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We made it home!

2009-07-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

So we made it home safe and sound. It feels great to be home and now it's back to reality. We are trying to get back into our routine which will probably take us awhile. We just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has followed us through this journey. Thank you for all your support, prayers, and love. We are truly blessed and we are so thankful to all of you. We will never be able to say thank you enough, or show how appreciative we are for everything that has been done for us. This past month has been incredible and it was all made possible because of all of YOU! Thank you again and now that we love you all. We will continue to keep you posted with Marks progress. Sorry to say it won't be an everyday thing but I will be sure to keep it updated so you will know what's going on with Mark. Thanks for making this all possible!

Our last day

2009-07-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

For our last day we all went to the rainforst on the atlantic side. We took the tram ride up and we were going to do the zip line but they do it different. Here you ride the tram up and down, then you do the zip line so Mark would of had to wait for us for 2 hours. We figured we would be nice and not make him wait for us. The tram ride was nice and relaxing and then we took a little walk around the forest with our guide. After we went to lunch at a nice place which was really good. Then our driver who was great took us to a souvenir shop to get all the last minute things. Of course I took forever just looking around at everything. Before dinner I started getting everything packed up. It was hard to believe we had already been here a month and it was time to go home. It was definitely bittersweet having to say bye to all the great people and to Costa Rica, but we were excited to be going home. There's nothing like getting home and getting to sleep in your own bed! We had dinner at Chancay which we had gone to before and had really liked. It was good the second time around to. We got home and of course started playing some games which of course lasted longer than everyone had hoped. We had a early flight so we were being picked up at 4:30 but thanks to playing games we didn't get to bed until about midnight. Oh well it's only sleep and we had a fun time and us girls killed the boys and that's all that matters!! We had a fun day and we were so excited to have Brad and Carena with us and we were so glad that they got to experience part of our journey with us. Thanks Brad and Carena for coming to see and play with us. We had such a great time and we love getting to see you guys. Thanks for making our last days so fun and memorable!!!

These plants were so weird, they produce a gel that just hangs there

A little frog

Everyone helping Mark get up the hills

Going in for lunch

Nice Mark

Mark and his lunch. He's so CUTE!

Out at lunch

On our way home from the rain forest, we were all tired!!

We were waiting for our taxi to go to dinner and we were tring some cheerleading moves. As Mark says I would have been a terrible cheerleader, and it's the truth!! That's probably why I was never a cheerleader.

Yes we are sword fighting with the swords that came with our fruit drinks, as I'm trying to eat my pineapple

Eating at Chancay

Our last ride in a taxi

Last PT and Injection

2009-07-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

So I know that I am really behind. It's amazing how things get so crazy when it's time to get back to reality. I just wanted to finish and let you all know how the end of our trip went. Friday was Marks last day for therapy and his final injection. His therapy went great as usual and they worked him really hard. Me and Carena weren't there for the beginning because we had to go back to the hotel so Brad stayed to help and took some good videos. They re-evaluated him again comparing how he did according to his first visit. His strength and balance has improved so much and they were so impressed with how he was doing. Right now he doesn't have any additional feeling or sensation but they told us that you usually don't notice any changes until the first or second month after treatment and anywhere up to six months. Right now it is just a waiting game but they just encourage you to continue to work hard and keep up the exercises to help retrain your body. I took so many videos and pictures during therapy we will keep up on everything they did and continue to make him work hard. He will also start up with physical therapy as soon as we can get him in. After PT we went over for Mark to get his last injection. Only one person can go back so we let Brad go back with him. Me and Carena were laughing because we were waiting for Mark to come out and one of the nurses wheeling Brad out. We really thought he would pass out because he does not like medical stuff very much but he survived. Mark said he stood in the corner and he kept telling him he could come closer but he was pretty content just standing in the corner. We took Mark home to lay flat and we went to the mall to get Mark some cinnabon because he was really craving it. We walked around the mall for awhile just looking around and passing time. Of course we didn't do any shopping but we left with enough sweets to feed the entire hotel! Once we got back we ate dinner and all got together with all the stemies outside to say goodbye to those who were leaving. Robert and Julie were leaving in the morning and it was really sad to say bye to them. We had been with them everyday for a month and it has been really weird not seeing them. We have been grateful for this experience for the people we have met. We have made some incredible friends that will always share a part of our life. We have made friendships for life. We will have to get a second home in Texas since about 80% of the people we met were from Texas! Thanks to all the stemies for being such great friends and sharing such a great experience with us. We will miss you and look forward to keeping up with your progress!!

Mark finishing his final therapy session and he made them push him extra hard.

Mark and his nurses on his last day. They were so good to him and never hurt him.

Brad went back to watch Mark get his last injection. He survived and we were proud that he didn't pass out. I told him to take some pictures and this is what he took. Thanks Brad!!

Mark and Rafa one of the drivers who took us to and from our appointments. He was so nice and it was his uncle Rodolfo who took us around on all our tours.

Mark and Javier the other driver, he was AWESOME!

Brad and Harry Potter. Brad wasn't very excited about us taking his picture but he was a good sport about it and smiled. Good Job Brad!!

Hanging out at the mall

Me and Carena thought it was funny that we went to the mall and all we came home with was carmel popcorn and cinnabon so of course we had to take a picture of us pigging out. It was so good but we have definitely had our fill of cinnabons for awhile!

Talking and saying goodbye to all the stemies. That's the nickname that was given to everyone. It was sad having to say goodbye!

They made it!!

2009-07-23T22:16:00.000-07:00

Brad and Carena made it and we were so excited to see them. They showed up around 6:00 am and since they had been flying all night we decided to let them get a little rest. After we went and ate breakfast out by the pool and decided to go to the hospital early to show them around. We ate lunch there which was really good! Brad and Carena got to watch Mark do his physical therapy, and it was really fun to have them there. They helped push him through his excercises and of course they all kept the therapists laughing. Mark's really good at doing that on his own and with all of them it was really bad. After therapy we went to the ICM clinic so Mark could do his exit interview. Everyone was going to dinner at a Churrascaria which you didnt have to ask the boys twice to eat at a place that serves a ton of meat! It was fun to go with everyone to dinner and the place was really nice. We have a really great group of people that are here and they are all so nice and so much fun. We are sad that we are leaving but we excited for everyone and for what is to come.

Eating lunch at the hospital

No he's not sleeping he was supposed to keep his eyes closed while she ran a pen along his feet and legs, and he was supposed to tell her where she was doing it and if he could feel it.

She didn't want him cheating

Marks battle wounds. She was rubbing a pen up and down to see if he could feel it.

Just waiting for the next exercise

This was the first time they got him up with a walker and he did great!

Brad wanted to make sure that he was still taller than Mark

With our favorive therapists. Of course they are all our favorites and we especially love them!

Mark and I with Marcela. She was in charge of scheduling and everything and she was AWESOME!!

Outside of the ICM clinic

Walking back from ICM

Where we ate dinner

All the stemies out to eat

They served chicken hearts- We did try one just to try them.... tastes like chicken

The desserts were amazing

This guy was great, everytime I would take a picture he would stop and pose for me :)

Walking back from dinner. We had to walk off all that meat we ate!

