Valentine's, Archery and Family!

Valentine's - Archery - Family

One of Patrick's first outings since he got home from hospital February 2015. 

In the last post I mentioned that I was going to pick up where we are today from where we were at this time last year! I anticipated writing more last year, but it just didn't happen.

Kent February 2016 Archery

Kent had archery again this year but it was really early so just the two of us went. Kent's school took first place and Kent took 3rd overall in his school. I am so proud of him.

 Patrick is still sleeping 10-11 hours a night and still not wanting to nap. He is a stinker, and he has been practicing baseball with Kent and his team. Patrick really enjoys spending time with the kids. It is so good to see because last year he really couldn't stand to be around them. It was just too stimulating and loud for him.

Lunch at Blue Boar Inn

Last year for Valentines I took Patrick to the Blue Boar Inn for lunch, where we got married. We looked around and he said he remembered taking photos. I am still not sure if that was from what I told him or if he really remembered. Either way, we had a wonderful lunch and it was so good to see him happy. It has been the only thing he has remembered about me.

This year for Valentines day, we took the kids out to dinner and we got fresh strawberries and chocolate and made chocolate covered strawberries. The kids had so much candy from school, they were good and they all wanted to go out to dinner so we did, and it was really nice. Patrick and I got foot reflexology done and it was a really great experience. 

Listening to 80's music

At this point last year we were trying everything along with Occupational, physical and speech therapy. Music therapy, Patrick remembers every song and the words and can sing along. He is amazing and the brain is so interesting. There is no brain injury the same, it is so sad and we are so lucky.

Patrick tried and still does acupuncture and Energy Kinesiology and we were meditating everyday. We stayed on his routine and he worked really hard. We are both so impatient. I think that is one thing we are suppose to learn through all of this is patients and to slow down and enjoy life.

Patrick snow shoeing 

Kellan and Patrick 2016 

I didn't like him to go outside much last year, it was winter and the last thing I wanted was him to slip on ice. He was still working on his balance. I did let him shovel snow on the warm days.

This year we have so much snow he gets to use the snow blower and he does a really good job. We are also able to snow shoe in our back yard.

Nana and Patrick Walking

Patrick Painting

It has been so cold for my mom that we take her to the Recreation Center in town to walk laps. Getting my mom and Patrick out is really important, especially this time of year with the cold, gloomy weather.

We have been coloring, crocheting, painting, playing ping pong ball, cleaning out the basement, getting rid of stuff, sharing essential oils, therapy and being a father. Not getting frustrated, staying positive, believing and having faith that he will heal, he is healing, he has come so far in the last year.

It does not seem like much but he is grateful to be alive! We are grateful he is alive. He is so loving and we love him so much!

Had enough and relaxing in the sun February 2015

Kollette and Patrick 

Staying Positive

Patrick working with his horse.

I was hoping to have everything up to date and to be more current on this blog, however it has been a challenging year so I thought I would pick up from where we are now and compare to where we were a year ago, since I didn't write as much as I anticipated last year.

A year ago at this time, Patrick had therapy three times a day. He struggled with so much, it was hard on all of us. He still struggles and he gets frustrated.

I can't believe it has been over a year! It went by so fast and it seems like a daze and now we live our life differently and have accepted that things are different. We can't go back and change what happened. We stay positive and know that something good will come of all of this.

As good as we are doing, it is hard, really hard. There is not a day that goes by where someone has an emotional day in the household. We are so grateful for essential oils, such an amazing tool that we use for emotional and physical health! It is good we have these emotional days. It is part of the healing and we have become more grateful and positive because of it, so that is good.

Patrick doing physical therapy

As the new year begins we are grateful for how far Patrick has come in his healing, as frustrated and impatient as we are, we know we are extremely blessed for how far he has come.

Even though we do not have to go to see a therapist anymore for therapy, he still has physical, occupational and speech therapy every day. There are days where we take breaks, but I have noticed if we take too long of a break, it does effect him.

Patrick has decided that he is no longer going to take naps. Well after about a month, the kids and I noticed that he still really needs a nap. So we compromised with him, he does not need to nap everyday and he does not need to nap for an hour. But there are times where he needs to nap.

He looks great and physically he is great. He was able to ski for the first time since the accident and he did great. I asked him if it was weird that he knew how to ski but he didn't remember skiing? He replied that it was easy. Every time the kids and I get frustrated, we stop and think about how frustrated Patrick must be. He has such a great attitude. He does have down days, but he has a lot of good cheer leaders.

I guess depression and head aches play a huge part in brain injuries, Patrick's doctor is impressed he has not had either.

Last year at this time he didn't know the kids names, my name, he got the animals confused, he didn't know what day, month or year it is. Today he knows what day it is, what month it is and what year it is. He knows are names and who we are and the animals. He is still learning new things every day.

I can't believe how much snow we have this year! We were blessed last year with very little which was great for us since the snowblower didn't work. That was one thing I made sure of this year is to have it ready to go, and boy am I happy about that.

Plus Patrick is able to use it and he loves being able to do stuff around the house. He is great helping me with chores, he does great when I give him a list of things to do. He has a really good routine, which is helpful.


Patrick is so positive and we have learned that staying positive is huge! When ever one of us gets down, there is always the rest of us to bring them back up. We are team Chambers and we stay positive and we know that we are all going through this together, how important it is to stay positive.

We are grateful that we get to spend more time together, that he is alive, that he is healing. The kids love that he is around all the time,  he is amazing and we love him so much.

Kollette and Patrick