Heal Nick

I’ve already told Nicholas and the family this small world story, but I thought I’d throw it into cyberspace because you never know who might check in with this site from time to time. Incase any of our friends from the Routeburn Trek keep up with the site I wanted to tell you all of this small world story.

I was just in Burlington, VT to run a marathon as part of a relay team. As I was enjoying some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (so cliche!), Denise and David from Denver, CO happened to be there. David competed in the marathon. Anyway, the first words out of their mouth were “How is Nicholas?". Word made it around our trek group very quickly. It was great to see them as they were some of the people we were with right before Nicholas’ accident. Now THAT is small world..from the woods of New Zealand to the street of Vermont!

Nicholas appears to be making a good adjustment to his meds. The recent infection has been resolved. All through the week he has been getting more alert and less lethargic. The progress this week was slow and positive. He continues to get glowing reports form both his physical & occupational therapists. Finally, some warmer and a bit sunnier weather has arrived and worked wonders in the attitude improvement department for all involved.

It’s terrific to have the number of friends making visits, and it is really some of the best therapy for Nicholas. (JL - Great to meet you. I could tell from Nicholas’ expressions & manner, he was really pleased to hang-out with you for a few hours.)

Nicholas will be having an operation on Wednesday afternoon. It’s a fairly routine procedure for those with a brain injury and should help his recovery progress. I don’t anticipate any complications. However, take a moment on Wednesday afternoon to send those mind sparks in the direction of MGH at 55 Fruit Street, Boston. Anyone planning a visit should be aware that he will be at MGH on Tuesday & Wednesday nights and back at Spaulding on Thursday (maybe assigned to a different room). I am discouraging visits while he’s at MGH.

Nick’s mum, Kristen, Peter and Lucy-
It was great to meet you/see you all today. Thank you.
I hope you all had a good afternoon.
Jess

Nick,
What can I say? … it was wonderful to see you today. Even though you were sleeping a lot of the time I was there, I got a chance to do some homework with good company. I guess we missed that time of our lives and never got to do homework together; well, I guess now we can say we have. That’s one of my favorite parts about school, doing homework in the room with someone else who’s doing something of their own. In this case you were sleeping and I was reading, and that was perfect.

I also finally got a chance to meet your mum, Kristen and your dad, and to see Lucy again (I’m pretty sure I told you I met her in the Kitchen Witch when I was working there). Now I only have about 20 immediate family members left, right? Sorry, couldn’t help it. I just remember going to the Northshore Mall to do Christmas Shopping one year. I had my brother and my sister and you had just a few more.

This will have to be short, as I have a paper due as soon as I get back to Indiana. Man, I wish I could stay longer and hang out with you much more. Although I know you’re “around” since you pop in and out of my dreams, I do miss talking with you and just being around you. You are amazing, and have influenced me in more ways than you could know (yes, even more than just teaching me the meaning of the word ‘anathema’-although I think you made me look it up on my own). I hope your physical therapy session went well after I left. I’m sure it did. You looked like you were reading to get to it when you woke up from your nap.

Okay, I did say short, right? I try, but that never actually happens. Have a good night.
Hugs and love,
Jess

good morning Nick,
I wanted to tell you an interesting story. So I’ve been letting people know I’m moving and yesterday I was contacting clients. I phoned one, she wasn’t home but her husband answered. I asked for their address and then he and I started chatting about my move. I told him I was moving about as far as I possibly could and he responded “New Zealand” I continued with “as far away as I can in the continental United States". “Although I’d love to go to New Zealand. ” We start talking about how wonderful New Zealand is with their health care system and also how lovely New Zealanders are. He told me that a couple monthes earlier he had met a family at Spalding Rehab. who had just arrived from New Zealand, the son had taken a fall from a tree and they had to stay in New Zealand until he was well enough to travel. I said wait a minute thats my friend Nick your talking about. My clients husband has been studying to be a respiratory therapist and was doing some of his training at Spalding the day he met you and your parents and sis. You all made a lasting impression on him. He wanted to know how you were doing and when I told him you were making great progress, he wasn’t suprised. He said you could just tell you were really strong and that you were going to recover well.
I don’t know, this was just kind of interesting to me and it made me think, its such a small world and even though the interaction between this man and yourself was brief you and your family made a lasting impression.
I hope your feeling better, I read that you were fighting a cold, so many people are catching a bug this spring. Hopefully that big ball in the sky will return today. I heard the water is unseasonably warm right now, must be because of the storm we just had.
Bye for now, Caroline

