This will be my last post unless something dramatic happens. I love communicating with all of you, friends and family, alike. But, at some point I know I need to stop and go on with life as this new normal.
Jim continues to improve and is still in therapy, speech and occupational. He's fallen into somewhat of a routine but gets bored easily. The better he gets the more he realizes all that has transpired. It's hard for him. Depression seeks him out and he fights it. My last prayer request would be to continue to lift him to God for realizing God saved his life for a real purpose. He is having a hard time finding his way and worth in life.
Everyone has been so wonderful, again, I will never be able to thank each life who has touched ours but God knows and I ask him to bless each of you.
We will be moving to a small house the end of this month. This will be a monumental task to sizing down from what we have. It's ok, its all good. I trust we will find the beauty of simplicity of life.
Our kids and grandkids are all doing well and getting on with there lives. I am sure they will be forever impacted by all that has gone on this year. Their faith has grown and their awe of Gods provision thru his people.
If you would like occasional updates, I sometimes post on my personal blog, (http://mariesue.blogspot.com}
God bless you each and every one.
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.
2 comments:
Hi Sue,
"Just happened" to check this blog
today...thank you for taking the
time to update us and for allowing
us to take a peek at the journey
our precious Lord has been taking
you thru. You have truly been a blessing and a great teacher.
We love you
Steve and Helen
Hi, Jim, Sue, and family,
Thanks so much for keeping us up to date as we waited and prayed during Jim's recovery. I know it took time and effort with your hectic schedule and we appreciate it.
We wish you well as you make the move to a smaller home and "release some of your belongings to the universe." At least that's how one author described it in her book, Rightsizing Your Life. :)We found it to be very freeing.
We will continue to keep all of you in our prayers as you transition to your "new normal." God didn't bring you this far to leave you--He will remain faithful.
All of you have been a great encouragement to us. Thanks for being so open and vulnerable. Ken really enjoyed his recent visit with you, Jim. Your improvement amazed him. Keep up the good work with your therapies. Way to go, Jim!
Take care. We'll be in touch.
Love,
Rosa and Ken
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