[Loch-Ruadh] Prayer Request update

[STEVE K ROURKE]

Sorry to take up more bandwidth, but I thought I would pass on an Update on
Joe Evans that I recieved from his mom.


Three weeks after the accident, Joe gets to come home today. They cut the
wires on his jaw yesterday. He kept insisting that the first thing he wanted
to eat once the wires were cut was pizza. He settled for mashed potatoes and
gravy -- his first solid food since Easter. I would imagine that it will
take some transitioning before he's ready for food that requires serious
chewing.

Jen has been busy getting the house ready for him to come home. Some of our
cousins helped her install a wheelchair ramp. Joe has found a store in
Emporia that will sell him the wheelchair and walker he will need and bill
direct to the insurance company. The plan for today is that Jen will go pick
those things up, then head straight for KC to get Joe. He hopes to be
released around noon. (From my experience, that means they'll really get out
of there by 5.)

Jen has found an animal rescue place that had two dogs that needed homes.
They are around a year old, already neutered,  and so bonded to each other
that they cause all sorts of havoc if separated. So she took both of them.
"Lala's" dog is the Britney Spaniel/Collie cross. (Yesterday when Jen was
talking to me, Lala was feeding Brit dog food. One nugget for Brit; one
nugget for Lala. Jen tried to get her to stop eating the dog food, then
said, "Oh, well, at least I know Lala will have a shiny coat. She's on
ProPlan.") The other dog is for Joe. She had wanted to get him a German
Shepherd, because Joe really likes Shepherds. However when she got there the
Shepherd had already found a home and Brit's buddy needed one. So "Joe's"
dog is a Blue tick coondog/Rotweiller cross. Can you imagine a more
hilarious mix? She says he has the build of the Rotty and the disposition of
the coondog.  Joe doesn't know he's getting a dog, too. He only knows about
Brit. This should be interesting. Perhaps he will teach Blue to pull his
chair.

Joe has learned to use a specially modified walker that allows him to grip
it on the left with his arm pit instead of the hand with the broken wrist.
He can get around with it, but Jen says after 3-4 steps his broken ankle
really acts up and he's ready to sit down. He will use the walker to get to
his wheelchair. I don't know what sort of sleeping arrangements they are
going to work out, be cause there isn't space in Joe's room for his walker
or his wheelchair. Worst case scenario, he may be sleeping on the couch... I
doubt if he really cares; he'll be home.