Exciting times for Gerard

Well the Premier came to visit and spent about 15 mins with Gerard getting a demo, look and discussion about all of his technology- Eye Tech, Dragon, the big screen as well as his diaphragmatic pacer and sip and puff wheelchair. Gerard really enjoyed their time and the visit was deemed a big success. Vicki Ward, the Member for Eltham and Anthony Carbines, the Member for Ivanhoe were also there as well as the CEO of the hospital and the Head of Spinal. Gerard got his 3 secs of fame on Channel 7 and Channel 9 news that night. (attached if you missed it)

We had a fabulous dinner out with our Warrandyte mates the same night. It was great to go out at night and have dinner. We had been to Vanilla Orchid with some other good friends the week before so we are enjoying our outings. I even got Gerard to Parent Teacher interviews at Luther last week, home for dinner and back almost by the 8.30 curfew (missed it by that much) We only just made it back on Sunday night after a lovely dinner at our nephews house. Our other nephew and his family were out form the States so we weren’t going to miss that. Gerard has also managed to get special permission from Steve Hill the Spinal consultant to stay out until 10 this Saturday night as The Venom Youth League Men play in the Grand Final at 7pm. Go Venom! Hopefully it is not too cold! The party van makes it easy for us to get places.

Our first team of volunteers have been trained and are at the ready to pick Gerard up and get him out and about. Jack the physio is in awe of the fact that we have more than one person ready, willing and able. We have more volunteer training planned for next Monday night.

The transition to VASS is still in motion. It is slow as all the I’s need to be dotted and the t’s crossed. There is still staff training to do, health care plan documents to be finalised and equipment to be purchased and delivered. We have learnt in the past 11 months that nothing happens is a hurry, so we keep working on the goals that we need to achieve before the move and let everyone else do theirs (and ask the odd question as to how they are going!) There are lots of new people to meet- a whole new community team will take over when he moves, so we need to get our head around who they are and where they fit into the scheme of things. There are a few more visits to VASS planned and an overnight stay to do before Gerard moves in. Another 3 or 4 weeks maybe???? Who knows