PTSD
I saw a helicopter landing at the hospital where my son is and my gut twisted and I broke into tears.
Since then I have heard two more fly over today, the Fourth of July. Three families who are starting the journey we've been on. It hurts to think about it.
I learned more about my son's accident. Apparently he had asked his girlfriend if she wanted to go off-roading with him and his roommate. She said no, but asked where they were going. He told her, and said "if we're not back by 10:30 we're probably dead." Joking, of course. Except when they didn't come back that night she got really worried, and alerted the park rangers, and insisted something was really wrong. Because of her they started the search at dawn. They expected to find them bivouaced with a disabled vehicle. Instead they found them at the base of a cliff they'd rolled down, both with broken backs.
Let me state clearly that I adore his girlfriend. The fact that she recognized and responded to a new situation makes her so special. Most people would try to continue believing that everything was normal, nothing was so wrong that it required inconveniencing people. And the boys, my son, at least, would have died out there.
Today he took a couple of steps with a cane. He is able to walk a couple of hundred feet with a walker, although it exhausts him. He is sort of dragging his right leg using his hips, hitching them up and swinging his leg forward. We really don't know how much he will be able to regain from his right leg, but the left one is coming back day by day, bit by bit.
The thing that excited me most was watching him standing in the walker without holding on. He was upright and balanced (planted with his weight on the left side) and he tossed a ball back and forth with his dad. I filmed it. He can pull himself into an upright position. This is a huge benefit. Now the wheelchair is starting to look like something he'll just be in this year, not always.
Maybe. Assuming the improvements continue to build. No one really knows how much he'll regain. Next month will bring more clarity. I don't dare to hope he will not need to be in a wheelchair most of the time. I think hope is too cruel when it doesn't pan out. Better to make peace with the wheelchair and just be grateful he's not totally paralyzed.
Since then I have heard two more fly over today, the Fourth of July. Three families who are starting the journey we've been on. It hurts to think about it.
I learned more about my son's accident. Apparently he had asked his girlfriend if she wanted to go off-roading with him and his roommate. She said no, but asked where they were going. He told her, and said "if we're not back by 10:30 we're probably dead." Joking, of course. Except when they didn't come back that night she got really worried, and alerted the park rangers, and insisted something was really wrong. Because of her they started the search at dawn. They expected to find them bivouaced with a disabled vehicle. Instead they found them at the base of a cliff they'd rolled down, both with broken backs.
Let me state clearly that I adore his girlfriend. The fact that she recognized and responded to a new situation makes her so special. Most people would try to continue believing that everything was normal, nothing was so wrong that it required inconveniencing people. And the boys, my son, at least, would have died out there.
Today he took a couple of steps with a cane. He is able to walk a couple of hundred feet with a walker, although it exhausts him. He is sort of dragging his right leg using his hips, hitching them up and swinging his leg forward. We really don't know how much he will be able to regain from his right leg, but the left one is coming back day by day, bit by bit.
The thing that excited me most was watching him standing in the walker without holding on. He was upright and balanced (planted with his weight on the left side) and he tossed a ball back and forth with his dad. I filmed it. He can pull himself into an upright position. This is a huge benefit. Now the wheelchair is starting to look like something he'll just be in this year, not always.
Maybe. Assuming the improvements continue to build. No one really knows how much he'll regain. Next month will bring more clarity. I don't dare to hope he will not need to be in a wheelchair most of the time. I think hope is too cruel when it doesn't pan out. Better to make peace with the wheelchair and just be grateful he's not totally paralyzed.