Saturday, October 4, Randy was on his way to a friend's house on his motorcycle. He's a very careful driver. However, there are a lot of people that do not pay attention to motorcyclists. Therefore, they do not watch out for them. A 74 year old woman pulled out of a mall, turned left right in front of Randy. He hit her. From the impact, he flew 50 ft and landed on his head. He had a helmet on but it one of the skull helmets and it flew off. This was in Fayetteville NC. They airlifted him to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Hospital. He was unconsious. Deda, his wife, called us. His injuries included a crushed left wrist, cut on forehead, the bridge of his nose and earlobe. He suffered a broken left collarbone, three broken ribs and worse of all, he had a brain injury. There were three places that were bleeding on his brain and some blood clots. There was bruising on his brain. They put him on a ventilator, screwed a plug into his head to monitor the pressure on his brain and he received a strong sedation for pain. They couldn't do anything about the bleeding or blood clots.
Denny and I flew to the hospital from Dallas Sunday morning. We arrived around 10:00 that morning. It was not a happy trip. I won't go into the details of my reaction since I'm sure everyone knows how a mother would react to seeing her son in a hospital bed. He reminded me of Denny when he had his accident 14 years ago. Ashley flew in from upstate New York Monday morning. It was hard for her to see her dad in his condition. It was important for her to be here though.
He was in critical condition all day Sunday. He started to move his arms and legs when they would shut off the sedation for a few minutes.
Monday morning they took out the monitor on his brain because the number went from 20 to 8 and 7. If it had gone over 20, surgery would have been required.
That afternoon they took the ventilator off from him because he was breathing over the ventilator. We were quite happy about that.
As they slowed down the sedation, he started to respond to commands. By afternoon he opened his eyes a little and was talking a little. He puckered his lips to kiss Danielle. When we told him that several people said that he looked like his dad, he growled. He knew where he was and why. He wanted us to blow his nose but he had an oxygen mask on. He kept asking and when I said "no" he said "Pleeese". Then he wanted us to pull off the monitor from his finger. He'd say "pull it off" and we'd say we couldn't. He'd repeat it again. He was doing quite well. I put moisturizer on his feet so they won't dry out.
Wednesday: He is still in the same ICU but is now out of critical condition and is in stable condition. He wants us to take off the monitor from his finger yet. And he managed to get it off with his thumb this morning! He is only being treated by the trama unit. They will move him when they find a bed for him. They just took him to surgery to fix his broken wrist. The doctors all called him a fighter! He sure is.
Thursday: This morning Randy told me to pull him up because he wanted to stand up. He didn't like it that I told him he couldn't stand up and didn't need to. He said that he had to pee. I told him that he could pee right where he was. He again told me to pull him up. I had to scratch his back for him. He had a headache so I rubbed his temples for him. I put cream on his feet every day to keep them soft. Danielle and Ashley are finally taking a nap in the motel room. They both need sleep. Me? I have a huge blister on my toe that opened up and is raw. It hurts to walk on it.
Saturday: Randy has been moved to intermediate care. He's no longer in critical but is in stable condition. That doesn't mean that he's sitting up, talking and laughing with us. The stages for a brain injury start at 1 and end with 8. The therapist said that he's at 4. Which means that he isn't awake all the time, gets agitated very easy, says senseless things sometimes, is in a lot of pain and sleeps a lot.
She said that when someone's head hits something hard, the brain actually bounces to the other side of the head. If there is any brain damage to the right side, that would be the artistic side of his thinking. Because he had blood clots and bleeding in his brain where they don't know where it was (but it isn't occurring anymore), there could be something damaged. We won't know until he's in therapy. But he can talk, he can move his limbs, is very strong, can see and respond to commands. He calls me 'mom' and called out for Danielle one time when she was in the waiting room. When the nurse asked her who Danielle was, he said "My wife, you fool!" She wasn't surprised or hurt by his remark. They have a sitter in his room at all times. He is restrained but still slid himself where his head was in the middle of the bed and his legs were hanging over. He wants to go to the bathroom!
The therapist said that they are going to try giving him food and give him meds to stop his aggravation. Once they accomplish that, they will move him to the rehab and start with physical, occupational and speech and memory therapy.
Sunday: I called Randy's room this morning. I was talking to Danielle about how he was doing. I could hear him in the background talking. Danielle put the phone by his ear. I said hi to him and he said hi back. I asked him if he knew who I was and he said "yes, my mom". I felt good about that. This morning earlier, Danielle asked him who he was and he said "Mr Banana"! He sounds a lot better and Danielle said that he's opening his eyes more. He's still on the pain meds and the meds to keep him settled down. I'm sure as they lower the meds, the more he will respond to us.
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