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October 4, 2005
After 134 Days In the Hospital, October 4, 11:30 PM
(additional Van need information added by request below signature)
I just finished counting up how many days asher/we have been in the hospital and it has been 134 days since asher fell 38 and a half feet inside an abandoned building while taking pictures and suffered multiple catastrophic injuries to his brain and spinal column. the prayers and every other kind of support imaginable, as well as unimaginable, have carried us through every single moment of every single day and will continuie to carry us through the many new challenges that we are about to face. what makes what we are about to face different from what we have already been facing each day these past 4 months with asher still in the hospital? as of 4 PM this afternoon asher was released from the shepherd spinal center and he is now with us in the hotel where we have been staying for the past 2 months.
asher is not the same person he was before he was injured, and neither are we. we are all handling all that we have been through in different ways. what has been hardest for one of us, has not necessarily been what has been hardest for the others, but on any given day, what was the hardest for each of us could have happened, and often did, for all of us at the same time. needless to say, on those days, we needed more than an extra helping of grace to get us through.
an expression that i often hear in an african american church i love to attend in chattanooga is, "God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good." on a really, particularly lousy day, and there have been many more of these over the last few weeks than not, i sometimes have found it hard to squeeze those words through my gritted teeth, but in my mind i seem to have no problems hearing them spoken and even finding comfort in their truth.
at the end of 134 days with asher in the hospital i can say tonight, without gritted teeth, God is, indeed good, and He is good all the time. and it is truly my very hope and prayer, that if nothing else can be said about us based on all that we have been through up until this 134th day, that it can at least be said and believed by all of you that have stood along side of us all along the way, and seen all that God has done both in our lives as well as your own, that God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. and i hope that all of you are as thankful as i am to honestly not only be able to say that but believe it.
this past weekend was a very stressful one for us. we went into it not knowing where we were all going to be able to live when we brought asher home (our temporary atlanta one), nor did we know how we were going to transport him there. we had only found out a week before that a decision had been made to send asher to a different day rehab program after his exit date from the hospital than had been previously discussed. our understanding had been all along that asher would continue to go to the shepherd spinal center for out- patient therapy. which would mean that we would be provided with housing nearby as well as provisions would be made for transporting him back and forth.
the place that asher will now be going, instead, for out-patient therapy, is called Pathways (still part of Shepherd) and it is located about 25 minutes from shepherd in decatur, ga., on clairmont road. even though asher will be continuing with spinal therapy at Pathways, the main emphasis will be on his brain injuries.
what this has meant is that over the weekend we had to find another place to live that would accomodate all of us and we also had to find some transportation in order to not only bring asher home from the hospital, but to also be able to take him back and forth to Pathways each day once he starts there, which will not be for at least another week.
quite thankfully, the hotel where we are already staying, had a 2 bedroom suite that became available just today. how wonderful was that? it is even large enough for us to be able to bring in a hospital bed. the only draw back is that it cost more and it will only be available until the 13th. again, thankfully, i think that i have found a completely furnished apartment for us to move into that is handicap accessable and in a better location with regard to where Pathways is located. it will be more room for us, they are willing to give us a very short term lease and it will cost about the same thing that we are now having to pay in the larger hotel suite.
as soon as tomorrow we will know whether we will be able to get the apartment, and if we do it is ready for us to move into immediately (which, for us, will probably mean saturday).
transportation, which as i mentioned, is something that we are now being faced with providing completely ourselves, seems to be on the way to being solved as well. over the weekend i was able to find a fullsized handicap modified van to rent that was available for 30 days. they even were willing to deliver it to the hospital for us, which they did at 10 AM this morning. i honestly have no idea what we would have done today if we had not been able to get this. thankfully, God has taken that worry away from us. i have also found a used full sized van that, based on what asher's needs are, given the size of the wheel chair that has been prescribed for him, this one will be ideally suited to meet those needs. so, i am now in the process of trying to raise the money to buy it. the amount of money we would have to spend to rent a van the whole time we are here, coupled with the fact that we would still have to buy a van after our time here was over, doesn't really make any sense to me to put off doing this for any longer than we have to. by the same token, even a used, full size handicap modified van, with a lift is hugely expensive. and i sincerely mean hugely expensive.
leaving shepherd today, as much as we have been looking forward to it, this day was also not a day that came easily. after being in a setting where we had the support of wonderful nurses, techs, therpist, case workers, counselors, and doctors, to leave all of that behind all at once, is a pretty fearful thing. we had been told to expect this since we first came to shepherd, though, because it is pretty much that way for everyone that comes comes there. they were right, but i don't think it was so much fearful today for us to leave as it has been for the several days leading up to today. today was not been so bad, and that may be because there was so much to do that we didn't really have time to think about much of anything except trying to move everything from one hotel room to another, pack up all of asher's belongings and get them to the car, pick up all of asher prescriptions and other medical care items he will need on an ongoing bases and much much more.
asher, on the other hand, has not known any other life since he woke up from his coma into a new life without the use of his hands, legs and feet and only limited use of his arms. there were a number of tear filled moments just before we finally left after asher had gone around again and said goodbye to all the therapist in both the spinal unit and the brain injury unit that, as asher said to several of them, "they had saved his life." the depth of his sincerety was nothing like i think i have ever seen come from him both before or after his injuries.
one final bit of very encouraging news. the other night, while gloria, asher and hadrienne were sitting out in the "secret garden" at shepherd, asher took his first picture since his accident. even though he couldn't hold the camera himself, he directed his mother, who was holding the camera for him, for the shot of his sister he wanted to take. he did this by looking at the LCD screen (it's a digital camera) and then having gloria actually push the button on the camera to take it.
asher's first picture: his sister hadrienne.
May the Lord bless you and keep you all as we continue to be overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of the sincerety of your love for our family through all that God has been leading us through these many months, and we will surely have many more months to go.
Praying for the peace of jerusalem,
andy mendonsa
This information added by request on Thursday, October 6, 2005, 4:15 PM.
I have been asked to give the actual costs for a van like the one that asher needs. we have actually located such a van and are in the process of trying to raise the needed funds to help pay for it. the actual cost for this van, which is a 2004, with under 10K miles with all the handicap modifications that asher will need, including a wheel chair lift, is $45,280.00.
For those of you who have asked that this information be posted, thanks, and blessings.
| By Andy Mendonsa | 11:25 PM