Dear Nicholas….As you may have noticed, it has been really crummy weather in these parts for far too long. I think I can speak for most adults and young adults (you guys) when I say ENOUGH ALREADY!! What I am REALLY looking forward to is standing on the banks of the Charles and watching you windsurf…it won’t be Buzzards Bay but it will be good enough for me. Keep your spirts up…see you on the water soon. With love…Joanie

Hello Nick~
Its Daisy D. here sending a big hug and bright smile of sunshine to light up the whole room! I think about you every day, my brother, amidst our travels. I envision you awakening to this world in your strong body daily, riding that mega wave that takes you in to the turquoise cove, and hang gliding over snow capped valleys with the wind in your hair. And me and Bobcat are right there with ya, but you always have a funnier punchline to cap it all off. We miss you and although we are half way across the planet be assured that we are coming closer to you every day, arriving in the Beantown zone the first week of July. If you havent seen a clandar lately, that is in a jiffy! We have enjoyed stories from Jake and Ralph about visiting you and look so forward to looking into your eyes again. Dont worry about missing out on your trip to India with us, this place isnt going anywhere. We’ve been riding our beastly motorcycle through the desert and mountains and sending you love from all spots in between. Keep up the appetite, keep those pecs pumped, and you’ll be paddling out in no time.
Boundless love from Daisy and Bobcat

Hi Nick,
We’ve been in touch with Jessie since she left us for Indiana and was hoping that we could make a visit with her when she comes into town for Memorial Day weekend. We’ll get in touch with your folks ahead of time to arrange something that works with your schedule.
Wish you were still back at the Lodge with us to give us your valuable insight on the situation here. Can’t wait to see you and wanted to let you know we think of you frequently hoping you can get outside soon. First we have to get a solid week of sun..that would be good for all.
See you soon.

Just like the weather in Boston, this has been an indifferent week. There is not much to report. Nicholas is now taking 2 meals a day in an attempt to wean him off the feeding tube. In order to have this work, he has to maintain & start to gain weight. It’s usually a very slow process but at least it has begun. He hasn’t felt that well, due to continued adjustments to meds & fighting a cold, which is why I can’t report on any great happenings. However, regardless of this he continues to make very slow progress. Some weeks are better than others. All he needs, as do the rest of us, is a little sunshine & warmer temperatures. Just need to get him outside to soak up the rays & breathe some fresh, spring air.

Your doing so awesome!!!!!!! I knew that if anyone would make a come back it would be you. You have that zest and love for life and adventure, I’ve always admired. Your windsurfing photos are very cool. I was telling Dani, Brian and Karen about them and Karen was suprised and awed by how the human body, particularly yours bounces back. Did you design that rig? You said you could build just about anything. I love that physical therapy has become so progressive and your able to enjoy some of the great outdoors.
I’ve been busy with my massage business, it’s now my full time profession which feels great and I’m in the process of completing my personal training certification but the functional anatomy is making my head spin. I went to an intensive workshop this past weekend and learned an incredible amount of information. We were all hyped up and getting pumped up. What else, I’m moving out to LA at the end of June, I hope you’ll come visit and we can catch up on whats been happening with our very busy lives. Your in my thoughts and prayers
Caroline

nick,
it’s been a while since i’ve written and i can’t remember if i told you or now, but i got into grad school here at IU for education. really i’m doing the transition to teaching program which ends next may and will get me my teaching certificate but i’m technically in grad school as well. but i won’t complete my grad program until after i begin teaching. from all i’ve heard it’s a bad idea as a new teacher to have a masters because they have to pay you more.
so, i have been a pretty busy girl. starting 2 classes last week and am still working full time at the co-op in town. and my child, oh i mean, my dog, takes up a lot of my time as well. thanks god my roomate is so helpful with him.
other news is that i will be in newton, staying with my brother around memorial day weekend. i’m so excited to come and see you. hm, i think it’s been… god over a year and a half? i don’t think i saw you when i was in boston after graduating from bennington dec ‘03 did i? wow, crazy. i guess that’s the best part about good friendships, it just doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. can’t wait to see you, man.
hugs and love
jess

Dear Nick,
Seeing you windsurf is truly inspirational because of your courage and love of outdoors. Keep soaking up that sunshine, it radiates all the way to Colorado!

Love,

Mariko

New windsurfing pics are up (finally).

