It's A Small World, After All - Day 214

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:40:10 -0700

I am always amazed at how you can meet new people, peal the layers back and find people you have in common that make this large world very small. Sarah has been Carly’s speech therapist this semester. We actually met her in December as she began to follow Carly’s sessions in preparation for this year. Sarah has been wonderful and Carly has made progress with her hard work and help.

Sarah is from Bosie ID and grew up with a very close friend who dances for the Momix Dance Compnay in NYC. Momix recently performed in Salt Lake City. Sarah thought it would be a good outing for her to take Carly to coffee with her friend Tsarra from Momix. It was a great opportunity to engage Carly talking about her dance experience and her time living in NY. Once they started visiting it only took a few minutes to discover that three of Carly’s close dance friends, who originally came from her Performing Arts High School in FL, were close friends of Tsarra. Carly’s friends Zui and Jose both danced with Tsarra at the Boston Conservatory. Then in NY, Tsarra had danced with Sabrina who was with Carly both in high school and then at Alvin Ailey. If you take the time to interact with people, it truly is a small world. Tsarra like her close friend Sarah is a wonderful young lady. The time she took out of her busy schedule and limited time in Salt Lake to hang with Carly was a huge blessing. She then blessed us with tickets to the Momix performance. It was a wonderful evening. Watching Carly absorb the dance was amazing. If you ever get a chance to see Momix perform it is a wonderful evening of dance, illusion and imagery.

Carly continues to have small improvements in speech. Through the therapy she is receiving both in the clinic and in outside activities like the one with Sarah and Tsarra or baking with Hadley you can see small improvements. While Carly is still only speaking a few words at a time, she is starting to respond a bit faster. Short term memory is still a very large issue but as you can tell her long term memory is much better. She also has had the opportunity to talk to a few friends on the phone. This has been great in giving her another outlet forcing her to talk more. If you would like to call her, send me and e-mail and I will reply with her phone number carlmims@gmail.com

Go back one layer deeper and you will find Mary Foye (Photo, R-L Hadley, Mary and Carly). Mary is the Clinic Supervisor and teaches Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Utah. Mary is the one who immediately took interest in Carly’s case as she read the medical history, she then greatly accelerated the U’s process and instead of waiting months, got Carly in therapy within 3 days. It was Mary who hand picked Hadley last semester to take on Carly when she already had met all of her graduation requirements. And it is Mary who picked Sarah to work with Carly this semester. Those two choices have made a big difference in Carly’s outcome. Mary is present at each of Carly’s therapy sessions sitting behind the one way glass observing, taking detailed notes and working with Sarah between sessions. She has helped is in so many ways in getting involved with additional therapy, encouraging conversation and has helped is in getting an appointment next week with a Neurologist at the U which we are very excited about. Mary is the lady behind the scenes and another example of how God sends people to answer your prayers.

It is ironic that Mary is now struggling with issues similar to Carly’s within her own family. Her brother Paul and his wife were on a trip to CA recently when Paul fell, hitting is head. He has been in the hospital and in patient rehab for several weeks and suffers from head trauma, speech problems and diminished use of his right side. Please add Paul and his family to your prayer list. Paul is expecting early release from the hospital and looking forward to returning home to Wisconsin. Pray that he God brings the right help for his continued recovery at home.

We thank God daily for all of the family, friends and new people he is using to bless and assist the Mimstribe. Pray for Carly’s upcoming Dr appointment, for Katie’s continued recovery and finding a Job and for the many other details in our lives. Pray for Mary’s brother Paul, his safe return home and finding the right assistance for his recovery.

It's A Wonderful Life - Day 207

Sat, 5 Mar 2011 16:39:30 -0700

The year 2010 was a tumultuous time for the Mimstribe. It has left a permanent mark on all of our lives in many different ways. The movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”, staring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed has been a family favorite for years. The movie has many of the elements of real life, including comedy, drama, dedication, love and value of life. As life often imitates art, the Mimstribe have experienced all the elements of “It’s A Wonderful Life” during this year, including some of the elements that were shot as part of the original film but were ultimately cut out and left on the editing room floor. Those parts included a scene where the entire town prayed for George Bailey and another were George was on his knees praying the Lord’s Prayer.

