Meal Train® for The Friendt Family

Please help support Kori, Mike and the boys so they can focus on Isaac's recovery and rehabilitation after his injury and multiple surgeries. Meal Train also allows donations for anyone who wants to add their financial support. Updates will be posted as often as time permits. Thank You and God Bless You!!!...

Recipient

The Friendt Family

Organizer

Connie Moritko

227 Participants

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Recipient Info

Food For

4 Adults

Drop-Off Time

4PM-6PM

Meal Drop-Off Location

Andover, MN

Meal Calendar

Calendar List

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Updates

It’s Been A While!

The last update came a few weeks back, but that’s kind of how all of this goes now. It’s not new milestones every single day; it’s just me working as hard as I can every single day, knowing that the next big milestone is coming. My pressure ulcer on my heel is almost done, but has been probably the most painful part of my leg for a little while here. The thing bleeds a lot, and gets aggravated super easily, but I’m almost through with that! It affects my ability to walk as frequently as I’d like and which AFO i would like to use. I have to change the bandaging on it once or twice a day, and keep it as clean as possible in hopes that it’ll finally heal up soon. My knee bend has gotten to 125 degrees and has kind of become the smallest part of our focus as of late. It’s a measure that means I have the ability to live a normal life that pertains to knee bend, and movement. Pain has become a reality. It isn’t the level of what it was by any means, but it is constant. It can spike, I have worse days, and I hate it sometimes. But I’m figuring out how to live while in pain and how to handle that truth. But now we have a heavy focus on strength, and ankle mobility. My ankle continues to swell for no reason, cause lots of pain, and seem sticky in movement. But it has gotten much better; my inward motion is gaining momentum, which is the muscle needed to get the tendon transfer I am hoping for. The other need for that is, like I said, strengthening in my right leg as a whole. My PT has shifted to introducing balance, and muscle gains for my leg. I can’t balance very well, I’m mentally very scared about it even though I know I am able and allowed to put all of my weight on it. I have also started a workout program through Laurus Athletic Rehab that was offered by Julie Ebentsteiner to me without charge. That amazing blessing and kindness can not be over stated, and I am forever grateful for her helping me workout and continue to grow forward with my leg. The people around me, from my original knee surgeon, to my physical therapist, to now Julie, are the most amazing people I have ever met. I never imagined the type of sacrifice others would make for me. Now I will continue to work my ass off, harder than I ever have at anything, to get better. To get my leg working like it needs to, to grow as a person, and to make all this sacrifices worth while. I am very blessed, and looking back, a lot of things are very blurry. It all happened so fast, and became so bad within an instant. Being able to, now, wrap my head around the severity of what happened to me makes me even more grateful and feeling blessed. ...

Been a While

A lot has happened since my last update. I even had to go back and read the last one to remember where I ended. I can happily say that I’ve continued to grow and excel in my recovery. I have kept on working on my walking form and ability to do so. But I spend periods of time in each day without my crutches, and just walking around my home. It’s a very liberating feeling to be able to get up off the couch, and just walk over to show my parents a video, or grab my cup of water I left in the other room. I still am struggling on my walking form as my body is relearning all of these movements. Also, I have learned to drive again! I take myself to PT, I drive to just drive, and I feel super happy and a little more human now that I can do that. PT has also gotten better, I can now bend my knee 110 degrees, which is a HUGE milestone in multiligament knee rehab. This also means I can get a complete revolution on a stationary bike, and can bike very very slowly for about 10 minutes a day. The downfall, once again, is the reality of how many moving parts there are in my rehab. So much so, in fact, that I cannot return to Chicago this upcoming winter quarter, and will be taking online courses for the time being. I am not nearly far enough along yet to be that independent, or trust my mobility in the winter Chicago streets. I also have a lot of progress to go in terms of my compartment syndrome rehab, which is by far the hardest and most painful part of this. I had to make the hard decision to stay back and continue to get the correct physical therapy. This whole things has completely altered my life, and made life moving forward incredibly difficult. I would hate to make it harder by being too eager to jump ahead and not get my well being taken care of, physically and mentally. ...

A Wild Week

This past week has been filled with great strides and difficult mental battles. I took my first steps this past week! Now this was such an exciting event for me, my family, and everyone we shared it with obviously. However, the reality that comes with it is that it’s only the smallest start of what I’m recovering. I have to focus on every movement of my leg when I take a step. My muscles in my leg, that are left, are not ready, and not fully strong enough yet to support my weight as I walk. I also must be wearing my AFO (ankle-foot orthotic) to make walking even possible. I was explaining to my dad and brother that one of the craziest things to wrap my head around is that I can be practicing taking steps, but the moment I sit down and take off that AFO, I can’t walk. Not even a step. But this new AFO I got is super cool. They took a 3D scan of my leg and molded it to fit my leg and foot perfectly. It’s very comfortable. Lastly, this mental battle during this week has been a really frustrating for me. I am receiving congratulations left and right for this surface success of walking, yet I can’t wiggle my toes. I struggle to even bend or curl them. There are still large chunks of my leg that have no sensation at all. I can hardly flicker my foot on inward motion. And every single step I take equates to a disturbing amount of pain later in the day. I did end up breaking 90 degrees of bend in my knee, which is amazing. But all of this takes a toll. I am more determined than ever to keep progressing, but the amount of physical pain I end up in when I push maybe too hard, is mind blowing. Overall, I have had a fantastic, and exciting week. There are more things to come. ...

Meal Train® for The Friendt Family