It's been a wild July. Well, it started June 26th with my nephew, and July ended the 29th with my oldest son being seriously injured in a bicycle wreck.
I love my son, I do, but he has always been into the extreme sports (skateboarding, BMX, roller blades - doing stunts with all of them). He decided, that even though he is now 35 years old, that he could still do stunts on a BMX. He landed wrong and has numerous fractures in his face. He texted me Thursday from the ER, said he was hurt, but he thought he was going to be okay. I wanted to head to Missouri that night, but he talked me out of it, and said by the time I got there, he'd probably be home. So I waited Friday for him to message me, to let me know he was okay and at home, but wasn't hearing from him. I called the hospital in his town and they said he wasn't there, but didn't tell me anything else. His father's long term girlfriend informed me on FB that the hospital had transferred him to St. Louis (Barnes Jewish Hospital). I drove to St. Louis, got there about 1:30 in the morning and spent another 2 hours trying to find a hotel room. I couldn't find one. After 7 hotels, I gave up and asked at the last one if they would mind if I slept in my vehicle in their parking lot. I slept about 2 hours there and then headed to the hospital.
My brilliant son basically broke his face. The doctors said there were too many fractures to count. He broke his orbital socket, has a hair line fracture in his forehead, broke both his right and left sinuses and the little bone thingy that separates them, has numerous fractures in his cheek. With the fractures in his sinuses there is a risk of him leaking cerebrospinal fluid and he has to be watched closely for the 1st 7 days and then monitored for the 2nd week, don't have to keep as close of an eye on him. He is also getting air to his brain, which I didn't fully understand. But from what I understood, they were concerned that the air could build pressure? I was more worried about him leaking cerebrospinal fluid that I just didn't fully follow what the doctor was saying about getting air to the brain. But they did tell him to watch out for any major head aches. He also has to report any double vision, as that means his eye has sunken into his orbital socket and will need surgery to put it back into place and to hold it there. I could only stay until today but he has friends that said they would stay with him the rest of this week.
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I don't know if you can see, but the right side of his face is really swollen in this picture. The swelling had come down some by this morning. And yes, mom got him the balloon bouquet but the bear had a bandage on his face too., so I couldn't resist. He went through al of this on Tylenol only. The hospital wouldn't give him any pain medication. I was so pissed about that. But when it first happened, Josh said that his pain was only at a 4 or 5, but his face was swollen and numb. He was really hurting the night he was released home from the hospital but they said that since he'd gotten by on Tylenol, they didn't want to give him something else with them not knowing how he would react to it.
I think he's going to be okay. He's planning to return to work tomorrow, against mom's wishes, but on light duty only. He lives paycheck to paycheck and says he can't afford to miss any more work. I did get him set up with insurance and since he doesn't earn a lot, the hospital will pay off his entire bill through a program they have.
He has to follow up with a plastic surgeon and see if there are any structural repairs they will need to make, especially in the sinus and cheek area, but also possibly his orbital socket. They wanted to wait until the swelling was completely gone.
I also went to see my sister and my nephew while I was in St. Louis. Josh was at Barnes and my nephew is at Mercy. My sister is holding on to hope, but he's not there. It was heartbreaking to watch, because he has had almost constant neural storming for the past week and a half and he's been posturing (his entire body tenses up), his hands are starting to constrict and he already looks like he is getting foot drop. Leslie said she thinks that he follows her if she moves slowly, but his eyes randomly move and he's not focusing on anything. The posturing looks painful to me. I took my sister out to eat and had a heart to heart with her. I told her that she needs to make some tough decisions but that I will be there for her. She was going to talk with the doctor today to see what their recommendation is. It's too late, she said, to tell them to just stop the vent or dialysis, because he's not on either of those any more. He has a feeding tube and a trach with oxygen. I told her she should consider hospice when she is ready though. I knew it was bad, but didn't realize just how bad until I saw Timmony Cricket. It's heart breaking.
Hoping your son heals fast and surgery won't be necessary. Good thing Mom's to the rescue getting his insurance straightened out - and that bear balloon is really cool! 