The year began with us adjusting to our move to Cedar City, Utah. Katie was living in the Los Angeles area working for Nickelodeon on the TV shows iCarly and Victorious. Carly was living in Gainesville, Florida and going to school studying math with her eye on the engineering field and working full-time as an Aveda stylist. Tripp was attending college at Southern Utah University and Noah and Abi were home with us in Cedar City undergoing the transition of having to move as teenagers.

Our summer was busy with visits from friends and family. Jan and Chloe Lyon came to visit in Cedar City, we returned with them to Las Vegas and were able to spend time with Jan and Kelly Lyon while they were on a business trip from Ft. Lauderdale. Jim and Gina Nelson came from Tampa and brought their two youngest children, Daniel and Rebekah. They are Abi and Noah’s closest friends and off course the entire Nelson family is tightly integrated with both the Mims and Lyon families. We had a great time for two weeks touring National Parks, quadding (4 wheeling) and just hanging. It was just after they left that Carly came to visit on vacation before the next school semester was supposed to start. We were having the best family time visiting Zion National Park, hiking Silver Reef and spending time together. On a day that now seems almost surreal, Carly had a tragic accident falling of a quad (4 wheeler) on a straight gravel road, wearing a helmet. The Full Story can be found here.

That is where our amazing adventure begins in “It’s A Wonderful Life”. The love and caring that our friends hand family showed over the next few months was unbelievable. Calls to family and friends in Tennessee and Florida quickly got a large number of people praying for Carly. Then the use of Facebook expanded that group of people praying to a much greater number than we could ever have imagined. And then friends who had access to web sites with thousands and even millions of praying people posted the situation and need. All of those prayers were answered. Carly has recovered beyond what the doctors originally expected, and progressed in leaps and bounds in the beginning. With that said though, she still has a long road ahead, and the progress is slow. We have chosen to keep the blog updates focused on the positive.

I think we all keep our internal list. You know, that list of friends that will show up at your funeral, the list of people that will always be there for you regardless, another list of those who you truly love and enjoy but you know they will run the other way in a hard situation. It is very rare to have a “George Bailey” experience where you get to see people rush to your aid, to truly pray for you, reach out in every way possible and support you in a time of need. We all have those internal lists but rarely get to see it come to life. That is exactly what has happened to the Mimstribe in the last 6 months. Since August 10th we have seen such an outpouring of compassion, love, caring, support and true friendship take place. Yes, from that internal list we all keep, it came alive. I cannot begin to describe all of the emotion that takes place when something like this happens. It becomes overwhelming to see people reach out in the way we have experienced. And not only have those that we knew would be there reached out, but others who we didn’t even know before the accident, who have now become close friends touched us deeply

As you review all of this, you begin to think of the many ways that you have touched others and also examine the ways you have let people down. For one thing I have been very tardy in updating this blog, which has left many wondering what is up. There have been a number of events the past couple months that, while not blog worthy, have side tracked me on getting the updates out. I will certainly try to do better, and please accept my apologies. I will also be going back and doing previous post for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which were wonderful, wonderful times for us.

Carly’s speech therapy has increased to now include an additional Group Speech Therapy session each week. Sarah is her new therapist this semester. Once again there is no doubt that God went before us in selecting an ideal person to work with Carly. Sarah has truly been a blessing and has been very enjoyable for Carly to connect with. Carly is now speaking 3-5 word responses. You still have to work to get her to speak and she does not initiate speech very often on her own. Her speech has revealed a problem with her short-term memory, from the last few hours, back to just before the accident. In that time frame Carly has almost no memory recall. She does much better with longer-term items, but has retrieval and some out of order issues. We do see improvement in using both photos and repetition on memory for that time period. Carly still struggles with using her left arm and hand, plus there are other motor skill speed issues. The Equestrian Therapy continues to be the one thing that Carly connects with and looks forward to with the most excitement for that day to come each week. It has helped her in so many ways! Thanks to her instructor, Jess! The main areas are balance, left hand use and even speech have improved from this therapy.

Katie’s femur / hip surgery has healed nicely. She has been cleared to put full weight on that leg and is now in physical therapy. Basically, she can do anything with exception of jogging and heavy lifting at this point. She is now struggling with severe migraine headaches and trying to get to the bottom of those. Katie continues to look for employment in the film / TV production industry in LA.

