Get Well Clarkie!

Hi everyone

Sorry it has taken so long to give you an update on Aaron’s journey to NZ but it has been such a chaotic week since we arrived a week ago.

As Tedi mentioned, the medically assisted flight went extremely well and the medical and support team were wonderful…professional, friendly and very experienced.  We felt in very safe hands.  An added bonus was that Aaron got an incredible view as we flew over the Rockies (thanks so much to pilot Jim who tilted the plane so Aaron could see properly out the window!).

Debbie, our nurse who assisted us from LA to NZ was great and very attentive.  All in all, it was a long and tiring journey but made so much easier for us by the Air Ambulance World Wide team.  A very, very special thank you to Josh Graham for weeks and weeks of research, hard work, a million phone calls and negotiation to make the flight possible.  You are a Super Star Josh.

A place came available by Tuesday at the rehabilitation centre – a coup as we thought it would be a couple of weeks wait at Auckland Hospital.  It is called Rehab Plus and is in a suburb in Auckland called Point Chevalier, only 15 minutes drive from my and Andrew’s house and only 8 minutes drive from my office.  It is also a highly regarded facility.  Already we have experienced a lot more analysis into Aaron’s condition and he is really happy with the therapy. 

The unit has two wards with 14 beds each so it is a good small size with not many patients and what seems like a lot of staff.  It’s also one level and Aaron can see grass outside his window which makes it feel not quite so ‘hospital-like’ which he really likes.  Today we went for a ‘wheel’ into the Point Chev shops (5 minutes walk away) and we hung out for an hour in a small park and had a lovely visit from our Aunt, Sue, and her husband Rob (they sent the very cool Fighting Kiwi flag). 

This week ahead is his first full week with a specialist program developed for him and he’s busting to get into it.  Last week they even had him doing very light weights on a weights machine in the rehab gym and using a grinder (again very light weight).  The have a hydro-therapy pool there, which he is trying his hardest to charm his way into but as Tedi mentioned we won’t be able to use it until his feeding peg comes out.  Not for lack of trying though!

Re Aaron’s swallowing, he is now able to swallow small amounts of water, just as an added way to keep hydrated on top of the feeding peg.  We are still waiting for the diagnosis to come back from the video analysis of his vocal chords and once we have that there will be a full Speech and Language program developed and then more information as to whether surgery would be considered/ helpful. 

His speech is a huge frustration to him as there is still no volume and his tongue is having trouble moving to the left which makes some words really hard to understand. I have noticed though that he is getting better at enunciating the individual words, which is probably a result of the brain healing further.  

On Tuesday (Monday US time) we have the appointment with a pelvic specialist.  We’re really looking forward to that one as it will determine how long before Aaron can be weight bearing and take a look at how everything is healing.

For any of you who have international , Clarkie now has a NZ phone!!  You can’t text his US phone so we have set up up with one for while he is here.  He would LOVE to hear from you all so text away!  He is really missing everyone so a few texts would be so great for him.  Number is:

+6421-1790-118

Thanks again for all your support – please keep the messages coming

Megan, Andrew, John, Raye & Ray