We've Made It A Year!

Well it's hard to believe it's been a year already... But we're much happier on this side the year mark the on the other side.

Mike as you know has surpassed all of his doctors expectations. He's back to full time work and pretty much back to "normal".

This past weekend we took the kids along with 4 other families up to Prosser Camp Grounds in Truckee, Ca for Memorial Day Weekend. Mike was so excited since he had official passed his 1 year mark and could now ride the quads. Well he made out and in less than 5 minutes of riding he managed to get himself thrown from the quad and ended up with a badly broken right wrist. We spent the next 3 hours in the ER in Truckee and then back to the camp site. The doctors asked him if he would be heading home and he told them, "It's only a broken wrist, why would I go home?" Gotta love his perspective.

We have a very busy summer planned with the older kids having some sort of camping trip, EFY, girls camp, scout camp or something else to keep us busy.

We are grateful for everyone who has kept our family in their prayers and thoughts.

MIKE CAN DRIVE & STEVIES CHICKEN POX

I'm sure most of you are wondering...and YES Mike passed his driving exam at DMV on Monday. He is now a free man to drive as he wishes. He couldn't be happier. Jonny told me,"Now our family is normal again." Mike not driving affected everybody, even the little ones. Today is actually the first day that Mike has been able to drive himself to work by himself. It's been a good week for the family...

Well almost...as you can see from the above photo, Steven has the chicken pox. It's not any real surprise. I was suspecting he might be coming down with them when he started a fever a few weeks ago with no cause, and with perfect timing the chicken pox arrived Monday night. I'm pretty sure Jonny will have them with in the next two weeks as he has yet to have them and he ran his fever a week after Steven. Everyone else in the family has already had them. So for now it baking soda baths and what ever the 2 year old wants to keep him happy.

STITCHES, SHINGLES & A DRIVER PERMIT

Ok...I know I haven't updated lately but things have been very hectic around the Larsen home. Let me break it down....Tommy kept the family motto going of "He who is most active this month goes to the ER", Tommy ended up with 4 stitches on his right check bone after getting hit in the face (accidentally) by a friend. They were digging a hole (4 feet deep) and while Tommy jumped into the hole his friend pulled the shovel out and you can figure out the rest...the shovel won.

Alee got the shingles and has finally cleared up from the sores. This wasn't fun as any of you know who have had a child with the chicken pox. We found out that shingles are the chicken pox virus that lays dormant in your body until your body is stressed or has a week immune system. Our pediatrician told me "With all the stress your family has gone thru over the last 9 months I'm surprised you all haven't come down with the shingle." Alee is still very sensitive to what Mike and I are handling. Her emotions feed directly off of mine and when I'm stressed she is also.

Mike (Sr not Jr) got his drivers permit last week. He went in for his DMV interview, past his written and visual exam and will go in next week for his drive test, so in the mean time he's acting like a teenager and grabbing the keys every chance he has to drive. And yes, as with teenagers who have their learning permit, he can only drive with a person over the age of 25. I guess he deserves it after all his been thru. All the driving he gets will help him to be ready for next week. Mike says the hardest part is trying to drive as your suppose to and not with the habit s he's created over the past 20 years.

Mike has also started back to work, going in 2 days a week. His doctors want things to go slowly, not to stress him out or overwhelm him. We are hopefull that by the end of summer he will be back to work fulltime.

FALSE START

Well, thinking since the doctors said Mike was cleared to drive, we thought "no problem...we'll just take the release letter to DMV and Mike will be back on the road..." NOT! We showed up to DMV and found out we needed to go to another DMV office with a Medical Department(...who hew they had one...) We went to the new one (25 miles away) only to find out the wrong form was submitted and were given the "correct" one to take back to the doctors.

Long story short...if we get the correct forms to Kaiser on Monday morning and everything is perfect we might get the paperwork back in 10-14 days...we can then drop it off at DMV and then DMV will take another 10-14 days to review the paperwork and decide (most likely) to hold a hearing (panel review) with Mike, and then if that goes well, then they will schedule him (in another additional 10 or so days) to come back and take any combonation of Drive test, Written test and/or Visual test.

So maybe in a month (if we're lucky) he'll get his license back and then he can start driving and working. How many hoops can you jump thru one day?

RELEASED TO DRIVE :)

Okay, so Mike had his Phsycological evaluation last week and it was a VERY long day for Mike and I both...more him than me. His testing started at 9am and went until 4pm with only a 45 minute break for lunch. I met once with Mike and the Psychologist and then again at the end of the day privately with the Phsychologist. The testing covered almost everything you could imagine checking every area of the brain and it's function.

Earlier this morning Mike and I met with the Psychologist to get the results from all the testing. The doctors are releasing him to drive and return to work in early February in a part-time position. The testing is consistent with some damage they think may or may not be permanent in his right frontal lobe of the brain. Because of some deficits they want to ease him into working and will re-evaluate his work load and ability to transition at a later date. The doctors are still advising him to wait another semester until he goes back to school.

What does this mean???He's very happy to be getting his drivers license back and will start working back at the Smog shop in early February, working 2 days a week. Just having the drivers license back will give him the ability to get things back to normal...This will help tremendously with the kids.

We are very grateful this is over and we can start to move onto the next chapter in our lives.

Moving Along

Well since the last post nothing new...nothing exciting...that's a good thing. We are waiting for Mike to meet with a few more doctors in the next week and half before he go's in for his Phsyc exam / review. Mike and I are both anxiously waiting and wondering what all it will in tell. This appointment happens on January 15th and will take 6-8 hours and will determine when he can return to work and if he can get his drivers license back.

We were able to celebrate the holidays with family and friends and had a nice Christmas. We had many friends and family who made sure the kids got just what they ordered from Santa. In the photo below, Mike, Jonny, Stevie and Madie (my niece) are on a jungle gym that a close friend gave to the kids for Christmas. Mike and Tommy built the gym in about 6 hours over two days. There were a lot of screws and bars to assemble but Mike and Tommy did a great job. I think it was a great project for the two of them and I know Mike is very proud of the work. It may seem like a simple thing but this would have been a breeze for Mike before the accident and it took a little longer than he would have liked. I'm very proud of all he's been able to accomplish in the past few months.

Since this is the beginning of a new year we naturally set off to decide on what we would accomplish together. Our plans are a little different than last years goals...We will be happy to have Mike return to work, get back into shape and make his trip with Mikey to Philmont, NM (high adventure scout camp) in August. I'm hoping to get back into shape...set a little more time aside for myself and hopefully get away with Mike.

We are so thankful for everything and everyone who helped our family have a great Christmas.
Here's to a new year. Happy New Year to all.