48 Hours

Sunday, July 17th, 4:00 pm

Bill took our youngest child, Will, out to the Eagle Mountain Bike Park after I suggested that the only way to get him to go to bed at a reasonable time was to tire him out with physical activity.  He, meaning Will, has gotten in the habit of staying up ridiculously late and sleeping half the day away.  He had skipped church and rolled out of bed at 1:30 that the afternoon.  So, off the boys went, to 'get tired' and do some father-son bonding.

After going off of several 'skill building' jumps, Bill "got cocky" (his words, not mine) and pushed it a little too far.  You will have to get the full details from Bill, since I wasn't there, but basically, he landed the jump badly, did an 'endo', and landed with his entire body weight bearing down on his bent right arm.  Will was still at the top of the jump waiting for his turn to go down it and had seen his dad biff it.

Bill called up to Will that "it was time to go."

Will asked, "Are you okay?"

"No!" replied Bill, "I broke my arm.  We need to go."

So, Will rode his bike down and asked again, "Are you okay?!"  (You can see that this conversation was really going nowhere.)

The park they were in is a 30 minute drive away from our house, which also put it about 35 minutes from the hospital (yes, there is a hospital only 5 minutes from my house... I love where I live).  Will helped Bill load up the bikes, then Bill DROVE himself back to our house so I could take him to the emergency room!  That's right.  While bleeding profusely!  He even managed to call me on his cell phone while en route so that I would know to be ready.  Once home, he asked me to help him take off his shirt, because he really didn't want the ER nurses to cut it off of him.  He liked that shirt and didn't want to lose it.  I helped him peel it off, left it in a bloody pile in the driveway, and wrapped his arm in an old towel to try to staunch the blood enough to finish the trip to the hospital.  At this point, he didn't seem to be in terrible pain, as long as he held his arm very still.

5:30 pm

Checking in at the hospital ER, I noticed that not only was the road and approach to the hospital under construction, so was the hospital itself.  There were portions of the room sheeted off with giant pieces of visqueen (heavy duty plastic sheeting).  While giving his vital info, Bill asked for a drinking fountain because he was very thirsty.  The woman behind the desk told him he couldn't have anything to drink just in case the doctor decided he needed surgery.  So, what did Bill do?

He walked back out to the car where he had left his Camelbak and got a drink out of it!  After coming back inside, the nurses sort of chastised him for drinking and his response was to point out to them that while he was in the hospital he had to follow their rules, but out in his car he could do whatever he wanted... and he wanted a drink of water!  Fortunately, they had healthy senses of humor.

It didn't take long after that to get him onto a gurney in the ER.  You know what?  Time goes by very quickly in the ER.  Before you know it, an hour or more can slip by while you sit and wait for x-rays, or a doctor, or an IV to be inserted.  Bill said to take his picture and post it on Facebook, so I did.

7:00 pm

X-rays happened.  I'm guessing 7:00 here, since time was rather fluid at that point.  X-rays are so miserable!  The patient is getting x-rays because something is completely screwed up inside and it hurts, but the technician has to contort the patient's body in some excruciating position and asks the patient to hold still right there!

The x-ray confirmed what we already knew, Bill messed up his arm pretty darn badly.  The hospital also confirmed that this was not a simple break and Bill would require surgery.  They called in an orthopedic surgeon.

8:00 pm

Dr. Matthews consulted with us and explained that he would have to use a stainless steel plate in the shape of a hockey stick to bolt all the pieces of Bill's ulna together.  He also said it would have to happen immediately, because Bill's injury was an open wound and as such, simply could not wait.  He said they were collecting all the necessary tools and staff, and that they should be ready in an hour.  All this time I had been sending text messages back and fourth with Will, Helena, Liz (Bill's niece), and Crystal (Bill's sister).

9:00 pm

Bill was wheeled away by the doctor and anesthesiologist, while an operating room nurse escorted me to the waiting room and left me there.  Dr. Matthews had told me to expect a 2 hour wait.  It ended up being three.  Our Bishop stopped by to find out what happened.  He was hoping to catch Bill still in the ER so he could give him a blessing before the surgery, but the hospital staff got him into surgery quite quickly (as these things go).  I was surprised to see him because I hadn't thought to call him.  Fortunately for me, other family members thought of that for me.  Liz called the leader of the women's organization, who contacted the Bishop.

Crystal and her family came, bringing me some dinner and other essentials.  Jeff, her husband, took the kids home after a while, but Crystal stayed with me for the rest of the night.  Her help was beyond measure, because she is a nurse and knew all the right things to say and do at a time when I was a worn out basket case. 

