Hello family and friends -- thank you for all the cards and prayers.

This is a fundraiser for Quinton Carlson. The link is here. Please share it with others, I don't have everyone's addresses: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-quintons-journey-to-full-recovery.

As you know now, I am recently mostly paralyzed from the neck down. I am typing this from my hospital bed, using a device and software that tracks the movement of my eyes. All I have to do is look at a letter and it gets typed.

Please pray for my love Bobo, my tuxedo kitty. His favorite thing is to be pet while he is at his dish eating. He purrs and purrs. But he has not seen his daddy for over two months, while I have been in the hospital. Pray for our reunion.

Back to me. The doctors don't know if it was a stroke or an electrolyte imbalance. Either way, the results and treatment are the same. The doctors also tell me I should expect a full recovery. But it takes a long time.

Insurance is going to pay for everything medical. But I have about $1000 per month of regular bills to pay. Sheila has power of attorney but she cannot bear this cost alone.

That is why we are having this fundraiser, for Sheila to pay my bills. I am in a time when I can do nothing but receive. I am totally dependent. We thank you deeply. If all of you pitch in whatever you can afford, we can reach our goal of $12,000. This should last us about a year.

Do not feel you have to give. I only want your donation with your joy of giving, what makes sense for your budget. How fun would it be to give at this time?

I don't know how long it will take, but I have made tremendous progress. My fingers move slightly, as do my arms and legs. I hear a gazillion comments from people who say how much better I look. I am healing quickly, but it nevertheless takes time. Every tiny muscle is innervated anew. They are composed of your prayers, and I do feel them. It has been incredible. I cannot thank you enough. Now I am asking for your donation.

Think about what you can afford to give to last me a year. As a perk, I decided that I would tell you my story in installments.

While you think about your donation, here is the first episode of my tale of the last couple months.

EPISODE 1 - ICU

My story begins with me leaning against the cupboard pondering how I finally love my body at a new level. I have spent a couple of years meditating on how I can love my body more, and I realize that it has really paid off. No sooner did I think that, my knees give out and I fall to the floor. Something is very wrong. I feel drunk but I have not had any alcohol. Who knows how long I have, so I immediately call 911.

From the emergency room, I call Mike since I know his phone would be on. Could he and Sheila come at 3 AM? They arrive to see me say I am not feeling right. Then I scream in agony and hold my head. Then everything goes painless.

Suddenly I'm at death's door. I wonder if it will be over. All of my plans unfinished. Is my creativity in this universe worthwhile?

I have one foot in physical reality and the other foot in heaven. I am in a large white empty room. I call out in the emptiness. Have I lost all love? Has Jesus abandoned me?

Then two angels appear. A psychic surgeon, Ron, and his supervisor, Clark. They are watching over me and slowly healing me. Then I notice every patient in the hospital has their own dedicated angels. Each of us healing our own special problems with our own angels sitting at their desks with monitor screens. Ron is working on my spinal column injury.

I am paralyzed from the lips down. I hear my mother in the other room, crying. I can still move my head. My thoughts are intact. And I still have sensation everywhere. I just can't move anything.

The doctors declare me trapped in place, a person whose mind is working but whose body isn't.

I prove the doctors wrong.

Each day a tiny part of me comes back, starting with my index finger and thumb.

The first month I am bedbound, with tubes sticking out everywhere. And what is this white wire attached to my finger? The nurses inject me with more medications than I have ever had in my life. I have entered a world of pills.

Every day is the same routine. During the day is nurses and at night are more nurses. A new nurse every twelve hours means I get to know a lot of people. Every nurse is unique. The small Asian girl is different from the strapping white man with the bun, who is different from the Caribbean woman.

They crush the pills and inject them via turkey baster sized syringes, directly to my stomach tube, which they call "the peg". The potassium is a dayglo bright orange concoction.

I look forward to falling asleep early and going on sleeping for sixteen hours. The days go by more quickly if I am asleep, and I need the rest. I live a life of pillows. Pillows under my knees, pillows under each arm.

On top of this, I am having double vision. Everyone has four eyes.

The doctors are busy at work, including many meetings with my parents. The angels are busy doing God's work at their desks with the monitor screens.

God has downloaded to me all the instructions for a restaurant and grocery. It will be the first of its kind. Everything will be made in house, for not just the restaurant but the grocery as well. You will not have to go to the supermarket ever again. It will be called Carlson Provisions, in Saint Helens.

This is when I learn to use the letterboard. Since I have no voice, the alphabet is the next best thing. Mom gets really fast. I memorize the location of each letter on the board, the entire alphabet. Soon I do not even need the letterboard, I am an expert speller.

I have never been so monitored. Every few hours they check my blood pressure, blood sugar, heart, heart rate, lungs, blood oxygen, and temperature.

The nurses poke me at least four times a day. They want my blood. Sometimes it's to test blood sugar. They have a handheld device for this. Sometimes they draw blood to send to the lab to test an assortment of things. My fingers and arms are covered with prick hole remains.

I am so hot that I ask for ice packs on my body everywhere. These leach the cold slowly. It feels so good. Who knew that ice could feel so good? I continue with the cold ice for more than a month. People keep saying how chilly they are in the room, but I don't care that the thermostat is set for me, because it feels so good. Especially around the back of the neck.

Mom and Mike visit every day, and so does cousin Molly. Edee comes each week and so do Nance and Karen. Cousin Josh changes his flight from Alaska just to see me, and his brother Aaron and sister Susie and mother Mariette each pay me a surprise visit too. The list goes on with visitors every day. And Franche, Bill, and Sebastian send a card every day. I get visits each day, I can't name them all. So much love. Some share their deepest secrets with me. Josie and Jack I have barely made acquaintance with, but they visit. I get a card from someone I don't even know who is praying for me! Cousin Kirsten wants facetime with me. The people are incredible.

Stay tuned for the next installment. And I gladly receive your donation for Sheila to handle. Use the following link for the fundraiser. Please share this with others:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-quintons-journey-to-full-recovery