Wednesday July 22, 2009

2009-07-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

We are getting down to the end of it, and it is getting sad. Mark only has 2 more days of PT left and 1 injection left. I's crazy that we're aleady at the end of it, but we figure it is only the beginning. We are excited of what is yet to come. We know he will have to continue to work hard and keep up with his PT. I know I won't be as good as the therapists here that's for sure but I will definitely make him work hard :) We love Angie and she has been so good to us and has made Mark work so hard. It's funny to watch her because when she does the excercises she stimulates the area or muscle by pulling it back or forward, slapping it, or running a brush over it. Today she was stimulating by slapping the area and using the brush and we were laughing because Mark had red marks all over his leg. She felt bad but Mark was more than hapy to let her beat up on him. She said she must have the feeling she needs to hit something and Mark was more than willing to be that person. I thought it was great and it was really funny to watch her do it. Now I have an excuse to slap him around a little bit when I get home!! It was funny though because he did scare her a couply of times when she was doing it because he would say ow or his leg was hurting and she would get really worried. Then she would look at him and realize he was joking. You know Mark he's usually always joking, but it makes it fun! After PT we headed over for our injection. We got our last IV injection and we are down to only one more back injection on Friday. Of course then it was on to Marks favorite part of laying flat but this time he actually took a little nap. He usually can't but this time he was pretty tired so he was able to get a little one in. We are excited for tomorrow for Brad and Carena to be here. They get here really early in the morning like at 6:00, so when we get up, they'll be here!! Oh and I apologize for all my spelling errors and if things don't make sense. I usually don't re-check everything I just post it and then Mark will read it and let me know how many mistakes I have. So I'm sorry i'm not the best at spelling or writting in general!! I figure I am not turning in an english paper so you get the unedited version mistakes and all :)

See it 's not all so serious :) Actually Mark has them laughing all the time and is usually joking around with them

Mark getting special attention from 3 therapists

Just waiting

Mark with Dr. Alfonso and Dr. Tomas

Getting his last IV injection

Even Angie noticed that when Mark was first doing these excercises she would have to kneel right behind him and hold him and now she just has to brace him and he does the rest. His strength and balance has gotten so much better!

Last day in the pool

2009-07-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

So Tuesday was our last day in the pool for therapy. It's getting sad as everything comes to an end. It's bittersweet, we are getting excited to be going home but we are going to miss the people and therapists here that have been so good. Actually in truth I've been so spoiled here I don't know what i'm going to do :) So Mark did good and I got to help again which I love. One of the excercises she had him do was she was behind him and he was like sitting in her lap. I was holding his knees so he was in a sitting position. He was supposed to be working on his balance so she told him to clap his hands in front. My first thought was this is not going to be good because I am really close to him. Of course it was not. He came up to clap his hands and just splashed me as he started to loose his balance. He thought it was so funny and wanted to keep doing this excercise. She decided against it but we all got a pretty good laugh. She had him stand up again in the pool and he did well. Everyone is noticing how much stronger he is getting and how much more control he has. After therapy we decided to go to the mall and see a movie. We figured we had gotten that good at our spanish we could see a movie. Ok so i'm still terrible at spanish. The movie was in english and had spanish subtitles, but it would have been cool. We saw transformers and they have carmel popcorn there so I was in heaven. It was really fun and something different to do. We are getting excited for Thursday for when Brad and Carena come to visit. We are so excited to see them and it will be nice to have someone here with us and see him in PT and everything. We're getting close!!

Over night trip- Warning overload of pictures!

2009-07-22T00:34:00.000-07:00

First of all I am writing a lot so I will not be offended if you just skip and go right to the pictures, I know I would. Sorry I know I get carried away sometimes and write way to much, but when we have been doing so many amazing things I just have so much to tell. So I am warning you ahead of time feel free to just skip to the pictures because I'm sure some of you do it already :) That's the most important part anyways!! So we decided to go on an overnight trip to Tortuguero. They take you buy boat looking for different animals then you walk through the town of Tortuguero and you stay at a hotel there. Then that night you can go observe the turtles nesting. They next day they continue on the river and then they take you through the rain forest. Mark really wanted to see the turtles and we thought it would be a fun expierence, and indeed it was. It was just amazing. We didn't get much sleep but it was well worth it. They picked us up at 6:00 and they showed up in one of thouse huge traveling buses that have the nice soft reclining seats with a bathroom in the back. We were completely shocked, we were not expecting anthing like this. It was raining and because of the weather the road we were supposed to take was closed, so we had to take a different route so it was going to take a little longer. I'm amazed that these huge buses can get around at all sometimes. It's crazy because it was only 60 km away, but it took over 3 1/2 hours. We stopped to eat breakfast at this place that had an amazing view. We continued on and we hit a dirt road that we were on for about an hour and a half. We were pretty glad we had such comfortable seats at this point. Our guide Thomas was awesome and he was pointing out everything explaining anything and everything he could. We finally made it to the boats so we left our nice plush bus and got ready for our boat ride. We had an amazing time and got to see a lot of cool things. It wasn't very long before we switched boats and headed off to the place we were staying. We had no idea what to expect or how far it was going to be. It took us about an another hour to get to our place by boat. When we pulled up to let some guys off we were a little worried but it wasn't our stop. We went a little bit more and we pulled up to some nice docks and the rest of us got out. The place was amazing and absolutley beautiful. As soon as we walked up there was a guy pouring fresh fruit drinks and handing them to everyone. It was so good. We got our room and had some time to eat lunch and relax. We walked around the place and it was incredible. They have little bungalos and rooms everywhere with 2 pools, 2 different eating areas, and so much more. We were in room 48 so we know that it can hold a lot of people. Our room was really nice and we noticed they don't have windows they just have screens up so you can hear everything. Then we went Tortugeuro to walk around and see some things. We watched a video on Turtles and our guide continued to take us around showing us different things. They have no cars here eveything is done by boat so it was a nice change. We got back and ate dinner and waited to go on the turtle tour which was at 10 pm. When we got there they take you to their runway and you just wait. They have people walking up and down the coast watching for the turtles. We were nervous because they said sometimes when the weather is really bad they won't come out and it had been raining ALL day. Luckily it had calmed down and had stopped raining but it was still cloudy. When we started we could see like 2 stars in the sky. After awhile they had seen something so we walked out to the area and we not allowed to use lights or have cameras because the lights will scare the turtles off. The only time is when they are actually laying the eggs they will shine a red light because it does not affect them and they are in a trance when laying the eggs. We waited more when we got there because they can't do anything while they are digging their hole because they do not want to scare them off. After awhile though they realized the turtle did not like the place she was in because there were to many branches and roots and if they aren't comfortable they will just go back to the water. So we got to watch as the turtle went back into the water and it was incredible. Our guide kept pulling Mark right behind her to where he could have bent down and touched her. She could only go a little ways before she would have to stop to take a break. She was so big and it was so amazing to watch! It was a perfect night because the clouds had cleared and we could see tons of stars. It was just beautiful. We got back late and we had an early morning so we were looking forward to sleeping. This unfortunatley did not happen. All we can say is we had an amazing experience so we did not need the sleep. Since you do not have windows in your rooms you can hear everything outside which means the toads, birds, crickets, and every other animal out there. At first it's really cool but then it just keeps going. It's not like a nature CD where you can turn it off, it just keeps going and going. Oh and we had fruits falling off landing on our roof that at times sounding like a gun. We also got to enjoy the sounds of a howler monkey at about 3:00 in the morning. It was amazing though because the expereince was priceless. We got up ate breakfast and continued on our day. We continued on the river and went on to where it merges with the ocean. We got out and did a walk through the rainforest. We saw tons of animals on the river and on our walk. We saw tons of birds, lizards, iguanas, monkeys, crocodiles, caymans, a snake, crabs, all sorts of things. We headed back stopped for lunch and then continued on to meet our bus. By this time we were really looking forward to our nice bus with the comfy reclining seats so we could sleep on the way back. Unfortunaltey we were a little spoiled on the way there. When we showed up there was a little van that they slammed everyone and their luggage into. No comfy, reclining seats but just packed to the limit with people and stuff. We knew it was to good to be true but we survived and we had the most amazing time and what an expereince it was!!

