Transition to The Harbor

Psalm 146

1 Praise the Lord! Let all that I am praise the Lord.

2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.

4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.

5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, 

whose hope is in the Lord their God.

6 He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever.

7 He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The Lord frees the prisoners.

8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. 

The Lord loves the godly.

9 The Lord protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows,

    but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

10 The Lord will reign forever. He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations.

Praise the Lord!

There have been so many blessings in the past week that it’s hard to know where to start. So I’ll start with praising the Lord for who He is, the many answered prayers & blessings, and thanking each of you for your part in the blessing of answered prayer.

Saturday, May 16, Gayle, Tom and I borrowed Hugh’s truck and headed to Farmville to pick up the furniture I had purchased on Friday for Mike’s room at The Harbor. We arrived in Stanardsville, loaded with furniture, in the early afternoon just as it started to rain. Thankfully we were able to get the furniture unloaded and onto the front porch before it really started. (I say “we” but Tom and Gayle were the heavy lifters.) Everything was either in a box or wrapped in plastic, except for the night stand which was the floor model.

Once in the room, I saw that the headboards I had seen at the top of the beds were actually attached to the wall and I didn’t need the headboard and footboard that I had bought. All I needed was the rails. I had wondered about this after purchasing them, but didn’t follow through with the nudge to clarify, and thus made more work for us. (One day I will learn to ALWAYS listen to the nudge and obey! Oh, stubborn creature that I am!) Once unloaded, we went to the dumpster to discard the cardboard and were then going to go find bed rails at some store. While dumping the boxes, Gayle saw bed rails next to the dumpster. Upon inspection, they were in good shape, just wet from the rain and a bit dirty. Thankfully, Hugh keeps “stuff” in his truck and so we found various things to use to clean the rails off and presto! no need to make a trip to a store! God provided! Once wrapping the returnable items in the plastic from the mattress, we headed back home.

On Monday morning, we arrived at CSH about 9:20 AM with oatmeal & yogurt for Mike. That morning I had emailed Heather and asked if I should bring in a change of clothes for Mike, she said it wasn’t necessary, that he could just keep whatever he was wearing even if it wasn’t his. After signing papers, she brought Mike and two bags of items they thought were his into the visiting room. As soon as he came into the room, he started removing his clothing!  HE didn’t want to keep those clothes! Tom went to the car and brought in his clothes and Mike was relieved to be in his own shorts and t-shirt. While we waited for Tom, Mike ate the oatmeal and Gayle went through the bags. The only things that I recognized were his sweatshirts and jacket. I gave the rest back to Heather.

After getting dressed, he was ready to go, so ate the yogurt in the car. As we were walking to the car, Mike told Tom and me that he had received a letter from the government absolving him from all accidents. (Poor guy, I guess he really thought he was in prison or such.) :-(  We stopped in Colonial Heights and got him a haircut and a new pair of shoes and were on our way. Soon after getting in the car, he asked when we were stopping for lunch. :-) About noon we stopped at a Burger King and he ate a double cheeseburger, fries, side salad, strawberry sundae, drank a Sprite and said he was full. Yay!

Once at The Harbor at Renaissance, we went straight to his room to unpack his clothes. It became a little chaotic as 3 or 4 staff members came in to check Mike’s vitals, his skin, give us guidance regarding Mike’s personal things, and help us with any questions. Mike started to repeat “oooo” (it seems he’s lost the “n” lately so doesn’t say “no” just “o” now) I told him everything was alright and in a bit he laid back on his bed and looked at a magazine while I spoke with Amanda, the activities director. She was helping us because Liesa and Denise were on a conference call. Mike is in a semi-private room with his own dresser and night stand. He shares a divided wardrobe with his roommate. He is starting out on the Skyline side which is the lower cognition unit, but Liesa believes he will quickly transition to the Blue Ridge side. They are flexible; however, and will settle him on whichever side he seems to like the best. In the picture at left, Mike is reviewing the daily schedule. They have quite a bit going on each day. The photo on the right is in the cognition area. Mike saw a stack of magazines and sat down to read.

Next we took Mike on a tour of the facility. We walked through both wings of the building, viewed the cognition area, passed through the Parlor and the courtyard/garden, ending up in the dining area just as the afternoon snack was being served. Mike sat down and had a bag of chips, graham crackers and orange drink. Now it was time for me to go sign papers and the residents were going to do an activity. Gayle and Tom stayed with Mike while I went with Liesa to her office. Eventually, I heard Gayle and Tom in the lounge area between the two wings and while Liesa was making copies I poked my head out to speak with them. They said Mike had done an activity on an iPad then they were having aroma therapy. Since he had joined right in, they didn’t want to hover. Once I was finished, I went back to the Skyline unit and Mike was resting on his bed. He told me he had played a game with a ball and he was the “target”. (?) Maybe being the new guy, everyone wanted to throw the ball to him?

He was ready to rest for a while and it was about 4:30, so a good time for us to leave. I told Mike I would be back to see him in the morning. He said OK and bye. That was it! No problems at all. Praise God! Gayle and Tom headed back to Northern Virginia and I went to stay with my Aunt Merle who lives about 40 minutes away.

The transition went so smoothly and I am so thankful for all the prayers from each of you. I am very grateful to Tom & Gayle for taking two entire days to help. Thanks to Hugh for the use of his truck, Heather & Dr. Ebeling for getting the discharge paperwork and physical put through so quickly, and Emily for getting the DAP funds. I believe God had His hand on each and every detail and the Holy Spirit moved among all involved in order to get Mike to The Harbor in record time! I really had not wanted to call nursing homes again, but felt prompted to try, the kindness of one woman telling me of their sister facility, Liesa & Denise being willing to consider a TBI survivor for the first time, Gayle and Tom already planning to come for the weekend, the bed rails by the dumpster, on and on and on God provided.

Today we sang “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart”. In one verse it says “teach me the patience of unanswered prayer”. As I sang that, I thought of how it seemed our prayers were not being answered for so long, yet all the while God was working and saying “there, there, Jennifer, trust me”. If Mike had not gone to CSH, the DAP funds would not be available to us and we would not be able to afford The Harbor. The hard has yielded the best possible placement for Mike.

I’ll tell you about Tuesday in another post. Sorry it has taken me so long to get this on here, but after three trips to The Harbor in 5 days, and working Wed. & Thurs., my back was aching from all the sitting and I was tired. Friday Mom and I spent the day getting ready for company and yesterday I spent a lot of time working in the flower gardens and getting Media Shout ready for church today. My back is much happier when I can be moving around so after cleaning and gardening it feels much better. Gardening is my therapy. This afternoon I took a nap, sat and read on the porch and took a walk while talking with Kristin. It is so nice to think of Mike and smile, not fret and I'm sure I'll relax even more as time goes by.  I love you and so appreciate all the encouraging posts and emails.

To be continued…