In a nutshell...

Now, a good blogger would have kept his or her readers up to date on all the latest happenings, developments, musings, even posted pictures from the hospital bed and wouldn't have used that as an excuse not to. Well, I'm not a good blogger, and I will use that as my excuse :P.

To get you up to date, this is the basic timeline of what has happened:

June 15 - Fell off scaffolding and broke my back.

OUCH!!

June 18 - Had surgery to realign my spine.

June 23 - Took a long, and at times, bumpy ride in an ambulance to Dallas, TX for rehab at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation.
July 31 - Returned home from Baylor, at which time, I was also injured by my brace that was a little too long and digging in to my groin without me knowing (due to the fact that I have no feeling below my point of injury).
August 2 - Went to emergency room and was admitted for what appeared to be a blood clot and so was treated as that.
August 4 - The blood clot turned out to be a hematoma.
August 7 - Came home from the hospital.
September 29 - Returned to Baylor to address issues that had developed while back at home. It's been hard to get the care I need as a person with spinal cord injury here in Northwest Arkansas.
October 17 - Returned home once again from Baylor.

That should get you up to speed. Needless to say, much has happen since June 15th, but I don't have the stamina, or memory, to fill in all the details at this time. So I shall say "good bye" for now. Thanks for stopping buy and see you again soon.

Life can change in an instant

This post is a little overdue but I'll admit that I've been a little busy lately...at times I may have been busy resting, but busy none the less.

On June 15th of this year (2009) I climbed up the scaffolding that was set up at the back of our house, ready to work on painting the new siding we had installed with the help of our friends, Sam and Chrissie. We only had one more weekend left with the rented scaffolding so I was feeling the pressure to get the work done. It was a Monday and only Abby and I were home. So I worked on painting while Abby played in the back yard. Next thing I know I opened my eyes and was laying on the concrete looking at the sky. I thought I was waking up from an odd dream at first, but as soon as I could feel the warm sun on my face and could hear Abby running up the hill calling for me, I realized it was not a dream. I touched my legs but couldn't feel them and knew I would probably never walk again. I realize now that that may not have been the case (and still may not be). Thankfully, I have absolutely no recollection of the fall. Abby ran up to me and asked me if I was Okay. In a whisper I told her "No...go get Sheena". It was hard to breathe. Sheena is my friend who lives across the street from us. I could hear Abby yelling for Sheena all the way up the stairs, through the front door, across our yard, across the street and all the way to sheena's front door. I could hear the squishy sound of blood in my hair. I felt the back of my head and got blood all over my hand. For some reason I ended up wiping blood on my face, then I tried to wipe it off with the same bloody hand (stop Cris! You're making it worse). I felt no pain at all. It wasn't long before Sheena was there, calling for help. To make a long story short, in no time (although it seemed like forever) I was in an ambulance taking a slow ride to the hospital in Bentonville. They didn't keep me there long and I had my first helicopter ride to the hospital in Springdale. The flight wasn't as fun and exciting as I hoped...it was very short (although massivly expensive) and I only got to see the ceiling of the helicopter. So many things happened when I got to Northwest Medical Center in Springdale that I really don't remember many details. To say the least, much has happened since June 15th. It's going to take me some time to get the blog up to date so the best thing now is to post some pictures of the event early on.

This was at Northwest Medical Center one day after the accident. They still had me wearing that uncomfortable neck brace, but I did get to take it off that day since there was no evidence of a neck injury.

My bunny boots, designed to prevent foot drop.

This is my "sister", Trish. We were roommates a couple of years while we attended Black Forest Academy. It's great that we both live in Northwest Arkansas now. I think she spent every evening at the hospital with me from the day I got hurt, 'til the day I left for rehab. If she couldn't make it in the evening, she was there in the morning.

Trish said I reminded her of Mother Teresa...I think I'm watching television in this picture.

In my hospital room with Trish and Abby.

Me, with no glasses, just before surgery. I really need to consider contact lenses again.