Author: Jake

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

Well it’s been a while since a good non-rant update so here we go.

Since the last update

• I have returned to health after seeking drugs at HIMG the Sunday after my last post.
• Spent 14 nights in various Hampton Inn’s
• Jess continues to have therapy
• Petey & Phoebe’s skin infection has cleared up
• Jess’s mom’s stress test come back ok (probably because I was not in the room)
• Jess’s Step Dad Rick returned to work this week
• Mom’s has found 2 cataracts (that would be one per eye)
• Laura has the flu and looks like death (in fact I think death would have came to get her but he is afraid to enter her room)

 

As you can tell things have been busy around here as normal.

Tuesday will begin Jess’s 10^th week off of work and stir craziness is abound. She continues to make slow steady progress. After not seeing her for 9 straight days I did notice a difference in her mobility when I came home. But the level of pain and frequency of migraines since the wreck is still present. We have been and continue to pray for her recovery; we also appreciate all the random acts of prayer that are coming our way. We have high hopes that the pain management specialist she is going to see will be able to help, her appointment in the first week of April. It is our hope that we can find some kind of pain relief that will allow her to function and return her life to some form of normalcy. Currently all the pain medications that we have found to work, also make her think that she is Chairing a Board Meeting with the Care Bears. She continues to do therapy several times a week but her improvement can only be measured with inches and she needs to travel about a mile. Jess continues to do everything as instructed by her doctors but this is just a slow recovery. Like I said before broken bones would have been healed by now soft tissue heals when it feels like it. Jess continues to keep up with her school work and her professors have been great in working with her.

I mean while have been crazy busy at work with travel. Several projects are coming together simultaneously and it has been a bear. Also this week I received word that another deal I was working on fell into place and will keep me VERY busy going into the Summer. You add that to the fact that I am just plain worn out and it makes for an interesting day every day. I am looking forward to staying in town for the next few weeks before I head out again. Hopefully by that time we should have a better idea of what the immediate future holds for Jess.

Thank you all for your prayers & cards Jess & I really appreciate them. Well that’s about it for today that’s the news and I am outta here!

• Paint 12 doors ( I knew I shouldn’t have hung them until I did)
• Paint 2 door facings
• Fill the nail holes and touch up the trim in the bathroom & entire downstairs
• Paint the garage door (the previous owners left it primer gray)
• Finish the shower in the second bath
• Cut up and remove the semi-rotten wooden patio from the back of the house
• Paint all the block on the outside of the house (it needs it but I also want to change the color from white to tan)

If I get all this done the Stapleton Mansion Phase 1 will be completed

You may ask why I am posting this on my blog?  Well it may keep me honest and see that I actually get it all done!

It’s just my way of doing public accountability.

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

Well its time for another action packed update form the Stapleton Mansion.

For most of last week I was in the DC area working with a customer.  It was a new bank conversion and things went well.  This is the start of spurt of traveling for me.  For at least the next 4 months I have 10 day spurts being out of town every month.  Between being very busy with work and taking care of Jess, I am very tired but managing.

Jess continues to get a little better everyday.  Her attitude is good for the most part, but a little bad attitude, frustration, & aggravation is to be expected when you are in that much pain and only leave the house for a Doctor’s appointment or a scan.  Because of this I make it a point to get her out for dinner at least once a week.  Last night we met her dad for dinner and chatted for a little while (he just got an iphone and was enjoying my torment).  We brought our own ice packs to the restaurant and they helped a little along with the drugs, but she is paying for it today.  Tuesday begins her sixth week off from work so being "stir crazy" is something we must actively treat along with her injuries.

Jess went for an MRI this week.  We are waiting for the radiology results but from the initial films it appears that there is some disc damage in her back.  This explains some of her trouble at achieving any rapid improvement; despite the fact she is following all the doctors orders.  Her injuries are all soft tissue and are very time intensive to heal.  She would have been better off with broken bones because they would have at least been healed by now.  We are waiting to get her into a pain management specialist to see what else we can do for her. 