This was where we stopped to eat breakfast

Our view when we were eating

They have huge beatles here. There were all over in a tree and a guy just walked out and grabbed one so Mark could see

This is where we stopped the first day to switch boats and where we ate lunch the second day

Now that's a lot of luggage!

This is a turtle's nest

Turtle tracks

Our guide Alex as we were walking through Tortuguero

Our Hotel

When we got off the boat they were handing everyone fresh fruit drinks. We felt really spoiled and they were really good!!

When we were walking to our room there were some girls around a little turtle

Of course we had to take our picture with him or her Mark says

One of the little girls, just so cute!!

Our room

The other pool here, it's shaped like a turtle

The little bungaloo off to the right is where we ate our meals

It was absolutely beautiful where we were staying

Where's Waldo? There are 2 parrots in there somewhere can you find them?

There were toads everywhere where we were staying and we heard them all night long!

This is a snake bird and they sit like this with their wings spread out because they don't have feathers they have hair and they had to let them dry.

We saw iguanas and lizards everywhere and I still have no idea how they spotted them.

We saw all 4 of the species of monkeys that they have here.

A Toucan

We say a couple of cayman as well which are a lot smaller than crocodiles

They call these lizards Jesus Christ lizards because they run on top of the water. We got to see one run away and it was really cool to see.

This crocodile has a little hump back that they say is a mutation from when they are in the egg

Mark saw this crocodile from all the way across the river and he pointed it out to me. Of course I was like no your crazy all I see is wood. Once we got closer I could see it, but we were a lot farther away when he saw it. Once again a reminder at how bad I am at seeing things. I have no idea why he was asking me anyways!

A blue crab

A viper snake and yes it is poisonous

Our transportation for the two days

I'm not sure if you can see them but we were driving by tons of banana fields and they cover them with blue plastic. They were everwhere and it had Mark really craving banana's

Yes this is the road we are driving on. I took this from inside the van. A lot of the parts were completely covered with water.

The sunset on our way home, was amazing, and the colors were unreal. We tried to take pictures the best as we could from the moving van.

Their was a complete rainbow in the sunset and it was absolutely beautiful

Jaco Beach

2009-07-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday we took a day trip with Robert, Julie, and their friends Kim and Ronnie who had come to visit. We had a great day after we got over the car sickness problem. The traffic was so bad, Rodolfo had to take a different way and we were late for our first tour, so he was trying to hurry and the roads were pretty curvy. I have trained myself to just fall asleep as Mark knows, and Kim usually gets really car sick so she took something before we left. So the ones who usually get car sick did ok but Robert struggled for awhile and he wasn't sure he was going to make it. Even Julie started to get pretty sick. Luckily we all made it in one piece and no one threw up! We started off with the Crocodile Man Tour which was awesome. They take you on a boat ride and point out different animals and then when they find some big crocodiles, the guy gets out and feeds them. It was crazy!!! We saw some really cool animals and we got to see him feed two different crocodiles. The first one he fed was Tornado who is the alpha male of the area and the biggest one, and the second one was Osama and he is the more aggresive one of the two. The guy just got out with his chicken walked up to them and started flopping the chicken until they came up to him and ate it. It was amazing and crazy. The second one Osama was so close to the boat that Mark could have reached out and touched him. He was really tempted until they told us he was more aggressive and to not stick your arms out. He figured that it was a good idea to listen :) It's amazing what these guides can find! We would be driving along and they would just stop and be like oh look theres a bird or a lizard or something. I could barley see it when we came right up to it, and they were spoting them across the river while we were moving and they are usually camoflauged. It just makes me realize how bad my eyes are and how bad I am at seeing things. I was usually the last one to see it and it was after everyone was pointing it out, but I was still ablot to get pictures of everything. After that we headed to Jaco Beach to eat some lunch which of course was really good. After lunch we did the Canopy Tour which takes you up in a tram with a guide. He points out different things and explains everything to you. I took the ride up but when we got to the top I got out and everyone else continued on down and I did the zip lines down. It was AMAZING. It consisted of 10 different lines and some we conected right from one to another and some of them we had to walk to and get on from there. So I got down by zip lining all the way down and it was incredible. I had an amazing view and it was so much fun. I had 2 really cool guides that made it really fun and they were pointing out and explainaing different trees and plants and everything. I was trying to figure out how I could go on it and still take pictures and follow the rules of holding on with both of my hands. It took me until about the last 3 were I figured 1 hand was all I needed and I attempted to hold the camera in my left hand and try to take some films. It was pretty slopy but I was able to get some and I did not get in trouble. I didn't have any problems with anything so I don't think they cared. So it was another great day and we were all pretty tired when we got home.

If you look close at his beak, he's eating a little fish.

Yep the guy was crazy that's all I can say, but it was really cool to see!!

We are really going to miss our fruit drinks when we leave.

Yes I had to take a picture of this. I thought it was cool because it was a lime but it had an orange center. I just thought it looked cool. I know I'm a dork!

They brought out fresh rolls and this was how they cooked them.

Getting my zip line gear on

One of the zip lines

The view I had when zip lining. It was absolutley amazing. That's the ocean at the very back

On the very last one I passed over Mark and everyone, so he was able to get a picture of me as I was trying to film something.

My zip line guides. They were awesome

They had spiders every where, and they were not little spiders. On our way up in the tram there was a big one right above my head!

It tooks like Mark just got done with PT but he didn't! It was so humid we were both sweating so much and from every where. Yea gross I know :)

This was how Mark had to do down the walk ways and it was really steep at some of them

