What an amazing two and a half weeks it has been! Clarence is making DAILY progress! How amazing is this man I get to call my husband? I am so honored to be his wife. His strength and determination inspires me to be better in every way. His testimony is PROOF that miracles do happen! He is living PROOF that the power of prayer is amazing! He is living PROOF that there is always a reason to keep your faith and hope ALIVE!

I want to take a moment and thank you all for your patience and understanding in my delay getting this update to all of our amazing supporters. As we have all come to realize during this process, the show must go on! Life doesn’t stop and adding “normalcy” to our routine is a necessity to have any sort of mental clarity for all of us.

Clarence is still admitted to an inpatient rehabilitation facility: Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute-Transitional Rehabilitation Program. The therapy staff are BEYOND amazing! They are so patient, caring and knowledgeable in this area of treatment. Helping Clarence in all the right areas so he is able to gain his strength! They are all angels in my book! I can’t go without saying that Clarence is putting in so much hard work to make the improvements we know he is capable of. God has blessed him with such an amazing support team so he can live out his true potential and purpose in life. He can be as stubborn as he was before, but despite what his mind is telling him what he “doesn’t want to do”, he faces his challenges head on and gets it done. This rehab facility is so different from what we have been used to these last few months. He is able to come and go when he pleases as long as he doesn’t have any therapies scheduled. On October 28th, 4 months exactly after this tragedy struck, Clarence had a home visit! For the first time in 4 months Clarence walked through our front doors, walked up our stairs and greeted our babies. Nevaeh had tears in her eyes, Izaak jumped for joy (ran to hug his dad), and Izaiah was amazed at what he was seeing! It was such a beautiful moment (of course we recorded it, check in the attachments for the video to be posted). He has been able to enjoy his Sundays at home, and we have been doing family dinners every weekend. After everything we have been through, Sundays are our days of smiles, laughter and celebrations together as a united front. He’s been able to leave the facility to get a haircut, go to dinner, enjoy a movie at the theater, and walk through his mom’s front door! Clarence even got to bring the kids trick or treating on Halloween! He saw the kiddos dressed as our 3 Little Monsters! It was such a special moment for him! As difficult as it was for him to walk house to house, he was determined to try! He walked down a hill to the end of a block. Turned around and walked back up the hill to the van. Despite the cooler temperatures he still wanted to be outside with the kids. We busted out his wheelchair and I pushed him from house to house. The kids had a blast! It brought Clarence so much joy to be present for this! As I watched our kids go from house to house and Clarence smile from ear to ear, my heart filled with so much joy and simultaneously a smile grew on my face! (It was so chilly I am sure it froze there ;))

He is working with Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy to accomplish his goals. He continues to be challenged by his vision impairments, high blood pressure and poor kidney function. Yesterday we had a care conference to go over his progress and their recommendations for Clarence going forward. Overall, it was fabulous news!

Physical Therapy:

Clarence is participating in PT 6x/week. He has made great progress with balance and walking (though limited due to visual impairments which affect his balance). The primary focus in PT has been on balance, walking, motor control/coordination, core/leg strengthening, and cardiovascular exercise. Currently he is a stand by assist when he is transferring and walking because of his imbalance. The goal upon discharge is for him to have modified indepence with the use of an assistive device, such as a cane. Currently he is needing an occasional hands-on assist when going up and down the stairs (going down is more of a challenge because of his balance and limited visual field). The goal upon discharge is for him to only need supervision and no physical hands-on assistance while going up and down the stairs (our home is a split entry so going up and down the stairs independently is a primary goal for him). His Physical Therapy team is recommending outpatient Physical Therapy after he is discharged from inpatient rehab.

Occupational Therapy:

Clarence is participating in OT 5x/week. His focus has been on showering, dressing, arm range of motion, and strength. He has a specific goal to focus on the improved abilities of his hands. He has been trying out adaptive equipment including a reach, sock aid, long handled shoe horn and dressing stick to help him be more independent with dressing. He has had various results with using these materials. He is primarily limited by his hand function as it is difficult to grip or pinch items like clothing. Currently he requires minimal assistance with his grooming/hygiene. He has some difficulties getting the cap off of the toothpaste. The discharge goal for him is to only require a set-up for this ADL. Currently he needs minimal assistance with going to the bathroom. His limited use of his left hand makes it challenging for him to pull up his pants all the way at times. This is his baseline for his discharge goal. He currently needs moderate assistance, requiring help 25-50% of the time, with a discharge goal of needing only minimal assistance. Currently he is at a minimal assist with his bathing and a discharge goal of a supervision level (safety cues and no physical assistance). Currently Clarence requires maximal assistance in his medication management. The goal for him upon discharge is to only need his medications to be set up. His Occupational Therapy team is recommending that he have ongoing hand therapy at an outpatient clinic upon discharge. They are also going to work on the possibility of having a med box to assist in his medication administration after he is discharged.

Speech Therapy:

Clarence is making excellent progress in speech therapy. The focus has been on delayed memory, flexible attention (ex. focusing on two things are once or alternating between two different tasks), and verbal reasoning/mental flexibility (ex. finding multiple solutions to a problem). He has been working with the Assistive Technology department to determine the best assistive device to help recall his daily schedule, he can’t see a clock or a calendar to be able to remember what he is supposed to do. They have recommended the use of an Amazon ECHO upon discharge. His speech therapy has decreased to 3x/week due to his progress and the need to focus on Physical and Occupational Therapies. His Speech Therapy team has recommended that he receive 24 hour oversight upon discharge due to his visual deficits, at least for the first couple of weeks. There is a recommendation of on going therapy upon discharge, either in home or outpatient setting.  

