{Karlton Bontrager}

Thursday was a beautiful and warm day in Dunedin. When I arrived at ISIS, Karlton was sitting in his recliner writing messages he wanted to send to some friends. He had already had his breakfast and the OT had taken him to have his shower. One of his first requests to me was to get him something good to eat. He had his “snack” of oatmeal, a big bowl of apricots and a peanut butter sandwich and he was ready to go to the computer and check his e-mail.

After Terry arrived we decided to take Karlton for a walk around the ISIS grounds. Karlton was decked out in his “flash” sunglasses (the ones he has on in the picture on the home page) and a baseball cap. He tolerated the sunlight well and since it was warm we took our time looking at the different flowers and plants and enjoyed the nice fresh air. Shortly after lunch, Karlton’s friends arrived and wanted to take him out in the warm air so off they went. Karlton came back wearing a chain of daisies around his neck … and no complaints or protest on his part!

By the time the PTs came to work with him he was pretty worn out from the walks in the fresh air but off he went to the physio room. They had him walk a wee bit. Then they had him put weight on his weak leg by having him reach for a balloon on that side above his head. He did this several times under protest but we could all tell how exhausted he was.

Karlton had a full day! The nurses were surprized when a pizza delivery man arrived at the ward later! Karlton and his visitor had decided they were hungry so had ordered it unbeknownst to all of us.