Update #80 on Kevin

Low carbs….. My brother, Kevin, is a big believer in low carbs. So many times, I saw him eat a burger without the bun. Or go to a buffet and have all you can eat steak, proclaiming that it was okay to have that fourth steak…since he wasn’t having any bread or rolls. Kevin has taken care of himself; athletic, good looks, but it’s his personality that people usually fall for. It’s more than just being outgoing. It’s being friendly, nice, helpful. In my opinion, it’s being like Jesus. Is that to say that Kevin lived a perfect life? No, but neither did David, Abraham, Jonah or Paul. And neither have any of us. For those of us who are believers, we strive to do the right thing. That doesn’t mean we do it every single time. What it means is that if we weren’t striving to do the right thing, we would do it right even less than we do now.

Kevin’s eye appointment got cancelled today. His eye doctor got stranded out of state. His eye appointment has been rescheduled for Friday morning.

Since he didn’t go anywhere (on an eye doctor field trip), we requested that Kevin get another one of those old fashioned real showers! You know the kind….water pours out of a shower head on the wall and washes away all the soap and grime. They use a PVC pipe bed for the showers. Again, Kevin had a speaking valve placed instead of hooked up to wall-flo air. He coughed a couple times, but not much they said. He came out smelling good and looking good with a freshly shaved face. Something hit me, the other day when we were going through Kevin’s house stuff. We have to open up boxes and go through everything from his house. We look for flood damaged items. I opened one box and I thought that smells like Kevin. It was sour. I am not a big fan of the sponge bath….maybe it depends on who does it, but often he is not fully cleaned with one. So, I am happy with the real shower.

We continue to learn how to be advocates for Kevin. We don’t want to come across as jerks to anyone, but we don’t want his care to suffer in any way. Overall, the staff at Meadowbrook is great. We have formed several friendships being there and seeing their care for Kevin and our family. We are thankful for where God has us right now. It is hard to look at the future, much less the next step, it seems to be shrouded in a gray fog (or is it grey?). We just forge ahead, looking at the bits of the puzzle that God lays down in front of us. Is it hard? You bet. Is it what we really want to be doing? No way. But we will follow God, in the good and the bad.

Kevin’s house is still being finished. The kitchen floor could not be installed since the heater does not work. The glue would not stick if they tried to place the vinyl flooring now. It has to be more than 65 degrees for the floor to stick. The solution is to get an electric heater that will keep it a tropical 65 degrees for 24 hours in order for the floor to adhere. The flooring should be done by Thursday. Long term, we need the heater fixed (and the AC too). Please let me know if you know how to fix a heater.

The kitchen cabinets need to be ordered and then they can be installed. We have a small team for that. It should take a couple days once we have the modules bought. We have about $1100 towards a total need of about $2300. If you can contribute towards that, pleeeease let me know ASAP (Matt 850-9828).

Kevin was in the neuro chair earlier and was awake throughout. Remember, when I state “awake” I do not mean fully out of his state. In the early levels of consciousness you will begin to have awake and sleep cycles. The provigil Kevin has been on, seems to be having good effects. Also, we have been reading much of the material from the Brain Injury Association of America. There are all different things we can try, which we plan as we move forward.

Now, I think I’ll go get a burger without a bun, in honor of Kevin…..nah, I’ll still eat the bun.

Thanks for reading,
Matt, Angie and family
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