Update -Feb. 14

Well, last week I got the flu, had the brakes on my car replaced, and had our old Honda Accord repaired after it broke down while Joanna was driving it to work. An eventful week.... Thanks to Abbe, from the Fox Theatre, who comes to sit with Tom and help him with his dinner when I can't be here. And thanks to Don, and Pat, and Lisa, and Rita, and Ursula, and Tom S. and the gang from Southface and so many of you who come on a regular basis to visit Tom. I was worried last Wed. when I was too sick to come to the hospital (the first day since Dec. 16 that I haven't been here) and when I called Tom around dinner time to check on him, he had about 4 people in his room having a great time. I was able to get some needed rest....

On Saturday, a group of friends from Habitat came to start work on our house to widen a few doorways and such in anticipation of Tom's arrival. He's supposed to come home on Feb. 28, which is 2 weeks from now. Thanks to Don and Tom and Tommy and especially Robert, who jumped right in and did the majority of the "heavy hitting." They replaced the door into the garage with a new one, widened a doorway between kitchen and dining room, and started building a ramp. Work will continue again this Saturday. I've got to clean up a bunch of junk in the garage to prepare for the ramp to fit.

Tom had a minor surgical procedure today and has been having temperature changes all day....fever, then normal, then fever again. It's very hard to keep his temperature regulated on a normal day, but today has been worse.

It's good to be here at Shepherd where we can meet other patients with similar injuries. Some better off than Tom and some worse. Today we ran into Mr. Carder who used to be our daughters' middle school vice-principal. His accident was in October so he's now in the day program. When I first saw him here, he was worse off than Tom. Now he has movement in his fingers and legs. That is encouraging on the one hand, but on the other hand, Tom has had no improvement in the amount of feeling or movement ability whatsoever since the accident. His injury is called "complete" which means it's much less likely that he will get movement back, which can be discouraging. But we have faith that our prayers and yours will be answered and we know that God does perform miracles and healings.

Flower Show
We took a trip last week to the big flower show that comes to Atlanta each year. I have always wanted to go. It was beautiful! Tom enjoyed the wide walkways where it was easy to get around in the wheelchair. He loved the Bonzai display, which was amazing. All the garden exhibits were amazing.... I took his picture at the Shepherd Center exhibit, which had a handicap-accessible riding lawnmower on display. I would definitely love for Tom to have one of those!

I'll post photos from the Flower Show.

Michele