Monday, July 18th, 12:01 am

Dr. Matthews came into the waiting room to see me.  He explained that when Bill landed, his humerus (upper arm bone) had acted like a pile driver and had pulverized the ulna at the elbow joint.  There were only 4 or 5 usable pieces left, which he wired together, then bolted onto a stainless steel plate.  There was a section of the bone that had been reduced to such small pieces (powdered) that they couldn't be salvaged.  To fill the gap, the doctor reconstructed it out of what he called a 'bone putty', or a bone graft.

They wheeled Bill into his recovery room and started the process of trying to get his pain level under control.  That was a hellish experience!  Literally.  I felt so bad for him!  I have never seen him in so much pain!  Keep in mind that this is the guy who has done A LOT of damage to his body over the years, too.

3:30 am

Bill's pain was finally under control enough that I felt like I could take Crystal home, then get a few hours of rest at my house, as well.

4:00 am

Finally in bed.

7:00 am

A phone call woke me up in a panic.  My heart raced as I snatched the phone up, afraid it was the hospital with bad news (Bill had been paranoid all night about blood clots because his Aunt Ruby died of a blood clot after knee surgery).  It was my mother-in-law, Doril.  She wanted to know his hospital room number so she could go visit him.  I am sure she did not realize how few hours of sleep I had, so I tried not to be annoyed.  I knew I should get up and get back to the hospital, but my brain was in a fog and I literally passed out until a knock at the door woke me again just 30 minutes later.  It was Bill's brother, Steven, needing the keys to Bill's work truck so he could go take over the job Bill had been working on before the accident.

9:30 am

After showering and eating quickly, I hurried back to the hospital.  When I got there, I found out that Bill's pain level had shot through the roof earlier in the morning (at about 6:00?) because the night nurses had not stayed on top of the morphine doses for him.  Apparently, the Bishop had arrived during this pain spike and did manage to give him the long awaited ecclesiastical blessing, but, MAN! that must have been a stressful time!  I felt guilty for not being there for Bill.

I also have to point out at this point that there is NEVER a good time to remodel a hospital!  Bill got no sleep the night before and he was desperate to sleep during the day, but just when it seemed like it might be possible, suddenly there was massive and startling construction noise right above us!  I'm talking hammering and drilling.  It was a nightmare (only in the daytime)!!!

11:30 am

Lunch time!  I have to say that hospital food has improved astronomically in the years since I last ate it!  There was a menu to select from and you could mix and match anything on the menu.  Bill's lunch arrived by noon and was really very good (according to him).  While he ate, I went down to the 'Pink Shop' for lunch.  That is not it's real name, that is just what everyone calls it.  It is the gift shop/cafe in the center of the hospital that is staffed by volunteers dressed in pink shirts.  I guess the volunteerism is the reason the food is so cheap there.  You can order a really delicious cheeseburger with a bag of chips for $2.60.  A lady from my church congregation was volunteering there when I arrived for my lunch.  She chatted amicably and was a good listener.

3:30 pm

Dr Matthews arrived to check on Bill.  The Dr. and I both agreed that Bill should stay one more night in the hospital since he wasn't off the morphine yet, and I really wasn't rested enough to start taking over as his primary care provider.

6:00 pm

Visitors!  During the day you simply don't see many visitors in the halls of the hospital.  Everyone is at work.  After work hours, though, the hospital is just full of visitors.  Bill's sister, Necia, stopped by, along with his mother.  My brother, Erik, and his family also came, bringing our son, Will with them.  I failed to mention that our daughter, Helena, and her best friend, Megan, came to visit him in the late morning.

8:30 pm

I headed home for some much needed recuperating.  

Tuesday, July 19, 7:00 am

I woke up and headed back to the hospital.  Bill was in a much better place at this point.  His last dose of morphine behind him, it was starting to look like he could go home soon.  All we needed was to have the Dr. come back and give his release a green light.

2:00 pm

The doctor finally showed up!  He had actually seen Bill early in the morning before heading to his clinic, so we had to wait until after his clinic appointments to see him again.  He agreed to release Bill right after his next pain meds dose so we would have enough time to get him home and settled and allow me the time to pick up his prescriptions before the meds wore off.

4:00 pm

Finally!  I pulled the car around and drove Bill home from the hospital.

****

Where do we go from here?

He will wear a soft cast for 2 weeks.  After that, the doctor will put him in a hard cast for an additional week.  Then he starts physical therapy, which will last for months.  However, after 5 or 6 weeks he will go back in for surgery on his shoulder, which was re-injured in this crash (there is an old injury there from a previous mountain biking crash).

So, in other words, he will be out of commission for quite some time.

Thank you for sticking with this long winded post.  I have been in a fog for the past two days and it is hard to write coherently, and for that I apologize.  Please keep us in your prayers over the next few months!