We have now moved to Jeremy Ranch, which is between Salt Lake City and Park City. It has been wonderful to have a place again and get Abi’s cat back home with us. We will post more details soon with some photos. Needless to say it is beautiful living in the mountains and snow. The location is ideal since we are closer to both the University and much closer to the National Ability Center. At the same time we do miss the Blalocks. This wonderful family who allowed us to live with them the past 5 months is truly amazing.

Please continue to pray for Carly’s progress, Katie’s recovery and success in finding a job. Pray for Carl’s Job Search and ways to support the family.

Katie Surgery / Catching Up - Day 104

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 16:42:24 -0700

Katie is doing better. She has moved from IV based pain medication to oral meds, which is one of the major steps in getting released from the hospital. Katie has walked with the aid of a walker to the nurse’s station and back. She is still in a lot of pain but is making good progress. Prayerfully she will be able to leave the hospital on Monday. Then she and Janie will fly to Salt Lake on Tuesday for her to recuperate and enjoy the big Thanksgiving celebration. As you can see from the x-ray at the right she had a good bit of work done. It is easy to see why it hurts. She will be on a walker and then crutches for the next six weeks at a minimum.

We woke up to 12” of snow this morning. Yesterday we had high winds over 50 mph and just north of us they closed I-80 due to winds over 80 mph. No doubt winter is fully here. Snow is predicted the next three days with highs around 35 degrees, then a high of 27 degrees for Thanksgiving Day. So the snow is going to be around for awhile. The prediction is for 12-14” of additional snow by Wednesday.

We have big plans for Thanksgiving. Nick Lyon arrived Saturday and drove down to Cedar City for some hang time with Tripp and Thy for a few days. Kelly, Jan and Jordan Lyon arrive on Wednesday afternoon from Florida. Chloe Lyon comes in from Portland on Wednesday evening. I am not sure if the Blalock’s had any idea what they were in for when they said “sure we can have Thanksgiving dinner here”. They have truly been such a blessing providing a place for us to live and helping in so many ways. The Thanksgiving dinner guess list will total over 22 family and friends, which will include the Blalocks and new friends that just moved to town, Mims, Lyons, Vues (Thy’s family) and the Mottolas.

The Mims and Lyons have shared Thanksgiving for the past 20 years. The tradition of dressing like Pilgrims and Indians will be continued. Leah and Abi worked on making costumes this past week. Hadley (Carly’s speech therapist) had come over to do some practical therapy. She and Carly went grocery shopping for the ingredients to make Pecan Pie. They returned to bake two pies to test before Thanksgiving and my waist line can tell you that the award winning Carly Mims Pecan Pie passed the test. (photo at top of page) It was a wonderful evening with all the girls baking and making costumes. Hadley continues to bless us, putting in extra time on Carly’s behalf. She is so enjoyable to work with. You can also tell that Carly is responding by opening up a bit more.

The updates have been irregular lately and thus many photos have been left out. The beginning of November brought Elizabeth McTague and Angela Young (Nelson girls) to visit from Tampa. Elizabeth also brought Maren, her one year old baby who had just started walking for the visit. Carly really had a great week with them here visiting, shopping, eating out and just general girl fun. Katie also came and stayed a few days longer before returning for her first surgery. During their visit we drove up to Park City, fed the horses, shopped in town and enjoyed the sights. They all had a wonderful time. It was great seeing them and the first time Janie and I had seen Maren.

Before Katie left all of my daughters baked me a birthday cake. German Chocolate is my favorite cake and this year’s was especially good since all three of my daughters Katie, Carly and Abi worked to bake it with Mom’s help. Looking at the photos you not only see a delicious cake but one happy dad.

Katie Good News & Football Time in Tennessee - Day 101

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:21:17 -0700

Katie’s surgery went well yesterday. The surgery was successful and the only issue is pain. The Doctor felt that the tumor removal, treatment of the area, bone graph and creation of the internal steel brace went very good. She did have major pain issues once the anesthesia wore off, and had a reaction to first IV pain medication that caused itching all over. They changed to a different medication after that, but started off with a very low dose and then very gradually increased. She is still struggling with tremendous pain and they have yet to find the right pain medication combination. They recently switched to a third medication, because the second was requiring such high doses that her blood pressure was dropping to a concerning level. Katie still has another day or two in the hospital, then will be home for recovery. She will not be allowed to put more than 30 lbs of weight on that leg for six weeks, and then she will go back to the doctor for xrays to see how the bone graph is holding. Unfortunately the weight restrictions mean that Katie will be on a walker, and need a wheelchair for longer distances.

