Because we don't have enough stress....
Because we don't have enough going on in our lives....
Because we don't have enough "what ifs" in life as it is....
Because we don't miss one another enough already....
and because I don't worry enough about Luke as it is....
Luke fell when he was getting out of the bathtub the other night. The bath mat was apparently not in the spot it was supposed to be, and he apparently got out too quickly and completely lost his footing and slipped backwards and fell. He hit his head on the bathtub, right at the spot where his neck meets his head. The doctors believed he most definitely blacked out. He was really dizzy afterwards and was having a lot of problems concentrating and forming words properly. We talked about him going to the hospital that night to get checked out, but he was convinced that he would be fine in the morning and that all it was was maybe a small concussion. At this point we didn't realize that he had blacked out, and how hard he had truly hit his head. He's had a few concussions in his life, and he was sure that thats all it was, and that they wouldn't be able to do much for him at the hospital except admit him and keep an eye on him by waking him up every couple of hours. So he decided to wait and see if he felt any better the next morning, and if not, he would go to the doctor.
The next morning he was still very dizzy and had pockets of confusion, so he got an appointment with his doctor for that morning. They did all sorts of x-rays and a CT scan and after a number of hours they decided that he may very well have fractured his c-1 and c-2 vertebrae. They were seeing a possible hairline fracture on his imaging, but they were unsure if it was a vein or something instead. They sent him to have an MRI at a different hospital and to see an orthopedic specialist when he was there. He had his MRI, a number of different people read his results and looked at his imaging and they determined that they believed he had indeed fractured his vertebrae, so they were discussing possible surgery. They decided to do some more imaging from all sorts of different angles and once they did that, they determined that there were way too many inconsistencies in the possible hairline fracture for it to actually be a fracture. They decided that there was some previous damage (likely from his other concussions or something....) and that it was likely a vein or a small blood vessel or something that was showing as a teeny tiny thin line on the imaging. He had way too much range of motion in his neck and not nearly as much pain as he should have had if he had had a hairline fracture. They weren't even sure if they would have been able to do surgery if it was indeed a fracture, just because sometimes it can cause greater damage to go in and try to put a screw or bolt in than to just leave it alone.
So the upshot of the deal is, he has a grade III concussion, which is really quite bad, and he hit his head/neck super duper uber hard. They told him to obviously take it easy and avoid any and all things that could possibly lead to another injury of his head or neck. No contact sports! And of course he has to be mindful of all the things that come with having a concussion. So he's been quite stiff and sore for the past couple of days, but other than that, is doing quite well.
It was an incredibly scary day - I broke down a number of times. When we heard that he would likely have to have surgery, Mom was prepared to have us start driving down there the next day. We would have had a bit of a time getting me across the border (just because of my pending visa paperwork and all the things that come with that), but we were certainly going to try! But of course, even though I was looking forward to possibly getting to Colorado again even if for just a few days, I was so very thankful that it was much less serious than they were anticipating. I had posted the updates on Facebook and we had a whole lot of people praying about the situation, which we were so very thankful for.
To add insult to injury, when Luke was driving to the other hospital to have his MRI, he got stuck in a huge hail storm with golf ball sized hail! The interstate came to a complete stop and everyone scrambled for the overpass. Unfortunately Luke was unable to get there in time, and we have a fair bit of hail damage to our car. It doesn't compare to the seriousness of what we were dealing with with Luke, but it still just added another level of "sucky" to our day! So now we have a claim in for the car to see if they will be able to repair it, or if the damage exceeds the price of the car. It would really stink if we weren't able to keep the car - we just got it in September! AUGH!
Anyway, it was a really draining day. We were very thankful that it all worked out a lot better than what we anticipated. I'm just not sure how much more of this I can handle. I know God doesn't give us more than we can handle, and He always provides a way out, but I am sure feeling like I'm at my limit some days. I know there's something here I need to learn, and I know that as long as I draw close to God I will be fine, and hopefully I will learn it sooner rather than later, so that someday soon hopefully we can be together again.
"Thank God for the opportunity to build character through trials"
