Palo Alto in June

Derek has been extremely busy settling into his new regime at the VA Palo Alto. He is now a hospital resident and has a very comfortable private room with bathroom. Thankfully, he is allowed to go out in the evenings with greater freedoms on the weekends, which allows us to have some time together and catch up on the goings ons. The purpose of being a resident is to allow Derek to gain even more independence in his everyday living, which he is already demonstrating extremely well in his first two weeks. Derek's P.R.A. therapists will be pleased to hear that he is utilising his PDA and building on the skills he learnt.

I'm really hopeful that Derek will finally learn to ride a Bicycle! This is something Derek has never in his life been able to do, so wouldn't it be incredible if he can master this skill post injury. There are vast amounts of adaptive equipment available for people with all sorts of different injuries, and thankfully Derek has really great recreational therapists at the VA who are able to seek this out. I'm already so impressed by Derek's commitment to his therapy, and he just continues to make me so proud.

Sally and Dan at the VA

We have already been extremely spoilt with various recreational outings: we were treated to several meals courtesy of the Elks and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, and we also got to go to a Country Music Concert/festival. The latter was a real treat as we had amazing seats and got to see Leanne Rimes and Kenny Chesney. So we have been keeping busy and getting reacquainted with the Bay.

I have moved back into the Fisher House while we await military housing, but hopefully it wont be too long now. At least I was able to fall back into the old routine easily and it is so convenient to where Derek is lodging. The decor is also still looking just as gorgeous a year on- this really is a wonderful charity.

We are going to be going on a trip courtesy of Disabled Sports USA next week which sounds like it is going to be extremely fun and eventful. So watch this space....

Granted the banner speaks for itself- but this was a Semper Fi luncheon we attended. This charity has been so wonderful to us- thankyou Don and Karen!