UPDATE 9/28

"STOP THE PRESS"
"Michele is going home"

Yes this is correct. Michele received a therapy pass to visit home this weekend. That means she will come home this Sunday for a 2-3 hour visit. I asked her last week before we started this venture if she was ready and she gave me the thumbs up. I explained that this was going to be a short visit and she was not able to stay long and that she would have to accept this before we even asked for the visit. I wanted to make sure she understood and she did not get the wrong impression as she will probably want to stay once she gets home but that is not good for her long term healing. The reason for the visit home is to help motivate her and spark her mind to get better for the ultimate reward of being home with her family.

I have a van scheduled to pick her up Sunday morning at 10am in her wheel chair and we should be at the house by 10:30am. I think it would be great if everyone possible in the Denver/Boulder area could come and support her first visit home. My hope is to have a strong presence of family, friends and neighbors outside the house when she pulls up in her van. I have arranged to have ballons for everyone so each person can write a note or well wish on them and when she gets out of the van we will release all of them to the heavens. Michele's sisters Amy and Cindy are working to arrange this home coming celebration and they can be reached by email at: Amy.McAlister@emersonprocess.com
email.cindy@comcast.net

I would love to see everyone at the house Sunday morning to help my family and I welcome Michele home for the first time. This of course will be very overwhelming to Michele and therefore I cannot invite everyone into the house but we will spend some time outside in the front yard for everyone to have the opportunity to see and speak to Michele if you wish.

Michele had her hair colored today and she is ready for her visit home. I do not want to create a situation that she cannot handle. Michele is aware of everything we are doing so that nothing suprises or scares her. The goal is to make it a very positive experience and to help motivate her to work hard and get better. That is why everyones participation is greatly appreciated. Just imagine how she will feel to see so many people showing up to support her. That alone will help her in so many ways.

I look forward to seeing everyone that can make it this weekend. This will be the pinacle of Michele's last 8 months and I want her to share it with everyone that can make it.

John

UPDATE 9/24

Sorry for the wait but this week has been a very long week and very eventful in many ways. I received a call last Friday that Micheles feeding tube was not working and she was on her way to the Boulder Emergency room. Last minute struggles from work took me some time to get going but I made it to the hospital about the same time Michele did. Her feeding tube has been giving her trouble for the last 2 weeks and I felt this was going to happen. This is of course her second tube at this time and she and I have been through this already 4 months ago. Once she arrived at the hospital I asked for a long term solution and not a "Band-Aid" solution. This meant she needed an operation to replace her feeding tube. After several hours the doctors in charge of the procedure to fix it were not available over the weekend and it would have to wait. This is the story of our lives as we have yet to meet a doctor that actually works on the weekends or holidays. It appears that in less you are close to death the sick do not get coverage on the weekends or holidays.

Well enough of my complaining, Michele got her feeding tube cleared on Friday and we were out of the ER and back to the Manor. By Sunday her feeding tube was cloging again and Monday found me calling the doctors to find that she could only get a visit with a doctor in 2 weeks. Tuesday morning I got the call again that she was cloged and off we went again to the emergency room and this time it was for good. We were not able to unclog this time and she needed a new tube inserted. After a long 10 hour day her tube was inserted and I am happy to say she is back at the Manor and well.

This recent experience was very difficult for Michele and the family as we tried so hard to do what was right for her to only hit a brick wall at every turn we made. I felt that she truely had no medical doctor that cared for her well being and she only got pushed aside for the appropriate time. This has occured several times over the last 8 months and it is very frustrating.

Last night was probably the most wonderful time I have spent with Michele in the past year. I got a call that she was going to have a shower and I rushed to the Manor to help. Once I was there I worked hard to get her ready and off we went to the shower. Michele was ready and willing to participate and she held her bowl of soapy water while I washed her. Once back to the room I got her nestled in her bed and began to speak to her as I usually do but last night she was very interactive. It is hard to explain but she was Michele! She challenged me during conversation using her hands in sign and really showed interest in everything I said and did. She gave me a big hug and rubed MY arm and back and conforted me while I was expressing my feelings to her. We talked about what she needs to do and what her medical concerns are and she acted like she was going to take it all on and overcome her challlanges. It was like we were having a conversation but without her speaking. I knew what she was thinking and she of course knew what I was saying to her.

