It's been just shy of 3 months since we've been able to post. If you follow us along on Facebook or Instagram you might be aware that Gary got into a car accident on I-75 on his way to work the beginning of April. It was a harrowing experience, and one that necessitated all hands on deck, so our blog had to take a sabbatical. After nearly three months Gary is healing well, and we are back into a someone regularly daily routine, so I have time to pick up the pen again... or maybe sit down at the keyboard would be a better description, and catch up on some blogging.
The Accident
For those who were not aware. Gary left the house as usual and was headed into work. He has been working night shift at a local steel company, so it was about 3 when he left here. Around 3:30 I got a call from him. All he said was "I've been in an accident, and I'm hurt, I'm hurt bad." Then he hung up, and I, of course, like anyone would of, went into full panic attack mode. I tried calling him back, and I couldn't get through, so I called his parents and texted our pastor. I didn't know what to do, where to go, and how to manage the kids. Eventually I got back through and found out that he had a broken leg but otherwise seemed ok. I even spoke to the highway patrol officer who responded, and he told me that they would call me back when they knew which hospital they were taking him too. So after talking with Mom and Dad, we made a plan to pack up the kids things so that they could meet me at the hospital and take the kids home with them for the night. After what seemed like a very long wait I got the call that he was in route to St. Joseph's hospital in Tampa.
When I arrived he was cut up on the side of his face and left arm from the windshield breaking, and he had a brace on his leg to keep it stabilized. The word was that he had broke the femur in two places, one was a clean break while the other shattered. They also believed something was wrong with the knee cap, and they made plans to get him into surgery the next morning as it was already nearly 7 pm.
Hospital Time
The next morning they did surgery around 10 or so. He was out and back to the room around 1. While he was out they made several incisions to line up the bone and opened his knee to drive a rod through there all the way up to his hip. Two screws were placed in the top of the femur which was still connected to the hip, two more screws were placed in the side of the knee to hold the bottom of the rod into place after his dislocated knee cap was put back into place. Finally they arranged all the pieces of bone that they could find along the rod to heal, however there were two many pieces to accurately get Humpty Dumpty put back together again.
For the next four days they worked to get him mobile. The first hurtle was using a walking and being able to put any weight on the leg to just walk a few feet and handle basic self-care tasks. By the time he was able to get home he was able to walk much further and manage getting up and down a 2 inch step. He went home with a walker and instructions to use a wheel chair out of the house. They gave him some very basic exercises and encouraged him to rest initially as much as possible. He also went home with 6 weeks of blood thinner instructions: two weeks of giving himself shots and another 4 weeks of Aspirin until he reported back to the orthopedic surgeon. He got 4 days worth of pain killers and instructions to follow up with his regular doctor in the next couple of days. He was reminded that it would take 3 to 6 months to completely heal from this sort of injury, so we knew our work was just beginning.
Finally Home
When we arrived home we found out that Mister and the two oldest kids had come up and done some work for us at the house. They had cleaned out the fridge, mopped the house, and were working on the pool which had gotten pretty green in the time we were gone from home. Memaw had made several massive meals and sent up for us, since Gary is our main cook. We got home and Gary laid down while I immediately launched into paperwork. There were forms for work to get short term disability, and forms for the car insurance to get their coverage, there were forms for AAA to try to get reimbursed for the tow bill, there were forms for the mortgage to attempt to get payments deferred until he was back to fulltime work. There were still all the bills laying all over my desk, that I had been working on before going to the hospital.
Then there was also the hassle with Gary's primary doctor, who refused to see him after having a car wreak. They sent us somewhere else, only to discover that they didn't take our insurance though I had asked that twice before even driving over an hour to get there. Needless to say in the middle of all of this we started looking for a new primary care doctor. We also needed to find a physical therapist. Thankfully we found a good one and just one week later started therapy. They have been wonderful helping him move from a wheelchair to a walker all the time, and then down to a cane. They discovered that the wreak also pinched a nerve in his lower back that was making the knee pain worse, and worked on that as well. They have even argued and fought with insurance for more appointments since they only wanted to grant us 8 initially.
