So, this cool this happened a while back. Brady was gifted a recumbent bike that someone had built for themselves but didn’t end up using. Brady does not have enough balance to operate a regular bike, but he does still have quite a bit of strength in his legs, specifically his thighs. So he was excited to try it!
Upon first use, it worked well once he got it started, but his feet couldn’t stay on the pedals. His feet have next to no motor skills, and when they’re bumped, they spasm and jump. Being flat footed on bike pedals wasn’t going to work. Our neighbours and dear friends across the street include both hard workers and an occupational therapist. They went to work building Brady’s pedals a little different. He has a foot plate, with a heel hold, and strapping overtop. They also added a little holster for his crutches, so he could legitimately bike somewhere independently and go in somewhere. And with that all in place, Brady went out to bike on the street with the kids yesterday!!
Well, ok, first we pimped it out juuuuust a little…
Then he was ready!
It was SO much fun! The kids were SO happy to have him out there with them again! We all were 💜
Ok, Rowan was grouchy because he didn’t want Wavy to stand on the back of the trike. He lived, I promise 😆
I will be honest, though, and say biking “together” ended when we discovered that daddy could give rides. That was a WHOLE other thing!
Look at Wavy on the balance bike, haha!
So future bike plans include pegs, because this will absolutely happen again, haha!
Yet again, something that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of so many other caring people. I am consistently overwhelmed by the amount of help we’ve received.
I missed this man SO much when he was gone 💔
Today, we will sit together for the morning and try to organize our thoughts and plans for the lake. Things we need to do there. Things we need to bring there. Things we still need to find and buy. Timelines. All that good stuff!
I was motivated to write this post not specifically because of any big changes with Rowan’s melatonin usage, but because Facebook showed me this adorable flashback! Look at that chubby little mug!
He looks the least like his baby pictures than any of our other kids, for sure! Remember this side by side I made when Waverly was new? Can you place who’s who?
Its a process of elimination right? Rowan is the last one you place, because he looks the least like himself!
But he’s no longer a baby. He’s a whole big guy!!
I can vouch that he is doing really, really well. His capacity has somehow grown in the midst of all the chaos.
BUT, I can also vouch that there was some significant change a little while ago when we ran out of his magnesium supplement. He was without it for maybe a couple of nights, and they were horrendous.
He would get up constantly, and he threw HUGE tantrums in those evenings. One night, he woke up shortly after midnight, came upstairs, told us blatantly that he had no reason to wake us, and initiated a complete throwdown. It was horrific. I was absolutely haggard. We got his supplement back the next day, and it changed back pretty quickly. He’s been sleep walking a bit more since all of that, but they were incredibly stressful evenings and nights. I know I’m still nervous of it happening again, so I’m sure he subconsciously is, too.
With him caught back up on everything, he is doing way better again. Guys, it was uncanny how fast the lack of supplement affected him, and how quickly he was back to managing to his emotions when he caught back up!
Praise the Lord for guidance and help for Rowan. Keep it coming, so his life can only get easier to handle!
After two days of searching Saskatoon, a friend of ours was able to find a solution to our breaking recliner 💜He happily came over, dismantled the chair, and put it back together in full working order. He cut no corners, and it works perfectly! We are SO grateful for his help and all of the work he put into it, and ALL of the effort he made going into store after store after store, comparing silly little parts. It should NOT be so hard to find replacement parts for furniture!
Dekker weaselled his way into helping, which I LOVED, but the kids spent most of the day outside. It was necessary, finally. We had kept them inside a bit more over the last week with the weather being a bit crappy and a couple of the kids having a few little sick moments. But yesterday it was nice enough that I could confidently send them all out without worry.
And in return, they granted me the grim reminder of the biggest downfall of sending them outside. Dirt. Mud. Mess. Sometimes I take pictures. This time I didn’t. I was SO overwhelmed.
My beautiful children have no choice but to play in the dirt. Thats what we’ve got right now. And thats fine. But a couple of them took it upon themselves to take off their shirts, douse their bodies in sunscreen, and literally rolling in the dirt. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? A couple of them also opted to dump the watering can to make mud. That was truly their end goal. Mud making. Lastly, Laela confirmed to Solly that dirt is healthy, and he should eat it. *sigh*
They were SO DIRTY. And almost all of my children hate baths and showers.
