Wednesday (day 125)

Good evening all. Shawna seems to enjoy her new surroundings. Its quite a bit busier than the private room we had in Dunnville. She is in a ward with two other ladies. She seems to be resting enough though. Today she was awake all day except for two 10 min catnaps. They have all kinds of therapists here. There is a huge list posted by her bed of all the drs and therapists who will work with her. The first day for assesments they stood her up for quite a while and she was very alert. When they put her feet on a pedal bike and turned it she was smiling immensely for the 10 mins she was pedaling. They work with her eyes, speech, limbs and emotional aspects. Each day they have a talk session with the 5 patients in her program telling them what day it is etc and just talking to them for about a half hour. Some days their therapy is a trip to the mall, theatre or park. When I asked Shawna if she liked her new surroundings she promptly smiled, and tried to talk. We see a lot more of her smiles now and that is something we are very thankful for. At times it is overwhelming how much diferent this facility is compared to the hospital. They are so tuned for Aquired Brain Injury and know exactly what needs to be done. We know this is part of God's plan and his timing to have her here and we continue to be thankful for the healing he has given her. I will have a list of her accomplishments on Sunday as right now they are still in the assesment phase. Thankyou all for your prayers and support. Al and Deb

Monday (day 123)

Good evening all. Great news. Shawna has been admitted to Chedoke for rehab. She leaves the Hospital tomorrow at 10.00 am for a three month stay at the Holbrook building. We are so thankfull for the dedicated nurses and our doctor Reddy at the Haldimand War Memorial Hospital. They have made our time spent at the hospital a beautiful time to remember as they took care of their "princess" as they called her. Deb is out tonight buying her lots of loose fitting clothes for her exercise routines as she wont be wearing only a night gown anymore. Soon they will train us to take care of her for her to come home over the weekends when everything is ready at home. The timeline is now definite that she will be home in three months. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Al and Deb

Sunday (day 122)

Good morning all. As I sit here with Shawna reflecting on the beautiful day God has given us today, I'm reminded of His steadfast promises that he cares for all our needs especially with this day, a day of rest, praise, and worship. We remain thankfull for His providential hand in the advances he has given Shawna. Her right arm is developing strength and she is able to lift it from her hip up to her chin and away from her body with her wrist straight. She continues to do leg lifts. Her right leg is far more advanced than the left but the left is developing. I may have been over optimistic in saying she might walk in six months, but I will remain optimistic and prayerful that God may grant that as we watch Shawna's determination.
The home renos continue. Our room beside Shawnas is completely finished. We juggled all the childrens rooms around with the help of some caring church sisters. The occupational therapist was down, meeting with two contractors who were quoting on renovating for a wheelchair bathroom. With some help started into the renos on Shawnas room. We haven't heard much from Chedoke but her move is still imminent. Have a beautiful day and thankyou for your prayers and support. Al and Deb

Thursday (day 119)

Sorry for the delay, but my first post ended up in internet land floating somewhere. Its happened once before and I posted again later but then all of a sudden there was two postings. We are so grateful for all the blessings we have recieved, that Shawna could come home, and the outpouring of goodwill at the plant sale have touched us deeply. Shawna meanwhile continues to improve slowly. We put a rolled up towel under her leg behind her knee and she can elevate and hold her right leg for quite a while. She can also let it back down onto the bed on command for a rest. The same with her right arm. She can hold it straight up wrist locked straight with a one lb barbell for a minute now. We do not get quite the same response with her left leg but there is muscle development and it is increasing. Her left arm is also getting some responses. The physiotherapist has had Shawna standing in a walker cage and slowly letting her do some weight bearing onto her hips and legs. This allows her to get good posture for standing and walking as being in bed for too long gives you a kink in your hips. The blood rushes to your lower extremities from your upper and this causes Shawna to be quite tired in this exercise, but her eyes are wide with excitement and concentration when she is doing them. The physiotherapist is confident Shawna will be able to walk in time. That is the key phrase "in time", meaning six months or more from now. He is confident nonetheless. We remain ever thankful to God for his daily blessings to us and Shawna and continue to wait for the unfolding of His will . Thankyou all for your prayers and support. Al and Deb

Plant Sale

Good day everyone!

This is Gord & Esther Van Egmond here - Al let us highjack the blog to give you an update on the plant sale we had. First of all we would like to thank our plant suppliers for working with us and giving us exceptional pricing and donations and also bringing us more product so quickly when we ran out. Also a huge thank you to those who helped us "man" the sale, we really appreciate it. But most of all thank you to all of you who took the time out of your busy long weekend to buy your plants and give donations to help out the Bethlehems. Some of you drove a long way to Grimsby to lend your support.

In just 4 days we were able to raise $8,000.00 !!! I won't try to describe Al & Debbie's faces last night but I will say they are overwhelmed with the support you have all shown to Shawna and the entire Bethlehem family. Thank you!

God Bless!

