Monday April 4... you just NEVER know when life changing experiences are going to happen.
Here's the short version (it doesn't look short, but it is!):
I went to work early... cuz I had just been off for three days vacation... before 8 o'clock my cell phone rings and it is a restricted number. I hesitate to answer it, but I did. It was a police officer... I didn't believe him at first. It's never good when a police officer starts the conversation with "do you have a daughter named Erin"?
He tells me about the accident. Basically she was on her way to work on her motorcycle. She had her helmet and full outfit on, thank goodness. A car pulled right out in front of her and there was no reaction time.She crashed into the car and flew over the top and landed in the street. So I go slightly hysterical and start calling family and arranging for one of them to come pick me up at work and take me to St Josephs. Just a few minutes later there is an out of state phone number calling my cell phone.... oh my gosh!!! it's Trent!!! He was calling me from the airport on his way to Brazil. I can't hide that I'm upset and tell him what just transpired. Of course this makes him upset too! Can this day be anymore emotional!?!?! I tell him to call me at his next airport even if it is breaking the rules!
So I get to the hospital and I wasn't prepared to see her in ICU and doctors and nurses in and out and people talking to us.. it is really kind of a blur. I wasn't prepared to see all the IV's and even blood being pumped into her. I wasn't prepared to see them rush her off to surgery. While we were in the surgery waiting room, Trent calls again. I'm still shook up cuz now I know she is badly broken, but still not quite sure how bad. So I tell him to call me from the next airport. By the time he called again she was out of the first surgery and I was a lot calmer and so we could talk and he was getting on his final flight to Brazil with some other missionaries and we were all excited for him to finally get to go!
Erin had four surgeries in two days and they by the end of the first surgery they had given her 6 units of blood and some plasma. I didn't realize how gray she was until a couple days later when her normal color came back. She had shattered her pelvis in 6 places so they put in plates and screws and sewed up various rips and tears inside and out... She broke her arm all the way through two bones and the skin... put back together with plates and screws... Her knee is messed up bad... so they screwed it back together and she even had a broken finger that is pinned back together. Her right leg and hip have bad nerve damage and her foot is numb. In my mind all I heard was bad stuff... blah blah blah. I couldn't believe it! Finally after a couple days of intense prayer and hearing about other patients in the ICU... I realized how lucky we were that her condition wasn't worse! Thank goodness for a changed perspective! So she spent several days in ICU... then several days in a regular room... then we got the task of finding her a "skilled nursing facility" (fancy name for nursing home). That was interesting... I had already done this several years ago for my mother. We checked out a whole bunch (none of them were good enough for my daughter)... and finally found one that didn't have geriatrics... so all the people there are probably ages 50's on down. The first night I left her there I was just numb again... hoping that this place was going to be good for her and safe and she would get the care and therapy she needed. Again my attitude changed the next day as I walked through the halls and saw the condition of some of the other patients there. Erin WILL get better and live a normal life again... it will just take a lot of time. Some of the other patients there will not get any better no matter how much time they are there. Very sad. It hasn't been almost 4 weeks and she has had some bad days.. but I see that the good days are starting to shine through. Everyone at the care center likes her and she has definitely kept her sense of humor through this!
These are the only pictures I'm posting. A smashed up motorcycle. We did not take pictures of Erin and all the stages in the hospital. Too traumatic to look at. When she was born she was rushed to Good Sam in Phoenix and she was hooked up to IV's and a ventilator and I was at the hospital AGAIN with her hooked up to IV's and a ventilator. NOT a sight that her or I want to look at again! I'm glad that part is over. But like I said before... we are truly blessed that it is not worse! She's a tough girl!!
Thanks to everyone for al the kindnesses and thoughts and prayers. We definitely feel the love!