Thus began a very stressful evening of marathon baths. Never before have I scrubbed children the way I have these last couple of weeks. I soap them up good and proper, scrub them, and there were still streaks of mud down their legs! What gives?! I had to soak Rowan, in hopes of loosening some of the gunk, and when it still didn’t come off, I took a soap saturated cloth and basically scratched at him until some of it came off. Its true that some of my kids are pretty self sufficient in the bath, but not on that level of filth.
By the end of it, I was absolutely sweating, and I felt like crying. Whew!
Believe it or not, today I feel kind of uncertain about sending them outside. And thats not ok either. I want them to play outside. But I cannot do that kind of marathon every night, either. I know lots of people bathe their kids every night. This wasn’t that. This was a whole other thing, and I don’t have the energy for it. Absolutely no way.
We were informed on Brady’s last day of radiation that his side effects will peak around 7-10 days after treatment. Today is day 8. So here is an update on how the first week at home, treatment-free, has been.
Brady hasn’t gained back much energy at all, but he also hasn’t slowed down much either.
He is off his medication for nausea, which is awesome! He’s still on a couple of others, and he is pretty discouraged about how fatigued they make him. That being said, though, we know a great amount of his fatigue is due to the radiation itself. Once we’re out of the woods on that, we’ll see just how drowsy he is on his meds. They didn’t knock him out like this during rehab, so we’re hopeful!
There aren’t too many other crazy changes to speak of. Brady has a nice routine of the things that keep his headaches at bay. Workouts. Deep cold. A soak in the evening. He has a chair that works well for his back. He drinks lots of water and monitors it. He’s doing it all right, and its paying off.
Would you believe that there are five people in these pictures?
This coming week, Brady gets to go to Golden Mobility and finally get properly measured up for his custom chair! We received word last weekend that we’ve been approved for funding for Brady to get a beautiful wheelchair that will be built for his body and his needs. SO much better than what he’s working with now! This week also holds his assessment/first outpatient rehab appointment! It will be good and weird to be back at City Hospital, but I think we’re both looking forward to seeing what else they have to offer him.
God continues to protect us. And you, friends, continue to support us. We see you, and appreciate you not forgetting about us. This is a long game situation, which you clearly know, as we’re 3.5 months post-op.
Brady was sitting on the floor, dealing with taking out the laminate that our dishwasher decided to take to the grave with it, and in this position, he muttered in an Australian accent, “Its a lot of floor work.”
We made a couple of jokes about mermaid dancing, and Cher took some pictures.
And then she added them to her photoshop Facebook group and asked for some backup. After reassuring the group that we would all think it was funny, and that Brady can take jokes, they took off!
Aaaaand my personal favorite… 🙌
There were also comments are pictures centred around how Brady looks like Jason Momoa. This is not the first time we’ve heard that.
It works, hey??
There were a good handful of comments saying that Brady was easy on the eyes, which no one is wrong about. 👌 But the bottom line that everyone agreed on was that he had amazing strength of character. He was VERY well liked, with well over 300 reactions and responses. I mean, how could they not love him? He is clearly so whimsical.
This was a solid laugh, which we all desperately need around here. Hopefully you all laughed along with us. I am SO grateful for a handsome husband who can find humour in less than ideal circumstances.
Did you sing the song when you read the title? I hope you did. I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.
I worked hard on yesterdays post, so today is a VERY basic, potentially boring pic dump post where absolutely nothing relates 😆 Welcome to a very random, mindless post!
This made me laugh, lol! I think my dry jokes are HILARIOUS, but its possible I’m the only one.
Accurate. Handicap parking spots are handi for parking. Like I said, my humor is dry.
Our recliner is breaking, which is SO SAD. Its been our comfy baby snuggling chair for years, and now its the comfiest chair for Brady to sit in. Where does a person buy these springs on their own??
This felt really nice and snuggly 💜 Wavy just came and sat beside me, and put her tiny arm around me. She is SO soft and loving.
Our dishwasher came with a solid $100 worth of lumber with it, so we basically MADE money on that deal! 🤑(Again, jokes…)
This. Is. SO. FUNNY. Have you noticed the geese are particularly close and brave this year?? Let’s restrain them, shall we? Also, can that mean I can go to Ikea? Because I’d really love that.
Once upon a time, a friend of a friend was tipped off that I love chicken lemon rice soup, and instantly made a pot with me in mind. The first jar lasted through lunch and a night snack…
And I found another jar on my front step this morning. 🍗🍋🍚 I am SO grateful!
