2 Years

Well it has been 2 years since David's accident. It's crazy to think that 2 years has already gone by. Life has gotten back to some sort of normal for us. David has been done with therapy since September, which has been so nice. We bought a new house in October and I started up a Day Home. So life is busy! But sooo good!! I could not ask for a better life. We have been extremely blessed through all of this.

I know I have said this many times but again I want to say thank you to everyone that was there for us when we needed you. The prayers, positive thoughts and many messages we have received have been a huge help. Life is hard but when you have people on your side cheering for you it makes it a little bit easier to handle.

"We are not placed on this earth to walk alone." 

Pres Thomas S. Monson. 

I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have been with us every step of the way. The Gospel is true and I don't know where I would be without it.

"Those who leave everything in God's 

hands will eventually see God's hands in everything."

On Facebook this past week a lot of memories from 2 years ago have been popping up… I have loved reading them and remembering all the support and encouragement that David and I had and still have to this day. Thanks again to our family, friends and people we don't even know. We would not be where we are today without your help. 💕

This is the last day of David's therapy. As you can tell he was super excited to be done!!! So was I, no more driving to Calgary every week. 

One Year!!!

So I had sat down earlier this morning to write this blog but then we had to get ready to go to the Temple and we have been super busy the rest of the afternoon, So I am now finishing it……:)

Well today it has been a year since David's accident. One year, where did that year go. It has been a year full of new and different, but I wouldn't change it for the world. David and I have grown closer as a couple and grown closer to our families. As I sit here writing this I am full of emotion, I remember this day a year ago. It was the worst day of my life, it felt like it was a dream and I just wanted to wake up. But as I look back on that day and the many days after, I realize the many tender mercies that we had and the miracle that we saw happen with David. I would like to share with you a few of the tender mercies that I saw through all of this….

- David's co-worker was a trained EMT and knew what to do.
- There was a vehicle show going on at the Exhibition Grounds and some guys were outside when the accident happened and they heard David's co-worker yell for help and they called 911.
- There was a fire truck close by and they were the first ones on the scene and were able to help David.
- Barret (my brother) and Chris (David's sisters husband) were able to give David a quick blessing before they took him up to Calgary.
- The EMT's that brought him to the Lethbridge hospital should have been off shift when they drove him up to Calgary but they wanted to stay with him because they knew what had happened.
- Both of our families were able to come up to Calgary and were able to stay with us for as long as we needed them.
- One of the biggest tender mercies for me was that my good friend Jen was able to come and be with me. She had been living in Australia and a few weeks before the accident we had talked and she said she was coming home earlier then she had planned and that she should be home the beginning of February. Well she got home on the Tuesday before the accident and when I told her about the accident she asked if she could do anything, at that point I didn't know what to say but Saturday morning I woke up to an email from her saying that she was coming to Calgary to be with me for as long as I needed her too. All I can say is I am so grateful for good friends!!! It was good to have her there.
- The last tender mercy that I want to write about is the overwhelming peaceful feeling that I got one day after I was praying to my Heavenly Father. I don't remember when it was but I know that before this day I would always say to David that he could not leave me, we had more life to live together. Well I remember praying and asking Heavenly Father to heal David and to let him be ok… instantly I got this feeling of comfort and peace and I knew that everything would be ok, but I didn't know what ok meant. At that moment and from then on I never questioned what the Lord had planned for us, all I knew is that everything would be ok. And boy am I glad that everything turned out the way it did!!! (one thing David and I say now is I wonder what the Lord has in store for us next, obviously David is suppose to do great things on this earth..)

Anyways, I am so grateful for all the tender mercies and everything that has happened this last year. We start back up therapy on Tuesday (we have been on a break because David had neck surgery back in October, but we have the go ahead from his Doctor) and we are excited to get back to it and then when therapy is done we can get back to some sort of a normal life.

I know I have said this many times but I want to thank every single person for the prayers that were offered on our behalf this past year. We would not be where we are today with out them. THANK YOU!!!!

Here are some pictures.. Hope you enjoy….

Love,

JP

Surgery Day

As I sit here at the hospital waiting for David to get out of surgery I can't help but think about the last few months. Part of me hates the Foothills Hospital but then the other part of me is so grateful for it and that we have such a great hospital so close to us. What an adventure we have been on. Our lives will never be the same but part of me is grateful for that. Both David and I have grown so much, together as a couple and individually. This has definitely been one of the hardest things I have ever had to go through but I am thankful for so many things in my life. I could not have gone through this without the gospel and the knowledge that I have. Also having the support of family and friends has helped immensely. Again I want to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers through all of this, I couldn't have done it without the help.

I have been able to think and reminisce about things a lot lately and there is someone that I have been thinking a lot about especially today. Seven years ago today one of the greatest examples in my life passed away. Not a day goes by that I don't think of my Uncle Cam and the great man that he was. He blessed my life in so many ways, he was there when I needed help with school or even just someone to talk to. I knew I could count on him. I miss him so much but am grateful for the knowledge that I have and that I know I will see him again someday. I also want to thank my Aunt Cor for the wonderful example that she has been to me and so many others. I have been able to rely on her throughout this whole adventure and for that I will be extremely grateful.

