ICU at night

Soooo much happened during the stay. I wish I'd journaled back then, but, in all authenticity, I was doing my best to keep it together. Did a lot of reading, surviving really. And tried to be there for R and A. 

Jan 2nd ICU

The EMTs told us to go to the main hospital. I drove 'cause A was a mess and could not stop crying. On the way, she managed to call our other kiddos who promised to meet us there. We stood in line at the ER, trying our best to wait our turn. Everyone had an issue, been there before, but this time was different.  The check-in person (triage) found out R's location and took us aside where a social worker took over. 

He took us to a private sitting room where we could collect ourselves. If he asked us any pertinent questions, I cannot remember. Then, the peer counselor called. R, after all, had only been out less than 4 hours. When we told him where we were and what happened, he exclaimed "WHAT?"  Then, our other adult children arrived by Uber and I told them to meet us at the ER entrance. The social worker gave us grief about too many people in the room, but in light of what was going on, acquiesced. 

We stayed there for a a while , gathering out thoughts and waiting for word. One of the surgeons came in to tell us some of the good news, no permanent trauma in the head or spine. He's always been lucky, if you can call it that. They stemmed the bleeding in the pelvis and stabilized the arm, but he needed this much longer ortho surgery. New staff gave us a patient number and guided our family to the main  waiting room. In line again, at the Ortho desk, there's a lot of need out there :-( 

After checking in, we waited with the throngs of other families hoping for the best. Long night, the longest in my life, or the one I remember the most. Our other 2 adult children sitting with us gave me immense comfort. We don't have other extended family so it's us against the world.

Dr. G called a couple of times to check on us and offer support. The peer counselor let him know. I was touched to know he wanted to come by the hospital to offer his support. I wish everyone had that caring attitude with action. R has a really good team on his side and for that I'm eternally grateful.  He asked if he could visit us. To be frank, seeing him come to the Ortho surgery waiting room that evening I couldn't help but hug him. 

Dr. G went downstairs to see if his medical status to provide us with any more information. It couldn't, but he did buys us some snacks to keep our strength up. He's a good man and a great doctor and we were all glad he was there for us. After sitting with us for a while, he let us know he needed to leave and call R's psychiatrist, Dr. J to let her know the news. Nothing like this had ever happened before since the birth of the program. This was new territory all around. 

The first surgeon came out to speak with us to let us know R was stable with a successful surgery. Again, believe it or not, R dodged a bullet. 5 stories and no head or permanent spine trauma was a miracle. My friend's father recently passed on because he fell 5 feet or less and hit his head so who knows. He's always been lucky, if you can call it that and I do. I still couldn't believe it, but here we were, new territory in this ongoing mental fitness story. 

We played the waiting game again while he moved to ICU recovery. Another hour floated by and then we progressed to another waiting area. This time, we hung out in the employee break room on R's floor. My goodness we were tired. I closed my eyes and played audiobooks on my phone while we waited for more info. R's nurse came in to give an update and get some facts from us. She was awesome, but I don't remember her name. Again, another pitfall for not journaling at that time. I knew it the whole stay at the hospital, but now it escapes me :-(  

She told us he's in good hands and someone is always with him, a rule for incidents like this. Only one of us could see him at a time, but tomorrow would be different. We made the decision to go home and get some much needed rest. This tragic, rollercoaster of a day finally finished.