Friday, June 22, 2012

Angels Among Us

What a week and a half we've had!  I've kind of been avoiding blogging about this since it was such a scary time and I didn't know if I was ready to write about it or not.  Last Wednesday (6/13) Kyler had a four-wheeler accident.  He had gone to move pipe that morning with Sydney and was coming back on a gravel road.  A little before 10:00 he lost control of the four-wheeler, plowed through a barbed wire fence, rolled the four wheeler, and landed in a field.  The fence had ripped up his pants and shirt pretty bad (along with lots of his body) but his right leg and wrist got the worst of it.  Summoning his Boy Scout skills Kyler ripped off the rest of his shirt and wrapped up his wrist.  The back of his calf was ripped open and he had cuts all over his body.  (I have pictures but they are not for the faint of heart.) Sydney was following behind in the truck and saw the whole thing happen.  She called her mom at work, Mandi jumped in her car and picked up Kelly at the house and they were there in 5 min.  Kyler was sitting up in the field when they arrived, quite calm, dazed, and well, in shock, I'm sure.  Kelly had him lay down, covered him with blankets and Mandi called the ambulance.  I followed behind in the van and got there about 5-10 min. after Kelly did.  I don't even need to describe how I felt when I got to the field and saw my son laying flat on the ground covered by blankets.  It was just as awful as I'm sure you're imagining.  Only worse.  Kelly had already given him a priesthood blessing. I was able to go to him and talk to him until the ambulance arrived. He was conscious and alert although somewhat stunned.  The volunteer Malta EMTs arrived within minutes to assess him.  Miraculously he had no head or neck injuries but they went ahead and put a C-collar on him and placed him on a stiff board before loading him on the ambulance. They also gave him some oxygen. As soon as they got him loaded into the Malta ambulance, the Burley ambulance arrived so we decided to switch him to that ambulance since they would be able to start an IV on the way to the hospital.  I rode in the front of the ambulance and Kelly came to the hospital in the van.  They admitted him to the ER and called an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Millar, in to look at him.  About 1:00 Dr. Millar took him in to surgery where he stitched up Kyler's left arm, the back of his right leg, repaired 3 tendons in his right hand, picked out shards of bone from the front of his right leg where he had taken out a chunk of bone, butterfly bandaged all his barbed wire cuts up his right hip, and cleaned out all the dirt, rock, sticks, hay, etc. that was in all his cuts.  The surgery took about 3 hours.  Finally about 5:00 they brought Kyler up to his room.  He was pretty sleepy most of the evening (lots of pain meds) but he was in pretty good spirits considering.  Kelly went home to get a few things and brought the kids + Scott and the boys to see Kyler.  Kierstyn was quite upset--she's very sensitive to other people's pain--but Trevin was happily oblivious to the seriousness of the situation.  I stayed overnight at the hospital with Kyler on an uncomfortable cot, waking every hour or so when the nurses came in to check on him.  The biggest hurdle was getting Kyler to be able to go to the bathroom which he was finally able to do about 1:00am.  After that, he had to go every hour. All those fluids... :)  
We came home about noon on Thursday and set up Kyler's bed in the living room.  He felt ok as long as we kept the pain pills in him.  On Friday we had to go back for another surgery on his wrist.  The doctor wanted to clean it out again and check on the repaired tendons.  So glad he did because one of the repaired tendons had not held so the Dr. had to repair it again (with something stronger).  The surgery only took about an hour and then they brought him back to Same Day Surgery.  Kyler was having a lot of pain when he woke up, mostly in his foot where they had put the IV on Wednesday, and of course in his wrist.  The nurse pulled the sheets off his leg (they removed all the other bandages when they were in surgery on Friday) and he got pretty emotional at seeing it.  They finally got his pain under control and he was able to sleep.  We had to wake him up to go home but we left the hospital about 5:00.

Before surgery on Friday

He even did the "Cat Daddy" for us :)
Coming out of surgery (sorry it's upside down)
Kind of graphic....but trust me, this is the least disturbing of all the photos we have.
Saturday was pretty rough.  He was still in a lot of pain, compounded now by the fact that he wasn't able to use the bathroom (sorry, TMI).  We kept him full of the pain pills and he slept quite a bit.  Thankfully, every day since has been better and better.  Sunday he even felt up to going over to our friends' house for a cookout.  He just sat on the couch inside but it was good for him to get out of the house.

Monday we went back to see Dr. Millar.  They removed the bandage from his wrist (first time Kyler and I had seen it).  His hand was still very swollen and the stitches were "weeping" really bad but after seeing what it looked like the day of the accident I was amazed that they were able to put it all back together.  Kyler didn't want to look but Dr. M insisted, saying, "No, really.  It looks really good."  I'm not sure that Kyler thought so after seeing it.  It was still pretty gross.  Dr. Millar sent us over to Occupational Therapy where Kyler was fitted with a splint. (He wanted hot pink but the plastic was too thin so he decided to go with camo instead.)  For now Kyler's OT consists of hand exercises he has to do at home 5-10 times every hour and we are going to OT at the hospital 3 times a week.  

Kyler really is doing better every day.  Mostly he has been laying in bed, watching tv or playing/texting on his iPod (he's pretty good with that left hand!) but every day he gets up and moves around a little more.  Yesterday we even wrapped up his arm and he took an actual shower.  I can only imagine how good that must have felt!  Last night he went over to the gym to watch basketball camp.  And this morning he is riding the Ranger in the fields with Kelly killing mice. :)

We have been the recipients of so many prayers, phone calls, visits, etc. and we are so grateful for everyone who has shown such love to our family.  We had been here less than 3 weeks when Kyler had his accident and I can't even begin to tell you how many of our new friends called, texted, came by,  brought movies/dinner/cookies, etc.  The teachers quorum (group of boys Kyler's age from church) came over twice to visit.  Seriously, it was overwhelming.  And our family and "old" friends were there for us as well.  We felt their love from all the way across the country.  We have been humbly reminded of what is most important and we are ever grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and a loving Heavenly Father who protected our son.

4 comments:

Dawn, said...

OH Jen! Barbed wire is so very ruthless... I just can't imagine how painful that must have been for him. We have learned that hand/wrist injuries can be some of the most volatile and complicated injuries one can get. So thankful he is healing!

McKenzie said...

Jen you have been in our thoughts and prayers. I can not even imagine what you have been through. Just reading your details of the day brought all the emotions back from when we received the initial text and the following hours and days. Oh how we wish we could all have been there to help. I am so grateful he is doing so much better. We love and miss you all!!

Mike & Lila Family said...

Im so glad each day he's feeling better and I'm sure soon we'll never know it happened! grateful your husband has and uses his priesthood gifts too. i hope you too have recovered from your own shock. :)

Jenni said...

Jen! I am just reading this! Glad Kyler didn't outrun all his angels! Keeping him in our prayers for continued healing!