Holiday Letter from the Ellzeys, To share with my 914 friends... Options

[Qarl]

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s been another interesting year, with many ups and downs; but to sum it all up, what can we say about 2003, other than we survived!

Hunter had a year with many interesting and difficult events. The first half of the year was rather uneventful for Hunter, and he remained in relatively good health. In March, Hunter, Susan and I took a two-day mini-vacation at Sea World, here in Orlando. The day was beautiful and Hunter even got to meet, and get his photo taken with, Jack Hanna, the TV personality of Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures.

In July, Hunter underwent elective surgery for tendon release to help with the high tone in his hips and feet. The surgery went without incident, other than Hunter having to be cast up to his thighs for over a month. Unfortunately, in the weeks after the cast removal, both of Hunter’s legs were fractured during separate incidents. Ugh! Hunter will always have weak bones, due to his lack of mobility and the fact that he cannot bare weight on his legs, so fractures are something we are always worried about.

Even more devastating were the complications that ensued after a routine feeding tube (j-tube) replacement in early October. Unfortunately, his intestinal wall was punctured during the tube replacement procedure causing Hunter to go into shock within hours. After emergency surgery to repair the damage, Hunter was placed in the ICU where he remained for 10 days and then another 18 days in step-care. What a scary month we had. There were times we thought we were going to lose our handsome little man. We are very grateful to all of Hunter’s doctors and the hospital staff that got us through these rocky times. The good new is that he came home mid-November and has been doing very well.

On a more positive note, Hunter has been participating in “school”. Hunter has a teacher, named Ana, through United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) that comes to the house several times a week to do activities. He really responds well to her and Susan also enjoys helping out his teacher. Hunter has also started vision therapy, through an organization called CITE, and his new teacher, Kathy, also really enjoys working with Hunter.

We are also in the process of completing our new home. Late last year, we purchased some land in Lake Nona, a development in the southern part of Orlando, to build a new home that is more compatible with Hunter’s needs. The entire house is level (no step-ups from the garage to the house), with wider doorways, and special features built especially for Hunter. Susan and I will each have our own garages (I will have my own space to make my own mess and Susan will have her side of the garage with plenty of space for loading up Hunter’s gear.) Overall, the house is coming along beautifully, and we expect to move in mid-April. We plan to put up our current house for sale in mid-February.

Susan had been busy being Supermom and working with the builder and designer on the new house. Susan also hired an interior design firm to assist with materials selection, colors, furniture, and the overall design/decor of the house. This has really made the home building process all the more exciting.

I have been busy with work, taking care of our German Shepherd, Euro, and restoring my Porsche 914. I will hopefully have the car back together in the next two to three months. I’ve taken up fishing in the lake near our new home, and even managed a trip to Seattle in August to visit a few of my online car buddies.

Our pets have continued to provide companionship and occasional entertainment. Roman, our only cat, is really attached to Susan and Hunter. Roman even gets protective of Hunter when strangers are in the house. Euro is the ever loving, smelly, and slobbering German Shepherd. He is VERY attached to me, to say the least. Our new house will have plenty of space for him to run in the back yard and chase squirrels

We’ve created a website to share some pictures of this years events. On the Internet, go to http://www.my914-6.com/2003. Here you can see pictures of Hunter, pictures of the new house, and pictures of our pets.

Happy Holidays,

The Ellzeys
Susan, Karl & Hunter