Also on the medical front Petey & Phoebe have a fungal infection on their skin, that manifests as a large sore.  This is something that Petey picked up right after we moved into our house and spread to Phoebe.  The vet says it is nearly impossible to get rid of so all we can do is treat it.  So it’s a come and go type thing.  Last Thursday night Jess found bloody spots on the cat and her head was covered and we had just missed it.  Phoebe has to be treated 3 times a day and is on antibiotics.  Once again you have not lived or looked death straight in the eye until you have to give a cat medicine.  In fact the angel of death is even afraid to walk by the cat.  Petey is well on his way to being on the mend but Phoebe is miserable with about 40% of her head covered and just starting to heal up.

 

In other medical news . . . .

Sharon Stapleton (Willie’s Wife) received a clean bill of health last week.  Unfortunately she will never play the tuba again but as she could not do this before the surgery she is not heart broken.

Jess’s mom started a stress test on Friday and will do the physical portion on Monday.  For some reason she did not want me around during the test.  She feels it will only cause her to have false positives.  The NERVE!  I  am sure her flying monkeys will get to attend.  She will also have a CT scan of the abdomen and one of the brain on Tuesday.

Jess’s step dad Rick continues to heal from the broken ribs that he received by aggressively attacking the concrete in my drive way to create a snow angel.  With any luck he will return to work later this week.  Although he told Jess it will be June before he comes over again just to make sure he does not create anymore snow art.

Jess’s step dad Rick’s brother Brian (did you get all that family tree) underwent a triple bypass on Thursday and is doing very well.   His wife Diane will also have a stress test this week.  She was taken to the hospital last week with chest pains.

As you can see meeting your deductible in this family is not a problem.    

 

Meanwhile I continue to be the picture of health for an overweight mouse jockey. 

 

I think that will be just about it for today’s update, we appreciate the prayers and offers of help that continue to come our way. 

That’s the news and I am outta here!  

Greetings and Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

Well its time for another weekly update so here I go. As you can tell from last few posts there has been movement on the claims front. I lit some fires last Monday and saw a whole bunch of action last week. They finally totaled Jess’s car which was a relief (they were up to about $11K in damages and still wanted to fix it). However in the end the insurance company and adjuster saw reason and totaled Jess’s 2004 Camry. (Or as I like to say it’s gave its life so that others could live, mainly my wife and all the other cars that will benefit from its newly attained organ donor status). So as you can see from the post immediately before this one; we bought another Camry. Jess picked out a 2008 LE with the optional Sun Roof, Spoiler, & Rims. The car is really sharp, we received another great deal from Fannin, and we are both happy with the choice.

As for Jess on the medical front; she continues to improve but this process is measured in inches not feet. Sometimes she is a little discouraged that she’s not jumping tall buildings at a single bound, but I remember a few weeks back when she couldn’t get dressed by herself. I continue to see improvement in her everyday; she continues to do therapy at least four times a week and is obeying all the doctors’ orders (funny I will have to see how he accomplishes this). This may cause you to ask “Jake how did she go car shopping if she is in so much pain?” In a word “drugs” lots and lots of them, unfortunately since it took so long to total the car we were left with a very short window to car shop. She did most of her research online and so we only had to drive 5 vehicles. We did this over the course of 2 days totaling about 8 hours. In return Jess was in unbearable pain on Saturday night (drugs no longer helped) and unable to function even in her limited capacity most of Sunday. This reaction further reinforced the fact that she is no way ready to return to work yet.

She could work from home a little but that’s about it, no way could she go out and do home visits. It was very painful for her to drive her new car home from Kentucky and that was all interstate. I know it may seem a little silly to put her through all this just to get a car but the fact is with my travel I can not always be around to provide her a vehicle to get to therapy and our rental coverage was about to expire. There is also the fact that I am trying to return her to some normalcy and having a car of her own is a step in the right direction. I am very proud of all the progress Jess has made and continues to make. It will just take time for her to get back to the place where I am afraid of her again.

Jake’s thoughts on the cars we drove

My personal observations on the vehicles we drove. My favorite was the Camry followed up very closely by the Accord and I did not care too much for the Altima. Although during this process, I did decide to order an Avalon as my next company car.

As for me I spent a splendid week in the home office doing system testing. This is not a fun aspect of my job but it is a necessary burden. I had two vacation days left so I took them for February 11^th & 12^th. This means I am writing this on my day off, so I am out of here to enjoy it.

Have a great week!