Friday

2009-07-20T18:53:00.001-07:00

So it's been a few days since I last posted sorry. It was a pretty busy and fun weekend. Friday it was the usual PT and injection. Before we left these 3 girls were getting ready to leave and they were all dressed up for the carnival. They are the cutest girls!! They have been here almost as long as we have and they are pretty much the only ones that use the pool. They are always down there and even though we speak different languages Mark has already made a connection with them. He has gotten one of the girls to splash me one of the days and her dad another. Everytime we see them they say Hi to us and they are just the sweetest girls. Mark's PT went good and he worked really hard. His arms were completley dead when he was done and he was really tired. It was nice for me because Angie had me help with some of the excercises which was great, so we can continue them at home. I love when I get to be involved! It was really funny because after PT we headed over to the waiting room for our injection. Since Mark had just finished PT of course the top of his shirt was completley soaked with sweat. Dr. Alfonso who does our injections was walking by and looked at him and was like "What happened to you"? We both laughed as he told him nothing it was just sweat. Mark's injection was at 4:30 but he didn't get in until almost 6 which he hates because it means he can't get up until 11 and by that time it's pretty much time for bed. As you can see from the pictures towards the end we were getting a little bored waiting for the injection so we were taking pictures and trying to entertain ourselves. This week was fun because we met a lot of neat new people. Two families in particular were here with their kids Mackenzie who just turned 4 and Charlie who is almost 4. These kids are the most precious kids I have ever seen and they are absolutley adorable. They have the sweetest spirts and are just so perfect. They are also recieving stem cells. When Mackenzie was 18 months she choked on a goldfish cracker causing her to be without air and causing brain damage. She was in a coma for quite awhile. Charlie fell in a swimming pool and was pronounced dead for 20 minutes. They were able to regain a pulse but he to suffered brain damage. These kids fought for their lives and continue fighting, and they have so much life. Their parents are amazing and it was so neat to talk tand visit with them. This is Charlie's second time undergoing treatment because they noticed quite a few improvements the first time. They have definitely touched my heart and everyone's here as well. We wish them both the best and know they will do great!!

Mark's 3 little girlfriends

Yea so we got a little bored. Any idea what i'm saying........ Oh come on I LOVE YOU

Makenzie and Charlie with Charlie's dad

Makenzie and her mom Pam

Charlie and his mom Jodie

Mark working hard at PT

Channel 12 Interview

2009-07-16T23:11:00.001-07:00

http://gannett.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/gannett-phoenix-531-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=videopage&maven_referralPlaylistId=23c243f78487dd3c24caa7be83a5dec1a7d96b15&maven_referralObject=1185590258

Working Hard

2009-07-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

We had an interesting morning with our showers today. Mark showered but it took him forever because the pressure was so low it was pretty much just dripping on him so it took him twice as long as it usually does. When I got ready to shower, I started it got in, and it started spitting and then all of a sudden it was brown! It was quite a shock as I was yelling and trying to jump out of the way. I had no idea what had happened or what it was which was scary. Mark thought it was pretty funny but me not so much. It just kept coming a nice brown color and it was coming from all the faucets. So I ended up taking a shower with wipes so we could get to PT. I guess they had a crack in the pipe or something and they had it fixed within the hour so the pressure is fine and most important the water is not brown :) We had another day of good physical therapy and we had Erika again today. It's funny at the end of therapy she had Mark standing up at the parallel bars, and he was like a giant next to her. Most the girls here are really little and I forget how tall Mark is. Even when we were in the pool Angie had him stand up and it was hard for him because she is smaller than I am and he felt like he was putting all his weight on her because she was so much smaller. Height doesn't matter though because they are good at what they do and she got him up and supported him and had him doing what he needed to. After PT we got dropped off at the mall so we could walk around and get some lunch. Robert and Julie came with us because they were really hungry to. Robert had been wanting Taco Bell really bad so he had to satisfy his craving :) So Robert got his Taco Bell, Julie ate Quiznos and Mark had Pizza hut. We all had such different cravings. I had a crepe with chicken, onions, mushrooms and cheese and Mark had one with strawberry's, banana's, chocolate, and caramel and yes it was as good as it sounds. Rob and Julie have some friends coming in tonight and they have been really excited. We are excited to meet them because we have heard so much about them it's like we know them. We will all go to the coast together on Saturday so we are really looking forward to that. Tomorrow we will have our last PT appt and injection for the week and then it should be an exciting and busy weekend and we're looking forward to it.

They crepes are so good!

Making crepes. It was really cool to watch them make them and it's just amazing how thin they are and they don't stick or burn. Mark decided he wants one of those stoves so he can make crepes all the time. We'll see how that goes :)

PT & Injection

2009-07-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

Another day of physical therapy and an injection today. We had a new therapist named Erika and she was very nice and really good. At first we thought it was going to be nice because we thought we were going to have the same therapist everyday. Now we have been glad that we have had such a variety because each girl has their own things they like to do with Mark and they each challenge him in such different ways. Not to mention each girl has been so amazing and are so nice!!! It's been great that it's not the same thing over and over but such different things. Mark continues to work hard and pushes himself everyday. Today they had him doing excercises with weights and he told them he wanted to use the heavier weights. They were very impressed because he continued to do the excercises using the heavier weights. I think they realize how hard he works because one of the girls at our last appointment told us she had heard that he was a hard worker so she was going to make him work hard. He loves it and it makes him stronger and teaches him new things every day. So after PT we headed over to get his injection. For me this is the hardest part because it is freezing back there!! I am such a wuss that I steal Mark's blanket when they give it to him. Ok so I share it most of the time only sometimes I steal it :) He got his usual back injection and 2 IV injections today. They told us today that in his back injections there are at least 9 million cells and in the IV one's there are anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million. We had no idea that there were that many cells in one injection and that makes us excited! After the injection it was off to Marks favorite part laying flat. He is doing better and isn't fighting it so much well not to much at least :) Robert made dinner tonight and shared with us so I didn't have to make anything it was awesome, THANKS Robert. I really am getting spoiled here. All I had to do was laundry and of course catch up on my blogging. It's amazing how easy it is to get behind. Before I end for tonight I just want to thank everyone who is keeping up with us and checking our blog, it really means alot to us. Thanks to all of those who have left comments for us, we get so excited when we get a comment. It's like christmas when we get on and see we have messages because we know you are checking us out and keeping up with us. It means more than you know, so THANK YOU!!

Karla and Erika

Getting one of his IV injections

Mark and Dr. Thomas

We thought this was funny because her instructions for this one were extend your leg like you're kicking me. Mark started saying at the same time as I did, "Maybe Celeste should set there". She thought it was pretty funny and hey if it works I am more than happy to let him kick me :)

Back in the Pool

2009-07-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

So we were back in the pool on Tuesday for therapy and it was a lot of fun because I actually got to help. I got to be apart instead of just taking the pictures. But no worries I was still able to get a few pictures taken thanks to Robert :) Mark did really well again and it was great to be there learning. We'll have to invest in a pool! I'm not sure how well that will work in Flag but it would be fun! Angie our Physical Therapist is awesome and she does so many different things with Mark. So therapy went great and I was glad I was able to be involved. After we got home we had one of Tyler's really good friends Eric show up. He has been traveling in Costa Rica and we thought we had missed him but he called us yesterday and we were going to meet up. We had no idea were he was staying and he just showed up at our hotel after therapy. We hung out and then went and ate dinner at the Chinese Restaurant and it was really, really good. We ordered a little to much but we didn't know what we wanted and we all just ate a little bit of everything. It was amazing. Afterwards we played Nertz which was fun and he stayed here in the extra room. It was nice having someone here from home and Eric is such an awesome guy it was fun getting to see him. He left early this morning to catch a plane to Peru where he is staying with a family for a month teaching them english while they teach him spanish. He's really excited and it's such a cool expierience and there is no better way to learn then to just throw yourself into it. So we had a great day and THANKS Eric for coming to see us we had a lot of fun and sorry we are so boring :) Hope you made it to Peru safe!

Mark standing up in the pool and me helping, YAY

We actually got to see a little sunset because the clouds had cleared away but they were back this morning. I couldn't avoid the powerlines if you can tell they were everywhere!!