This is going to be a rather short posting. If you want to see how the week went, be sure to take a look at the Photo Gallery at this site and pictures of Nicholas’ physical therapy session on a “windsurfer”. This was great stuff for many reasons on a beautiful day. There should be more pictures posted by Pamela soon. If you want to know more about the Adaptive Sports program, go to: http://spauldingrehab.org/body.cfm?id=58

As a word of caution, don’t be misled by this. It is only a very small step in a long rehab process. It’s just a little different from going to the therapy gym. Nicholas is scheduled for Adaptive Sports sessions one day a week for 3 weeks, starting the week after this.

See the Photo Gallery for pictures of Nicholas sailing on the Charles!

Dear Nick and family,

It’s so wounderful to read the updates here and see how well you are progressing. I am happy for you all. Still think of you guys often so it’s nice to check in from time to time and catch up on the latest news.
Take care

Carolyn T.

Nicholas appears to be more-or-less back on track this week. He’s adjusted to his meds and is quite alert. He continues to have a both vision and vertigo problems both of which are being addressed through therapies. He has a very long way to go, continues to work very hard and is slowly making progress. Through all of the ups & downs in his recovery, he never seams to lose his awareness or sense of humor. The other day we had him outside playing catch with a Frisbee from his wheelchair. There was an errant toss to him that caught him on the chin. Thereafter any time that particular tosser had the Frisbee, he put his hands in front of his face. And, yesterday I ate some of his leftover food from dinner (just couldn’t resist sampling) and commented that I hoped I didn’t catch any “bug” from him by eating off the same plate. After dinner the nurse did a routine antiseptic swabbing of his mouth and he smiled & indicated she should do the same to me.

I’ve mentioned this before. If there are any friends in the Boston area who have not had a chance or have and want to do it again (& again), please feel free to pay Nicholas a visit, especially on Saturdays or Sundays. Friends are an extremely important part of the rehab process. Just contact me (phone or email) and let me know your intentions.

Hi Nick!
Happy birthday (belately)!!!

Jazz Fest has come and gone now… It was amazing and wonderful as always. The weather was much better this year… cool and sunny… soooooo much good music all day and all night…. I am still sore all over. Anyway, what you need to know is that we missed you, we needed you, and you have to come back!

Peace & Love & Music,
Truly, Cayne

Hi there,

The team at South Pacific Air Ambulance here in New Zealand organised Nick’s repatriation home.

Certain ‘cases’ tug at your heartstrings & Nick’s case certainly did that with the entire Operations team here.
We’ve just had an update from Peter along with directions for the website, it’s great to hear how well Nick is doing & rest assured we’ll be constantly logging onto the site for regular updates.

All our best wishes to Nick & the entire ‘Robbins’ family

Take care
Tracy, Shona & Chrissy
SPAA Operations

Happy Birthday, Nicholas! It’s May Day and he turned 34. And, what a performance he put on today for his family & close friends. He played to the audience as only he would & could; applauding for our barely adequate rendition of the traditional birthday song, acknowledging all of us with appropriate nods & finger pointing, and generally smiling & laughing with all the good humor. Today Nicholas was extremely aware of & interacting with all that was going on around him.

So, we had an opposite of last week’s progress, starting in a downer and ending with one of the best days I’ve witnessed. Picking-up from last week’s Parent Posting, it took a few days for the anti-nausea & “vertigo” meds to get out of his system. However, at the same time he was diagnosed with a UTI, urinary tact infection, (very common in these situations), and he did have a few short seizures (also very common). As a result he was put on a general anti-biotic for the infection & an anti-seizure medication. Unfortunately, a UTI will pretty much halt any therapeutic progress and can cause seizures. Side effects of the anti-biotic can be nausea and to the anti-seizure drug extreme lethargy. Nicholas is the type of person who will develop side effects to meds, if they exist, and he did. Fortunately, the anti-biotic seems to be working (he appears to be feeling much better) and with a reduced dosage of the anti-seizure drug, he is adjusting and no longer lethargic. For everyone who heeded Pamela’s posting on April 29th, it worked! Now, go back to the first paragraph for ending the week on a high note.

“Happy Birthday Dude” !!!!

These are the very words that you said to me last week when I came in to visit. I must say it was the best birthday presant ever !!!!
I’ll be in soon to give you a hug and some gifts.
Rest well and strive forward my brother.
ciao for now

jacob

Happy birthday, Nicholas!!! I hope you have a good day. Wish I could be there to say it in person. But, soon enough, I hope.
Hugs and love,
Jess