There you have it, folks! You’re all caught up! Lol! I know you literally no 0% more about us than you did before, but hey, this kind of post saves my butt sometimes and makes me laugh when I look back on it. Hopefully you can appreciate an easy, nothing kinda post on a day like today 🙂
I have to put the word disability in quotation marks because its simply not an appropriate word in Brady’s case. Not in the basic definition of being unable in general, anyway. I will say I will never forget the bizarre feeling when we applied for Brady’s handicapped parking pass. It was mostly filled out for us by Brady’s therapists, and we were completely stoked to have built-in rockstar parking, haha! But as I scanned the form, I saw the box beside “permanent disability” had been checked. It felt like a punch in the gut. Permanent disability.
Sure, there is clearly a change in mobility. Obviously. It will likely follow Brady in some capacity for his entire life. Its impossible to know to what extent, and thats ok. It may slow us down in some ways, but it doesn’t hold Brady back.
As crappy things tend to happen, our dishwasher died about a week ago. And it didn’t just die, but it leaked BADLY overnight, destroying a chunk of flooring. Brady looked under it to see if maybe a hose had come loose or it was a simple fix. But alas, the pump was pooched, pouring water out. The floor was spongy. So that SUCKED. Misery loves company, I suppose, haha!
A day before the dishwasher died, someone came to our house with a gift bag filled with books, chocolate, and an envelope filled with cash 😳 It has floored me how often that has happened in the last few months. But God had a plan, as He does.
We did some calling and research over the next few days. Our appliances are black, and that is not as easy to find as basic stainless. There were some appliance sales going on, and everyone seemed to carry the same entry level crappy black dishwasher. We were thinking we’d just buy that one and call it good, but no one had stock. Then a large handful of people suggested Hague Hardware. So we called there.
And they had something for us! They had the bottom of the barrel one that was everywhere, but they also had one that was a bit more money on sale from waaaaay too much. They even had it in black. We did our research, decided on it, and purchased it! They even offered to take the old one and dispose of it for us! Woohooooo!
Sooooo first, we took the old flooring out. It was swollen and quite honestly, it was miserable to remove. But we got it!
More on the mermaid pose on a future post, hahaha! Brady goes “Its a lot of floor work…”
With our new limitations that we are trying to be so careful with, removing the floor was one day. Installing new floor was another day. And the actual dishwasher installation was yet another day.
Installing flooring was a decent amount of work, I’d say. Working on his knees when he can’t feel them is a bit of a challenge, but he crushed it!
A sweaty, sweaty man. But that good, rewarding sweat!
Today was installation of the dishwasher itself, and I am thrilled to say it was smooth and successful!
Aaaaaaand…
No leaks!!! ✅
To the people who gifted us money the other day – you know who you are – thank you. We appreciate your generosity and care for our family. We are consistently overwhelmed by the many ways we’re being loved. For that – for you – we praise the Lord.
Since Brady’s surgery, everyone has agreed that his determination is a HUGE factor in his healing. If you know Brady, you know he is an exceptionally hard worker, and its been a shakedown having some of his mobility taken from him. He, like me, struggles with finding the proper limits and not overdoing things that he could’ve easily done before. Psh. Before. 🙄 What even is that? Who even cares?
Today, we had to run an errand. I’ll tell you all about it in a day or two. After we ran it, Brady needed to pee. Normally I put his wheelchair in the back of the van in one big piece, but today, I had needed to pop the wheels off and put them in a different spot. When we needed to stop for the bathroom, he said he wanted to get his chair himself. He is actively working towards total independence, so that he can truly go out on his own once he gets his license back.
And… He did it!!!
Those strong legs, though! That strong work ethic! That STRONG determination! 😍I am SO impressed!
And so is he!
As he should be.
Thank you, Lord, for strengthening Brady’s heart, mind, and body!!
I’m sorry if you’re getting bored of pictures of my filthy children. Our life is a solid mix of scary cancer stuff, and kids that are head to toe dirt. Not a lot in between, haha! Our time outside yesterday was pretty cute and pretty dirty. I don’t have a picture of Dekker, unfortunately, but please take my word for it that I dearly love him too!! He just hides out a little when everyone is rowdy outside, and takes some alone time. I can’t blame him. I like alone time too.
Aaaaanyway, here’s the other kids.
Rowan didn’t feel like getting super dirty, and he kind of just wanted to do what I was doing. So we both read on the deck for a little bit 🙂 It was nice.
