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