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

Thankful

I have been thinking about starting a blog for awhile now, and as I lay here in bed I figure now is a good time :) Tomorrow will be the 2 month mark of David's accident. It feels like it has been forever since it happened but then on the other hand it feels like it just happened. I remember the day I got the phone call from his mom telling me that David was really hurt and was on his way by ambulance to the Lethbridge hospital. That day was the worst day of my life. I will write about that day another time because this post is going to be about things that I am grateful for. So here goes….. I am grateful for….

• My wonderful husband, David. He is such an amazing man. I never thought I could love someone as much as I love him. He is my best friend and I don't know what I would do without him
• My parents. They have done so much for David and I these past few months. I would not be where I am today without them either. 
• My brothers and sister in law. I love them so much and am so thankful that they were by my side when I was going through those really hard days. 
• David's parents and siblings. His family has been here whenever I have needed them and for that I will be eternally grateful.
• My Aunts, Uncles and Cousins that drove many hours to be with us those first few weeks. I don't know if they realize how much that meant to me to have them here. 
• Prayer and Priesthood Blessings. I know that through many prayers and blessings that David has been healed. I am so grateful for the faith to know that if we put our trust in Heavenly Father our prayers will be answered.
• Ward Families. Our ward in Lethbridge has been amazing. I am so grateful for all the messages that I have received from many people in our ward and I loved going back to visit :) 
• The Doctors and Nurses at the Foothills Hospital. They have done so much for David and myself. 
• For Darrell - David's co-worker. He was the first one there after David fell and if he wasn't there who knows what would have happened to David. 
• General Conference. Even though we did not watch all of the sessions, I am so grateful for a Prophet on the earth today. For the guidance and counsel that they give us. They know what we need to hear and for that I am grateful. 
• For the EMTs, Police Officers, the guys from the Dodge Dealership in Lethbridge, and anyone else who helped with David when the accident happened. Thank you so much for being there for David. 
• and last but not least.. I am eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father, for the answer to my prayers and so many other peoples prayers. I have never felt so close to my Heavenly Father as I have the past few months. I know that through him miracles can happen, I have seen a miracle with my own two eyes. 

Well I think for my first post this is a good one…:) I hope you all enjoy reading my blog and I hope that I can continue writing. Thanks for reading!!! 

Love, 

JP