3 years ago

Three years ago on April 5th, I went through one of the most horrific accident of my life to date.

I was horseback riding with a girlfriend,it was not my first rodeo but I wouldnt call myself a pro by any means but I knew the basics of riding. We were done riding the horses and back on the owners property, my horse had been a little skiddish the whole day but it didnt really bother me too much. We decided to take them for a dip. My horse wouldnt willingly go into the water so we took the round about way around and gave him no other option. He still wasnt getting in the water so we decided we would lead him across,my girlfriend took the reigns and started to lead him, the water was deep and came up to my thighs on this big horse, as he took the first step where he had to swim and no longer had solid ground he startled and pulled his head back,thus pulling my girlfriend out of her saddle and causing her to reach to pull herself back in the saddel,forgetting she had my reigns in my hand and she dropped them.

This began the adventure. The horse took off immedatley. I had no time to procees what was going on and instead just hung on for dear life. I indiana jonesd it for a few minuets buth the horse made a quick left and I didnt anticipate it soon enough and thats when I fell off.

I remember hitting the ground and bouncing twice, then when I landed I remember my tailbone hurting and just straightining my legs. This is where my ER instinct kicked in. I thought if I have something wrong and move it could be bad, if I dont move it would probably just be the best thing for all cases.It cant hurt to get checked and told nothing is wrong. So we called the ambulance and held off the cows till they got there.

When I got to the ER, the one I was an employee at, I greeted all my friends and was happy to get to a room and get cleared off that awful board! They cleared me,had ,e take my pants off and prepare for xray,I also recieved some wonderful pain meds that made it all better.I got cleared off the board by the doc because I had no deficit, I could feel and wiggle all my toes and fingers and the only part that hurt was my lower back a little, I learned that I had a hard time lifting my pelvis when I was taking my pants off and warned the xray tech about this when I had to move from the stretche to the table. I got myself over ther with them just helping me a little by pulling the sheet. Then comes the wait for the xray films. My doc, Tucker, came in and told me I had 2 teardrop fractures off of my L-2 and L-3 vertiabres. No bigge, pain meds and physical therapy he explained,BUT they wanted to do a CT just to make sure. He explained the worst case scernio was a burst fracture which would require surgery. So I went to get my CT when the tech came into the room he immedatley recognized me, lowerd the head of the stretcher and wheeled me to CT while we chated about what had happened. This is where it got bad and was my first sign something was wrong, knowing all the CT techs I was troubled a little to see them all gwaking at the screen(1 st bad sign), but kind of brushed it off and was ready to get out of there,as we walked back I asked the tech what he saw,I knew he couldnt tell me everything but I was fishing for clues. I told him what Tucker was looking for and all he said was " Lets just say the horse won"(2nd bad sign). SO he wheels me back to my room lowers the stretcher and I asked him to put my head back up, he said I should probably stay flat(3rd bad sign).This was also the final straw for me I lost it. THere had been a shift change and one of my coworkers didnt even realize she was my nures till she walked in and saw me crying my eyes out. She asked me what was wrong, I told her what the tech had said and she went out to see if my report had been faxed yet. I wasnt out at the desk but have heard as soon as she told Tucker he ran to the fax machine read my report,shared som explectives and yelled to get neuro on the phone NOW! HE came in and told me I needed to lay really still he ordered the collar to be put back on me and explained what I had been dreading. I had burst fractured L-2 into about 20 pieces and would need emergency surgery. Here is where I understand how bad it could have been, if I had moved the wrong way one of those pieces could have severed my spinal cord.

I dont remember all the events exactly that took place after this, but I know it took 8 hours in surgery,4 pins 2 rods and 2 cross-roads to put Humpty back to gether again! I was in a brace that looked like a mix of a bullet-proof vest and some weird fashion statement for14weeks. There was pain and there was tears and some days there still is but I know now that God had a plan that was bigger than mine.

It has been yet again too long since I posted on this site! Im going to try again to make a post once a week, mostly because I like to look back and read these and maybe someday they will help someone through a tough time or my kids will read it and enjoy laughing at themselves!

I have been through so many different events in my life and my kiddos lives that I can't wait to write them all down and relive them as well.

