Day 3 at home has been a good one. I miss Laura and Lyssa and all my friends at TLC, but we are so happy to be here. Rick had visitors first thing this morning. Chris Mooney and all his boys and then Brad Stewart and Terry Haynes. Rick loves seeing everyone. Real life has proven to be a good dose of therapy for him. He talks more and probably walks as much with his walker as he did at TLC. We'll be back at PT in Seymour 3 times next week.

Colby called today to say that he misses Rick and things around TLC are really boring without him and the kids there. Blake had surgery yesterday to repair the broken bones in his arm and leg and handled it very well. Doctors still aren't optimistic, but Colby and his family aren't giving up.

I may not post as often as before...tonight I'm at my brother's house updating because Mom's internet is still down.

Love,
Crystal

Sorry I haven't been able to post in a couple of days...the internet at my mom's house is down. Rick's last day at TLC was a good one...a long one, but a good one. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, even though I know we will see them all again soon. Everybody in the room was crying except Rick! It was 9 o'clock before we got to Seymour, but Rick was so happy to get here. His Aunt Chyral had already brought over his favorite banana nut muffins and mom had a snack ready for him, too. He got in the recliner and looked right at home. He has slept pretty good both nights, waking up early in the morning to go to the bathroom, but he is already getting more rest than he did at TLC. Yesterday he spent most of the day in the recliner relaxing and watching tv. He used his walker to get everywhere he needed to go. We just finished his first PT session with Tim at the Seymour Hospital. Tim actually came to Wichita Falls last year to work with Rick a couple of times and was the first person to actually stand him up. He did really good with Tim this morning and I think he surprised him at how well he could do everything.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone while we're in Seymour, and Rick has already asked me, "Is anybody coming to see me today?" So, y'all come see him!

Thanks for everything!

Love,
Crystal

We have lived in Lubbock for 9 MONTHS! Can you believe that? I can't...and I am so ready to get home. Seymour, TX never looked so good! I will dearly miss Laura and Lyssa...it would have been really sad to go home every evening to an empty hotel room or apt. Laura has so many connections in Lubbock...whether I needed a mechanic or a lawyer, she knew who to call. I will miss everyone at TLC. Such a great group of people. Rick just asked me, "can we go home now? right now?" Bless his heart...still not sleeping and his give-a-shitter is just broke. But, we'll fix it with our own brand of TLC.

What will we do while we're in Seymour? Well, I only have about 5,000 thank you cards to write! I wrote a few when Rick was first hurt, but then it just got to be too hard to keep up with. So, that will keep me busy and it will also be great for Rick to know who all did what while he was still too out of it to know anything. We will start out patient rehab at the Seymour Hospital until I can get things set up with NT Rehab and already have our first session scheduled for Friday morning at 11 o'clock.

Our prayers are needed for Blake Brazil now more than ever. He has hit a rough patch. His lungs have collapsed and his temp is spiking. Please pray for God's mercy and healing to be over this family.

Love,
Crystal

The doctor's appointment yesterday went good. The kidneys and bladder both look good. He didn't really have an explantion for the blood and wants to follow up in 3 months. Laura and Kelley watched him walk in his socked feet again, and decided he had more tone than they originally thought. Laura felt like a bump in the baclofen pum was needed. Luckily we got a hold of Dr. Wolcott's nurse to come increase it before she left on vacation. Dr. W took all of his staff and their families to Cancun! Riley said, "when I grow up, I wanna work for Dr. Wolcott!" So, hopefully we'll see some more improvement in his tone. We also found out yesterday that his break will be more like 2 months instead of 1. It has to do with the DARS money and the timing of how it is released. We have plans of doing some outpatient therapy at North Texas Rehab in Wichita Falls. We will be staying with my parents in Seymour during the break and will be looking for a place of our own.