Well, it has taken me most of the afternoon to write this post and David is out of surgery and in the recovery room. Not sure how he did but i'm guessing everything went well because we have not heard any different. He will be up here in the hospital recovering but we don't know for how long. We are so grateful that this is probably the last surgery he will have to have regarding this accident.

Here are a few pictures that David's sister Janae took of us the other day….

Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers!!! We love you all!!!

The past month

Well it has been awhile since my last post. Our life has been busy and we have done a lot of relaxing, which has been really nice. As of last Thursday, David has been out of the hospital for a month!!! It has been so nice to be out of that place. But we will be forever grateful to all the doctors, nurses and everyone else who has helped with David's recovery. So over the last month we have been busy visiting family, friends and all the people that helped David the day of the accident. It has been so fun to see the reaction of the EMT's and everyone who was there at the accident. They can not believe the progress that he has made. :)

So other then just relaxing we have been back to Calgary a few times for Davids assessments. David will be doing all his rehab in Calgary and we start tomorrow. :) We will go up to Calgary on Tuesday and stay over till Thursday afternoon. He will be doing rehab 3 days and week, 4 hours a day. He is going to be busy and tired but it's only going to help him. 

I still can't believe that David is out of the hospital and things have been going so well for him. I am so grateful for all that we have been blessed with, and I can not thank my Heavenly Father enough. I am also so grateful for all the love and support that we have got through this trial. The words thank you do not seem to be enough!!!! We love you all so much!! 

I found a quote that I love…….

Thanks again for reading….:)

JP

Almost Done

First of all I want to say Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Mom and to my wonderful Mother in law. These past few months have been very difficult for all of us and I would not have gotten through it with out both of them. So thank you thank you thank you!!!! 

So it has been a great weekend for David and I…. To start of the weekend, on Friday the doctor told David that he could finally take his brace off. As you can imagine he was SO EXCITED!!!! He looks so great without it. His neck is a bit stiff but with time that will get better. 

Last weekend was David's first time being on a weekend pass. He absolutely loved it. We spent most of that weekend in Cardston with my family. So this weekend we spent it out in Raymond with David's family. He loved being out of the hospital. We are going back to Calgary tonight with David's mom. The plan is for David to get discharged on Tuesday, May 12th, and we will probably stay in Calgary for a week or so because he has some follow up appointments. He can hardly wait to be out of the hospital for good and back to real life. We are not to sure what his rehab will be but he will have to go back up to Calgary a couple times a week and do his brain rehab up there, unfortunately they don't have a brain rehab program in Lethbridge. 

I want to express my appreciation to all of you for your prayers, thoughts, emails, text messages, phone calls and anything else that has been done for us these past few months. I am eternally grateful. I want everyone to know that I believe in miracles and have seen one with my own eyes. I know with out a shadow of a doubt that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I am thankful for my family and David's family, for the love and support they have shown David and I these last few months. I am the most thankful for my husband, for the miracle that he is and for the strength that he has shown the last few months. I am so grateful that we got married in the temple and that we are sealed for eternity. Thanks for reading…:)

JP

Friday, February 6, 2015

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything, life gets busy. :) Here is a little update on David…. He is still progressing and doing great. His newest rule is that he can walk with a cane to the dinning room to eat his meals, as long as someone is with him. He is pretty happy about that. We are still waiting to hear when he can get the CTO brace off, I think they will be doing another CT scan at the end of the month to see how everything is healing in his neck. So we are praying that that will come off then, because he really hates that brace…:) But he knows that it is helping him and that he does need to wear it as long as he can. David is still the same David, funny, positive and carefree. He apologies for everything even if he didn't do anything wrong. It's really funny. I am so grateful that David is still his same old self and that he is so strong and motivated. I love him so much!!

So I have been thinking a lot about the day of the accident and how I wanted to share that with everyone. Like I said before that day was the worst day of my life. I still remember it like it was yesterday but at the same time it feels like it was so long ago. Here is what happened that day….

