Kevin's Recovery Helping Kevin Mather on his road to recovery

This past week

Kevin and Tiffany have had an eventful week with some highs and lows.  Kevin celebrated his birthday last Tuesday and had a great time with friends and family.  He is very thankful for the birthday wishes he received from everyone.

 Later in the week he received some hard news that his grandpa had died.  Please be in prayer for not only Kevin but also his immediate family as they deal with this and plan for the upcoming funeral.  

In the actual recovery process Kevin’s stomach has still been a major issue.  The antibiotics he was on have greatly effected him and it has not seemed to have gotten much better now that he is off of them.  Please continue to pray for him in this area as it has impacted him in his daily activities.  Also last Thursday he had a last minute procedure done on the puncture in his knee.  They did a minor surgery to clean out the wound.  They did this in hopes that it would speed up the healing of the puncture.  They are now running tests because they believe he has some sort of fungal infection and are trying to see what would be the best way to treat this.  Again please pray for continued healing for his knee also.

On a lighter note Kevin completed his driver’s training.  He didn’t have to take as many sessions because he did so well.  We will be seeing him out on the road here before we know it.  

Kevin and Tiffany know that the Lord is working amidst trial and really appreciate all your prayers!

Thank you, volunteers and donors!

The repairs and renovations on the Mather Condo were completed through the help and generosity of some great individuals and companies. We received $4,000 in donated funds and materials. A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to…

• Swayner Hardwoods out of Burbank for donation the baseboard.
• American Craftsman Restoration for donating flooring materials.

We also had about 20 personal volunteers (you know who you are) who helped with demolition and renovation.

New Discharge date

Kevin and Tiffany had a meeting with their doctors today and they have decided to move Kevin’s discharge date back 2 weeks to September 16th.  This will give his knee puncture some more time to heal and allow them to get more things in order before leaving the hospital.  This also means that they will need meals through this date.  If you desire to serve them in this way sign up by going to the Get Involved tab and go to meals and follow the instructions.  They want to thank all those that have already blessed them with the wonderful meals they have received.  It has been so nice for them to have one less thing to worry about.  Katie Kollenkark is the new contact person for meals please contact her or the site administrator if you have any questions regarding meals.

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

Also as a reminder…please no visitors tonight as Kevin’s family will be at the hospital to celebrate his birthday with him.

Thank you!

Post from Tiffany

Visit Update

Sorry for the late notice, but Kevin and Tiffany have a couple important things that they need to take care of this week so they are asking for no visitors tonight August 19^th and Friday August 21^st.  The lone exception is for the families assigned to meals; please conitnue to bring the meals  for the Mathers on those two days. 

Thank you for understanding and your cooperation.

Room Change

Kevin has been moved to room 3305. If you are planning on visiting please still check in with security in the lobby and get a security badge.  A more detailed update to come.

Visiting on Sunday 8/16

For anyone planning on visiting Kevin and Tiffany tomorrow 8/16 they will not be at the hospital until the late afternoon.   They are going to go to church and then hopefully enjoy lunch and fellowship with their community group. So early evening would be the best time to visit tomorrow.  Kevin and Tiffany continue to be blessed by the visitors that come and encourage them so keep it up!

Update from Tiffany

It was a huge blessing for us to be able to go to church last Sunday.  While our outing wasn’t extremely long, it was nice to be able to get out in the “real world” for a little while and experience some kind of normalcy.  It was amazing to see all of the people who have been faithfully praying for and supporting us through this process.  We continue to stand in awe of the countless ways God has used all of you.

Today was an exciting day for Kev as he got to begin driver’s training with hand controls.  It was definitely a new and somewhat scary experience, yet it was nice to get outside and feel a bit of freedom.  We were also able to talk to one of the representatives from one of the several wheelchair vendors.  He was extremely helpful and was able to answer several of our questions.  Kev is hoping to order his own chair soon and is definitely looking forward to having a chair that is customized to his body and fits properly.

Kev continues to make progress daily.  We of course wish that there was drastic progress to report each day, but it is definitely a slow process.  Kev’s shoulder blade is seeming to be healing as he’s not having as much pain as he was having earlier on, and is starting to be able to do more weight bearing exercise with it.

Our current prayer requests are:

1.  Please pray for Kevin’s stomach – the several week courses of IV antibiotics have definitely taken their toll.  It makes it very tough for Kev to get through all of his therapies when he isn’t feeling well.

2.  Please continue to pray for Kev’s puncture wound on his left knee.  This is of course the reason he is on all of the antibiotics.  We have been advised that he will be on the antibiotics until the knee heals completely, so we’re definitely praying that it will be healed by the time we come home.

3.  Of course please continue to pray for a full recovery and that the Lord  would regenerate his spinal cord, nerves, muscles, etc that have been affected.

4.  Please pray against discouragement.  There are definitely ups and downs throughout this process, but we have a long road ahead of  us and there are countless things to adapt to.

Thanks again for the endless love, prayer, support, donations, condo repairs, meals, etc.  We seriously can’t come close to expressing how thankful we are for all you guys have done.  At one point I attempted “thank you notes” and didn’t even know where to begin.

We’re hoping to be at church again this Sunday depending on how Kev is feeling, so we’ll look forward to seeing several of you then,

Kev and Tiff

First Outing

As Kevin continues  his physical therapy he is learning more and more things that are enabling him to be more independent.  Yesterday he mastered transferring in and out of a car.  Although this was a strange experience at first  he was very eager to do this because it allows him to go places.  And the first place he wanted to go to was church.  He was able to go to church this morning and was greatly encouraged by the message and all the people he was able to see and talk to.  He hopes to go again next week if everything goes as planned.  

This week he hopes to order his own wheelchair!  Up until now he has been using one loaned to him from the hospital.  Although it may seem like a small decision there is a lot to consider when looking at a chair so please pray that he will find one that fits him perfectly and will work for him.  He will also be doing a “field trip” of sorts this week to Claim Jumper this will help him put into practice different things he has been learning in rehabilitation and what it looks like to do more on his own.  Also he will be starting driver’s education on how to drive with hand controls this week at some point.  Please pray that he will catch on quickly and won’t get frustrated as he will be relearning a completely different way to drive.  

Kevin and Tiffany again are thankful for everyone’s love and support.  A special thank you to those that came out and worked on the condo on Saturday.  And they always enjoy people visiting and have been encouraged by all those that take the time to come by.