Greetings from sunny(rainy) Florida! I am on a prescribed, mandated time away. Jim's Dr. suggested(made me) I take a few days away to reflect on all that has transpired the past 4 months. I am staying with my dear friend Merrie and have not done a thing all day.
It's been great, but different. My hardest part was telling Jim I was going on vacation while he was in the hospital. But he did very well with the information. (Could he possibly be tired of me?) He is going forward in his therapy and improving some each day. He is rather bored and restless. The halo is still in place and is healing slowly.
Thank you all for hanging in in there with us. As the days get longer, we are so dependent on your prayers for strength and patience. The road ahead is long and uncertain.
But....Praise Him for all he has done and continues to do.
Sue
The diary of the progress of Jim Maley
Dad with Alena at Christmas
The story as we know it...
On Friday morning (Jan. 19th) around 10:50am, i recieved a call from my brother Joe telling me that he needed me at the house. I asked him what for and he told me that dad had hurt himself somehow...he had a black eye, his nose was bleeding and was "a little beat up". I immediatly got into my car and started heading that way. I called Joe back and asked him for more details and he told me that he was having a hard time getting dad up. I told him to call the EMS and he said that he thought Jason had already done that and he was on his way. When i pulled up, i saw the EMS was already there. I walked in and i saw Jason, Anna, Joe and several EMS people along with dad sitting on a gurney. They imediately took dad out in the EMS...not knowing what was wrong...just that something really wasnt right. We followed the EMS to parkview ER and had to go wait. Mom met us there as she flew across town to get there. We had to wait a long time (it seemed like days!) before we were told what was going on. The chaplain kept coming out to "brief"us...but thats all it was, a "brief". Finally, the ER doctor called the family together and told us the news...dad has a broken neck and he is bleeding in and on his brain on both sides....this is very serious. "Its a bad deal" the ER doc kept on saying, but we had to wait until the surgeon would come in and take a look at the CT scan before we could find out for certian what was wrong. Dr. Young finally came in and said that he had looked at dad and his scan. Dr. Young was very "matter of fact" with us which was good. We needed that! He told us very similar things to what the ER doctor told us. He said that dad had broke his neck, C2 to be exact. He also said that he was bleeding in several areas in his brain. He needed brain surgury immediatly. On a scale of one to ten...with ten being the worst...dad was a "plus 10". Dad went into surgury and was there for 3.5 hours or so...he came out of surgury fine but we found out the damage was worse than they had thought. They had to remove some of the damaged area and he would be on life support. We were told that the next 3-10 days are life and death...or very critical.
What we think what happend is something as follows: Dad was sleeping down in the basement which is a normal thing. Between 8:30am and 10:30am, he tried going upstairs. This info is a little sketchy because we werent there, but based on some of the info that we have seen, we think that he tripped on the stair going up and fell...hitting his right eye on the stereo and then hitting face first on the ground. This created the damage that we are aware of.
We spoke with the cardiologist today and found out that dad has also had a heart attack with in the last eight days, but they have not figured out exactly when. There is a thought that this might have caused the fall be we are uncertain.
Dad is in stable but "second to second" condition. If and when dad comes out of the "coma" state, there will likely be many months of therapy that needs to be done, plus until the brain issues are resolved, they can not even think about looking at his broken neck.
To sum it all up...dad is in very bad condition. We thank you all for all of your prayers and support and all of the food and gifts. Your love for my dad and our family is amazing and we are extremely grateful. We will continue to update you as we know more. Please continue to pray!! Pray for dad (jim) for healing. Pray for mom (sue) that she can continue to be strong. We do know that we most likely havent seen the worst yet. This is when we need your prayers the most. Please feel free to enter your thoughts on this blogspot as we will update you as we know more. We are very thankful for the love you all have shown.
7 comments:
Dear Sue,
Good for you! I know it must have seemed "strange"--planning to go on vacation without Jim, but I'll bet you're really benefiting from it. Have a wonderful, restful time and let God restore you.
We'll keep Jim and your whole family in our prayers and look forward to hearing of Jim's progress later.
In Him,
Ken and Rosa
Sue, you and Jim are both in my prayers every day. You really needed some time away.
Not sure if you remember me, but that does not matter, I will continue to pray for both of you.
God does not make mistakes.
I'm so glad to hear you're taking some time to recuperate yourself. You need it. Enjoy it!
So happy to hear continued reports of Jim's progress, too.
Still praying!
Sue I know it is hard but you have got to take care of yourself are you anywhere close to us? If so give us a call Pete & Pam Miller The Villages Fl. Jim will be glad to see you when you get back and he might even work harder so he can go to Florida the next time. We will continue to pray for the entire family.
Hi Sue and Family,
We are praying for you today. Sue, I am sure the rest in FL will do you and Jim some good. You are awesome folks and we Love You.
God Bless,
The Gallagher Family
oh good! so glad you have taken some
time for yourself to heal a little, even if it was mandated :)
Let yourself enjoy and get revived Sue, continuing to pray for both of you.Helen and Steve
Dear Sue,
You had to be so in need of a little time to just relax and take care of yourself just a little. This is a very good thing, and Jim's doctor is wise to see the whole picture and make you take care of you too. Enjoy yourself, don't feel guilty for even one second, and you will be much better able to take care of all you have to when you get back. We miss seeing you. We are praying for Jim's continued recovery and wisdom for you as you continue to have to make so many decisions.
With love, Ron and Minda
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