I NEEEED a Dull Moment.

It's Official...

I'm smarter than I look. :D

Mathemagic - Amazing!

Monday Mourning

Started another novel. I LOVE 'Bones'.

The Longest Day

Just finished reading The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan. This is the first time I've read a book about history that I actually found interesting! The story of June 6, 1944 is told from the human point of view, through hundreds of interviews Mr. Ryan took over a period of years. A very good read!

April 5, 2012: The Accident

I’ve been meaning to write this entry for quite some time, but had been putting it off because it is just too painful.  I don’t think that pain is going to go away for a long time, however, and perhaps writing about it will be cathartic.

First, you should know that prior to April 5, 2012, my father and stepmother were very active and healthy. Every morning, they would take their ‘old peoples’ walk’, walking anywhere between 1 and 6 miles, depending on the weather. It kept their blood pressure down and their weight at a healthy level. Until Leilani married my father, she still walked portions of the Appalachian Trail with her youngest son. At 73, she had it together, mentally, physically and emotionally.  

At 5:13 p.m. on April 5, 2012, I received a voicemail message from my sister to call her as soon as possible. I was driving home from work, but used my hands-free to give her a quick shout back. She was crying and difficult to understand, but when I realized she was trying to tell me my family had been in an auto accident that morning, I pulled over.

My nephew, Andy, was the belted driver.  My father was the belted front seat passenger, and my stepmother, who I affectionately call LaniMom, was the belted right rear passenger. A woman, who for the purposes of this post shall remain nameless, was in a hurry, pulled out of a parking lot without stopping first, and slammed into my nephew’s vehicle, totaling both vehicles and changing all our lives forever.

The airbags deployed, but the pretensioners in the seat belts, which this vehicle was supposed to be equipped with, did not. Andy had a severe case of whiplash, but walked away with no broken bones and was, for the most part, intact.  My father suffered some wicked bruising on his chest, a large welt on his leg, and some sort of abrasion or chemical burn on his head, but, for the most part, he also walked away intact. 

LaniMom was not so lucky.

As near as we can figure, her seat belt failed. As my nephew saw her put it on, and my father saw her wearing it, we can only deduce something in the seat belt mechanism went terribly wrong. Although LaniMom stayed in her seat, held there by the lap belt, the shoulder harness did not engage, and her upper body went on a collision course with the inside of the vehicle.

She suffered fractured vertebrae in her cervical and thoracic spines. She suffered fractured ribs.  Most traumatically, though, she had a 5” gash on her head that turned out to be a skull fracture. The fracture tore her dura (the tough outermost membrane enveloping the brain), causing a Traumatic Brain Injury.  To further complicate matters, she had been on Coumadin at the time of the accident, so the doctors pumped her full of Vitamin K and Factor 7 to facilitate clotting.  Unfortunately, she developed a blood clot on her brain, ultimately requiring surgical intervention.

For eighteen long days, LaniMom remained in Trauma ICU at the Erie County Medical Center. She contracted pneumonia, then MRSA. It seemed at times we were going one step forward, two steps back. When she showed steady signs of improvement, she was moved to a ‘transition’ room, and then to Acute Rehab. Unfortunately, on May 14^th, it was discovered that her brain resumed bleeding, and she was promptly returned to Trauma ICU.

She was finally released from ECMC, and discharged to home, near the end of June.  She began physical, occupational and speech therapies to regain some of what she lost, but over time, she became more and more confused, until she stopped eating and drinking on the 4^th of July.  What we did not know is that the confusion, combined with her lack of appetite, is indicative of bleeding on the brain.

On July 4, 2012, she became unresponsive and was re-admitted to ECMC in the Trauma ICU. On July 5^th, she was moved to a 7^th floor transition room, and was fed thru an NG tube until she was able to swallow again.  She was there until July 23^rd, completely losing any strength and the small amount of mental acuity she had regained while in acute rehab. 

On July 23, 2012, she was moved to Gowanda Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, which was the nearest long-term rehabilitation facility to us that had a bed. It is a 40 minute drive for my father, over one hour for me, and two hours for my sister. LaniMom began to make progress, slowly regaining strength to be able to move around again.

Unfortunately, our time at ECMC wasn’t over.  On August 5^th, LaniMom was increasingly fatigued and again stopped eating and drinking. On August 6^th, her neurosurgeon directed us to get her back to ECMC.   AllStar Ambulance was called and so directed, but they made a discretionary decision and decided to take her to the nearest hospital, which happened to be LakeShore Hospital in Irving, New York, in the opposite direction of ECMC.  While we were waiting at ECMC for her arrival, LakeShore admitted her, did a CT-scan, and diagnosed her with another brain bleed. At that point, they decided they’d better get her back to ECMC.  I’ll refrain from sarcasm.

Lab tests were taken, and it was discovered LaniMom had a UTI. She was given antibiotics, eventually discharged to Gowanda again on August 9^th, and her physical, occupational and speech therapies resumed on August 11^th.

She is getting stronger by the day, but remains terribly confused. We are having an extremely difficult time re-connecting her mental dots. As an example, when I went to see her a couple weeks ago, we were having what I thought was a lucid discussion about raising children, and she became convinced she was pregnant.

We’ve got a long road ahead of us. Dad is by her side every single day, and has been, without fail, since the accident. While I was at ECMC every day when she was there, I am only able to go to Gowanda once a week. I’m there every Sunday. I keep hoping she will be able to fully recover, but I know it will take up to five years, her age is against her, and she may never again be the same.

Life is so fragile. Take nothing for granted. Tell your family and friends you love them. Make amends if you can. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Gray Hairs

So I was trying to show my friend Rhonda, who lives in Randolph, a picture of my ten gray hairs. At 47 years old, I think I'm pretty lucky.  She hates me. :D  Anyway, the picture doesn't really show anything. My brother says, "Get a better camera!" I have a Ph.D. camera. You know....'Push Here, Dummy."