I have a bathing suit at the Manor for when I help Michele shower and last night when Michele was back in bed I began to change from my suit to my jeans. While trying to do this quickly before a nurse came in the room, jumping up and down like a kid putting on my jeans with wet feet made Michele laugh. It was so nice to see her laugh and apparently all the staff and family now know about my "strip tease" and it is the talk of the Manor. I told everyone I will only do it for my wife though so dont look for it on Utube yet. Last night by far was the most amazing I have seen her respond and it made my night.

The pictures below are right before her operation to replace her feeding tube. She was a trooper all day even though she was unable to have any meds since her feeding tube was cloged. She just struggled through 10 hours of discomfort and pain and barely made any complaints. She truely is the strongest woman I know.

John

UPDATE 9/15

Michele has moved to "The Manor" which is a skilled nursing facility just 8 miles from our house. She has a wonderful large room and it feels like home. She moved on Monday and yes as normal we had many issues with getting her settled in but after 2 full days I think she is all moved in and ready to start her next journey to recovery. Michele will have much more therapy at her new place and she will be pushed every day to get better. I have included some picture of her new pad as well as a few of her working out the first day. Yes she is sitting with her feet on the ground.

Her daily routine right now is to get dressed in the morning to get ready for her therapy. She has her workout clothes which include a tank top, shorts or long sweats and socks with the little grips on the bottom for traction. She gets her teeth brushed and her hair brushed and she gets lifted into her wheelchair. All of this right now just about wares her out but then she has to do 1-2 hours of therapy after this. It is a little hard to see what she has to go through and the fact she would just rather lay in bed but we all know this has to happen and she needs to be pushed each and every day.

Michele has increased her range of motion quite a bit in the last week and her legs are moving quite a bit. I will not be surprised if she can walk in the next 60 days. I hope and pray I am right and we will have to wait and see.

What Michele needs now is visitors. If any of the local friends could take the time to stop by and say hi it would mean a lot to her and myself. If you want me to be there on your first visit please contact me and I will work out a time to meet you there. She is at the Boulder Manor off of baseline road and she can have visitors from 9am to 6pm. She is in room 106. If you do stop by please write you name and any info you wish in the 3 ringed note book in the room. It has a green cover and help the family keep track of who visits. You can add comments of you visit. Please remember Michele cannot communicate very well but she can answer yes or no questions by shaking her head or doing the thumbs up "Fonzie Style".

Michele is starting a new milestone and therefore I have decided to change up my format as well as my emails were starting to get blocked by the network since it thinks they were spam. Please also know you can always go to the miraclemichele.blogspot for all my past emails to catch up or just for your ready pleasure.

Thanks for all the support during the past 7.5 months. I hope and pray we are in the final stretch.

John

UPDATE 9/9

Today was a great day! Michele and I headed out at 8:30 am to visit her brain surgeon and get her shunt adjusted as well as an x-ray to verify that we did the adjustment right. Go figure the doctor does not do the adjustment instead it was the PA, myself and Michele’s father had assisted to get the job done. Like I said before if I only had access to the machine myself this would never be an issue as it is a very easy process. The good news it is finally done and she is adjusted to 160. We will see over the next few days what this really means and if we are actually going in the right direction. Like I have noted before either direction is the right direction as it will not hurt her but we learn each time we adjust her and my hope is to make as many adjustments as needed to get through this learning process.

I called the hospital this morning to alert them to get Michele dressed in full gear for the first time and ready for her trip in the ambulance. When I arrived she was fully dressed in her workout pants, tank top and fuzzy socks. Michele was actually brushing her teeth when I arrived and was soon ready to hit the road. I have also included a few pics from the other day with family and Michele showing her wave.