Gord & Es

p.s.

sorry for got to post.....posted two videos of homecoming to "Friends and Family of Shawna Bethlehem" on Facebook

Saturday ( day 114)

Good Evening All. This is the day we were anxiously waiting for. It took almost 4 months but Shawna finally made it into our house. A whole season has passed. We thank God that this was possible. He has been steadily healing her so she would be able to come home. She was very animated and trying very hard to make noises to the point she was almost choking. This makes us work harder on the renovations to make sure we are ready for taking care of her at home as soon as possible. She wasn't too upset when she had to go back to the hospital because we told her this was the stepping stone to getting her home more often for a longer time. We are extremely thankful to our insurance company for making this visit possible, as they work quietly and compassionately behind the scenes taking care of Shawna's needs as well. The physiotherapist again was able to get more response from Shawna. Her right side is very responsive and she moves it and does leg lift reps with her cast to build strength on her own. He electro stimulated her left leg with good results of muscle movement even after stimulation stopped. He did the same to her left arm with some results but not to the same extent as the leg. One other interesting point of note is when she was being worked on for recasting on Wednesday the doctor asked Shawna to move independant muscles by calling them by their medical names and she moved those precise muscles when asked. She is falling back on her kinesiology training and knows what she has to do to get mobile. We thank all those who made the plant sale a resounding success. Gord sold out of many varieties of plants and was quickly on the phone to his suppliers to bring more so no-one would be disappointed when they showed up. He still has managed to procure more plants for Monday. A heartfelt thanks to the family for "manning" the sale. We continue to be richly blessed by God with Shawna's continued healing and by the outporing of the community through this sale. God bless you all and have a blessed Sunday of praise and worship to our God and King. Al and Deb

Wednesday (day 111)

Good evening all. Shawna had a good workout Monday with the physiotherapist. She was sitting up quite long for him. He was looking for the muscle responses on her left side. He was very encouraging that she is starting to use her left side leg, and back muscles. She also during the exercises centered her head without the use of a brace. They tried to stand her up at a walker but that wasnt very successful yet. Shawna enjoyed it though and was very alert during the session. She didn't seem to be overworked either as she was not totally exhausted when she was finished. They took her casts off yesterday and she responded by moving her legs and feet a lot. She was a bit upset when they recasted her today. Saturday draws closer when she can come home for a few hours. We are so excited. We continue to recieve these blessings from the Lord and are very thankful for them. We also thank you for your support and prayers Al and Deb

Saturday (day 107)

Good evening all. Everything is coming together for having Shawna come home even if only for a couple of hours at a time. The ramp is finished and the doorways widened to enable her to be inside to most of our home. When I told the doctor today that all was ready for her to come home for these short stints he readily agreed it would be a good thing and will set it up for starting next Saturday. Shawna meanwhile is continuing to develop her muscle tone. She also can move her left leg quite a bit on command which is a very encouraging development we were waiting for. She has mapped out some of the muscles and can now voluntarily control them. She is working with small barbells to increase her wrist strength. She is swallowing succesfully and making more and more noises (not talking). Sometimes she gets a coughing fit when she makes them and is therefore a bit reluctant to do so. We stand amazed at what God has given us through Shawna. Many times we take the parenting of children for granted when everything is fine. These times deepen your relationship to your children. Nothing can be taken for granted and everything that occurs new is a blessing. We continue to wait patiently as God unfolds his plan and pray for strength spiritually and physically for Shawna. Our brother-in-law Gord
VanEgmond is holding a perrenial and plant sale at his residence 92 Kemp rd Grimsby(just east of mountain rd). He will have thousands of plants available from thursday may 15 evening to Monday may 19 evening (not on sunday). Profit from the sale will be donated to assist us in the renovations not covered by insurance to enable Shawna to be home. Thank you for your prayers and support have a blessed sunday. Al and Deb

Wednesday (day 104)

Good evening all. We thought Shawna was all worked out from her last physio/assesment on last wednesday. Well she proved us wrong. During her physio on Monday she now stayed sitting unsupported for 3 and 1/2 minutes and did various other exercises including lifting a 1 lb barbel for 17 seconds with her wrist extended flat. She is subtly telling us she's not giving up and is trying to her utmost to work her muscles. She was very exhausted after the session and couldn't warm up after her bath until she received a warm towel. Again showing the extent of her exertion. We are thankful that God is strengthening her and providing her with a real inner strength which she can tap into. Her feet have again been casted with the next series which are bringing her feet closer to 90 degrees. The ramp is under construction as well as the door widening to enable Shawna to come home for a short period of time during the week. An occupational therapist has been enlisted to ensure that everything will be in place for her homecoming on the weekends and eventually for good after the first three months of aggressive therapy. We have been richly blessed by God that we can speak about Shawnas eventual homecoming. We have been praying for that for a long time and it is becoming an excitable thing for us in this part of planning. Our family can once again be all together in our home. How beautifull is that? Praise God. Al and Deb

Sunday (day 101)

Hello all. What a beautiful day we have been given. As I look out the front window at one of our trees blossoming I reflect on the few days gone by since the last posting. We've been very busy with scheduled events friday and saturday and trying to maximize our time with Shawna. God continues to provide all things in its time. As we wait and pray for Shawnas recovery we realize that he also gives us all that we need in His time as well. Shawna had a very good assesment day as I wrote last Wednesday but since then she's been more tired and seems to need a lot of rest. It must have been a major event for her and seemingly taxed her quite a bit. She is continuing to improve slowly but nothing new except communicating her need. Once she was moaning softly when I came in at 500 after she had been transfered from her wheelchair and I thought she was trying to tell me something because she kept it up for a while. I checked her positioning for comfort and massaged her neck before I realized her air mattress was not being inflated. She was only resting on a hard mattress. As soon as I activated the airpump and her mattress inflated she smiled and was again comfortable. I told her how important that incident was towards communicating her needs and she slowly slipped off to sleep. She continues to swallow successfully and play notes on her keyboard. We've recieved a few small weights for her to lift to build strength in her arm. That is something she was familiar with in her exercise routine. She moves her right leg more and more and also her left but not as much. That is quite a feat as her feet are fully casted. She will be going for the next progressive casting on tuesday. Sometimes these appointments take all day at Chedoke. It will be a blessing when she can stay there full time. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. Al and Deb