The day started out like any other day, David went to work at 7:30am and I went to work at 9am. My day was the same as any other Friday. It was around 1:20pm, I was sitting at my desk and I looked down at my phone and saw that David's mom was calling me. I thought it was weird that she was calling my cell because we both were at work that day. I didn't answer it because I thought oh I will just call her back in a minute. Well then she texted me and said that I needed to call her right away. As you can imagine getting that text made my heart stop, at first I thought that something had happened to David's dad, but I thought no David would call me if something like that happened. So I called Jolene back and the first thing she asked me was if Rose (David's boss) had called me. I said no and then she told me that David was in an ambulance and on his way to the Lethbridge Hospital. She then proceeded to tell me that David had fallen off a roof at work and that it was serious. Well as you can imagine I was hysterical, I hung up the phone and started crying. My boss came running over and asked what was the matter. I told him that David had fallen off a roof at work and he was being taken by ambulance to the hospital. At that point I was not thinking clearly and knew that I needed to get to the hospital but was in no real state to drive there, so my boss told me that he would take me there. I called my mom and dad and told them that David had been in an accident and that I was on my way to the hospital. David's sister Megan and her husband Chris met me at the hospital. When we got there they told us to go wait in the waiting room and that someone would be in to get us. When the nurse came and got us and brought us into a private room I was horrified, the room she brought us to reminded me of the rooms on the movies that they bring that loved ones to when they have to tell them that their loved one has died. So that's all that I could think of. The nurse asked us what we knew and I told her that all we knew is that he had fallen. She told us that he was seriously hurt and that the doctor would be in shortly to tell us exactly what was wrong. David's brother Brent and my brother Barrett got there just in time to hear what the doctor had to say. The doctor told us that David had been in a very serious accident, he had broken both femurs, his left elbow, his neck and had hit his head really hard. They were not sure if the spinal cord was damaged at this point but the biggest thing they were worried about was the brain. They were going to take him for a CT scan and then he would be put in the ambulance and taken up to Calgary to the Foothills Hospital. When the CT scan was done and before they put him in the ambulance Barrett and Chris gave him a quick blessing. They had him in the ambulance and heading to Calgary by 2:20pm. I was so grateful for the doctors and nurses that worked on him in Lethbridge. My parents and David's mom got there just after the ambulance had left. The doctor came back in and talked to us a bit more and informed our parents what was going on. We then left the hospital to head up to Calgary. David's sister Megan went in the ambulance with David, which I was so grateful for because I couldn't do it. I drove up with my parents and David's family came up as well. That was the longest drive of my life……. I just kept praying that David would be ok.

Once we got to the hospital we had to wait till they called us in because they were working on him. I went in to see him by myself and that was the hardest thing to see. Seeing your husband hooked up to so many tubes and things was not something I thought I would have to do this early in our marriage. After seeing David one of the Neuro doctors wanted to talk to me and tell me about what was going on with David. I don't really remember what he said because that first day was such a blur. All I remember is that it wasn't good. I went back out to the family room where all our family was and that was hard having to tell them that things didn't look good for David at that point. The doctor had said that the next 3 days were the most critical and that when it came to the brain no one really knows what can happen.

Well after sitting in the waiting room for a few hours we decided that we should make a schedule for the night so that we all didn't have to stay there. My parents and I went to a hotel close to the hospital and tried to get some sleep. Well that didn't happen, I think I slept for about 30 mins and then woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I hated being away from David and just wanted to get back to the hospital to be. We went back to be with David and as soon as I got in his room I felt so much better. As soon as you walked into David's room in the ICU, you could feel a peaceful feeling and you knew that he was being looked after.

There is a lot more that I could write about, especially since the next few days after the accident were just as hard as that first day. But I think I will stop for now and leave some for another post…:) Again thanks for reading :) Love you all!!!

JP

Our New Life……For Now

When something tragic happens in your life, everything gets turned upside down. Those first few weeks I felt like I was in a daze. It was the weirdest feeling. Everyday seemed to mesh into one big long horrible nightmare. Now that David is on the Rehab floor we have got a pretty good schedule down. This is David's day…

• Between 7:30am and 8:00am he wakes up
• 8:30am someone comes and works on his knee
• 9:00am he eats breakfast
• 10:00am -10:45am Physio
• 11:30am - 12:00pm Occupational Therapy
• 12:30pm Lunch
• 2:00pm someone comes and gets him up to go walking for a bit
• 2:30pm - 3:00pm Speech therapy
• 3:00pm-3:30pm Recreational Therapy (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday)
• 5:45pm Dinner
• Then we usually watch tv or play a game before he goes to bed at 10:00pm or somewhere around there

So needless to say David is pretty busy during the day and by the time evening comes around he is pretty tired and ready for bed. :) I'm glad our lives have kind of calmed down for the most part. He has not had a bad day yet and for that I am so grateful. He is always so positive and so easy going, which makes it really easy to be around him. All the nurses love him and want to be his nurse. One thing that David did when he was on the Trauma floor, that made me laugh, was each patient has a nurses call bell that they can buzz whenever they need something. Well one day David buzzed the nurse because he had to go to the bathroom, so the nurse came and helped him go. Well then 10 mins later he buzzed it again and told the nurse that he had to go to the bathroom, I said to him "David you just went to the bathroom, do you really need to go again?" He said "Well no, but I want to be turned on to my side" I said "Well then why did you buzz the nurse and say you had to go to the bathroom?" He said "Well if I say I need to go to the bathroom they come faster!" Well that got us all laughing. :) He defiantly has his good sense of humour. Well, hope you all enjoy the blog. Thanks for reading. 

Love,

JP