The Benefit

Thanks for all the encouraging words and positive thoughts!!

Andy’s benefit was wonderful. The motorcycle ride was about 3 1/2 hours and we had about 80 motorcycles in the run. It was a beautiful late summer day (about 80 degrees). I rode with one of Andy’s friends and I can’t tell you how great it was. I kept getting so emotional because at any given time I would look in front of me and see probably 20 bikes and then look behind me and see another 60 or so and I would just think…all these people are here to support my brother! Aside from seeing my children for the first time when they were born there have been very few moments in my life that I felt completely overwhelmed with gratitude and love.

The run ended at the motorcycle club Andy is a part of. As we all got off our bikes and headed in to the clubhouse for a drink, there was a bottleneck and the line stopped moving. All of a sudden a friend of mine that was up front came back and pulled me through the line. There, at the entrance of the clubhouse sat my brother in a wheelchair greeting everyone. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place. Can you imagine, seeing all these big biker guys and girls crying? It was great! The nurses at his hospital had secretely worked out a 4 hour pass for him to attend the benefit and two of them actually drove him an hour so that he could surprise us!!! I can’t believe he even kept it a secret! My husband had offered to skip the benefit and hang out with him for the day so that he’d have some company and he insisted that he didn’t want any company that day. Now we know why he didn’t want company!

They had raffles, food/drinks, a band, and a huge bonfire to end the party. A fantastic day! $1400 was raised to go toward his medical expenses so we were very thankful for that. Even more than the money, just seeing all of the people who gave of their time to support Andy was so gratifying.

Andy is now responsible for having someone write a couple of things in his “Brag Book” every day (thanks for the sugestion). He moaned and complained about it at first but we insisted. He’s still resisting the anti-depressants for some unknown reason so the tradeoff is that we require him to list at least one positive thing in his brag book each day. We’ve found that he is starting to look forward to it though even though he won’t admit it. 🙂 He’s begun to move his legs up and down by sliding his feet up the bed and bending his knees. He still has no movement in his feet and they are quite painful. His hands aren’t doing a whole lot either but he really is making great strides. Last Friday they began some intensive physical therapy where they are helping him grip parallel bars and then two therapists help him stand. They brace his knees with their knees because his knees start to buckle. For the first time, he’s saying that it feels good. Up until now he was in a lot of pain when they would try to move him.

He’s quite testy sometimes but who wouldn’t be? Sometimes I rent new movies and make root beer floats with the hospital ice cream and we have a little movie fest.

That’s all I can think of for now…have a nice weekend!