From Crushing Goals to Hugging Bowls

Cory just keeps on pushing harder and harder and striving to do everything in his power to get back to not only walking, but to one day getting back on the bike again. After a bit of a setback in the last few days, he is so determined to get himself back to a normal life.

But first I want to say a big congratulations to our Beautiful daughter Jeldi , who amongst all of this is also trying to lead a normal life of balancing school and a part time job. After battling a completely incompetent driving assessor, Jeldi has also now passed her moped test and is now mobile! Big thanks to Drew from Bunbury Motorcycle School.

Jeldi, you are an amazing young lady and we are so proud of you, just stop getting any older… pretty please….

On Thursday the 15th Cory woke again with pain, but the previous few days Cory has been getting stomach aches which I believe was from having Oxy-Codon as a PRN, so we decided to try some Paracetamol instead, this should be a lot friendlier on the stomach! Aunty Sharna, Liam and Tommy came to visit and joined us as we did his I-Rehab. Both the boys looked pretty stunned to see their big cousin who is always showing them how to do tricks on bikes and scooters, now bound to a wheel chair and unable to do a lot for himself. Keryn also came to visit us and joined us as Cory did his physio session. After lots of stretches and some sit to stand (achieving 50cm) then some squats, Cory started to work towards getting up from the ground unaided. This was incredibly difficult and although he was super determined to do it, he just could not manage the strength to get from the point where he is bent over with his hands and feet on the ground and his knees bent, to straighten up and push up though his knees into the standing position. This is really day one of his goal which he gave himself 9 days to achieve though.
It is probably actually a challenge for a lot of you reading this too. Try it!

Later that evening, we took Cory for his first time to Ronald McDonald House for dinner, where we also played some Table Tennis, Air Hockey, Foosball and some Pac Man, then checked out our room before bringing him back to the Hospital for the night.

Friday Morning Cory woke up extremely tired and sore, the room was so hot the night before that neither him or his roommate managed much sleep at all. Things were off to a really slow start and Cory needed to be at Physio by 10, although requesting his morning micro lax, the nurses did not get there in time and Cory poo’s without it, before having his shower.
Kristy and Rick arrived and we were super excited to have them up, it is amazing how much love and support these two wonderful people have shown to us throughout this journey and this was the first time that Cory was actually meeting them!
With a bit of a freshen up and a bit of bounce with Kristy and Rick arriving we headed off to do Physio with Nicola albeit running pretty late….

Cory did some of his own stretches and some sit to stand work before really turning his attention to his goal of standing up unaided from the ground. I am really not too sure what happened next, whether he was putting on a show for Kristy and Rick or what was going on, but he managed to get himself all the way from the ground to standing with Nicola only once touching him and claiming “Sorry, that wasn’t for you, it was for me, I can’t believe you just did that”. Keep in mind that this is a goal he had set for another 7 days in the future and one that would reasonably be expected to struggle with even in that amount of time, especially since the best sit to stand height he had achieved to date was 50cm!

Not content with that goal and a cheeky grin on his face he turned to the physio stairs and said, I want to try the stairs…. Needless to say, he smashed that too! I guess I had an issue with eye integrity at that point and they started to leak a little.. J

After Physio we headed out down Hay St with Kristy and Rick to grab some lunch and to get a hair cut. He is certainly looking way better without the mop and it was an absolute pleasure to spend the day with a couple of absolute legends. See you next time you’re up!!

After Kristy and Rick left back to Bunbury (hope you didn’t get a parking ticket…) we chilled for a while before heading over to RMH for dinner and some more Table Tennis.

Saturday the 17^th was off to a good start for Cory waking up without pain again and not requiring any additional painkillers over and above his normal concoctions, just after a shower Meghan and Chad arrived and we headed down to the satellite room for some physio.
Cory began with some stretched that he did himself, before moving onto some sit to stand work. Although he had previously achieved the height he was working on, he still struggled with it. Some days are good and some not so much.
He then got onto the floor and showed off his floor to stand moves for Chad and Meghan before walking from the Plinth to the door and back completely unaided! (about 5m there and 5 metres back)

Saturday was another milestone for Cory, not so much in a physical sense, but he and Chad had planned to get out and see a movie for some time now and Saturday was the day for that!
With Popcorn and a Choc-Bombs in hand, Chad, Cory and I headed in to catch the new Jumanji movie while Shona and Meghan caught up for a coffee.

We arrived back at Princess Margaret around 2pm and after downing his 2pm meds, Fliss arrived and we ordered a couple of pizzas.