Rick got to ride again this morning at Hold Your Horses. He looked so good. His balance was fabulous and he rode even better than he did last time, but he was tired after 15 minutes. We got back to TLC and he ate lunch and laid down for a nap. The kids and I went to finish up some school shopping. They each picked out a new pair of shoes and was toting them around while we continued to shop in the mall. We went into Icing, and they made the mistake of putting their bags down and before we knew it, they had been stolen. I was so mad. I mean, you know how it is...it's not that I had spent a whole lot of money, but it had taken us 2 hours to find those shoes. And, I had told the kids to keep up with their stuff. I just couldn't believe someone would do that. Well, lucky for us there are more good people than bad. As many of you know, Heather Winn has a shop in the Lubbock mall which we stopped by after reporting the bags missing. Brooke was there and asked if Riley could stay. The next thing I know, Riley is calling telling me that Heather has replaced our shoes! Thank you, Heather you too kind.

It looks like Wednesday will be a full day of therapy with our discharge meeting scheduled for 4 o'clock. Looking forward to getting to Seymour and going nowhere for awhile!

Love,
Crystal

The kids and I got back from Seymour at 3:00 yesterday. Rick told me that Susan Pautsky had come by to see him and she brought trash mix and brownies...I swear, all these gals tryin' to steal my man! The sleep meds aren't working and I guess nothing will until we get him home. He is so tired. This morning we got a visit from Lacey and Brogan Rankin. They got to watch Rick walk with his new walker...which he is getting better and better at maneuvering. Laura and Kelley took Rick's shoes off of him today to see if walking in his socked feet would help him feel his foot placement better. They call that "input" from the floor. I thought it would work, but he didn't seem to have any better feel for it...they even tried taking his socks off.

The doctors are trying to wake Blake Brazil from his coma. They took him off all paralytics and sedatives. He is tolerating it which is an excellent sign, and has even responded to a command.

Praise God for all of his blessings. His timing and His ways are always perfect.

Love,
Crystal

Wow, what a day...I'm sure Rick feels like he was runover with a Mack Truck. He had the urology appointment this morning where we expected to pee in a cup and chat with the doctor. Well, we did way more than that! The doctor wanted to "take a look at Rick's bladder", so you know what that means...little camera going somewhere little cameras are not meant to go. He had some discomfort, but it only took 30 seconds for the doc to look and say everything looks good. So, now he wants a catscan of the kidneys. And the nurse says, "any day, any time?" And I said sure. She comes back with "how about today at noon." It's 11:45, so, why not? It took about 30 minutes to get insurance authorization and the catscan took about 20 minutes, a quick x-ray, and we were out at 1:30. So, basically Rick spent 4 hours at the doctors office. He was starving by the time we got back to TLC. They gave him time to eat and then a session of PT and that's all he did today. We'll get the results of the CT on Friday.

Sleep meds are changed so that he gets half a dose at bed time, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night he'll get the other half. Lack of sleep makes for a pretty cranky Ricky.

The kids and I are in Seymour tonight. We started packing up stuff from TLC and from L&L's Bed and Breakfast and Supper and Entertainment. Some how we've managed to accumulate as much stuff between those 2 places as we had at the house at TRR! We'll head back to Lubbock tomorrow after twirling practice.

Blake had a rough night. Started running a really high temp and had to be put on an ice blanket. Rick was on an ice blanket for 2 weeks straight. His vitals also got a little shakey for a while, but thankfully all is well today. Keep praying for this precious family...this roller coaster is a long one.

God Bless,
Crystal

Back to the boring ole' hum drum day again today. Rick didn't sleep last night and wasn't in the best mood. So, back to the drawing board with the sleep meds. He worked on walking in PT and again did really good with his walker and minimum help from Kelly. He made a PB&J sandwich in OT and beat his last time. They have a speech therapist that just comes in as needed and she came in today. She hasn't seen Rick in a month and said she could tell a huge improvement in his articulation and clearness.

He has a doctors appointment in the morning with a urologist. About a month ago when he was having bad back pains, the only thing we could figure was that he was passing a kidney stone. On Saturday we think he was trying to pass the stone out of his bladder, so the doc wants him to see the urologist to make sure eveything is okay.

Blake had another good day. He is doing better and will get on a different kind of ventilator that is a step down from what he's on. And the doctor that has been such a jerk and full of negativity actually has some positive things to say now.

because you know that the testing of your faith developes perseverance. James 1:3

Love,
Crystal