Life.....

Oh where to start. Lets go with the good first. I picked up the mail last night on our way in from seeing the Neuro-surgeon (more on that later) and was too tired to look through it so I set it on the kitchen counter and went about my buisiness. This morning I look through it. Bills, junk mail, late Christmas cards, etc. But for some reason one of the Christmas cards really stood out. OSBN, Oregon State Board of Nursing was the return address. Now I have no clue why I'd get a Christmas card from them. Turns out, to protect my privacy, and legal issues, they forwarded/mailed a card to me from someone else. Almost 2 weeks ago I had some friends up from out of town. We did some sight seeing and then went out to dinner together. On our way home from dinner we were on the interstate, and saw a really bad accident happen right in front of us. It involved a car rolling several times and landing upside down in the grass median. I stopped immediately and ran to the car. Gerald stayed at our car with Thomas and called 911. Another car stopped at the same time and parked by my car he was an RN who just got off duty at a nearby hospital. He went to the drivers side and I went over to the passengers side. The car was on it's roof in the mud and it was very smashed. Mostly on the passengers side. I dropped down and started to crawl into the car thru the broken window. It was a young boy I was guessing 17-20 years old and he was badly pinned in the car. He was not wearing a seatbelt and since he was upside down in the car he was basically folded in half and smashed down with his full body weight on his neck. He was making gurgling and gasping noises. It stuck me that he couldn't breath, because his windpipe was pinched because of the position he was in. Normally I'd not move a person in this type of predictament, but then I started hearing that voice in the back of my head from all my training that said "the brain starts dying after 2 minutes". So I had to do something. I started to pull on his shoulders, and push his his to try and turn or roll him just enough so that he could breath. I knew from how bad the car was that it would be awhile before they could get them out. They would have to cut the car open. I just stayed with him and asked how he was doing, Was he hurt anywhere. Anything to keep him talking to me. The fire trucks finally got there and took over. It's an amazing "tag your it" changing of the guard. They took over on helping and figuring out the best way to get these kids out of the car. No police on scene yet. I didn't need nor did I want to hang around at this point. I was soaked wet, muddy and the adrenalin was wearing off and I was starting to get cold. So I approached one of the fire crew over at the truck that wasn't actively working on the scene and gave him my Name, drivers license number as well as my Oregon State Board of Nursing ID number. In case anyone had any medical questions down the road. Like say I hurt him more by moving him. So I got home, showered and got cleaned up and warm. So that was my eventful night. Fast forward to today. The card was from his family. He got to go home from the hospital Saturday the 23rd. Just in time for Christmas. The Doctors and emergency staff told the family that I had saved his life. By my decision to move him it greatly improved his odds for the best recovery possible. He had a serious concussion which is what kept him in the hospital and a broken arm, rib, and clavical, as well as bruises and scrapes, but all heal well. The family said I'm their Christmas blessing and thanked me so much. So I spent the morning crying over my coffee and rehashed the whole situation in my mind. All the what-if's. Then that turned into Wow that could be Thomas in a few years, then to anger a bit. I got angry at this kid for now wearing his seatbelt. I'm very glad he is OK, I'd been kind of wondering how he was doing. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Whats next....Neuro-Surgeon We spent all day at the hospital last Thursday getting Gerald's Myleogram and CT done. We were there from 7:30 am till almost 4 pm. What a long day I'll tell you. Anyway the doctor called and wanted to see us right away. That's never a good thing right! So we both met at the hospital and went up to see the doctor. He went over the films from the Myleogram and CT with us, and they weren't great. Gerald has some major nerves on 2 different levels and sides being pinched and effected in his neck. Dr Wayson talked to us about the 2 different ways to do the surgery. When we asked which was best he said it is a toss up. If you were 20, no doubt we would opperate from the back, to maintain the range of motion. If you were 60, no doubt we would operate from the front and do 2 fusions, as you aren't going to be around as long, and aren't as active. So with Gerald right smack in the middle, there are a lot of personal and lifestyle issues to factor in. Operating and doing the fusions is a much faster and less painful recovery. Generally 2 weeks and you are back to light duty at work. It is done orthoscopically and is minimally invasive. Going in thru the back requires cutting thru all the muscle in the neck and drilling in thru the vertebrae to widen the nerve channel, which also posses a substanial risk. As the doctor is kind of flying blind so to speak. There are nerves on the back side of the bone, that as he said don't really like being drilled on. He said they really don't like it when they wrap around a drill bit and twist around at 5000 RPM. A joke yes, but a very real scenario. So when it was all said and done Gerald opted for the surgery through the back. He will be out of working and recovering for about 8 weeks. It really takes that long for the all the cut up muscle to heal well. We are going to do the surgery 1st thing when Dr Wayson gets back from a trip he has planned. No date yet, but his assistant is going to get it all approved with the insurance and scheduled for mid January. They are doing a right side Cervical decompression & foraminotomy on the C-5, and a Left and Right side Cervical decompression & foraminotomy on the C-6. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Only a few more days for the Celebrate Good Times Mega Kit HERE. Through December 31, pick up this mega kit for free with any $6.00 purchase. Just make sure you have the mega kit and your purchase in the cart and enter the following coupon code at checkout! ndisb-8yn-7bg6x3 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that Santa was good to everyone!