Our Amazing dinner. Our eyes are definitely bigger than our stomachs!!

Opps, a little behind

2009-07-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

So i'm a little behind sorry. I guess Monday is were we left off, and of course it was another AMAZING day! Me and Mark went on another tour with Rodolfo as our guide and his cousin Andrea came along because she speaks a little english so she helped translate. Our first stop was the Irazu Volcano which to sum it up, it was simply AMAZING. They warn you that it is really cold up there so to dress warm. You know how much I love the cold but I made sure I was prepared. When we got there the people told us it was to cloudy and foggy so we probably wouldn't see anything. We figured since we had come all this way we might as well take a look. When we got out it was cold and wet, they were not kidding. Since we were in the clouds the mist was just non stop. They have a little coffee shop so we went there first to get some hot chocolate which was very nice! After that we figured we might as well walk down since we were already here knowing we probably wouldn't see anything. We walked down looked at some mist and some clouds, then some more clouds, took some pictures and decided to head back because it was so cold. Since it was so chilly we decided that we needed some more hot chocolate. While Rodolfo put Mark in the car me and Andrea went and got more drinks. We all got in the car and Mark noticed it was kind of clearing up. We could see farther than we could before but we didn't know if was clear enough to see anthing back at the top. I ran back before we got Mark out of the car and all the way up there, just to make sure and when I got there the view was incredible. It had completely cleared off and you could see a lake at the bottom and the color was amazing. It was like an emerald green and just beautiful. We all made it back up and it stayed clear for us the whole time we were up there. I was able to walk around and take pictures (of course) and once we headed back to the car you could see the clouds rolling back in. It was perfect! Once we left the Volcano we headed to a big church that is very important to everyone here. Once a year in August people from all over walk and meet at this church. Rodolfo walked from San Jose which took him over 5 hours and he says people come from farther away. It was a beautiful church and you could tell how important it was to everyone there. It was very neat to see and expierence this with him because you could tell how excited he was to show us because it was so important to him. After the church Rodolfo took us to lunch which was SOOO good. It was typical Costa Rican food, and it was amazing. We had chips and salsa which was very good and our main meal was incredible. Everything was incredible. After lunch we walked right next door to a little market and bought two huge mangos for later. We then went to a flower garden which of course was beautiful. I have never seen so many beautiful and different kinds of flowers than I have on this trip. Of course Mark was loving it because he LOVES flowers. I took a ton of pictures and now Rodolfo and even his cousin know how much I love taking pictures so they were constantly calling my name and pointing things out for me to take pictures of. It was great! So all in all it was another wonderful day! Sorry about the overload of pictures. I can't help it when we see such amazing things. I figure it's easier to see how beautiful things are then to explain and of course I love pictures so I have to share them!

These guys were everywhere when we got there and they would just come up to you looking for food. I think it is their version of a racoon

This is pretty much all we could see when we got there. A whole lot of nothing :)

It was hard keeping our eyes open because the mist was coming straight at us.

A whole new perspective

It was much better the second time around!

Rodolfo taking pictures of me. He would take pictures of me taking pictures :)

The Church was beautiful inside and out

They had such beautiful stained glass windows

The inside was amazing.

Little Pineapples!

I couldn't resist it was so little and cute!

Mark, Rodolfo, and Andrea at lunch

Getting ready to enjoy our food and fruit drinks!

The stuff to the left of the chicken and right above the salad tasted just like potatoes but come to find out they are really bananas. When they are still green they cut them up and cook them and they taste just like potatoes and it was really, really good.

Mark and a huge carrot

It was funny this guy wanted me to take his picture so he could see it and then he wanted to show his wife and friend and they though it was so funny. I just laughed because he was so excited to see himself

Rodolfo was taking our pictures and in this one he wanted us to kiss. We were more than happy to :)

The flowers were so beautiful!! Of course i went crazy taking pictures as you can tell and i only posted a few of what I took

Mark loved these trees. There's a little palm tree on the front and they are not strong enough to hold themselves up so they attatch themselves to bigger trees and wrap around them with their roots and everything. They get so tight they start to indent the tree.

The pathway throughout the garden

This was the view I had most of the time. Them waiting for me or walking away from me since I'm always off taking pictures. The nice thing is they did wait for me and didn't leave me even though i'm sure there were times they wanted to :)

Relax

2009-07-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

So Sunday was a very relaxing day. We didn't do anything but sit around and visit with people. Our group from the last 2 weeks left, but this weekend 10 new people with their families arrived. We havn't met everyone yet but we have met a few and we can already tell they are really neat people. For breakfast we had a wonderful Cinnabon which we had bought at the Mall on Saturday. We were pretty excited when we found out they had one because we love Cinnabon. So pretty much we had one for Breakfast Mark had one for lunch and I shared mine with him later. Um yes we are eating other things besides desserts and junk food. Maybe not much but we are :) So far all the food here has been amazing and the desserts are just as good!!! When we were walking around the hotel, we saw a praying mantis which of course we had to get a picture of. He was just hanging out on the walk way so Mark picked it up with a plant, so I could take a picture of him, and then he moved him so he wouldn't get stepped on. How sweet huh!!

What a Day

2009-07-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a really fun day. We have a park that is only a few blocks away from us that we have been wanting to go and check out. We drive by it everyday and we have wanted to walk through it so we decided it would be the perfect day. It was pretty amazing. It has tons of trees everywhere and is beautiful!!! It is amazing what they have here. They have fields everywhere and since it was Saturday it was fun to watch everyone gathered out there playing soccer. They also have a softball field which we have seen people playing games on a few times. They have little jungle gyms everywhere along with trampolines they just have set up around the park. On one end they also have a roller rink that gets a lot of use! They have a zip line throughout the park even ones that go over the ponds. You can go horse back riding and of course you can buy fruit, icecream, kites, and all sorts of things. It was pretty amazing how much stuff they had there. The more we walked through it the more we kept seeing. I know all the kids would have loved it!!! This was pretty neat, when we were walking back Mark was in his wheelchair, and Robert had Julie in one because it is to hard for her to walk long distances. When we cross the street it is pretty challenging because their curbs are really high and we have to cross two lanes of traffic with a median in the middle. So we have to make it down the curb up another, down and then up. Our first time was a little tough because Robert pretty much dumped Julie out of the wheelchair because the curb was to high so she had to walk across. The little flashing walking man isn't on for very long when your trying to get two wheelchairs across and you do not want to get stuck in their traffic that's for sure. Well I was able to get Mark across and was going to run back so I could push the wheelchair across while Robert helped Julie across but by this time we were out of time so the traffic started. There was a big public bus at the front so he pulled up a little and moved diagnol blocking off the whole side of traffic so know one could get through. It was pretty amazing. We all wished we could have gotten a picture because it was a sight to see. The bus driver was awesome and he just sat there and waited until we had made it across. It is amazing what people will do to help. He moved a whole bus full of people to block traffic so we could get across. People are amazing! So once we were done at the park we decided to go check out one of the malls here. All I can say is it is HUGE!!! It took us 2 hours just to walk one part of it and it wasn't even half of the mall. They had so many stores and the food court was huge. Of course we had to stop at a place that had crepes and it was delicious!! We love our desserts what can I say. It was just fun to walk around and see all the stores and the things they had there at the mall. We recognized a lot of the stores and most of them where the same stores we have but the names were just a little different. After we got back we went to dinner at a Peruvian place called Chancay and it was amazing. We have had such good food here that's for sure. So all in all it was a great day!!! I have been trying to post more pictues but the internet keeps kicking me off, so I will try to post more later.

