23rd Oct 2008

Dear all,

Thanks for all your nice messages and stories. Tommy really enjoyes them a lot and always has this huge smile on his face whenever I read them to him. Most of the time I need to read them twice … no need to tell you HOW MUCH he likes getting news from all of you!!

Just a quick note to let you all know that he is doing fine. He daily goes to Ghent for his rehab (except for Thursdays = his day off). During rehab they mainly focus on teaching Tommy to handle things we deal with in daily life. For example: make his own sandwiches, put on a jacket, fill and empty the dishwasher, …  He is pretty tired when he comes home and he listens to his books most of his free time.

Last weekend we were invited at a friends’ house and we had great fun. Gert and Sylvie rented this “tandem/twinbike” … Gert sat in the front and Tommy had his seat at the back. Sylvie and me each had our own bike and mainly watched the four little kids during our bike trip. We  got spoilt during these two days at the other side of small Belgium. It was a very nice way to distract and forget all the worries – even if it was just for two days. A big thanks to Syl & Gert. Here are some nice pics …

Our four sweet little monkeys … Onze vier kleine aapjes …

And the four big monkeys ….  Hier zijn dan de vier grote aapjes … 

Bye for now ….  Vicky

7th Oct 2008

Hello,

I thought it was about time that I wrote another story on the blog to inform all of you on Tommy’s condition. After Tommy’s father died we decided together with the doctor that Tommy needed some time off. All these strong emotions of what had happened lately did not do him good and to be frank Tommy was really fed up staying overnight in the hospital (he was there for almost 7 months). He stayed with his mother for almost two weeks with no therapy and during this time he kind of reloaded his batteries again.

Since last week Tommy is an ambulant patient at the Uni hospital in Ghent. This means that a taxi picks him up around noon and drives him to the hospital where he has his rehab. During the day he has logo, ergo and kine. They bring him back at 6pm. 

I just asked Tommy what he wanted me to add to this message and he asks that you keep on sending him messages via the blog. That really pleases him very much and he daily asks me to check the blog to see whether someone has written on it.

He listens to books most of his free time via his daisy player. This daisy player is an amazing tool for people who have a visional problem. Last Friday Tommy managed to read some words on the computer and this is very good news as well. We were always told that his eyes are perfect – the problem lays in the fact that the link brain/eyes is damaged. Time will tell how his vision will improve. 

Bye for now,

   Vicky