December 29th

Well, my brother and sister-in-law left this morning. We are hoping that they don't hit the big storm that is supposed to be coming from the West coast. It was so good to have them here. We hadn't seen them for a year since we had been home for Christmas last year.

Michael is doing better each day. He started physical therapy on Tuesday and can get out of the couch on his own now. His isn't taking as many pain pills either which is nice. He basically is only taking his extended relief ones every 12 hours. His coumadin levels aren't where they want them to be so he is taking alternate doses of those each day. He will have his levels checked again tomorrow and have another physical therapy session. It's so nice that they come to the house and we don't have to worry about getting him anywhere.

His first follow-up appointment is on January 4th and they are supposed to be taking him there via Gold Cross cabulance. We just have to wait and see if that gets approved by the insurance.

We've received 2 statements so far for the hospital...they sure aren't slow at getting those out. The hospital flight was just under $6,000 and one anesthesia statement was $2,000. Thank goodness for insurance!

I am thinking of putting away our Christmas decor today and getting my house back into it's normal order (as normal as it can be.) I went out today and bought a few red and green totes to store our stuff in. We've had the same cardboard boxes forever and they are falling apart. I figured this would look better in our storage area too....because we know how important storage area appearances are!

HE'S HOME!!!

Michael was finally able to come home late Thursday night! It took some time, but we made it! Michael was brought home by a cabulance. We have a hospital bed in our family room for him and so far it is working out fine except for the fact that it is made for a little person. He keeps hitting his feet against the footboard.

The home health nurse came yesterday to go over a few things with us and have us sign some documents. The physical therapist and someone to draw some blood should be here today. We don't know when but that is what we were told. Michael has his next doctor visit on January 4th. They will be taking out stitches and just looking him over at that time.

Michael hasn't been taking as many pain meds during the day either! That's a great sign that things are improving a little bit. I just hope he isn't trying to be macho though. He has some anticoagulation shots that he needs to have twice a day and for some reason I am not able to give them to him. Poor Michael has to give them to himself. At least he doesn't mind. I just can't get myself to get over the fact that I might hurt him.

We've received some very nice floral arrangements, fruit baskets, candy baskets and plants from people all over the country. Most of them have been from Carquest associates. It's so nice to see that his company is so caring.

Michael's dad wants him to find out how much coverage the other guy had to possibly sue for pain and suffering and whatever else people sue for. We need to look into our legal insurance to see if it would pay for any attorney's fees or if we would have to. I think things will be complicated by the fact that this is a workers' comp case too.

Well, I am off to downstairs to see how Michael is doing this morning. It sounds like he is up by the way he is clearing his throat.

Tuesday Morning

When I finally saw Michael after work yesterday he said it wasn't a very good day. He wasn't up on his pain meds when the physical therapist came to work on him. Hopefully today will be much better.

When his mom and my brother were there yesterday they spoke with the social worker about getting the home necessities for when he his discharged. They are going to look into it. They are also going to look into seeing if the physical therapy he needs will be able to be done at home with a therapist. That would be very nice then we wouldn't have to load him into the car each time.

I'm thankful that this is a worker's comp case and that we won't have to pay for anything. We might have to pay $40 to have the hospital bed delivered, but I bet his company would pay for that too. His boss told me that he doesn't want us in any financial burden and if there is anything we need just to let them know. You can believe that I will be doing that.

I woke up this morning thinking of what I want to serve for Christmas dinner. It looks like turkey again. I was going to do prime rib, but with Adam and Jenn here it would cost me about $60 for the meat and I just don't want to spend that much!

I'm going to be hanging out at the hospital most of the day today and meeting Adam and Jenn for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. My brother has been talking about this since they got here so I suggested it last night. I may even take something back for Michael if he feels up to it.

Monday Morning

We went to visit Michael yesterday and he looked good! He is off his PCA (pain machine) and all IV's. His catheter is out too! He has been having physical therapy since Saturday and is progressing quite nicely. The first time they worked with him they had him walk to the door of his room with the walker. The therapist said it took at least 20 minutes just to get there. We were with him yesterday when she was working with him and he was able to walk out past the door and back in about 10 minutes. He even did it without the extra pain medicine.

I have a few questions on the board of his room for his case manager. I'm trying to request a hospital bed, toilet lift, transportation to therapy and doctor visits and a seat for the tub. I hope most of those are available to use through the insurance. I don't know why they wouldn't be, but you never know.

They had talked about discharging him today, but the nurse last night said that she really didn't think he was ready. He sort of agreed. He was hoping to have progressed further by today, but these things take time. She said that they therapist has to check off a bunch of things before they can discharge him. He has to be able to climb some stairs and get over the edge of a tub. I definitely think having a seat in the shower will be the easiest since he can sit on that then move his bad leg in.

