Well Kelley is healing. She had her first check up last tuesday and the doctor says the xray shows that the bad fracture above her prosthetic knee joint is healing. This is the one that they were really worried about. The femur broke just above her prosthetic knee, so they inserted two long thin metal rods half way up her femur that criss cross and "pinch" her prosthetic knee. They then pinned these two rods just above the knee joint so the rods really squeeze it. This is all supposed to knit the whole thing back together so her femur reattaches to the prosthetic knee. Complicated... and so far it appears to be working. Kelley spends a fair bit of time in her new chair, but is still taking it very easy. But at least she can move around the house, get outside and visit with friends. In this photo she and her Mom are visiting with Julie and Abigail. Wilbur has a little basket in back of the chair that he just likes to lay in so he always goes where Kelley goes.

Some funding has been coming into the NTAF account, thank you to everyone that has contributed, it sure helps with the insurance premiums and copays. The Tuolumne trip has filled! so that will also be helping making a dent in some of the backlog of bills, and hopefully help pay for a badly needed wheel chair ramp to the house. Please continue to send her your good thoughts, meditations,prayers, and emails, and stop by and visit. Your positive energies definitely help. Sue

How it happened. A lot of folks have been asking, and guess it’s better if Kelley doesn’t have to tell everybody the story over and over. She and Sean were leaving the house to go on one of their bike rides. Their house unfortunately is situated at the top of a short and steep slope relative to the street and sidewalk. There is no easy way in and out of the house for her, but in her knobby tired wheelchair she had developed the confidence to switch back down her yard to the sidewalk. It’s a class 4 (maybe 4+) move for sure, but you know how it is when you’ve developed some skills, and done something often enough, just doesn’t seem that risky any more. So she left Sean to lock up the house while she went down the slope. But right near the end of the slope her tire dropped into a large fist sized hole that she did not see or know was there, and the abrupt stop pitched her out of the chair. She came down on he knees in a deep knee bend. It is disturbing that this fall caused so much damage, because it just doesn’t seem like the impact was that hard (she went down on grass). But she does have very little muscular support to absorb the shock, and we just aren’t sure at this point to what degree the condition of her bones may have become compromised by the events over the past year. It will be one of the things that are examined in her follow-up to this accident. More later, Sue

Shock, despair, disbelief, heartbroken, angry. These are a few words to describe the range of emotions Kelley as been experiencing this past week, and have been shared by her friends in your voicemails and emails. I just spent a day and a half with her in the surreal time warp that is the University of Davis Medical Center. I don’t know how to describe the experience, but I am not the one that has had the traumatic injury, am not on drugs, but still am in a perpetual state of feeling, " what the f***ing hell is going on"? Can you imagine how Kelley feels? After many long hours interspersed by brief interludes of various peoples of different roles and responsibilities popping in and spouting off various confusing, conflicting, and lacking amounts of information, we finally got a few minutes of time with the Doctor who performed her surgery, and will be doing the follow up on her recovery. He is expecting 4 to 5 months for her fractures to heal. During this time she is to do virtually no activity with her legs, so her rehab is essentially stalled during this time. She came home from the hospital this afternoon, and we started setting up her situation for an extended period of bed rest and loss of mobility. I will post more information over the next several days. Please do call or email, and make plans to stop by if you can. She could sure use the support right now friends. She is still Kelley, staying strong, trying to keep her justifiably earned meltdowns brief, and looking forward. Lets help her get through this. Sue.

Kelley has had a pretty major set back in her life. Last saturday she "tripped" in her wheel chair, and in the fall ended up breaking both her femurs. She did not know her injury was so bad until her legs started swelling a couple of days later. She just got out of surgery this evening, and the doctors have told Kurt it went well. She has some new pins in her legs, and cannot put weight on her legs for 6 weeks, so she will not be able to do her high level physical therapy for some time, and undoubtably will be basically bed ridden for awhile. Her spirits are still strong, although she knows she is in for a tough couple months ahead (as if her life has not been tough enough). So please give her a call, and for those who live close, arrange to stop by if you can, and maybe offer to run some errands for her and Kurt if they need. And of course the NTAF fund could still use a boost, since there will undoubtably be some costs associated with this situation. Will keep the blog posted as events unfold in this new unforeseen detour in Kelleys Journey to Recovery.

