Message from Sam

Hi, this is Sam. I want to say thank you for reading my BLOG. I have got notes from people all over the world. I like being home and I am feeling good. I had a Michigan Adventure day planned with my friends 3 days after my accident. I will reschedule that for next summer with my friends. School is going really good except I have have too much homework.

My mom and dad printed all the comments and emails for me when I was in the hospital so I could read them. Thanks.

Next week I order some braces that I can put over my legs and stand. I balance with a walker or forarm crutches. I can only balance on parallel bars now, but will be learning with the crutches in therapy.

My new wheelchair is not here yet because the insurance takes so long. I might have it next month.

I want to play sled hocky next year. It looks like lots of fun. We are also looking at bikes that I peddle with my hands like the one in the pictures. I want to quad again so I can ride outside on trails. I will have to sell my motorcycle and snowboard. I am going to try adaptive skiing at cannonsburg next winter because they won't let me try it yet this year.

Thank you for praying for me and sending notes. Thank you for visiting me in the hospitals. It helped make it more fun.

Sam Wassink

Note from Dad: This will probably be the last blog we will do. The next "big" event will be sometime in December when we stop the anti-biotics. If the infection flares up after that, we will need to go back to Spectrum and have the metal rods taken out of Sam's back. Join us in praying that the drugs do their job. There is a higher than not probability that the infection will hide out on the titanium rods and will not be fully killed.

If you would like ot be informed of what happens with that OR any other turn or milestone that occurs, sent us your email and we will put you on our list. If you want to drop a message to Sam, you can comment here OR sent him an email at wassinks@comcast.net

Kris and I really really treasured your prayers, calles, encouragements, notes, cards, emails, meals, helping hands, and many other ways you used to show your love and support. We have heard from people we have not seen for many many years. Too bad it takes events like this to bring people together and experience the cool side of friendships.

I hope God Blesses you and sustains you as he has us.
Randy, Kris, Luke, & Samuel.

The newest pictures

We've got more great looking pictures of Sam, from bowling to Sea-Dooing to eating at BD's Mongolian Barbecue (and who doesn't like eating at BD's?). As always, click on the pictures to make them bigger:

School and stuff

I know I (dad) promised an update after school started. We have been so busy that we have not even had time to update the weblog. Losing my hard drive in my laptop did not help either!

Anyway, Sam has completed his first week and 1/2 of school and is doing very well. Things seem to be going well with the building, friends, teachers, and logistics. The only thing struggling is homework... some things don't change a bit... I wish I could help more, but that math they are working on in 7th grade seems like college stuff to me. Good thing I got hooked by a brilliant wife. We are relieved that things are going so well. Sam is enjoying it (so he says). When we ask him what he learned about today in school, he still replies with the standard "nothing". Sam's attitude continues to be impressive (to us). We still have so much fun together.

Throwing a wheelchair in and out of the vehicle, carrying Sam around the house, following schedules, and just doing life a little different is not seeming as different as it did a month ago. I guess we are adjusting, Sam is adjusting, and these new things are beginning to feel a little normal. It has been 12 weeks since the accident. So much has happened since that day that it is hard to believe that it was only 12 weeks ago... yet it seems like yesterday that I was with him in the sand dunes after he told me he could not feel his legs anymore and then fighting to keep him conscious and breathing long enough for the helicopter to arrive.

Now today, just 12 weeks later, we went out on the Thornapple River to try our hand at Kayaking. Sam and I did the double and Kris was on her own Kayak. We wondered if Sam would be able to balance enough to paddle without out benefit of abs and legs. He did very well. We went about 45 minutes first up then back down stream. After he stated that he could easly lean and splash Kris about 20 feet away, we no longer had mercy on him. He was fair game again.

Last Sunday we biked on the White Pine Trail to Rockford. I think we will look for a different bike since the front wheel on this specific bike tends to rub his legs on a sharp turn. We compensate by putting rollerblade knee pads on his legs where the wheel hits his skin. Hopefully we can find a better design out there. It sure is fun to do that together!

Sometime next week Sam is going to write the last note in the weblog. We will probably quit doing updates since things are not as fluid as they were 1-2 months ago. We have moved from immediate trauma, to daily significant events, to recovery milestones, and now we are making gradual progress on many fronts. We have not seen any changes in the state of the paralysis... and given the last MRI findings that the spinal cord has indeed been torn apart, only a miracle from God will change things. Can He do it? Sure. Will He? I don't know. He seems to use things like this to shape, change, motivate, challenge, and shift perspective on life.

Some next steps for us are:
- Wednesday evening we are going to Byron Center High school to attend a wheelchair basketball practice (www.grwsa.com). Sam can not do contact sports yet... but soon he will!

- We will be ordering leg braces so he can spend time on a regular basis "standing" to help keep his bones and such healthy.

- Complete the house renovations and look for ways to incorporate Sam into home chores (like looking for a good deal on a hand controlled lawn mower that he can use) and modifying things we already have so that he can use them.

- My brother Barry is designing an outside elevator lift system to get Sam from the main floor to the basement. We would love to have that completed before the snow comes.

- Continued therapy at Mary Free Bed.

- Keep the infection under control. We won't know until late winter / early spring if he will need surgery to remove all the titanium screws and rods in his back so the infection will not hide there anymore.

Thanks for praying for Sam. It has helped him tremendously. We all continue to need them.

If you have any questions or just want to say hi, please shoot us an email at wassinks@comcast.net or randyw@glinteriors.com. We love your notes and we pass them on to Sam.