THE MUCH HATED HALO CAME OFF THIS WEEK END! HOORAY! Jim and I came in from outside on Friday afternoon and the nurse happily announced the Dr was on his way to remove the vest and halo. Jim's neck has mostly healed and he was well enough to go to a neck brace.
It was a great time of celebration. The whole nursing staff gathered around as we watched the Dr disassemble the barbaric contraption. Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful for it, but until you see one up close you have no idea how awful they are. We held our breath(as did Jim) as he slowly unscrewed the bolts from his head and loosened the screws on vest. When the last screw popped, Jim looked at the Dr with the most grateful eyes and said, "Oh, thank you, thank you."
There is only one drawback. The Dr warned that the brace must stay in place a month because the healing is not complete, and ....may not be complete. If it doesn't completely hear, Jim will be facing a neck surgery. He said this is no small surgery. I am also a little concerned with the fact that the neck brack is held on with only velcro. Jim could easily remove it if he gets the notion.
But we will celebrate the moment and praise God.
Jim is one happy person. He is now sporting a hat and regular shirts and a new beard. He truly is looking like his old self.
It is a new turn in the road of recovery and I am so thankful.
I will keep you posted.
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.
6 comments:
WOW great we will pray tht the neck braace stays on and that the healing finishes and no more surgery. This has to be feel great to everyone as it is one more stepping stone to getting the old Jim back. Enjoy the moment. P&PMiller
You don't know me, I am Lynette's aunt. I wanted to write you and tell you I have been praying for Jim and am rejoicing to hear the progress he has made. I read your blog frequently and have been following the progress. I will continue to pray for Jim's healing. C Workman
FANTASTIC!! what a great milestone
to have achieved! We rejoice with
you and hear your new concerns.
thx for great update.
xxoxo
helen & steve
Dear Sue, Jim and Family,
What wonderful news!!! We will pray for complete healing of your neck, Jim. We love and serve a great God.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful moment with all of us.
Your fellow prayer warriors,
Ken and Rosa
PS What kind of hat are you sporting,Jim? As you probably remember, Ken is partial to Akubras!
Another significant milestone on the journey. Thank you for sharing it with us!
I will continue to pray that God does complete healing in Jim in every way. And continuing to pray for peace, strength, and patience for all of you who love him so much.
Just as you said in your update, celebrate the moment and praise God. Hooray & Goodbye Halo!! We can only imagine how good that must feel to finally have it off. God is faithful and we will continue to pray for all of you. We miss you!
Love,
Kurt & Marilyn
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