Our Family Update

The following pictures were all taken by my wonderfully talented, professional photographer friend, Cynthia Korman! You can see more of her beautiful work HERE on FaceBook! Please stop and have a look at her work! She rocks!

Hannah Gurl is now 13 and becoming quite a beautiful young lady both inside and out! We are always being told how kind, caring and courteous she is. Last year, gurly-gurl started gymnastics and this year has worked her way up to being a helper/teacher with the other students! She is currently working hard to get her back walk over perfected and trying to find time to ride her horse Lil Bit! She is not quite sure where she wants to be after highschool but she is leaning towards photography (at the moment) ...

 Isaac has just turned 15 and can always be found with his ear buds in listening to music with a paper and pencil not far from his reach! This last year Isaac illustrated a childrens book, Liam's Magic Rocket, that  BI survivor, Daniela Aum, wrote! He was quite the local celebrity for a few weeks as both newspapers ran the story! Isaac joined drama this year and is looking forward to major production in the spring - which is Oliver! He loves highschool and takes his courses very seriously. He wants to go to the Art Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia when he graduates, although he is not 100% sure if he wants to do Graphic Design, Culinary Arts or Fashion Style...

Samuel is closing in on 17 (in mid-Dec) and as of the last 6 or so weeks has been TOTALLY seizzure medication FREE and the big pay off here is NO SEIZURES and is over ONE YEAR SEIZURE FREE! The last year has been a very bumpy one filled with many tears, prayers (both answered yes and no). Sam will be starting at a closer, smaller school on Monday and I am sure we will continue to see more changes as this happens! Sam is still wanting to farm with Dennis and I when he is done school. He also wants to ave his own meat cutting shop,  which my inlaws already so,  so he can take over from them.

Joshua is 18 now and completing his grade 12. He is busy with football, work (where he works for a local farmer) and his girlfriend Dana. There is not much more to say about Josh because those three things are is life!  He is not too sure what he wants to do when he is done in June, but he 'might' be interested in going on an ag exchange, going to college for heavy duty mechanics or ag business. ahhh to be young and your whole life ahead of you!

Dennis and I are busy with the farm and working more and more to the holistic style of management here. We are working hard to bring the land back to a healthy state and grow our cattle in the same natural (as much as possible) style. God gave us this wonderful world, land and opportunity to farm again so we want to be sure that we treat His gifts with as much respect and gratitude as we possibly can!
I am hoping for myself to maybe get more into playing with my camera as we go. I love being behind the lens and creating beautiful pictures for myself and others. Maybe once we get into a smoother routine of life I will find this time for me.

what a few well scripted lines can do...

Last fall Dennis and I bought an amazing little addition to our entertainment world... we bought a PVR. On the whole we, as a family, do not watch a whole lot of television. We watch a few shows together for family time and each of the kids has a show or 2 that they like to watch, so we thot this would be a good purchase so that we could record the shows we want and watch when it is a good time for us.

We found 2 great shows that impressed us and they were "about" Brain Injury patients, either high functioning or not so much..

One was "The Finder". The basic premise of this show was a veteran with a TBI was awesome at locating things (Walter HAD to look for whatever it was that struck him until he found it) He was kind of like a Magnum P.I. for 2012. It was an awesome show and we all loved it. Sadly it was cancelled and one of the main characters died in real life just a month ago (Micheal Clarke Duncan). We are all very disappointed, especially Sam as it was a show where it had a survivor doing really cool things!

The other show I started recording was "Saving Hope". It is about a doctor (Charles) that was with his fiance on their way to their wedding and there is a car accident, he gets out of the cab he was in, helps a lady in the vehicle that has hit them then he collapses and goes into a coma with a brain bleed. The rest of the show follows the day to day of the hospital and its patients.... and his fiance (who is also a doctor) as she deals with this trauma and her day to day stuff at the hospital. All the while the Charles is talking about being a doctor and a patient. As I watched the first episode today, I struggled between tears of remembrance of Sam's accident and daddy's accident, I cried for the fiancee and what she was feeling as I remembered that feeling of not knowing what to think or do. Then I cried as I heard this line from the Charles: "What if we knew our patients? What if we knew what made them laugh, cry, smile? What if we listened to our patients?"
 I was walking on my treadmill and I almost fell off when he said this...