Oh and congrats to Caden on his Baptism we were thinking of you!! :)

The Eucalyptus trees here are everywhere and they are beautiful. The picture does not show it very well, but they are streaked green and purple.

They had little jungle gyms everywhere and cute little things to buy for the kids

These were all over the park and at first we had no idea what they were. We thought they were like little tree forts or something. Then we saw people zip linning from one to the other.

We bought some fresh cut up mangos from these little boys

I thought this little girl was so cute, and i loved it because they were getting ready to fish. One more thing you can do at the park.

They were selling monkeys and kites

Horse rides. It was so cute the little horses were just following them around

Mark getting ice cream. You know us and our treats!!! It actually got pretty warm while we were walking around

The trampolines. They had quite a few of them just around the park

The skating rink. It was really fun to watch everyone

So Mark was giving me a hard time for posting this but i had to take a picture because this rice cooker was HUGE. You can't really tell from the picture but it was enormous and I though it was so funny. I guess when you eat rice and beans everyday you might need one this big!

These Giraffes were awesome! There was so big and beautiful of course I had to take a picture!

Eating at the Peruvian restaurant. That is Tom in the middle his sister Jen was being treated here for MS.

Week 2

2009-07-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

So we have made it through another week. It's amazing that we have already been here for 2 weeks. It seems to have gone so fast while at the same time going so slow. If that makes sense to anyone :) Mark continues to do great in physical therapy and they continue to challenge him with new excercises. The girl today had him working a lot on his knees and working on his stomach strength. It's fun to see him do these excercises and see how much stronger he has become even from last week. So after we got home it was straight to bed for Mark for 5 hours. While he was in bed I went and did laundry so we could have clean clothes for next week. We had pancakes for dinner because that's what sounded good to Mark. We are trying to figure out what we want to do this weekend since we have 3 days off until our next appointment. We are hoping to go to some museums or something. I guess we'll see.

She's the head of the Physical Therapy department. She's great!! She's just a few weeks out from having a hip replacement and she is always walking around talking to everyone seeing how they are doing. She remembers everyone because she will ask you specific questions when she sees you. Everyone is just so amazing here, we are so blessed!!

More of our cute therapists!

We got hungry before the injection so we went and bought some desserts and they were really good. I'm a sucker for desserts! Pretty much anything sweet.

Robert playing peek-abo with the curtains.

Robert and Julie. So cute!

If you look really close you can see the spinal fluid coming out. They let one drop come out, then they inject the cells.

The doctor that gave us the injections this week. I feel terrible because I don't remember his name but our doctor we had last week was out of town this week so he was filling in. He was so nice and after he was done he came back in and gave Mark and I a hershey kiss and told us we had been good :)

After the injection Dr. Lara always waits with us until the van gets there. He is awesome and so nice, and yes he and Robert are giving Mark and Julie bunny ears!!!

Mark doing a one armed push up which is really hard to do anyway and he did it. She didn't even ask him to do it, he just started doing it and she was like that's a great idea now i have a new excercise. So even Mark's getting new ideas of what to do.

Still On Schedule

2009-07-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

We continued with more Physical Therapy today which of course was great. I have the official role during pt of being the Towel and Water girl! I'm very proud of my title. I get the towel and wipe Marks forehead when he's sweating which is pretty often and I give him water when he needs it. Yep I'm proud but it's a very important job right :) Today it didn't rain in the morning but of course it was overcast so of course no sun. It was nice enough that we layed outside by the pool and read books which was very relaxing. When we got back from PT we had a little get together with the people here because half of the ones we have met are leaving this weekend. We are sad to see them go, but we are excited for the sucess they will have. One of the couples cooked up their leftover food they had which was really nice and really good. It was like a whole bunch of little appetizers. We will probably have to do the same when we leave! It was fun to just sit around and talk to everyone and to here the excitment of what is yet to come. We have been blessed to meet such amazing people while we have been here and have made some great friends. We are glad though that not everyone is leaving! Robert and Julie will still be here with us and they will be here with us until we leave. We are pretty excited about that because we have become really great friends and they are so fun to be around. It's amazing because we even have the same schedule as them so we go to PT and to our injections together as well. I told them they were stuck with us wether they like it or not :) They are amazing and we are glad that we have met them. We all went up later and had dinner at the Italian Restaurant they have here at the hotel which is really good and we had a great time.

Randy and his friend Shannon they had just gotten back from getting ice cream while we were waiting for the van, I was pretty jealous :)

Rob and Julie- we were just waiting for the van to take us to our appointment

Sometimes Mark does get rewarded after working so hard! Ok so it has only happened once so I had to get a picture!

The Gang- From left to right- Robert, Julie, Shannon, Randy, Mark and I, Randy, Helen, Lucy, Tom, Ira, and Roberta

Our little get together. Roberta who is sitting down on the right is the one that got everything ready. Her and her husband Ira (in the middle) have been here for a month for her MS, but they leave this weekend. She has had tremendous improvement it is great to see!

There drinks are amazing! This is the Fruit Punch I ordered with a star fruit on it. They are really good with their presentation!

This is what I had for dinner, it was shrimp and they were so big! They were really good

Marks core strength has gotten so strong. He used to not be able to sit like that without balancing himself with his arms or holding himself up at least

PT & Injection

2009-07-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

We had another PT and injection Wednesday. Of course Mark continues to work hard as usual! I keep telling everyone that I am working my index finger muscle with all the pictures I am taking. Not quite as tiring as what Mark does and all I can say is I am really proud! He continues to amaze me everyday with what he is doing. He is learning so much and is noticing more and more strength. He works so hard everytime and they have him doing some tough stuff. The PT here has been really amazing and all the girls are awesome!! Once PT was over we went straight to check in to get our injection then it was off to Marks favorite part of laying flat for 5 hours. He really loves it!! Ok so he doesn't but he does do it which for everyone that knows Mark this is a big accomplishment. Sometimes he has a hard time sitting still, much less following instructions :)

The girls are all so cute here! Everyone is in love with them

And yes that is sweat on Mark's shoulder, that is how hard they work him and the weird thing is he only sweats on that one side nothing on the other as you can tell from the picture.

