Hi Everyone,
We had a great weekend! Rye is three hours from our home. The ride up was going along well until the last 15 minutes when Corey became car sick. The van has a hollow center channel for the wheelchair to roll up towards the front of the van. When we travel our nurse is in the front passenger seat and Corey is positioned immediately behind us in the “second row”. Corey travels better when she is closer to the front than in the “way back” when we need to use the second row for a fourth traveler and have to collapse the second row passenger seats. I am constantly looking in the rear view mirror to watch her (for vomiting so she doesn’t aspirate). This time when she was car sick, I pulled over on 95 and the nurse and I helped her through the experience. She rallied and we arrived without further incident.
Traveling wears Corey out. She can only stay in her wheelchair for about 4-5 hours at a time. The company we use for her feeding supplies has a travel program. They have offices across the country. We rent a hospital bed from this company. They deliver, set up and then pick up to any home or location we reserve. We arrived at my sister’s house and Corey’s bed was ready for her to rest from her trip. The availability to rent a bed is another essential piece to our ability to live a “normal” life and allow us to travel.
We planned a birthday party for Corey to begin at 5pm Saturday night. Corey slept most of Saturday day. Her fatigue is part of the side affects of traveling from the day before. Although it was Corey’s birthday, I received a gift this weekend. One of my sister’s friends treated me to an hour spa treatment! Thank you Mary…it was a wonderful gift!
We were pleased that Corey rested most of the day because she was able to stay up and enjoy visiting with her party guests. In addition to my sister Louise’s family, my sister Diane, niece Elizabeth, niece Jen and her family and my nephew Tommy and his family came to celebrate. Two couples from my High School days (that happen to still be my best friends) also joined us!
Corey had a blast. She interacted with everyone, loved watching the grand nieces and nephews run around playing and used her white board to communicate. She also was able to speak some of her answers. Corey is just beginning to pronounce two and three syllable words. There is a competition going on with Corey’s aunts and uncles; whose name will she say first? This weekend she not only said, Louise, Diane, Jen, Mike, Maggie and Tommy, she also said Libby (Tommy’s wife’s name). As soon as Corey said Louise, my sister quickly followed with, ‘…is my favorite’. Corey repeated it verbatim. Louise cheered and Diane called out, Hey…say my name, I’m the favorite! Uncle Tom and Aunt Marjy couldn’t make the party so Corey wasn’t under any additional pressure for that round of competition. Libby had an interesting twist to her competitive edge as a cousin; ‘who’s your favorite, Libby or Tommy’? Of course Corey obliged and said Libby…Tommy was in the kitchen but Jen was her witness.
The relaxation, laughter and spending time with family and friends was an incredible gift for both of us! Happy ‘extended’ Birthday Corey! xoxo