Great News....Rob was accepted into the Project Walk program and we will be traveling to CA July 11-22!! We are very excited Rob also had his first session today with his new personal trainer, Eric (who by the way bears a striking resemblance to Kelly Coffey and who has been trained by Project Walk). Rob said the session went really well and exhausted him. After the session, Rob noticed a decrease in pain and he did not need to take any pain meds this evening. We are thinking his body was relieved to be moving so much. We are hoping that his pain issues will decrease with his new treatments. He would love nothing more than to decrease the 30+ pills a day! On the down side, Rob’s blood pressure has been out of control these past two days (fluctuating from 150/110 to 70/40). During his PT session at Kessler yesterday, he wasn’t able to do any rehab which was extremely frustrating for him. We are presently adjusting his blood pressure medications to accommodate these changes. We also received ANOTHER denial letter from Cigna, this time for a standing frame. I’ll be writing an appeal letter so please think positive thoughts as crafting these letters is extremely stressful. At least we have the fundraisers to fall back on if we lose the appeal Speaking of....we are heading to PA this weekend for the “Robert Wall Benefit Dance”. Should be pretty fun! Thanks to all who have organized the event. We are SOOOO grateful. Looking forward to seeing many of you June 10th for the race. My training hasn’t been going so well because of my back injury. I’ve been going to PT 3x a week and am hoping that the soreness will disappear soon before it’s too late to train. So wish me luck We hope all of the mother’s who read this page have a wonderful Mother’s Day (especially our mothers, Pat and Eileen.....WE LOVE YOU! Thanks for being there every step of the way during this experience). Love, Mandy and Rob

Happy Belated Cinco De Mayo! Rob and I had a GREAT time Friday drinking Margaritas and Coronas. Mexican food in Sparta is scarce but luckily a local bar had some specials. Anyways, I wanted to update you on the Montell Williams Show. We were supposed to tape last month but it was cancelled because a few other guests couldn’t make it. SO...the taping will occur in the Fall after their summer break. We are disappointed in the delay but at least it will give Rob time to make some more progress. Speaking of..Rob had his first acupuncture appointment this week. He did notice some reduced pain a few hours following the treatment. We’ll be going every Friday. We also applied to a program called Project Walk (http://www.projectwalk.org). It is an exercise based spinal cord program that is located in San Diego, CA and we’ve heard wonderful things. They even posted on their website that if you can move your toes you can walk again (I am seriously hoping that is not just a flashy advertisement). The program is private pay and we need approval from our doctor but I really think that Rob will be accepted. They have a 1 week trial program which we are going to try, hopefully in June or July. If it goes well...hopefully we’ll be making regular trips to CA. We are also meeting with a physical trainer tomorrow who has been trained by Project Walk and lives locally. We are hoping he will work with Rob 2/x per week on the days when he is not at Kessler. As you can imagine, between the acupuncture, outpatient PT and OT, shiatsu massage, and medical appointments Rob is one busy guy. He is doing okay, some depression still but not enough to discourage him from working out. He’s recently been working on going from a laying down position to a sitting one independently and he has pretty much conquered it. Today, I looked away for like 2 minutes and there he was sitting up with his legs crossed. We are very blessed that he is continuing to have functional returns. His 1 year anniversary is approaching and the statistics show that recovery slows significantly at this point. Please pray that Project Walk accepts him and that they do not have an enormous waiting list.