She can stand if she leans on something.  She was in sessions from 7 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon.
     
      "I get to sit at the special table at lunch"  Mr. Morris and Shelly both sit at the special table in the dining hall because they need supervision.  "It was a shocker the first time she ate there because everybody was at least 70 and I'm the baby.  Its really cool watching people graduate.  They talk about going home and the older men flirt with the nurses"  James came down and they went downstairs and got some blackberries and ate them in the garden.  Shelly has a roommate and she is quite the snore machine.  Although it started out bad, the day got better and she says that she will learn a lot, but has a long road ahead of her.   "I want to thank everybody for the flowers and the cards"  She tried to type all of this up yesterday but after 30 minutes of typing it didn't take so I am trying to recreate it. 


     Shelly is really excited because Molly will be visiting this afternoon.  She will have a lot to update after the visit from her favorite pug.
Update by Matt

All Moved In To Sheltering Arms

The gateway to boot camp

Shelly's Flowers



Shelly's Flowers w/ clocktower



Its going to be very tough for the next week but we all know that Shelly can do it.  She is going to have a set schedule of at least three hours of physical therapy a day.  All her meal times are also set.