Alex is going to kill me for putting this pic on here but for those of you who have never had or seen a sleep study I thought this may add some insight, lol. A tutorial if you will! We left here last night at 8:30 to drive to Fleming Island, Sleep Center, for our appt time of 9:30pm. I figured it would take us a good 45 minutes to get there and I was right... thank God we left when we did because you know he had to stop and POOP before we got there....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! So here I go on the hunt for a bathroom which I redeem as a suitable place for him to place his bottom, lol. We have been on the road for 45 minutes and he is saying " I don't care where you go just stop somewhere and I'll bend over".... Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight... that ain't happening buddy... sit tight and I will find somewhere for you to go. Pull into the brightly lit Gate station, looks safe enough.... pull in, get him out...no time to mess with the wheel chair, we are walking in fast, lol. Pleasantly surprised.... nice, beautiful (ok well I may be exaggerating a bit) but for a Gate station... THE CLEANEST BATHROOM I HAVE HAD THE PLEASURE OF BEING IN.... CLEAN, key word and BIG....we made it in time and we had a touch down!! We make it in time for our appt. Yesterday I had a bright idea of making Alex cards with his pic and website on them for him to handout when he told his story so people had something tangible to hang on to and go read about him if they so choose. Sooooooo, naturally once we are in the door of this place and there are people ahead of us.... he turns to me and says... "Where are my cards, I need them". HERE WE GO, LOL. I get him checked in while he is telling the family that was in front of us what happened to him and hands them his card... the family member, sweet lady that she was.... right away knew who he was and made his day. Told him how she could never forget that cute little face and had seen him on tv and was so happy to see him doing so well. He then takes another card and hands one to the nurse behind the window so she can see who he is too, lol. We get back to our room which consisted of a double bed, night stand, dresser with TV and fan. He then brought in the recliner for mom. He did offer me another room with a bed (they had an empty one) but Alex wasn't having me sleeping in another room! Sooooooo, I opted for the recliner, lol. I should have taken the bed once he was asleep, lol. The recliner and I didn't mesh so well and I gor maybe an hour of sleep between Alex talking in his sleep, moving, breathing heavy.... I was paranoid he wouldn't be able to breathe. At one point, he was talking in his sleep and said "Momma, come here please"... so I sat up and asked what he needed and he again said..."Momma, come here please". So I got up and went over to him and asked him what was wrong.... Matt ( our new friend, the technician, lol) comes over the loud speaker and asks if everything is Ok... Alex is sound asleep and was just talking in his sleep. I noticed his breathing was heavy so I asked if his oxygen level was ok and he said "yes mam", so I went back to my lovely recliner and laid there... AWAKE until 5:30am when Matt came in to let us know it was time to go home. I was thankful because I was tired of laying there in the dark, with my eyes open listening to every noise he was making as he was sound asleep. I was trying to analyze in my head how I thought the tests would read, lol. Didn't sound good to me HOWEVER... Matt said his oxygen levels were good throughout the night and remained between 98-96 all night which is good. Soooo, fingers crossed, prayers said.... tests come back with great results and we pull that sucker out soon! In reading the paperwork, they say the test takes 10-14 days to get back... I asked to please expedite asap because we are on the surgery schedule in Atl for the 25th of January and we gotta know asap. Hopefully all things go according to MY plan, hee hee. I must give a huge shout out to Matt... you were great with Alex last night.... he gave you hell and was so impatient but you were a trooper and just kept rolling with his punches...THANK YOU! I hope you thanked the gentleman that let us go first because he really would have been miserable, ha ha. You see, the gentleman in front of us let Alex get hooked up first because Alex was fighting his sleep last night...dying to get into bed but had to be hooked up to the monitors and there were many. You see all the ones on his face but he had lots in his head full of hair, on his chest and legs as well. We got there at 9:30 and he didn't get in his bed until 11:00. He was sooo tired he fell asleep within 10 minutes and that NEVER HAPPENS at home! So we are forever grateful to the unidentified gentleman before us that so graciously gave up his spot for Mr. Alex. We left and Alex wanted to bring breakfast home for Chad and Brooks so we made a pitstop at McDonalds and surprised everyone with breakfast before they started their day. I layed down on the sofa and died for about an 1.5 hours and then my body said "go to your bed...you have a crick in every place possible"....so I did :0)
I woke up at 10, got Alex up at 11, we got ready and headed for therapy. HE DID SO GOOD TODAY!!
THIS WAS FRIDAY!
ALEX COULDN'T DO THIS LAST MONTH AND STEADILY CONTINUES TO IMPROVE... HE TOOK THE BERG BALANCE TEST AGAIN ON FRIDAY. I f you remember I talked about how much he had improved last time... Sept he got a 24 out of 56. November he got a 35 out of 56 where he jumped 11 points and Friday he got 39 out of 56!! He is still improving and at a great pace! So proud!
Today was actually the day, one year ago that we were told Alex had suffered stroking on the left side of the brain and they did not see him making it another 7 days! GOOD IS GOOD.... I'm so thankful to be off of that rollercoaster ride!! That was a night mare! Below are two of the cat scans I talked about.... AMAZING TO SEE WHAT GOD CAN DO WITH SO LITTLE LEFT! THANK YOU MY SWEET JESUS!!
THE BULLET IS STILL LODGED IN HIS HEAD... will be there for the rest of his life. It travelled from the frontal lobe down to the back of his head.
These images should make you understand just exaclty what God is capable of! Alex Michael is truly a miracle of God and by looking at these cat scans... should not be here today. THANK YOU GOD FOR A SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE! What an AWESOME GOD YOU ARE!
We met one of our followers today Miss Katy Vega and her son Calvin. What a pleasure it was to meet the two of you! Alex was so touched by meeting Miss Katy that he gave her his only bracelet he has ever had right off of his wrist! He is such a sweet kid... at times, lol! Thanks for making us feel special today by getting to meet you and take some pics. Send them to me and I'll post on the blog.
I have a meeting tomorrow regarding the "Celebration of Life"... please say a few quick prayers that we can finalize this location and get moving onto planning. I am going to be ordering shirts... a limited amount as they need to be purchased prior to the event. To ensure you get a shirt, please send me a quick email with the sizes you will need and I will make sure to preorder enough. I will be placing my order this Wednesday so please get me an email asap to ensure you get a shirt!
Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers and support for the sleep study... I ask that you please continue to pray until I have the results in hand! Stay tuned.... more great things are in store for 2011!
PEACE~LOVE~N~THUMBS UP! LISA