Fantastic news right?! The best news in all of this is that everyone on his care team is 100% on board with his end goal to discharge home! That’s right Clarence will be coming H O M E! His expected discharge date will be November 21st! The day before Thanksgiving! How perfect is this? We certainly have so much to be thankful for! I have a feeling our grace at dinner will be full of praise and joyful tears as we sit around the table as a family, complete once again. We have been on this journey for 135 days! Finally we heard the news we have been waiting for, Clarence is COMING HOME! He is able to walk, talk, and remember who we are! After our care meeting I couldn’t hold back my tears. Mom asked me “Honey, what is wrong my darling?” All I could utter as I tried to hold back the tears was “my husband is finally coming home.” She hugged me so tight giving me great comfort. Our nightmare is far from over, with the continued recommendations of outpatient therapies and ongoing dialysis treatments we will have another new normal to get used to. Now we will have to identify the home modifications that will be required for Clarence to manage life at home. Our kitchen flooring needs to be changed, with Clarence’s vision impairments it poses as a huge fall risk for him. There may be a need to remove some cabinetry in our kitchen so Clarence doesn’t hit his head, less is more right? The railings in our home may need to be replaced or some may need to be added for him to get up and down the stairs easier.

A prayer we continue to ask for is for Clarence’s vision to be restored. We met with a neuro-opthamologist to determine the prognosis for Clarence’s eyesight. She performed some test and attempted to perform others. Clarence was challenged by these examinations. He had difficulties seeing the map of letters, so the doctor tried some other tests to determine his visual field. It was difficult for him to see near and far. He said it was blurry and at times he was seeing double. Despite his failure in passing those tests she moved onto another one called an OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) test. This test takes pictures of your retina and determines the viability of the optic nerve. Clarence was unable to get a decent picture because of the rapid eye movement he experiences from his brain injury (basically when he tries to focus on something his eyes bounce and are not still). She continued to perform noninvasive tests to see what she can in his eye. She confirmed the same as the opthamologist from HCMC that there was no damage to the eye itself. She was able to see the surface of his option nerve and it was intact, unfortunately that does not determine the viability of the nerve. The OCT test will give more accuracy of the status of his optic nerve. She mentioned that depending on where the brain injury is it could mean that he is suffering from cortical blindness. This means that there would be damage to the occipital cortex in his brain. An MRI is needed to determine this. Clarence will have an MRI on the 21st and we will meet with her the follow up on those results and attempt to do another OCT test. She is hoping that if he continues to do is vision exercises that the rapid eye movement will improve. This is not what Clarence was hoping to hear, but he remains hopeful that his limited eyesight will be another challenge that he overcomes.

Clarence is now in an outpatient setting for his dialysis treatments. He is currently at Fresenius Kidney Care in Golden Valley on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons for his treatments. As I mentioned in the last updated outpatient dialysis is an entirely new process we have adjusted to. Clarence is getting his labs drawn weekly to monitor his creatinine levels. It has been hovering between 9 and 10 (a normal would range is from .84 to 1.4). We will be having a care meeting at the end of this month with the nephrologist, dietician, social worker, and the nurse manager to get a better idea of what lies ahead for Clarence. We learned that a diagnosis of ESRD (end stage renal disease) was given to Clarence upon his admission to the outpatient dialysis clinic. We are not certain what this means for him, we feel that nothing about him or his journey has been “textbook” so we are looking less at what the definition of the diagnosis means and more what the future will look like for him. We are hoping to learn more about his prognosis and kidney function at our care meeting. End stage renal disease means that the chronic kidney disease has progressed to an advanced state and the only treatment options are dialysis or a kidney transplant. Until the discussion of treatment options we continue our current regimen.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” – Melody Beattie

Thank you all from our whole family to yours! You all have been such an amazing support to each and everyone of us throughout all of this for the past 4+ months! I ask that you continue to donate to our GoFundMe page, any little bit helps! https://www.gofundme.com/nv6pw-williams-family

We also have another crowdfunding site through SpareKey/Help me bounce that goes directly to our mortgage lender once our goal has been met. Sparekey has asked us to share our link to their page. 100% of your tax deductible donation will go to our account. We have a goal in the amount of one months mortgage. Once that goal has been met the funds in the account will go directly to our mortgage lender for the next months mortgage. You will have the luxury of knowing your donation helped us to stay in our home that much longer. Every little bit helps and is very much appreciated. I can’t thank you enough. https://helpmebounce.org/blog/alicia.clarence/

There will be a benefit in the works for Clarence at some point! Once he is home and we adjust to our new normal the benefit planning will commence! Please feel free to reach out to me with any ideas that you may have! We've had some wonderful ideas come our way already. With a never ending support network that we have I know this benefit event will be amazing! (I think I am finding my nitch in all of this! I LOVE HOSTING events 😉 )

Above all else, please continue to share our journey with others and keep those prayers coming! We have all witnessed what the power of prayer can do!