Michael's mom is leaving today and I will be at work. Adam and Jenn will be picking her up from the hospital and taking her to the airport for me. It's been great to see them again! Cameron is loving that they are here. They took him to see King Kong yesterday and out to shop and play. He had a great time, but he was still pretty wired when we got back from the hospital.

Wel, I need to go dry my hair and get ready for work. I also need to look outside and see if I need to shovel the driveway since it was snowing when we went to bed last night.

Saturday AM

I saw Michael yesterday and when we got there he was complaining about the nurse not knowing what she was doing with his pain machine. He was in a LOT of pain and we looked at the machine and it was stopped with no medication left in it. We told the nurse it was empty and she said it still had some in it...well, she went and got another nurse who told her it was empty and they replaced it. It took quite some time for his pain to go away again. He has been used to being able to push the button every 15 minutes to help out.

His mom and I sat around all day waiting for the physical therapist to come in. We were told that they would be in between 2-3 and when 5 rolled around we asked again. It turns out it was never ordered. He wasn't too thrilled and neither were we. We hadn't eaten since breakfast...actually I hadn't eaten since the night before. So, physical therapy is supposed to happen some time this morning. They want him sitting up in a chair and doing some other things. We wanted to be there to find out what he should be doing.

After we got home last night I left to get Michael another Christmas gift. I still had some more shopping to do for him and one of the things I was going to get him was a pedometer. However, I didn't think that would be a nice gift since he won't be really walking for a few months. I decided to call him on my way out shopping and he wanted me to come back up to see him. I told him I would be there in the morning and didn't really feel like driving all the way back uptown.

The doctor told him he may be discharged on Monday. I would love for that to be true. My brother and sister-in-law drove down from WA yesterday...at least that is what my mom thinks. I didn't call to verify, but I will be happy to see them when they get here. They are going to be here for Christmas and Michael can't wait for that. They are totally fun to be around and we miss them VERY much.

Well, I am going to hit the shower, eat some breakfast and head up to the hopsital. We will be taking Cameron with us today so hopefully he will be good enough to hang out there. We may have to turn on the tv to keep him occupied!

Pictures of the wreck

I can't believe my husband walked away from this!! I'm so happy that the Lord decided it wasn't his time to go!


Michael FINALLY had surgery tonight to fix his arm and tighten a screw in his knee. I wasn't able to see him before he went in for surgery since I worked today, but I just called and everything went smoothly. He had been battling a temperature of 102.7 for awhile Wednesday night so I was hoping he would get to have surgery sometime today. He finally went in at 5:30! His mother said that she had never seen anyone so happy to be having surgery.

I don't have much to update, but I just received these pictures tonight and though some of you would like to see what he lived through.

On top of all this, Shannon called me today at 11:00 something to ask if I wanted her to pick up Cameron from daycare. The daycare caught fire today (in the janitors closet...I don't know how bad the damage is) but the kids all had to evacuate and go home. The daycare called her because they thought I would be at the hospital. So, Dear Shannon picked him up and took her to her house until after dinner. He was a little upset because they wouldn't let him get his blanket and he is all worried that it caught fire and he won't ever be able to have it again. I've tried to reassure him that that isn't the case.

Well, it is 11:00 and I am going to bed!

Wednesday Update

Well, Michael still isn't scheduled for surgery on his arm yet. I went to work today to get away and get some ME time even though it was really patient time. Shannon brought Cameron to my work at 12:30 so I could take him to see him on my lunch hour. I figured it would be a good time since he isn't too drugged up and if he had surgery later this week it would be longer until Cameron could see him.

Cameron was SOOOO excited to get to his room. He didn't want me to stop to use the bathroom, but I sort of forced him...well, not really forced, but you know. When we finally got up there he was smiling and said "Hi Dad!" They gave eachother high fives and all was good. Cameron was a little shy about the IV tubing and didn't want to ask daddy about it, but all was great after I told him it was just medicine to help him get better faster. We didn't stay too long, but he was looking AWESOME!

I had dropped his mom off at the hospital before work and then when I went back at lunch I took her and Cameron back to my house. While she was there she made everyone stay out for 2.5 hours so Michael could get some well deserved rest. I think that is just what he needed. He is very messed up on his days and hours. When I went back after work he thought it was morning and he was totally grumpy because the doctors and nurses had been in bothering him and not letting him sleep. I stayed until about 7:30 and then wanted to get home to be with Cameron for awhile.

Well, I am going to go be with him now, but thought I would do a quick update.

Yesterday was not a happy day!

I decided to post here for things so I don't have to keep typing to let people know how Michael is or have to keep calling people to update them.