I made a quick trip to Tennessee last week. Being away from Carly for four days made me realize how much progress she is making! She really is doing great and working hard in all of her therapies! Last week she continued to improve in speech and her handwriting also progressed. She is still struggling with memory issues, but is doing better with visual cues. In occupational therapy she went on an outing Susan, her therapist. They went to the mall and worked on having Carly navigate her way around the stores, asking for directions and help finding certain items. She did very well, and naturally enjoyed the mall as therapy! This afternoon Carly and Hadley are going grocery shopping for the ingredients to bake pies, as an extra activity for speech therapy. Carly has selected her award winning Pecan Pie recipe to make!

It’s Football Time in Tennessee! Last weekend was the University of Tennessee homecoming. Lewis Wood (Janie’s father) attended UT in 1943 left to serve in WWII and returned in 1946. He graduated in 1949 from the College of Engineering (he is in Orange Cap in center of photo). He has not attended any UT functions for some time due to Jane’s health (his wife of 64 years). The College of Engineering was holding a BBQ before the game and Lewis was the oldest graduate able to attend. It was a great time for him to relive some great memories from his past. The College of Engineering totally hooked us up with tickets in their Skybox. Lewis enjoyed talking to other engineering graduates, spending time with several of the Professors and the Dean of the College. The Vols played great, won the game with a large margin and sang Rocky Top all afternoon. We also attended the Kappa Sigma Reunion on Friday night in Gatlinburg. It was a wonderful weekend with a lot of driving but good conversation, great activities and beautiful weather in Tennessee.

Praise the Lord for the many blessings he continues to shower us with. Pray for Katie’s pain to come under control and for her healing, that she will be able to travel to Salt Lake City next week for the big Thanksgiving celebration. Pray for Carly’s continued progress and specifically for her memory issues. Pray for safe travel for everyone next week. The Lyons are converging on SLC along with our entire family.

Great News - Day 89

Sat, 6 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600

For those that did not see the Facebook post, Katie’s biopsy test results came back clean, NO Cancer, so back to plan A. Katie has returned to LA today and Janie will go there for the surgery in a week. On Wednesday November 17th, they will remove the bone tumor from her femur, perform a bone graph to fill in the missing bone and then add a steel strengthening apparatus. The surgery should be less than four hours with a two night stay in the hospital. Aside from the pain, the bigger issue will be the long recovery time (a couple of months) before she can put her full weight on that leg. Our prayer is for a successful and uneventful surgery, a pain-free recovery and that Katie will be able to join the family in Salt Lake for Thanksgiving!

Carly is continuing to progress. She works with great determination in her rehab sessions each week. While Carly’s daily progress is very slow and sometimes hard to discern, when you reflect back, you can notice the changes. Her speech is constantly improving and more importantly, she is initiating speech on her own a lot more. Speech Therapy is also where they are working on memory issues. Now that she is much more verbal, we see there are gaps in her short term memory and retrieval skills. These should continue to improve. In Occupational Therapy, she baked a cake on her own following directions with very little assistance. She also helped Katie and Abi make the infamous German Chocolate birthday cake for Carl’s upcoming birthday on Monday.

Last week was the National Ability Center Horse Show. Carly and Abi both entered and won ribbons. Abi won first place in her class taking home the blue ribbon. Carly won third place taking home a yellow ribbon. Hadley, who is Carly’s Speech Therapist took time out of her busy schedule to drive up to Park City for the horse show. It was great having her there to support Carly. Hadley has really connected with Carly and invested a lot of time preparing for their sessions and getting to know the entire Mimstribe. We went out for brunch after the horse show and really enjoyed our time together.

Without a doubt our time with the horses has been the highlight of the girls week. Abi has really excelled in her riding skills. The connection that both Carly and Abi have with the horses is amazing. Just the thought of going to the barn gets Carly noticeably excited. You can quickly see the benefits of the horse therapy in Carly’s balance, better control of her left arm and sense of accomplishment in riding.

Abi, Hadley and Carly at brunch