It's Finally Spring

Sorry for the length of time that we've posted, but things have been quite busy and getting Kyle settled at home has been a big priority. Kyle came home from Woodrow Wilson Rehab Center on Friday, March 12th having met most of his rehab goals! After being there every week since January 4th, he has built up his strength, mastered his transfers (from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to chair), able to go up curbs at least 3 inches high and many more daily activities of independence that we are able to do without thinking twice.

We continue to work on renovating our basement with the help of some of the most wonderful people - Gary Daniels, Tim Albright, and Cathy who have spearheaded the project, bringing in experienced laborers, electricians, plumbers and the  most wonderful tile man I've ever met, to make the basement Kyle's Man Cave. We hope to have everything done in a few weeks and then Kyle can move out of the upstairs family room and into his newly renovated digs!

Kyle is under the care now of a wonderful Physiatrist - an M.D. that specializes in rehabilitation medicine. Gary and Kyle went to see her last Friday where she performed an initial evaluation of him - she actually met Kyle for the first time when he was in Intensive Care at Mary Washington Hospital - and she is telling us she wants to change his condition from at C6 complete Quadrilplegic to a C7 Incomplete Quad....this means his level of injury to his spinal cord is actually lower than initially thought, as he is able to move more of his limbs and has regained some of his lower body sensations! This is wonderful news as now, she believes that with adaptive equipment, he will one day be able to stand and possibly walk with the help of braces and crutches! This was wonderful news, news that we always hoped we would hear from someone.

He will start an intensive outpatient physical therapy regimine 3 days a week including aquatic therapy and she hopes to strengthen his mid section to support his weight a little bit more. We are so optomistic of her findings and Kyle wants to work hard to achieve these goals.

Over the summer, Kyle will concentrate on finding some work in the area to get him out of the house a little more and try to continue to learn more independence skills and get into a community college this fall and take some classes.

Our family continues to receive so much love and support and we are just so appreciative of everything that has been done and continues to be done for us. Kyle is a very lucky kid to have so many people care about him and our family is truly blessed to have these people in our lives. We are looking forward to getting together with friends and family again in early summer at a fundraiser that is being put together in Alexandria. Kyle's got a few pieces of exercise equipment that he needs in order to stay in shape and stay strong and our family is putting a fundraiser together to help with the purchase of all the equipment...we're so very lucky.