As I said in my previous blog Kelley and Sean are doing lots of biking these days. Since this is assisted biking and they are going for so long (10+ miles some days) Sean has figured out how to hook his bike up behind kelley's so they are kind of doing a tandem thing. Thought you might enjoy the photo. Also want to get the word out about another fantastic river trip offer. Ken Streeter is offering a 4 day Rogue River Trip for $750, from September 16 through September 19. If you are interested in learning more about the Rogue River, or signing up for this trip , please go on Kens website at www.wildernesstrips.com. Spaces are limited, so this trip may fill pretty quickly.

Haven’t seen Kelley in a while, but we have been in touch. Her last email sounded very positive. She is able to crank a spin bike in the gym for 15 minutes on her own, and has been doing long hours of walking in her braces and walker, and assisted biking on her tricycle. Sean is still working with her almost every day, and at this point is working just for basic living expenses since we have run out of money in the NTAF account. We have planned some rafting fundraisers for this summer to help eventually reimburse Sean fairly for his invaluable role in Kelley’s recovery program. She has a relatively narrow window of opportunity to make the recovery that is possible for her, and this daily intensive training with Sean is the key to making the most of the ultimate outcome. We think the next 6 months will be especially key.

The raft trips being offered through the generous offers of outfitters are a two day Tuolumne trip on August 27th and 28th , and a one day + camping trip on the South Fork of the American on July 31st . The South Fork trip will have a women’s trip group, as well as a separate kids trip group. If you are interested in either of these trips please contact Zephyr Whitewater for the Tuolumne Trip, and Mariah Wilderness Expeditions for the South Fork Trip, or you can contact me at susannorman@att.net for more information. We also may need a few more volunteer guides for these trips, so please contact me if interested in doing that as well. I know I had said it before, but I will say it again, Kelley’s focus and ability to work through (and sometime having to just wait out) the nerve pain is something I think about almost every day, and keeps everything in my life in perspective. Makes the challenges I face in my life seem so easy in comparison. Keep sending her those positive vibes. Happy Solstice, Sue

Kelley saw many of you river folks recently at a memorial gathering for our friend Lars, on the banks of the American River. Was great to see such an incredible gathering of the river community, and sad and powerful to hear and share stories of our friend Lars. It was also great to keep looking over at Kelley and see her surrounded and visiting with so many of you. Her life is currently very isolated in some ways, and she misses the river and its community tremendously. Hopefully now that she is driving she can get out more. Thats right, Kelley drove up in her "accessible" van from Sacramento, and picked Julie, Lisa and I up in Coloma, and drove us up to Chili Bar for the memorial. It was her first big outing in the van, and it was only after I got out and really started looking at the hand controls, that I really realized that naviagating the steep curvey descent down to Chili Bar, is a bit more challenging with that set up, then regular cars. The gas and brake are on the steering wheel. But she did great (of course).

So unfortunately our San Juan River Trip fundraiser had to be cancelled, (lack of sign-ups) so am working on other local options instead. Keep tuned, next blog will hopefully announce dates for South Fork American, Tuolumne, and Rogue River fundraising raft trips. Finances are tight,and would like to try and keep that from getting in the way of Kelley's progress. Kelley is still making hard fought progress,with the amazing Sean. I asked Kelley to send me this letter she got from Sean, after she had had a particularly bad day fighting nerve pain, so she could do some physical therapy with him. Their work together is hard, painful... and beautiful....

"Hi Kelley,

Here are some photos just were taken after the big pain during the whole hard day, I don't think it's a bad day, it is still a recovering day and developing day.

Remember, we are making a miracle!

Don't worry about the money, it would not stop the miracle.
Don't worry about how fast or how slow it is, it's not our business, it's God's business. Our business is Keep going, going and going, never stop!
Please clear your mind, concentrate on it!

What is miracle? there are many ways to explain. one way is below.

it would not happen today, many people stop at today;
it would not happen tomorrow, many people stop at tomorrow;
it would not happen next week, many people stop at the week;
it would not happen next month, many people stop at the month;
it would not happen next year, many people stop at the year;
it would not happen in the time people expect;
it would happen when people completely forget ask the time, only concentrating the hard work, ....

See you tomorrow,
Sean"