So if your bored and need to read a novel sit down and enjoy!!

Worst Blogger Ever!

So I know it has been way to long since I posted on my blog. And Im not making excuses but I have just been plain old busy! So I am going to make a realistic goal of posting once a month. And well see how that goes. :)

Blake's Birth Story

I am very lucky to have had a pretty "easy" pregnancy. I had no morning sickness, no cravings,only gained 20lbs and all in all it was great. I did have a little stint for about a month with "si instability" which is some of the worst pain ever, but I made it through and it went away!

So Ill start with my 2 week appts. Nothing was going anywhere! I was not progressing and baby wasn't coming out! I had a rather interesting reason for getting an induction date,fact was the practice I was in was closing ,if they let me go the usual week over your due date for first time mom's, I technically wouldn't have had a primary doctor and it could have been bad news,so they decided at my 38 week appt to schedule my induction. Dr.M told me she would go get me the first available date they had, fact was I was just ready for the next step,baby(or so I thought)! She walked in and told me " I know your going to think I did this on purpose but I swear I didn't",she handed me that pink paper and what was my date? May 20th of course,my due date, I sort of just glared at her and she just laughed at me!





So I had one more office visit the 19th and convinced her to at least let me come in in at 8 AM instead of 8 PM, I was thrilled! But I now know I should have just kept the evening appt. With cervidil it has to be in place for 12 hrs,so they do it at night so you can sleep while it works!So I arrived at 7:45 am on May 20th. I got cervidil around 10am and they warned me that I could have up to 2 rounds of this before anything happened. I was less than thrilled with this news. But luckily at around 10 pm things started happening! I was having contractions I couldn't feel thankfully but they were clear on the monitor. I had a doc come in and check me and he said since things were progressing,contractions and I was now at 2 cm! He also decide to hold off on the pitocin and his thought was that things should progress, boy was he wrong! I'm going to be completely honest I don't remember alot of the times and although some of you who know me might think I have my medical chart sitting in front of me I don't! So probably 1-2 hrs later they came back in to check me again. Let me just say that that is the worst part of child birth,or what little of it I went through, now I'm medically savy to a degree but holy cow I didn't realize where my cervix was! And that was just awful to be checked when your irritated,cranky and tired anyway! But the labor pains were increasing and they said I could have an epidural! This would have been a wonderful thing had it worked! NO my epidural didn't work I was still feeling contractions in my stomach but felt nothing under my belly. The nurse apparently didn't believe me and did the pinch test multiple times and kept asking "are you sure you feel this?" I refrained myself from slapping her and calmly answered yes. The new anesthesiologist came on shift and tried to move the epidural up. 3 more times. The last tap was a wet tap which is bad news ,it means they hit the spinal column and you run a 50/50 shot for spinal headaches which I have heard are awful! Thank the Lord I didn't get this! So then the decision was made to give me nubain and hope that I would progress naturally. I was at 4. For the next I don't know how long I stayed at 4. The nubain at least let me sleep and took away the pain. Finally I started to run a slight fever and my cervix was swelling,this meant c-section. I was totally on board! I have had back surgery so I was a littler worried the pushing wouldn't work so well any way but was constantly reassured it shouldn't matter,but at this point I didn't care! The anesthesiologist did come back and ask me if I wanted a spinal, I was very adamant up to this point that even if I had to have a section I wanted to watch! I know alot of people think that's gross but being in the medical field I wanted to see it all! But with the epidurals not working I didn't want to risk it so I told him no cause I was sure general anesthesia worked just fine! Blake was born at 4:14 am on 5/22/2010 he weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 21 inches long! Yes you read that right I was in stinking labor for 2 days!!!!! But my story of course cant end there because that would be too simple. The next morning they pulled my IV and drew a CBC(complete blood count). All was hunky dorey until my day nurse walked in with an IV pump? I was like" what are you doing with that I don't have an IV any more?" She says" Your getting one and a blood transfusion,you had a critical Hemoglobin." This is where I broke down. I had had enough! I cried. After the transfusion I felt much better, and the next day we went home!!

