Lifting Up Dad From Our Knees.....: 04/12/07

Thursday, April 12, 2007

one long day at a time...

it's been a while since i have posted out here. mom has been a faithful "poster" but i figured it was time for me to get something out here. i recently had the opportunity to spend a few hours alone with dad and have a new appreciation for what my mom has been going through day after day. in the past few posts, mom has referenced "the phase that we are in". we are all praying that this "phase" comes and goes quickly. while it is a wonderful thing to see dad heal, the flip side of that is that he is currently very angry and agitated. he requires "round the clock" observance and this is really wearing on mom.

in the phase that dad is in right now, he understands enough to know that he doesn't want to be there anymore, is mobile enough to get to the doors/elevators/etc and is very determined. the hard part is, he doesn't yet have the reasoning or logic to understand that going out is not yet safe for him. this is why he gets angry. this is like dealing with a determined toddler in a strong man's body. frankly, it is hard.

you see, this is a delicate balance. we are so very thankful that we can be in this stage as we all know at one point we wondered if dad would even make it through the night, or open his eyes, or "move with purpose", etc. He has done all of this and much more. He walks, talks, and is getting stronger each day. it is just hard to balance knowing what is best for dad and yet wanting to keep him "happy" in the immediate term.

please pray that we have patience, strength and wisdom during this phase. please pray that this phase quickly moves on and that we can get dad home soon. finally, continue to pray that the insurance stuff is all worked out. mom has some decisions that need to be made within the next week and needs answers and wisdom.

thanks again for partnering with us in lifting up dad from our knees.

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, April 12, 2007

one long day at a time...

Dad with Alena at Christmas

The story as we know it...

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