The Final Stretch

I completely forgot to tell you about the “drama” on Saturday during the photos of the PT on the stairs. My high school boys team was in the championship for soccer. Without me. The very first time I have coached Nick, his last season of soccer as a kid, the team is in the championship and I couldn't be there.  Anyhow, Homer was at the game calling me with updates and then giving me play-by-play until I couldn’t take the stress anymore and hung up. We were up 3-1 and I say to him, “We’ve got ten minutes left. We’ve got this unless Krohe gets a red card and gets thrown out”. (He’s one of my very good players who is normally a scorer, but at this point was on defense. No one will get a shot off with him there). Sure as shit, two minutes later he gets in a fight, a red card and thrown out. And then the other team scores. That’s when I had to hang up. 3-2 and about 6 minutes left. Homer finally called back and we won!  I was thrilled and so proud of the boys. I won’t lie, I was terribly bummed that I couldn’t be there to share this with Nick, but Elijah needed me more.

Moving on. For too many days this was the view for Elijah and me. To his left the door.

Television, dvd and xBox with pictures from Olivia and Emily.

Window with a roof top view. A garden would look lovely up there. Homer and I shared the couch built for one and Emily slept in the windowsill one night.

Straight ahead to the bathroom and nurses computer.

The care for the head wound was not what it should have been. This isn’t the fault of the nurses. The doctors didn’t give cleaning orders so therefore it isn’t touched. Had the scabbing been kept to a minimum more fluid could have leaked. At home now it looks worse than this with a very large harden blood patch in the middle preventing fluid from leaking. The one time there were orders to clean it the nurse was told to do so with peroxide which lead to the big gush. I’m terrified to do that so here we sit.

Since these were colors no one in my family is going to wear I decided to make hats for the babies in NICU.

When my ex left Emily asked to stay with me. Totally awesome to have her with me. Last week was my week to spend with her, but I was at the hospital caring for Elijah.  In three weeks I will have spent four days with her. I really miss my girl.

I taught Emily how to use the loom and she made a hat for the babies, too. (She finished another one on the ride home so we’ll have to take it to our local hospital).

Just hanging out. His head shape is so much better. It was quite a cone head for awhile.

All done!

Homer came in Sunday to pick us up. After dinner he took Emily and I to the store. Elijah didn’t have anything to wear home.

As much as it all sucked I tried to find something positive. It was nice hanging out with just Homer, Elijah and Emily.

Elijah got a package from the Linnell family. This was the first time he smiled since the accident. The gesture meant the world to him.

The wait for discharge was absolutely ridiculous. We were up, packed and ready at 8:30am. And we waited. And waited. And waited. The neurosurgeon was in surgery and we had to wait for him to give discharge instructions. At 5:30pm they were still in surgery so the doctor called the OR and got the instructions over the phone and we were finally leaving at 6:21pm. Why couldn’t she have made that call six hours earlier?

I had promised Elijah that if he pulled through he could go shopping for a hat when he got out of the hospital. (When laying on that stretcher bleeding, losing his hat was a big concern). So after a quick trip to the mall where I was a nervous wreck the entire time and he couldn’t find a hat we hit the road home after going through the drive-thru. At 8:17pm with rainy weather we had about 350 miles to drive.


Homer got us safely home around 1:30am. (We drove straight through).
Now the life we once knew is gone and we have to adjust to all the changes.