We had a very interesting night last night. Zach had a sudden acute pain in his left thigh and so we had to take him to the emergency room to check for a bloodclot. We are happy to report that he does not appear to have one.... but we will be following up with the doctors today.
The interesting part was the doctor that he saw in the er. He actually was the first doctor that saw him on the night of the accident. As he started the exam last night and was going over Zach's medical history.... he said, "I remember you, you were the kid with the colon in your chest." He told Zachary about that night. How he came in and looked pretty good from the outside, not alot of outward trauma in fact he came in as a code trauma level 2, he had a couple of lacerations and such..... the doctor said it was his color and the fact that he did not have capillary refill in his extremeties that they made them concerned. They were pretty sure that he was bleeding internally and so they did an ultrasound which surprisingly did not show any bleeding..... they also did a chest x-ray and that is when they saw that all of his organs had been shoved into his chest cavity.... they decided to take him to get a ct scan, they got through the head and part of the chest when his blood pressure dropped and the trauma surgeon said that they were going to stop the ct scan and they took him to the operating room. So from the time he came in to the er to the time he ended up in the or was 35 mins.
We are once again reminded of how amazed and grateful that we are to the Emergency Room and Trauma team staff for the care that they provided to him. We are grateful for the instincts that they heeded, we cannot ever thank them enough.
We also have been getting the detailed bills concerning his care.... the amount of entries for January 1st is enormous and really gives us an feel for how chaotic that day was. The final total of 52 units of blood and plasma that he used.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday Update
Well we took Zachary in for his wound care and we are happy to report that they have taken him off of the wound vac. It should be a couple of more weeks before it closes up completely......but considering that his wound was once 12 inches long and 5 inches wide we are happy about that. He was bummed out when they told him that he should not do abdominal exercises for at least 2 years. He was hoping that he could get right to work on his "six-pack".
He did visit his orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday and was told that it will be another 4 weeks before he can put pressure on his pelvis. He was hoping that he could start doing a little more but he is not creating new bone as quickly as he needs to. His left arm is healing very well, all of the restrictions that he has had for it have been removed.
He is making great progress.
He did visit his orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday and was told that it will be another 4 weeks before he can put pressure on his pelvis. He was hoping that he could start doing a little more but he is not creating new bone as quickly as he needs to. His left arm is healing very well, all of the restrictions that he has had for it have been removed.
He is making great progress.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday Febuary 10, 2009 update
Zachary has been home for a little over a week and he is doing well. He gets around on our upper floor in his wheelchair and just seems to be better adjusted now that he is home.
Home healthcare comes in on Monday and Wednesday to change his wound on his abdomen, and we are astounded at the improvement that has been made in that since his time home.
I think that as we look back on the events of the last 6 weeks we are amazed at the enormity of the situation. There have been many little details and things that we all take for granted once they are taken away.
I think when Greg first received the call asking if he was Zachary Brimhall's father that the severity of it hit him right away. For me, now that we are at home and able to relax a little bit, it's hitting me.
We are starting to receive the bills from the hospital. WOW !!!! It leaves us very frustrated at the other driver's insurance company, who is making this more difficult on us.
I often wonder what the long term implications are going to be and we really have no way of knowing at this point.
There are many things that we are grateful for. We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support our family has received. I feel very unworthy of the generousity that has been shown to us. There are SO many people that have done so much for us and I know that we will never be able to repay them. We did want to make sure that everyone knows how supportive Zachary's employer www.davesmotors.com has been to us. He placed a thread on his own website about Zachary and the response from his customers has amazed us as well. They sent him a model helicopter that keeps him quite occupied. Zachary has also been working on model cars. This seems to be helping with the numbness that he has in his right hand.
Zachary enjoys having people coming to visit. So all are welcome to visit as long as you can "pardon our dust" while we are remodeling. (we did start that before the accident)
We will be posting some of the photographs that we have taken of Zach during his hospital. Some of them are very graphic so we are just warning you ahead of time.
Home healthcare comes in on Monday and Wednesday to change his wound on his abdomen, and we are astounded at the improvement that has been made in that since his time home.
I think that as we look back on the events of the last 6 weeks we are amazed at the enormity of the situation. There have been many little details and things that we all take for granted once they are taken away.
I think when Greg first received the call asking if he was Zachary Brimhall's father that the severity of it hit him right away. For me, now that we are at home and able to relax a little bit, it's hitting me.
We are starting to receive the bills from the hospital. WOW !!!! It leaves us very frustrated at the other driver's insurance company, who is making this more difficult on us.
I often wonder what the long term implications are going to be and we really have no way of knowing at this point.
There are many things that we are grateful for. We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support our family has received. I feel very unworthy of the generousity that has been shown to us. There are SO many people that have done so much for us and I know that we will never be able to repay them. We did want to make sure that everyone knows how supportive Zachary's employer www.davesmotors.com has been to us. He placed a thread on his own website about Zachary and the response from his customers has amazed us as well. They sent him a model helicopter that keeps him quite occupied. Zachary has also been working on model cars. This seems to be helping with the numbness that he has in his right hand.
Zachary enjoys having people coming to visit. So all are welcome to visit as long as you can "pardon our dust" while we are remodeling. (we did start that before the accident)
We will be posting some of the photographs that we have taken of Zach during his hospital. Some of them are very graphic so we are just warning you ahead of time.
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