Laela lives with this perpetual crust of dirt on her face. I will wipe her down, and ask her to wash her face, and no matter what, there continues to be dirt on her face. Still. Forever.
Solly was just so stinking charming here, hahaha! I couldn’t not laugh at his derpy face.
And Miss Wavy gets SO dirty that she looks a little scary, hahaha!
Or like a lot scary. But don’t worry, I washed her before bed, haha!
So much dirt. And almost all of the kids hate baths. If all the health stuff doesn’t take us down, these filthy kids might!
I hear people can purchase sod cut offs for cheaper than full blown sod. Confirm or deny. Asking for a friend, of course 🙃
Brady and I were granted the beautiful privilege of having a day away together yesterday. Not only did we get to be kid-free and out of the house, but we went to our lake spot 😍 Our first visit of the year! We have tight limits these days, so we went just for the day, just to make some plans, just to get a feel for what this upcoming season might look like and what we might need that is different from last year.
I won’t make you wait. It was the BEST day. We really couldn’t have asked for more.
We drove into our spot and checked everything over. Looked good! We went into the camper next. It is exactly how we left it!! It looks amazing. None of our measures taken against rodents were even disturbed. Praise the Lord for a critter-free camper!!!
We have some plans in the making for this season, but we can handle SO little at once :/ So this day was just for planning. We called the site manager to let him know we were there, and he headed right over to meet with us, as we had planned. He was very surprised to see Brady in a wheelchair, so we had quite a bit of catching up to do. He was really warm and understanding, and very willing to help. He quickly got on topic about where we wanted to move our camper, and if it were possible, and he eagerly offered to go get his skid steer. Rather than just planning with us, he decided the camper move was happening NOW.
I have no pictures of us moving the camper because it was a very hands on process, and it was much more on me this year! The site manager offered up understanding that he knew Brady would prefer to be in there like a dirty shirt, which was both insightful and true, but he was so encouraging that I would be able to do it, too, which was also insightful and true 😉 I’ve not always been given the opportunity to be strong and handy and helpful, and yesterday, I got to. He showed me how to get the legs up under the camper, where to move the railroad tie, and how to block things properly. He also explained to me where he was going to drive the camper, where I needed to be, and where it was the most likely to hit. He would be driving backwards the entire time, very very close up against the trailer, so I needed to be his eyes. I loved that he trusted me.
He raised the camper up, and I climbed under the pulled pins, and locked the feet up. I dragged the tie to the side of the sight into the bush, and then helped guide him out. He definitely knew what he was doing, but our camper is pretty big and it wasn’t an easy gig. We did a whole round around the hill until we got back close to our site. By that time, one of his friends, who also resides at camp, had come to help, and myself, he, and Brady guided the camper into place together.
It went perfectly. It could not have been placed better!
Its hard to show in pictures, but it was off to the side last year…
Note the distance from us to the fire pit.
And this year, its at a completely different end of the campsite, freeing up a MOUNTAIN of space!!!
Our camper was previous off to the right side of this picture. Can you see where it was, and where it is now?
It doesn’t look like much yet, but it will 💜The trees will fill in, and soon, we will build a beautiful patio and make it more homey, and to add some even ground to make life easier. We are SO excited.
We ate some lunch together in the sun. It was beautiful weather. My mom packed our lunches. She is officially adorable.
And as if God knew what we wanted most, as soon as we were done eating, the rains came! YESSSSS! It smelled amazing!! We thought about hauling out, but then we decided to hole up in the camper and play some Skipbo, because that is exactly what we’d have done if we were staying. It was perfect. Smelled and sounded amazing.
And then we drove home 💜 That was it. It was SUCH a beautiful, simple, unexpectedly productive day! We were SO grateful to get our camper moved where it needed to be! There are still some changes to make and things to do, but now we know what we’re looking at, and we feel more prepared and capable.
I wish I could show you how clear the colors were! I’ve never seen SUCH a vivid rainbow before!
It will be very hard not to overextend ourselves in the next month. Unfortunately, being done radiation does not immediately bring back our energy. Brady gets headaches when he overdoes it, and I have anxiety attacks. Its just where we are right now. I wish I could say we’ll be out there May long, but I don’t think its feasible without a deck. Maybe we’ll make a day trip with the kids. Maybe we won’t. We’ll have to see 🙂
We are SO grateful for our spot. For the friends we have out there. For the help we have out there. For the comfort and care we have out there. For the rest and relief to come. For the getaway.