Yes ...

WHAT IF....

What if doctors actually did listen to patients and their families!? How many people would not be misdiagnosed? How many families would not be torn apart by too much medication or not enough? How many patients would have a happy life free from pain or drugs? I strongly believe that doctors really need to learn to not just listen to their patients but they need to learn to HEAR what they are saying and believe them! I know a lot of what our family has gone through the last year... heck the last 4 years... 16 years if we want to go back to my dad's accident (20 if we want to get really into it with Dennis' last accident!) if doctors had just listened and heard what we were saying about things we were seeing and experiencing. Not just brush us off as they 'had a busy day and many more patients to see.' How is their time any more important than ours? How is their day any busier than ours when it comes to saving someones life? Maybe instead of doctors pushing to "save" as many people as possible should focus more on taking the time to 'getting to know your patients and see them as people, husbands, mothers, daughters, sons, brothers and not as a meal ticket or the next payment on their new boat or vacation.

I know there are good doctors out there and we were VERY fortunate to have one with Dr. Chapman ,who was the doctor who saw BOTH Dennis and Sam at the times of their accidents and was our family doctor from the birth of Josh in 1994 until his retirement a few years ago. He believed in spending time with his patients and they were like a family to him. He knew I loved Corrie St. and would tease me about it. If we happened to see him in town he always had a big smile and wave for us. He believed in getting to know his patients and listening to them. He didn't want to go home at night and suddenly realize at 2am that he had missed something! This meant our time with him was just that and he gave you his undivided attention.

He should have been teaching a course on this to up and coming doctors so that many many MANY more people could have benefited from this type of treatment. Our new doctor (Dr. N)  is not quite like family as Dr. Chapman but he seems to be getting to that.  So we will keep seeing him for now.

I guess what I was trying to get at, was how much a couple of well scripted lines from a tv show can  make you think (and cry) and then create a post about it!  If you have the chance to see reruns of The Finder (or if you can find episodes on line) I high recommend it and Saving Hope is on for another season , so far and so far (meaning one episode in) I love it!

Where we are at these days...

Ginter Family 2012

So it has been 5 weeks that Sam has been off of all the medications and so far so good. He is eating well, sleeping great and is able to go to school, play football and basically participate in life in a way that he hasnt been able to since last fall (and to be honest really since his accident 4 years ago).

He is in school full time meaning all day, everyday -- just like everyone else! His course load is not a heavy one but not an easy one either. We are working with him to keep his stress low and to not let things get to him (and on that end it will be a time will tell scenario of if he can do it)

We had a meeting/interview with the Lion's Foundation, 2 weeks ago about a seizure dog and we hope to know by mid to end October if he is on the list to get one. Even tho' Sam has been siezure free for a year and a bit now, he will always be at risk for them. A dog will be added peace of mind to Dennis and I for when Sam is out on his own  - even Sam admitted it would be less stress on him to know that there was someone (even a dog) there to help if he has a seizure! The dog (if we get one) will be trained for getting a phone to Sam after a seizure, barking to get help during a seizure and it will be trained to dial the lifeline if no one responds to the dogs barking! If he is approved for one Sam could have a dog as soon as February 2013. It is then that there is another class/seesion in Oakville Ontario, but it could be later also... so we will see! 

This is where we are in life right now... again. One day at a time and luckily we have been blessed with no drame as of late! Praise the Lord!

We had family photos done yesterday (the top pic of from that session!) and once I have all the pics of the kids back I will update on everyone else! 

One more day...

then the kids are all back to school...
then maybe I can get back to a normal regular routine...
maybe I can relax...
maybe....


let the countdown  commence...

**sigh**