Alot of people say its worth it and I think Id have to agree. Although I think people who choose natural labor are a little crazy! I am very happy to have gone through my experiences,and makes my little man a little more special!

Update

So I thought I'd do a quick update on all our "stuff" going on as well!

First off Blake monster's birthday countdown is on! He will be 1 in 21 days! I cant believe it and of course cannot wait for his party! Almost all of our family will be traveling here to help us celebrate! Im doing a race theme as I think I have mentioned and I cant wait to post all about it and all the pictures from it when it happens. He started walking a few weeks ago and has been on the move ever since. Hes still probably the happiest kid in town and dosent know a stranger!

Weve been visiting the park recently cause he loves to go,the weather is getting nicer and frankly it wears the kid out and makes my life a little easier! I'l leave you with some adorable pics of him at the park!

Randy is doing well also, he is working at a recycling place, but we recently got an answer to prayer that his driving record is going to be looking quite a bit better here in the next couple of days and hopefully this will open the doors to other oppertunities! It was truly an answer to prayer that this happended. We are also still searching for a house but we have some wonderful people helping us and just continue to pray that God opens doors for us in this situation as well! Im waiting for word on accecptance to the surg tech program,but I do according to the director have a complete application so that is a relif! Thats pretty much all thats new with us here!

Until next week...

Long's

One word is enough to describe this wonderful place,delicious,enough said! If your a native to Indianapolis you have undoubtedly heard of this magical place! Well Randy,Blake and I headed there on Saturday. We stood in a line out the door for about a half an hour,but it was definitely worth the wait. We have had the regular cake donuts once or twice at church which of course my wonderful husband doesn't remember but there is nothing like a trip there yourself! We ordered one of everything I feel like and shared them all in the car on the way home! It was a wonderful Saturday morning outing for us and we had a great time!

Randy & Blake waiting in line.

So in keeping to my word here is my weekly post! We had an exciting weekend in Chicago with family! We went for my nephew Caleb's 2ND Birthday! I cant believe hes 2 already and I just remember that last year I was pregnant with Blake for his birthday! My sister Amanda is the craftiest person on the planet and the party was a total hit! Everything coordinates and looks amazing when she puts her touch on it! His theme was buses ,and the colors were turquoise and red! It was amazing and we had a great time, it did snow though which is crazy cause last year we were sitting outside enjoying the sun for his party! Ill end this section with a pic of my handsome little guy at the party!

Blake also started to walk last week! He is getting so big I cant stand it! I was sweeping and like all little boys who love the dirt ,he kept trying to get in my piles,so I finally took him to the back door stood him there and told him to watch the birds. Next thing I know he has walked right back over to the mud room,dropped to the floor and is at it again! I couldn't believe it! He loves it too , he waves his little hands ,I'm guessing somehow he thinks this helps with balance, and just takes off! I know I'm in for it now,and am looking forward to all the adventures ahead.

This month has been prayer and fasting month at our church. Randy and I have been really behaving ourselves and praying for God to work in our lives. We recently received a notice that our landlords want to move back in our house and unfortunately that means were out! At first all I did was cry, what are we going to do now is all that came to my mind. But I know the Lord doesn't give you more than you can handle so we have given the situation completely to Him. We are taking this as a possible sign that the Lord wants us somewhere else and are just praying that He will show us His will! So if you would please pray for this with us!

Blake's Birthday Planning is in full swing! My sister designed the invites and I cant wait to share them! But I want to send them out first so no one gets jealous that they saw them here first(all of my 3 followers!) But I am super excited for this, I am making the final purchases I need next week ,since we get 3 checks in April I get to splurge! We are having it at a park here in town ,and have I mentioned already how excited I am!!

Easter is also this Sunday and it is also our church anniversary Sunday! It should be a great day in the Lords house! Ive heard some controversy on the fact that Easter should be spent with family but I have to say for people like us I'm thrilled to be having a full day of events to keep us entertained because it makes me miss being with my family a little less plus I get to pretend I m part of one big happy family,my church family! I love Easter and have been strategically planning the boys Easter baskets for a while now, just a few more purchases and I should be finshed!

So I think that's all that's going on in my neck of the woods!

Until next week. . .