Yesterday morning started out as any morning. I left the house at 7 to get to work by 7:30. I was very early as we didn't have patients until 9:00, but I had forgotten this fact. Around 8:15 I got a phone call and I couldn't understand what the person was saying. Then I realized it was Michael, but I still couldn't understand him. I asked him to say what he said again and then all I heard was "Michael. Bad Accident." I asked him if there was someone around that I could speak to and he handed the phone to someone. That person told me that he was in a bad car accident and tried to tell me where he was located. I was drawing a blank on where the position was (it was very close to home). After he told me he must have thought that he hung up the phone. Well, he didn't and the phone called me back. I was unable to hang up the phone since his phone was off the hook. Needless to say I was able to hear everything that was happening. I had to listen to Michaels screams of pain. I heard him tell someone that his left leg was all twisted and under his right leg. Then I heard him say that he was bleeding very badly on his leg and he was trying to hold pressure to get it to stop.

I kept yelling into the phone trying to see if they could hear something, but there was too much going on to hear me. In the mean time I am freaking out trying to find my boss' number to tell him I was at the office and what was going on. After I did that I called my dad to find numbers for Michael's parents because they aren't stored in my head or my phone. I was finally able to get ahold of his mother and eventually his dad called me back. I listened to the phone and what was happening for about 45 minutes until they hung up the phone. I was listening to see if I could hear where they might be taking him. After awhile it sounded like they were in a helicopter...and indeed they were. He and the other driver were lifeflighted to some downtown hospitals. They were taken to different ones and neither hospital knew who they were receiving so it was another long haul to find out where my husband was going.

After I found out for sure where he was at, one of my co-workers drove me to the hospital and stayed with me while I tried to find out what was going on. The social worker told me that both of his legs were pretty damaged and that he was going in for a cat scan and I could see him in about 45 minutes. I was pretty worried about his right leg since he hurt that pretty badly almost 4 years ago. However, she was wrong and it turned out to be his left leg only. He ended up breaking the left hip, left femur and right arm (the ulna).

Let me say that the picture above looks much worse than it probably was...they had to cut the roof off the car to get him out. The driver of the other car also broke his femur. It was the other guy's fault, but he hit a patch of black ice and over-corrected causing him to hit Michael pretty much head on. The police officer said that there were no skid marks so Michael had no time to respond to what was happening.

He went in for surgery around 3:20 and was out around 6:15. The doctor came and showed me his xrays. They are giving his hip 50% chance of surviving. They need the blood supply to be restored. It will be about 3-4 months before we know what is going on with it. If it does in fact die he will need a hip replacement.

They didn't fix his arm yet. The reason was there were way too many trauma cases brought in from terrible accidents that they fixed what was critical on him and are planning on fixing his arm tomorrow.

Michael's mom flew in last night and got to the hospital just as the doctor was explaining the surgery to me. Michael's co-worker Gary was with me most of the day and he is dealing with the insurance and everything for me. Fortunately this is most likely going to be work related and taken care of by Worker's Comp and the other guys insurance.

Today we went up and saw him and he looked a lot better and was more alert. The pain meds he is on isn't helping too much. He really wants his arm fixed soon as that is what is causing him the most pain right now.

Cameron has been staying with a wonderful friend of mine, Shannon. He really wants to see Michael, but I am not ready for that just yet. I told him that I would try to take him up on Friday. He told me that he just wants to give him a hug and a kiss to make him feel better. If that doesn't make you cry I don't know what will.

On a side note, Michael lost his glasses in the accident so I ran to the eye doctor today to order the same pair that he had lost. They are going to try to have it ready by Friday. This would be nice since by Friday he may be sitting up enough to want to watch tv or something. I wasn't sure how to take care of paying for it since I don't have workers comp case number yet, but his co-worker told me to use Michael's company credit card and get them that way.

His company has been awesome. The presidents son called Gary and told him that they are going to do everything that they can for me and for Michael. Everyone has been a Godsend!

I want to thank all of you for your support and prayers through this rough time!

My Christmas Decor

Before I had Cameron our Christmas tree was very pretty with ribbons, bows, same color bulbs (red/silver or gold/silver). I never wanted to have a tree that was a mismatch of ornaments...well that changed when we had Cameron. I remembered my tree growing up with all the ornaments that my brother and I had made throughout the years and wanted Cameron to have the same feeling later too. So, I have put away all the ribbons and bows and have started to buy a few ornaments here and there that are different. Cameron picks out an ornament every year and it usually has to do with something that he is into for the year. He wants a Buzz Lightyear ornament this year (Hallmark is out and I have to try to get him one the week before Christmas..that's when they told me I could have the one on display)...he isn't into Buzz this year, but he LOVES his Woody & Bullseye ornament and told me that we need a Buzz to go with it.

Okay, I posted my pictures above. I made the wreath a few years ago and still love it. The stocking was a gift to my husband years ago too. I have the patterns to make one for Cameron and myself, but I haven't gotten around to it. So, our stockings are the red and white fluffy Santa type.