" Our Wedding Day"

01-14-2009

I don't even know where to begin, so I will just try to start at the beginning.

Yesterday at 10:45 am, I received a call from Oroville Hospital that Dar was giong to transfer at 12:00 pm. Unless transport was dispatched on a 911 call while they were enroute to the hospital we should be good to go. Well, guess what, they were called to multi casualty accident on Hwy 70. We did not leave for Kentfield till 2:45.

During our wait Dar was so happy and laughing bout silly things my sister and brother-in-law were telling her we had to take advantage and get some video footage and still photos. Dar was an absolute riot, she had staff, friends and everyone laughing and wishing only the best for her at her new rehab home. It was fantastic!!!!!!!!!

We left Oroville and arrived at Kentfield at about 5:30, Dar was already admitted to her room, with her own engraved name , Ms. Mardilla. We were met at the door by an entrage of personnel, everyone introducing themselves, telling us what department they were from and how glad they were that Dar was there and how they were going to help.

I was totally impressed, The attention we saw was immediate. It was obvious that Dar new something was different, when I got to her room and she heard my voice she started to cry. After much soothing she calmed down enough to start laughing again and sharing in our stories. Dar knew that something had changed and that things were different and she reacted the only way she knew,,, tears. She is a fighter and she will overcome.

Dar already had a schedule of therapy beginning today at 0900 hours. She has P/T, O/T, and speech therapy from about 090o-1500 hours, 5 and a half days a week with Sundays as a rest day.

Her Internal Medicine doctor is fabulous, now a new member of Dar's Dream Team, as are all the staff at Kentfield. Dr. Waters spent about 40 minutes with us in the lobby asking questions, taking notes and asking what could Dar do as far as follow instructions, spontaniously what could she do, all knds of questions. We were able to field all of her questions and at the end of our talk she wanted to see Dar and see the things that she could do. Dar was outstanding, she laughed, smiled, reacted to tickles slightly, (socks were on) and showed everyone that she is aware of her surroundings. Dar was very emotional yesterday and very very tired by the end of the day.

All of her comfort things, music, stuffed bear, favorite cologne, tennis shoes are all right there with her. music 24/7.

When Dr. Waters was with us she also talked at great length about Dr. Dahorty, Dars trauma Dr, and another member of Dar's Dream Team, Dr. Dahorty is very very good, very approachable and very aggressive about how she treats her patients. She does believe in alternative stimulus to enact responce and move from what we now see. Dr. Waters has every faith that Dar will come out of this coma, what damage there might be, what limitations there might be, time will only tell, but she believes that with Dr. Dahorty's help Dar will awaken. I am excited. I look forward to hearing from Dr. Dahorty later today and our appointment later this week. This is when I will learn the specific plan, hopefully tomorrow or at the latest Friday. News flash, Dr. Dahorty and I meet at 4:00pm on Friday

Another super thing that I learned is that Dr. Waters has instructed me that I am to call her daily for updates on Dar so that I can continue the blog on a daily basis, she will also read the blog to date so as to see first hand the progress Dar has made and I had better call. I even met the chief of staff for Internal Medicine. I am very serious when I say that I was totally stoked and relieved about this facility. The only time my heart strings were really pulled is when we got ready to leave. Lorrie and Jerry had said ther good-byes and I went to Dar's room to say mine. As soon as I began to speak to her, the eyes flew open. She has never done that, when I told her that I needed to go feed Maverick and give him "his pills" she started to cry uncontrolably, after some time I was able to calm her back to sleep and left quietly.

Please continue to pray for Dar, and again I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and well wishes. To the guys at Chico Fly Shop, Larry, John, I have no idea how you learned about the blog, ( I suspect Joey) thank you for your comments, I do appreciate them, somehow I will have to find a creative way to continue with my new fishing passion. You know what I'm talking about. Thanks guys.Welcome to the "Team".

To all who have written comments or gotten word to me that you are thinking of and praying for Dar, (and me), as you have read before, words cannot express what you all mean to us.

I will be calling for an update as to Dar's day later and I will post again later tonight. Once again thank you everyone, We love you all,

Darlene/Danny/The Awesome One, Maverick

1940 hours

Just talked to Charlie, RN for Dar tonight, told me that Dar is resting comfortably, not to much exciting today, started her Re-hab but was pretty quite. I gave Charlie some key tips about working with Dar, the silly Maverick jokes and the things he does, Jerry talking and joking with her yesterday that she was sleeping to long and that we have dominos to play, telling her she snores so loud that she is knocking the pot and pans out of the trailer cupboards, realizing that she has chicken legs and that we are going to get her a chicken and turn it loose in her bed. Dumb little stories that make her laugh and respond. Lorrie and Jerry also came up with the idea that we need to put these funnies on a recorder for them to playback for Dar sa as to initiate a positive responce. Guess we will look for a voice activated recorder to play back, we might have to give the folks there some tools to work with.

As I said earlier I have an appointment with Dr. Dahorty Friday at 4:00 and will go earlier and check motel prices as I believe that I may go down on Saturdays, her half day, spend it with her, spend the night and return home on Sunday evenings. Dar's mom and dad I believe will be at Kentfield and will see her a little on Friday and Saturday and I will return on Sunday morning and head home that evening.

Again thank you for your prayers and I will post again tomorrow evening after I talk to Dr. Waters between 4 & 5:00 pm.

Bless you all,

Darlene/Danny/ "Awesome Dawg"