Home Away from Home

Greetings from Atlanta! First, a huge thanks to my dad and his wife for holding down the fort in Maryland - and to all of our unbelievably kind and generous neighbors who are walking London while the boys are at school as well as feeding my family. Thank you, thank you. 

Attention DMV friends (out of state friends are welcome too!): If you haven’t already saved the date for Friday, May 29 from 6:30-8:30 pm - please add it to your calendars now! We will be at Baby Cat Brewery in Kensington. Baby Cat will donate 10% of all sales that night (thank you Baby Cat!!) AND Help Hope Live (the 501c3 that is collecting all of the donations for David) is hosting its annual Hope in Action day, where they waive all credit card fees on online donations. That means every dollar donated to David's campaign that day goes further than ever. Woot!! This is EXTRA important because we have a major purchase we will be making in the next month or so.

So back to Atlanta, I’m mainly here for an event I called the “Minivan Petting Zoo.” (Please note: It is not called but I think we can all agree it should be. David told me the correct name a bunch of times but it didn’t stick because the real name is just not as good.) Anyway, a few of the local companies that convert and sell accessible minivans and trucks brought the vehicles and their experts up to the top of one of the parking garages so we could look at them up close and figure out the heights and widths and all of that fun stuff.  We looked at 3 different vans and David almost drove himself off the ramp of two of them on his way out. It’s down to the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey - I need to test drive both of the newer models once I get back home so we can make our final decision. Adulting: zero out of 5 stars. 

David continues to experience daily challenges with his blood pressure. While mine has been trying to creep up since February 8 (go figure), as I believe I’ve shared before, he has the opposite problem: hypotension. It can take well over an hour - sometimes two - just for him to be able to get out of bed in the morning and be upright in his chair. Every time he feels light headed, he has to either be moved back to bed or tip backwards in his wheelchair and slowly work his way up. His doctor and nursing team are continuing to try all the tricks and I’m so hopeful that this will be resolved PDQ. Oh - and if anyone ever wondered if Sudafed really does elevate your blood pressure…David’s getting 2 each day before he gets out of bed to do just that.

Earlier today, I met one of the volunteers who brings mail and packages around to each of the rooms. She and David had clearly spent some time talking and visiting over the past few weeks - and she commented how unique and amazing our circle of friends is. I could NOT agree more. 

David will be moving rooms again this weekend - this time over to the adjoining building. Patients are grouped based on their doctor but with the construction occuring at Shepherd, they took one entire team (case managers, PTs, OTs, rec therapists, psychologists - everyone but the nursing staff) and temporarily relocated them - and now they’re taking them back. Please email or text one of us to get his new snail mail address. Thankfully Hilary (amazing step-sister #1) is coming up this weekend from Alabama to be with David and help with the move - and of course rehanging all of your great cards! She’ll consolidate and save some space so that new cards from all of you can continue to make their way to David. 

It will also be a busy weekend at Casa de Sward: this weekend is the great garage purge!  In addition to the parents being there, amazing step-sister #2 Ruthie is coming in to help along with a lot of other friends and neighbors. I am both daunted…and grateful for all of the assistance. 

Finally, one of the many things we appreciate about Shepherd Center is their recreation therapy program. This isn’t something that insurance would ever cover but it’s important for David and the other patients from both a mental health and an independence perspective to have these kinds of outings so Shepherd looks for outside sources of funding to pay for it. Rec therapy brought David to the High Museum last weekend - and our friends Eric & Lyle who were visiting joined him there. Another reason Shepherd created the rec therapy program is to make sure patients leave the Shepherd oasis (bubble?) and get a sense of what it will be to reintegrate post-discharge: the doors don’t open with a wave of the hand and people don’t get out of your way when you’re coming down the hall in a wheelchair like they do at the Center. But because of Shepherd - and each of one of you - David will be more independent and our family will be stronger once we’re all reunited in Maryland.

Thank you, 

Erika and David