Later on we also had Darren and Robyn of MaD Cycles Bunbury rock up for a visit and to give Cory a couple of gifts and some cash that they raised for him on Australia Day! Thanks Robyn, Darren, Mark and the entire MaD Cycles crew and everyone that supported Cory on this day!

After Darren and Robyn departed, we headed over to Ronald McDonald House for dinner where both Cory and Fliss ate nothing….lol, they did however head up to the games room where we played some Table Tennis and some arcade games.

Sunday the 18^th was again off to a good start, a little sleep in, but again waking without pain. After normal meds, toilet routines and a shower, Cory and his roommate Jayten headed up to the MegaZone where they played some Sega Rally, Air Hockey and hung around in general before coming back to Ward 7Teen for some lunch.

This is where the story turns…
After expressing that his spaghetti bog tasted weird and dousing it in grated cheese, Cory reluctantly ate it, then about 30 minutes later he said he was starting to feel sick…..
Our good friends Kylie, Paul, Ryan, Scott and Abbey rocked up and unfortunately didn’t get to see much of Cory as his tummy was aching a lot so I put him in a bath to try to settle his stomach a bit and make him feel a little nicer. It was great to see the Selkes (and the Bartle Boys) and after a bath Cory was feeling  a little more perked up, just not for very long, just long enough to show off his T-Rex walking style and to get a great photo with them

I left pretty much straight after Paul and Kylie and headed over to catch up with Gary and help him to work on his car, I was only there for maybe a hour before Shona called me and asked me to come back as Cory really was not too well.
When I did arrive back I was shocked to see Shona wearing a mask and gloves and the nurses donned in disposable gowns and the state of Cory, hunched in the foetal position in pain and as white as a ghost. I had only just missed some major firing from both ends and he was rapidly getting worse. I will spare you the gory details as you will need to eat again at some point in your life and we would hate to put you off your dinner for ever..
Fearing severe dehydration he was immediately connected to an IV drip and stabilised. Within a couple of hours of the drip being connected and some ondancetron to ease the nausea, Cory was starting to get some colour back in his face!
One thing he did manage to stay positive about through this was “I’m so glad this happened now and not 2 weeks ago when I couldn’t move my legs”. He’s definitely a glass half full kind of guy!

Picture to come…..

Sunday night was not such a great night with a couple more rounds of uuuuurrrrk going on and finally being able to have his normal pain meds around 2:30 am (6hrs post being due) as the nurses were convinced that he may actually be able to keep them down now. Shona stayed the night for the first time in quite some time now, but I don’t think either of them actually slept….
Monday was spent in complete lock down, with many showers and lots of school work. Shona spent most of the day scrubbing the room just incase it was gastro and I spent the day solving the Rubiks Cube… We both succeeded in our quests…. Haha Oh and Cory was able to keep down his morning meds and even ate some toast!
His last little “episode” (still aware you will need to eat at some point in the future..) was around 11 am and from this point on he only got better and better although remained in lock down for the remainder of the day.

Tuesday the 20^th was also spent in complete isolation, although feeling great the hospital has to put in precautions to ensure that Cory does not spread whatever it was that he had to other patients, especially since there are undoubtedly some kids with very low immune systems around.
Not being able to attend the REWALK exoskeleton was pretty frustrating for Cory as he was really looking forward to being part of the training of this new awesome piece of kit, but he had to settle for us giving him some stretches before doing 30 minutes on the MotoMed and moving on to some sit to stand work, some floor to stand work and some walking, just to keep him progressing a little until we can get back with the professionals.

Wednesday Cory woke up feeling good after a good nights sleep, but was still a game of hurry up and wait, with the 48hr isolation not being lifted until around 11:30am. Cory was out that door before the doctors had even finished talking to Shona, he had spent the last 3 days in lock down and he wanted out of that room!

We then headed down to the Physio gym where we got to watch the Physio team being trained to use the REWALK, what an awesome experience and what a fantastic piece of kit this is for people who may never ever be able to walk again by themselves! As this was a training exercise and not Cory in the REWALK we were unable to take any photos, but I am sure that he will have the opportunity to get in this at some stage and you can be assured that if we are able to take photos, we will!!!

Cory has also created a brand NERVE, if you would like one of his shirts, let us know 🙂

Sorry again for a long post guys, there really is so much going on and too much not to write, we are already leaving lots of the little things out as it is, but every day we are seeing so much improvement and we are becoming more and more confident every day that Cory will be able to lead a fairly normal life post this journey.

We really appreciate all the love, comments and support that has been coming our way and we are blown away with people like Gary, Chad & Meghan and Kristy & Rick. We don’t have enough words for you guys, we really don’t!

 

#corycrombiecan
#muchlove

The Crombies