Day 246 to 259, May 2-15
These past two weeks have flown by. Jeff has had very busy days with many appointments and a lot to keep him busy. The most exciting news we have is about the birth of his 7th grandbaby!
First, update time. Jeff has really been struggling with the nerve pain in his transition zone (through his hands, arms, and chest). Most days are bad lately and it’s getting old. Please pray with us that he will be directed to an answer to decrease his discomfort. Life is difficult enough to enjoy with the paralysis, but adding chronic pain to the mix is disheartening to say the least.
Jeff feels the medication he has been taking to decrease the sediment in his urine has been helping. He also decided to try a different brand of suprapubic catheter and the new brand has been awesome. It doesn’t clog like the other kind and the amount of blood clots in his urine has significantly decreased.
Jeff cut out all bread from his diet. He hates eating carbs and knowing he isn’t able to burn the calories. Body image and health have always been important to him and he struggles with both on a daily basis now. One of the biggest problems he experiences is that he never feels full and always feels hungry. He works hard at portion control and finding ways to decrease calories despite his sweet tooth.
Jeff continues to go to wound care each week. His hip and back have been pretty resistant to the different treatments they have tried up to this point and so a new plan was proposed. It might sound outright gross, but at this point in time we are willing to try whatever they feel might benefit him. Pieces of donated placenta (tested as vigorously as blood is) were placed over the wounds after a thorough debridement. The following week his hip showed improvement! We are hoping this coming week’s appointment will give us more good news and also show improvement to his back sore.
Each week Jeff still meets with the “Trails” program at Liberty Park to allow him to try different hand cycles. He tried a mountain cycle and really enjoyed it saying, “It was fun to go shooting down the grass!”
These pictures shows a tender moment between Jeff and his granddaughter Sierra (4 years old). She was trying to help him eat lunch and was being a little too helpful. 😉
And the moment you’ve all been waiting for! We are so blessed to announce the birth of Aspen Rae Benson on May 5, 2016 at 6:45 pm. Aspen was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 18.5 inches long. She is a true beauty and the sweetest baby. She frequently laughs in her sleep, eats very well (and very slowly!), and loves her head to be rubbed. Brandi is doing well and recovering from her C-section slowly. We are grateful for her doctor’s help in getting Aspen safely here and for getting Brandi on antibiotics at the first sign of a problem with her incision (which is doing much better now).
Aspen Rae Benson
Her sisters were sure excited to have her here and love her so much already!
Sweet daddy/baby moment.
Look at all that hair!
Sorry-not-sorry for the picture overload. It was hard to narrow it down this far! Ha! We sure love our new baby girl!!
We hope all of the women in our lives had a great Mother’s Day and would like to take a moment to recognize Annette.
Our mom holds us together even when she is struggling herself. She is the greatest example of selfless service we have ever known. While her whole life has changed, she still finds it in herself to serve others each and every day. While her job as Jeff’s caretaker is not easy, she never gives up and always does her very best. Her love for our dad shines in everything she does. Her example of unconditional love and dedication is awe-inspiring. We, as her children, are better people for having her as our mom. Our kids love their grandma so much and we are grateful for the Christ-like love she always gives them. We love you, mom!!
To end this week it was Julee’s 28th birthday on the 15th. Annette made her a beautiful cake and it was fun to spend the day as a family.
Tylee fell asleep less than two minutes after this was taken. Lol!
Miss Aliyah sure loves her grandpa!
Our family has so many things to be grateful for, despite the trials we are fighting. We want to thank everyone for your continued support and love. Each day brings something new, be it struggle or relief, and we are grateful to know we are not alone through any of it. ❤
No comments:
Post a Comment