Help Paerau get back on his feet!

Hi Joe! Thanks for checking in. Truthfully, I didn't know this page was still active to provide an update. As you mentioned it's May 2024 and it's officially past a year since Paerau's accident. 2023 was a difficult year with injury recovery and the passing of our Dad on October 19th. A lot of time has been spent in survival mode that's for sure.

Going from being extremely active to wheelchair-bound was challenging both physically and mentally, especially with the uncertainty of what the potential recovery could be. Thanks to all your help Paerau was able to focus diligently on his rehab (and continues to do so). He had made good progress (much better than projected!) and started walking short distances assisted with crutches, with limited mobility mid-late last year. Unfortunately, one of the surgical plates in his left foot broke and he had to have a second surgery literally within a week of Dad's passing in October, so that was quite a stressful time in many aspects. This put him back in a wheelchair for a while - the second time was slightly easier as he had one foot he could rely on a little bit more.

At this stage, he can walk again, but it does cause aches and pains after some time so requires a lot of rest. Due to the nature of the injury, there is permanent wear and tear on the bones where the downward force goes (sorry for lack of terminology) and they say he will have arthritis in the future. The mobility in his feet improves incrementally with continued rehab and deep tissue work on the scar tissues in his feet. This is essential to his quality of balance and ability to walk in a "natural" manner if you know what I mean. As I said he is extremely diligent and disciplined with his rehab work which we're all impressed by (but not surprised, he's always been a 100% all-in type of person!).

I cannot imagine how different the last 13 months could have been without the financial and emotional support provided by you all here - massive shoutout to Scott & Jess for using their platform to support him/us 🤍. There has still been a substantial financial hit due to the fallout of the accident, loss of work etc. combined with the changes in the economy and continued uncertainty around future work/income. So the funds raised here have cushioned that massively - again, I can't imagine how different things could have been and am extremely grateful. As you can probably tell from the update he's not in a position to return to being a builder, but has started studying this year, so let's see where this goes 😃

I hope this update is sufficient - thank you thank you thank you all!