Hello everyone,
Thank you again for your generosity. The news I have is, at best, mixed.
First the good:
Jamie has been in intensive therapy for three weeks now. Her speech has improved a great deal, though there's a long way to go - some things come out effortlessly, others she has to stop and concentrate for long periods. Conversations are possible, but halting and often very slow.
The house was cleaned, thanks to the generosity of a friend who made the downpayment for us. All the old gross furniture and carpets were removed, and the boys and I are sleeping on new beds thanks to the generosity of another friend. Two of the four cats were adopted by a friend of my mother's in Massachusetts (all the local shelters were full with waiting lists well into next year).
The boys and I moved back into the house Monday 12/17. After cleaning out the piles of junk, there's little for them to do here aside from Netflix, Jamie's PC, and piles of books they find boring.
Now the bad:
Despite the intensive therapy, Jamie is still completely unable to move her right leg or arm, and I've given up hope that she will. This means - and I have to be blunt and realistic about this - that our careers and our lives are effectively over. I'll need to be home all the time to help her with simple things like getting on the toilet and taking a shower, not to mention keeping our kids from running amok.
I had previously set my hopes on moving us all to CA, returning to my current employer (who's supported us very generously), and getting some kind of in-home care for her while I worked to keep us fed and sheltered. However, I was cautioned that in the medium-term, the company might need less people in my specific position - an expected consequence of production cycles in our industry. I could be moving us across the country just to be left jobless for the sixth time in eight years.
The therapy facility said they planned to release Jamie on 12/29, but they've since backtracked and want to move her to a longer-term care facility for two months. That's because I'm not physically capable of moving her on my own (I have a bad back), and our house is not suitable for someone in her condition. The only bathroom is on the second floor, and she can't use stairs.
What I'm doing now:
Regardless of WHERE we move (CA or local), we HAVE to move. Jamie can't live in a house with stairs. I'm working with a realtor, and if she's lucky, we can get enough to clear the mortgage debt. We bought at the nadir of the housing crisis, so while the boys have done quite a bit of damage, the overall value has gone up.
Once Jamie's out of therapy, I want to work with her to cull our possessions. We've accrued too much STUFF over seventeen years together, and most of it will have to be tossed to reduce moving/storage costs. Most of the furniture was already sent to the dump, but we still have to grapple with less bulky, more numerous items - books, clothes, toys, media. We have to slim down to the items we use every day, or that have significant sentimental value.
Beyond that, I don't know what to do next. I wish I had better news, or I was able to phrase this in more encouraging way, but right now the future seems bleak.
- Chris