It has been a very long three months. However, Gary is getting around well with a cane, and practices walking without it at home. He is still hobbling and needs to build more strength back in the leg, so today he started visiting the gym at the orthopedic doctor's suggestion. He has 3 more therapy visits, at one a week to hopefully get off the cane entirely. In the last couple of weeks he has begun driving, and is driving longer distances and spending more time in the driver's seat. He's a little nervous about it, and is down right paranoid when anyone else is driving him, but that's understandable. He no longer needs my help with his shoes and socks, but I'm still helping him with certain therapy exercises.
The expectation is that he will be able to go back to work the middle of August. Since his job involves moving by hand up to 300 pounds of steel and being on his feet for 12 hours straight, he needs to be in peak shape. Right now the limping won't allow him to work, and he doesn't have the stamina to be up and on the leg for 12 hours straight. The bulk of his pain and stiffness is in the knee, it just doesn't have the mobility it had and gets stiff and gives him pain just being in the car for an hour or so. So that will be our focus for the next 6 weeks.
He is mostly in good spirits though is feeling a bit defeated by how hard it is to do just simple things. While picking up pizza for supper on the way home the other night, Ruth went in with him to carry the pizzas. When he handed them off to her to carry he got dirty looks, until they saw the cane. He is frustrated that he isn't back to normal, and isn't a very patient patient. But he still goofs off and half wrestles with the kids and has been generally upbeat about it, and even if it hurts a good deal of the time, he says he enjoys the chance to be home with us more.
On the House Front
We are still trying to sell our house. We swapped realtors to see if it would help. We worked around the house much of March to make some changes and get it back on the market. Despite them feeling like it was priced just right we haven't had any bites yet, so we may make some changes to get it sold sooner. While I will miss this, as it is my dream house in many ways, we are still looking forward and hoping to get on the road in an RV. In January we found the perfect floorplan for us, and after the summer RV show in Tampa a couple of weeks ago, we confirmed that it is still definitely the right model for us.
In the meantime, Gary is still looking for better employment opportunities, whether that is in the ag industry or something that is based online. He's had some interviews and promising looking positions, but nothing that has panned out so far. However, he isn't giving up. We know the right fit for our family is out there somewhere, and somebody is going to recognize him for the work he does.
The Kids
While we had to take a break from school in April and part of May due to the accident, we are back on track now, and should finish up just a few weeks or so behind schedule. They are looking forward to a busy summer - a visit to the grandparents in Alabama, our annual meeting at Church, a week camping with friends, a golden birthday party, a short vacation to the mountains, and some time to just relax without school. They have worked hard with the three oldest managing nearly all of the cooking over April and May. They have done the mowing job that Gary has on their own, with Mister to oversee them. They have stepped up with the boys, while not failing behind in their online classes. They well deserve a break.
Right now we are in the mid summer swing of planning out the next school year. The two oldest came with me again this year to the homeschooling convention in order to help pick out their classes and curriculum for the next year. So now I'm getting next year's planner in order, making curriculum maps for our different subjects and planning next year's school schedule. Of course I'm also the planner of the fun things too, so that is taking up lots of time. All in all the kids have rolled with the punches and done well, so they are wrapping up this school year, and planning for the next, while looking forward to a short break in between.
The Blog
What that means for the blog is while I may not immediately jump back into three post a day, we are excited to keep writing and sharing both our adventures and glimpses of our daily life. We are still incredibly busy with therapy, school, and life in general, but are ready to again set aside time for blogging. There are lots of things to catch up on sharing with everyone, and more excitement coming down the pipeline. I hope to be back in a consistent routine with writing by the time that Gary goes back to work. So I hope you still enjoy reading our post and will share them with your friends. After all, it's great to talk with you all again.
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