Tuesday, August 24th

When I left the Shepherd Center, they told me it would be a least a year before I could get off the ventilator. Well it took only five months, and as of this morning I've been off for 10 days now. I've spent the prior 45 days getting ready for this by going off of the ventilator for 16 hours a day and being only suctioned a number of time. My respiratory therapist told me if I felt like I was ready to go ahead and give it a try. It is a milestone for me because now no longer do I have to hide the sound of the ventilator when I go hunting this fall and that means a lot to me, hee hee. Due to my cold nature I'm going to have to hunt hard during the early months of the season this fall. I had some pretty severe shoulder pain the last few weeks, even went as far as getting a steroid shot. When my doctor told me about the shot he also said if the pain went away it was an overstretched muscle. If it did not go away it was something more serious. And lucky me, it did not go away. So I have another appointment on Thursday and I'll get my shoulder looked at again. And yet again another UTI, more antibiotics. On a brighter note, I have included photo's of my new wheelchair. It's a four-wheel-drive off-road wheelchair, that I am hoping will take me hunting this fall.I have yet to receive it or the other chair I bought off eBay. It is just like the one I have, it will be used as a donor chair for the off-road chair. I need the chair off of it for its tilting capabilities.