When I returned to Kindred around 11am Michele and I spent some time reading emails. One in particular made a big impact today. Someone sent a song to Michele and I told her I would play it. I turned it on and within 5 seconds Michele started to wave her head from side to side to the beat of the sound and looked right at me and smiled. She knew the song and loved it. Myself of course took a few more seconds to even recognize the song but I do remember this is a song that she loved. Her emotions were something I have not seen to this date and I know she had no way of doing what she did before today. I do believe the shunt adjustment was already showing its results within 1 hour. I laughed at her and praised her for what she was doing then I asked if she could sign the song and I got a very sad face real quick. So I said lets work on that later lets just enjoy the song for now and she started moving her head again to the beat and grinning at me. I can tell you that this is the most emotion I have seen from my wife since January 29th before she took a turn to the worse. She has been able to tell me she loves me through her eyes but this is actually the first time since then that she has actually smiled at me and acted somewhat silly on purpose.

The other really good news is that Michele should be leaving kindred on Saturday and heading to Boulder Manor. I will have more on this once I get the final word but my sources tell me it will happen with any luck. I also added a picture of the 4 mile canyon fire we recently had to show how close it was to our house. The pictures I took are on the road back from Denver and are still 2-3 miles from my house.

I spent the evening today paying my respects to a dear friends Mother that passed last week. I participated in saying the rosary and at the end of the ceremony I made my way to the deceased to find that she was wearing a beautiful saint bracelet. I know Michele has touched so many lives during this tragic time but our family has also been touched by so many by the love, prayers and acts of kindness. Just to see someone wearing one of these bracelets is overwhelming.

John

UPDATE 9/5

Well it took the doctors 1 full week to just read Michele’s last CT scan to only find out exactly what I said in my last email that her ventricles are too large and she needs to be adjusted from 180 to 160. No kidding! If I had the machine I would have done it myself a month ago. Michele is scheduled for this Thursday to have her shunt adjusted as the doctors are all on vacation and apparently it is not a rush to them. Yes Michele had to wait 2 weeks for a procedure that should have occurred in the radiology room at the hospital within 5 minutes. Once this is done she will be ready to leave Kindred within 2 days. Michele will be heading to Boulder Manor which is a skilled nursing facility. Michele will continue with a more enhanced therapy schedule to include 7 days of physical therapy, and 6 days of speech and occupational therapy. Once Michele can master her therapy for more than 3 hours a day at Boulder Manor she will then head to Craig for 30 days of intense therapy prior to heading home. This is 2-3 months out at this time.

Yesterday my family celebrated my Fathers birthday as we normally do by getting a balloon for each person, writing notes to Dad and PaPa and sending them off into the sky. Our once a year ritual is a way for the children to express their love for their grandfather and to keep his memory alive in them. This year’s ritual seemed a little more important as we as a family have spent the last 7 months asking for my fathers help in watching over Michele. You will notice only 5 balloons in the sky as John John’s popped just after he finished writing on it. So I help him write his note on mine as well and we sent them all up in the sky. Michele held on to hers and let it go last as she normally does.

Today Alyssa, John and myself went to the hospital to get Michele dressed up and pretty. Alyssa painted her nails her favorite color purple and I brought a tank top from home so Michele could get into some clothes for the first time in 7 months. Once she had her shirt on I asked her if it was ok and she quickly gave me the thumbs up to say it was good. We are going to try other clothes this week to help her feel more comfortable.

For those of you that have not seen the website for Michele please take some time to check it out www.miraclemichele.blogspot.com Michele’s best friend Dori Ariniello has taken the time to add every email I have ever written as well as all the pictures I have sent. You can order the saint bracelet on the website and also add comments that go directly to Michele’s email account. My emails are often blocked as spam and the website always has my latest email on the 1st page. It is a good way to keep updated and you can check it anytime.

John