The nurses who help get everything ready for the injections

Just waiting for the Injection

They continue to do new excercises with him everyday and work him really hard

Back to Work

2009-07-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

So it was back to our normal schedule today. It was nice having a few days off, but also nice getting back to the program. It's nice having something to look forward to. Today was a nice suprise. We woke up and it was somewhat overcast like it usually is, but afer awhile the sun came out and the clouds cleared away. Of course I had to take full advantage of the sun while I had it because who knows when it will make it's next appearance. Oh and to everyone's suprise even my own, i got in the pool. Even though the water was pretty cold i got in. At first they were making fun of me because I had to slowly make my way into the water letting my body get used to it. Mark, Julie and Rob kept telling me to just jump in but i had to make the point that I was the first to actually get into the pool. I did eventually dive in and since the sun was shinning it actually felt good. It felt better once i got out and warmed up though! Yep i'm pretty proud of myself :) I didn't stay in it very long because then we had to get ready to go to PT. It was another good day and of course Mark worked hard. Still lots of evercises where they have him move his legs in different ways. It's such a mental workout to because you can see in his face how hard he is working and concentrating. He is getting a lot better at his core exercises so we know his abs are getting stronger and he's learning more control. After PT we met to the supermarket to get a few things. Well that's probably an understatement I went a little overboard. You should never go shopping when you are hungry, It's a good thing we will be here for another 3 weeks :)

The supermarket we go to

Mark working hard as usual

Day Off

2009-07-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was an awesome day. We don't have any therapy or injections on Monday's so we decided to take advantage of it and go on a tour. We have been lucky enough to have the same schedule as Robert and Julie, our friends from Texas. Our drivers name was Rudolpho and he was awesome. He doesn't speak very much english but we were able to get by with Mark's spanglish. He was a great driver which is very important here with all the crazy drivers, and he was very patient with us. He helped Mark in and out of the car everytime and pushed him at the different places since I was off in my own little world taking pictures. First we went to the Poas Volcano which was absolutley amazing. The pictures do not do it justice, because you cannot fully capture what we saw, but it was amazing. When we got up there it was completley covered with clouds and fog. You could not see anything at all and within about 10 minutes the fog had cleared up so we could see the crater at the bottom. It allowed us to take some pictures and within 10 minutes the fog was back and it was completley covered again. It was amazing. After we drove and stopped at a little fruit stand on the side of the road where they had some interesting fruit. We also stopped at a coffee shop since that is what Costa Rica is known for and I went crazy taking pictures. It was beyond beautiful. There were SO many flowers and they were all so different. So while everyone sat up top I went and of course was in my own little world once again taking pictures. It was awesome and the view from the coffee house was amazing. We then went to a typical Costa Rican place for lunch and it was great. They brought out a ton of food and the drinks we had were like smoothies and they were really, really good. After lunch we went into the zoo which was a lot of fun. We saw lots of fun animals and we all had a great time. Our last stop he took us to the Souviner shop where they make most of the souviner's. This was really cool because the wood work here was amazing. The wood was so cool and they had everything from jewlery, belts, chests, bowls, animals, everything, and of course they had all the other stuff from t-shirts, stuffed animals etc. It was almost overwhelming. There was so much stuff and it was all really neat. I could not believe some of the wood carvings. When we were driving out we stopped to take a picture of a guy who was actually working on something. It was really neat to see. It was an amazing day and we had so much fun getting out and seeing the country. We are hoping that we can set up another tour this weekend to get out and see some other stuff.

They call these the "Poor Mans Umbrella" because the leaves get so big. You just have to make sure you get one without holes!

Mark with a prickly fruit. I have no idea what it is called, but i decided prickly fruit was good enough name.

The view from the coffee house

They had such beautiful flowers. These ones were all over in oranges, reds, and pinks. I loved it

Eating our Costa Rican lunch

At the Souvenir shop

The had such beautiful wood carvings

Working hard on the carvings

Sweet black leather saddle. A horse in style!!

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July to everyone back home. Today was quite an interesting day as we went downtown into the heart of San Jose to the Central Market. Or i guess i should say we attempted to go downtown. I'm not sure if i have ever seen so many people in one place at one time. There was so many people and so much going on. It was not quite what we had in mind. We went with our friends Rob and Julie and once we got there we decided not to get out because it was just to crazy. We knew it would be to hard to get around with two wheel chairs and the guy that took us says it gets pretty dangerous. So he took as around to see some churches and different buildings and he just drove us around which worked perfect. We felt much better seeing everything from the car. The driving here is insane!! We still can't believe that people get around here. Our driver was driving and wanted to show us the cork tree so he just stopped in the middle of the road and got out and pulled a piece of bark from the tree. What's crazy is it's fairly normal here, people just went around us. They honk a lot here but it usually does not mean the same thing as it does when we honk in the states, sometimes it does though! We got a few of those honks as we were stopping and slowing down in the street as he was showing us stuff. It's crazy because it has been pretty cold here. Who would have thought that i would be wearing pants and a sweater all day (well i guess most of you can imagine that). Tonight Mark even wore sweats and we both drank hot choclate and Julie kept her self wrapped up in a blanket all night. I'm glad that at the last minute when packing i threw in some long pants because I mainly packed shorts and capris. This weather here is pretty crazy but it is the rainy season and that's just how it is.

A Cork Tree- I guess this is where they get the corks they put in wine bottles and everything. We had no idea but our driver decided to show us and stopped in the middle of the road and got out to strip off a piece of the bark. It was actually pretty cool because it was really light and sponge like. It was almost like foam. The things we learn!

One of the statues in one of the buildings we went into that i really liked.

The crazy traffic here in Costa Rica. Pictures do not do it justice that's for sure

Mark and I and Rob and Julie outside the Teatro Nacional a place our driver took us to.

Injection

2009-07-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

We made it through another injection on Friday. They changed it from 4:30 to 9:30 which was nice becuase then we could get it over with and we would still have part of the day. Mark doesn't have a prblem with the injections, but he hates the part afterwards of having to lay flat for five hours. He goes crazy just laying there. He read the newspaper, finished his book, watched some TV and was constantly looking at the time. It is true what they say a "watched pot does not boil" because he would think so much time had passed and it would only be 20 minutes or so. I had to keep convincing him that he had to stay in bed. He was counting down the time and had the exact time of when he would be ably to get up. I was able to get some laundry done so it was good for me because we now have clean clothes! Yay! We didn't do much because once they are allowed to get up they tell us not to leave but to sick around the hotel. Mark didn't care he was just glad he was able to get up and get out of the room. We hung outside by the pool and just talked to everyone out there and enjoyed the evening rain. It's nice because this is what we do most nights, just sit outside by the pool talking to everyone. Yes i know, we have it pretty tough!

Mark just waiting for the doctor

getting the spinal tap, you can see his stomach spasm as he puts it in

Mark getting his stem cells!

Pool Day

2009-07-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today we got up and went to a market to look at things with another couple Rob and Julie who are awesome. Julie is here being treated for MS and they are such a great couple and we get a long with them great. They are alot of fun and it's great to have such good people here with us. The market was fun and we hope to go to some other ones they have here later on. The driving here is pretty crazy or I guess I should say scary. Sometimes it's like the traffic lights and stop signs are optional. The motorcyle drivers are the scariest yet because they just zip in out and there's been times I'm positive we are going to hit them, but we never do. I'm sure that's why they don't have us drive which is a very good thing! I guess they are used to it and it doesn't phase them. Mark had therapy in the pool today which was fun and different for him. It was still an amazing workout. His arms were dead tired at the end and he wasn't sure which was harder the land PT or being in the water. They had him stand up in the pool by going to the edge and pushing himself up so his arms got a good workout. They had him do lots of different excercises which he did really good at. They are hard especially since he has no abs or anything to help control his body. It took a lot of focus so he could control his body, and he did great! I guess they wanted me to get in and help but i didn't know and they didn't say anything so I didn't bring my swimming suit. I tried to help as much as I could standing outside when he was standing up. Next time i will be prepared and bring my swimming suit. I am pretty excited that i'll be able to get in and help. Tommorrow morning we will have our second injection which we are looking forward to. Oh and Mark doesn't really use the excuse of "Doctors Orders" tonight he made dinner and did the dishes and it was excellent! I didn't do anything I was pretty spoiled!!

