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October 12th, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you to everyone for supporting me on my road to recovery. I am so grateful for your prayers, letters, calls and rides! It is hard to put into words the difference your love and friendship have made to my recovery.
After surviving a brain stem stroke on December 11, 2008, I’ve spent the last ten months focusing my efforts on regaining my independence and rebuilding my life. The stroke affected my motor skills and left me unable to communicate or move for several days. I was only able to blink my eyes to communicate but fully aware of my environment and condition. The doctors told my family that if I survived the first night that there was a high probability that I might spend the rest of my life “locked in.” This is a medical term used to describe a condition that many brain stem stroke survivors are left with. Essentially, this means I would have cognitive functioning and awareness but an inability to move or talk.
It has been a long road back to recovery with many different stages and obstacles but today I am blessed to be doing amazingly well. There have been several different yet equally important stages of my recovery. Most of you already know about the first three (ICU at Northside Hospital, inpatient recovery at Shepherd Center and outpatient at Shepherd Pathways.) Today I want to tell you about a fourth and critical part of my recovery, Shepherd Center’s Marcus Community Bridge Program. The Bridge Program is a community re-entry program funded by private contributions which I have been enrolled in since May 2009.
The mission of the Bridge Program is to assist patients with their transition back into the community. The overall goal is to reduce anxiety and medical complications while increasing return to productive activity. More than 3,700 former Shepherd Center patients have benefited from this program and have been fortunate enough to receive the help of this program without any financial obligation.
Once I was discharged from the Shepherd Pathways rehabilitation day program, it was up to me to figure out what to do and how to do it. Thankfully, the Bridge Program then came into my life making the transition much smoother than it would have been if I had been left to face my challenges alone. Through the Bridge Program, I have learned everything from cooking to tips on how to stay organized, setting reminders to take my essential medication, completing home therapy that helps with my balance, navigating transportation routes and riding MARTA (Atlanta’s public transit system).
This resource has been invaluable to me and has accelerated my recovery. As a result, I am able to return to work part-time this month. In the months since my stroke I have been loved and nursed back to health by a tremendous outreach of support from God, family, friends and the professionals at Shepherd Center. I am proud to be living independently and am almost full functioning. Driving reinstatement is next on my list. I have even been so fortunate to be able to participate in pre stroke activities that I greatly enjoy such as running.
Many of you have asked along the way how you can help. I want to use my experience to give back to others and I need your support. I have decided to train for and run in the Atlanta half Marathon (13.1 miles) on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2009. Running this race on Thanksgiving Day is symbolic for how thankful I am that God has granted me a second chance at life.
I am asking you to support and sponsor me as I race to raise money for the Bridge Program. I want to ensure that other survivors of catastrophic injuries have the necessary resources to make their way back to a life where they can function independently. It costs Shepherd Center about $1.5 million per year to run the Bridge program and my goal is to raise at least $10,000.
I want to thank you all for your prayers and support during this challenging time in my life. Please consider a donation on my behalf to Shepherd Center’s Bridge Program. Anything you can give is tremendously appreciated and would mean so much to me.
With gratitude,
Wes
TO DONATE:
Click Here
or
Send a check payable to Shepherd Center to :
WES VARDA
311 SUMMERSET LANE
ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30328
Shepherd Center Foundation is a 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) charitable organization created to accept gifts on behalf of Shepherd Center--the nation's largest nonprofit hospital devoted to research, medical care, rehabilitation, and advocacy for people with spinal cord injury and disease, acquired brain injury, Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain, and other neuromuscular problems.