It seems the times are getting longer between post and I'm sorry. But the reason is good. Much is going on and we are all busy trying to regroup and make up for lost time, both with our lives and helping Jim each day.
The week-end, and Monday and today has been somewhat eventful. With waking up, Jim is discovering more items to mess with. Like his trach(he decided on Friday to yank it out. Sorry Dr Culp!) Bill Culp had just been so kind to put a shorter one in on Thursday. Fortunately, Joe, our son, was there to help; and fortunately, I wasn't! It was no easy task getting it back in. Mr Independence also decided to try to take a walk on his own and gave the nurse and I a good scare, not to mention aging me more than he already has. He now has a companion to keep him company at night.
Therapy is going fairly well, although he is having a lot of back pain so it's harder to walk for any length of time. His therapy team, Andy, Connie, Toni, Jolyn, Grace and Mike, have immense amounts of patience, skill and compassion. They treat him as they would a family member and we all see their dedication.
We have been able to enjoy a few outings in the courtyard, due to nice weather. I can't imagine how it must feel after being cooped up so long. Jim's smile blesses all of us and he already has most of his nurses wrapped around his finger... in the nicest way.
Jim's halo, for his broken neck, comes equipped with a wrench for emergency. I saw him eyeing it and trying to unscrew a couple of bolts. I forewarned the nurses he has a construction background and they'd better hide the wrench! They took heed. Dr. Young was summoned to make sure Jim didn't make any headway on his de-haloing project.
Yesterday, I walked in as Dr. Young was examining Jim's work on the halo and I pulled him aside to ask when he thought the trach would be safe to come out. "It's out!" he announced. Boy, things happen fast around there. Apparently the pulmonary Dr agreed with Jim and thought it should come out. (Surprise, Bill!) That husband of mine has always been one step ahead of his time.
One more thing to share. I was with him all afternoon on Sunday and he didn't utter a word to me. I was getting ready to walk out the door, said good by as I heard, "Where you going?" I looked back to see Jim smiling.
This truly is a walk of faith and surprises. God is so good.
Love to you all....please keep praying.
Sue
For those interested, I sometimes post about our journey on my own blog.
http://mariesue.blogspot.com
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.