Rob and Julie

She would pull him in then he had to straighten his legs out

This was hard because he has no abs to sit up but he got the hang of it and did really well

1st Injection

2009-07-02T18:09:00.001-07:00

So we had our first injection yesterday and it went well. We went right after therapy which was another great day. They worked him hard. By the end he was dripping sweat and his shirt was pretty wet. I'm sure he'll love that i'm sharing that with everyone, but it's great to see how hard he is working, and he is working hard!! They do so many great things with him and it is so fun to watch. They had him standing up again and he had pretty much all of his weight on his legs. So after therapy we got all registered and set up back in a room to wait for our first injection. It went well the doctor came back had him sit up prepped everything and gave him the injection right into the back. Then another doctor gave him 2 more IV injections into his arm which were his own stem cells. They had him lay down for awhile and then they let us go. I was a little nervous because they tell you about the side effects and probably getting headaches. We came back and I had him lay down because you are supposed to lay flat for five hours after the injections. He was pretty excited that he had the excuse of not having to cook dinner or anything because it was "Doctors Orders"! He felt like he was a little congested but other than that he did great. So another successful day.

Just waiting for our injection

Some of the supplies
Still waiting

Right after the injection-They make sure eveyone in the room wears a hat and mask

The Magic carrier that carried everyones stem cells!

Our 1st PT Appt

2009-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

So we had our first PT appointment today and it was awesome. The Hospital is really nice and the therapists are all really great. Our therapist is Jennifer and she is awesome, and very knowledgable. She gave Mark a workout thats for sure. Today Mark stood up for the first time in almost 6 years which was really exciting to watch!!! He said the view gave him a new perspective which he hadn't had in a long time! The appointment was just as hard mentally as it was physically. She was holding his legs in different positions and having him try to move them and visualize doing it. After awhile she stopped to get him a towel and she was kind of laughing because he was already sweating. It's great to know that they are going to work him hard in every area. It was really exciting watching him stand up and she had him put all his weight on his legs while she held his knees. He was able to do it and then she had him move his knees in and out. We get more and more excited everyday with all this new stuff we are learning and they are doing. Tomorrow is his first injection which unfortunatley i won't be ale to get any pictures because that is one thing they won't let you get pictures or film of but we will let you know how it goes. I posted some videos from his therapy appointment so you can see how well he did!!!

1st Appointment

2009-06-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

So today we had our first appointment at the ICM clinic and it went well, and we didn't have to do much. It was more of an introduction and evaluation. They took 9 tubes of Mark's blood so they could check it and get it ready to use later. Then we filled out paperwork and watched a short video that explained everything. It's really nice to have other people here even though we are being treated for different things it's still nice to have people to talk to. Everyone that is starting the same time as us, and the majority of the people here are being treated for MS. We've heard there are a couple people here being treated for spinal cord injuries that have noticed some sucess but we have not met them yet. We get more excited everyday! Everyone at the clinic was REALLY nice but today was our only time going there, everything else from now on will be done at the hospital. We have heard such good things about the hospital and the staff from everyone. Tommorrow will be our first Physical Therapy appointment and then Wednesday we will have PT and then our first injection. We are getting so excited. We will post more pictures later and let you know how Mark does with his first PT appointment.

ICM Clinic

Our friends being treated here as well

On our way

They gave us name tags at the airport so they could find us and i had to show it off :)

They clinic left us fruit baskets in our room which was really nice.
The fruit has been SO good.

Our Hotel

2009-06-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

So things have been going good so far. We are still shocked that we are here, but we are starting to figure things out. It has been really nice that there are so many people here at our hotel who are going through this as well because it gives us people to talk to. We are getting really excited! Everyone here has been really helpful and nice with everything. I just posted a few pictures of our hotel and i am trying to post more but the internet keeps kicking us of in the middle of the download, so i'll keep trying.

Our Hotel

Where we eat breakfast and sit most nights to talk to everyone and enjoy the rain

Havn't used the pool yet because of the rain. The other day it
almost overflowed because it was raining so hard!

Our sweet kitchen!!

Our room

We made it!!

2009-06-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Well we have arrived in Costa Rica and we have gotten situated in our room. Its almost handicapped accessible there is a step getting into our room and Mark can't get into the bathroom but other than that it is great! The first appointment is tommorrow at 8 am for blood work. It wil take a day to analyze the blood and the first injection is Wednesday afternoon. He will have physical therapy everyday Tuesday through Friday and injections twice a week. That will give us a 3 day weekend that will allow us to travel and see the country. When we got here it was raining. This morning it was nice and sunny but around 2 it started to rain again and is supposed to rain each day much like the monsoons back home. We have met several others that are here for treatment most of them have MS. It is going to be nice to have someone else here to go through the treatment with. I will get some pictures posted soon. Just wanted to let you know we got here safe.

5 days and counting

2009-06-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

So we are off to Costa Rica in 5 days and we're getting really excited. Now it's all the fun little things to get done before we leave! So i am still getting used to this whole blogging thing and so far i think i have things a little backwards. I am very new at this to say the least. So for now the pictures are first and the explanation is at the end. Hopefully it makes sense. Maybe when we get back from Costa Rica i'll have this blogging thing down! :) Thanks again to everyone for making this possible for us!!

2009-06-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

2009-06-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

Golf Tournament

2009-06-21T20:54:00.001-07:00

All i can say is WOW! Mark and I are truly blessed to have such great friends and family. All the support we have recieved has been amazing. Jeremy you are the man and we should not be suprised at how well you can put something together. You are one talented person. Thanks also to Tom, Scott, Paul, Danelle and to all those who didn't even know us but were willing to take their time and help. The Golf Tournament was a blast and we had a great turnout. We wish the weather would have been a little nicer but everyone seemed to be having a good time. We have been overwhelmed with love from people who barley knew us or didn't know us at all and it has been amazing. Again i know it is not enough and i can't say it enough but thank you, thank you, thank you to EVERYONE!!

2009-06-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

2009-06-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Auction

2009-06-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some very amazing people, who were able to put on a very successful and very fun auction. We had a GREAT turnout and it was so nice to see everyone. We owe thanks to a lot of people for that night and i hope they all know how thankful we are. I'm sorry that i am not thanking everyone personally i wish i could but one person i would like to single out is Beth Baum. All i can say is she is an Angel! The auction was such a sucess because of Beth and all of her hardwork and or course the awesome people she got to help. Thank you Beth for being the wonderful amazing person you are, We LOVE you! There's nothing more we can say but thank you, thank you, thank you!

It's about time

2009-06-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

YAY i've finally done it!! Everyone has been telling us we need to set up a blog so people can keep up with what it going on especially while we are gone. It takes me awhile to get things going and i am definitely new at this so bare with me. I keep up with other peoples blogs and theirs are always SO cute and mine will probably not be like that sorry. I will be proud if i can do the minimal of just posting comments and pictures, but maybe i'll learn we'll see. So here we go.... First of all we want to say thank you to everyone!! Words cannot express how grateful we are to everyone for what they have done for us. If not for all of you this would not be posible for us. It is simply amazing what we have experienced these last few months!! Here is a brief preview with what has been going on.