Lifting Up Dad From Our Knees.....: Final move before home!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Final move before home!

The move is complete! Our new home is :

Hook Rehabilitation
Community Hospital East
1500 N. Ritter
Indianapolis, Indiana 46219
Room 1444
Jims Phone # 317-355-8444

Jim's nurse, Laura, from the Va hospital delivered Jim to Hook Rehab about 10:30 yesterday. The move went well but unfortunately, it went downhill a little, from there. There were some changes in his routine, as would be expected, and it was upsetting to him. He thought he might just leave, but, of course, that wasn't going to happen. After he calmed down, the rest of the day was quiet and I stayed the night. I left him this morning so he could start his therapy and he seemed OK. Change is hard.

WE hope this is his last stop before returning home in a few weeks. Please continue to pray for his recovery and cooperation with the Dr's.

What a journey this has been. We have been blessed with so many people who have helped and encouraged Jim.

The staff at the VA were nothing short of tremendous. Our hats are off to them and we will be forever grateful. They gave Jim a going away party with cake and ice cream and we took pictures. I will have my guys post them in the near future.

May God have all the glory for what He has done.

Blessings,
Sue

7 comments:

Anonymous said...: Thanks Sue for update...praying
things continue to move you towards
going home "soon"!
What number should Steve call to
hook up with you in the next week
or so?
Helen; June 28, 2007 at 11:20 AM
Admin said...: I am continually amazed at God's work in Jim over the past few months.

Thank you for the update!; June 28, 2007 at 1:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Sue & Jim
I am glad things went well tell Jim we love him,we just got back from New York, Roy was in the shower they called him and he left for Tenn.Tell Jim to kept up the good work,I know he can do it.
Love Norene& Bill; June 28, 2007 at 5:08 PM
susie said...: Helen,

Send me your email and I will email the number back. Thanks again for always writing.

Sue; June 28, 2007 at 9:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Jim and Sue,

God Bless such special people as yourselves. You are some of God's most powerful witnesses. We continue to pray and thank God for miracles.

Jim Gallagher and Family; June 29, 2007 at 11:47 PM
Anonymous said...: So glad things went well with the move. We are praying he can return home soon. Keep us updated!!
Love you guys,
John, Tara, Sami Jo and Connor Pennington; June 30, 2007 at 4:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Hi guys it's Will. Im sorry i haven't been able to make it over as much as i would like to. Im happy to see Grandpa's progress as well as the family and friends pulling together for him. Someone plz tell g-pa I said hi and I miss him. Well I have to go but i miss you all and i hope to see you soon.

Love
William; July 1, 2007 at 1:29 PM

Post a Comment

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.

Lifting Up Dad From Our Knees.....

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Final move before home!

7 comments:

Dad with Alena at Christmas

The story as we know it...

Blog Archive