Catch up on Part 1
Catch up on Part 2
Catch up on Part 3
So, the brilliant x ray techs and their supervisor came back to my room with the portable x-ray machine. X rays were taken, without the techs being allowed to kill me. It was decided that the halo was placed correctly and that the traction was at an appropriate weight. I was happy. I had pain meds...that was all I needed to be happy.
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I spent the first day in traction. I was told that this could be a week long process and not to count on it working. That first night, I remember thinking about the accident. When I thought about it, I realized that I should have died. Really. My calmness and rationalism on the scene aside, I should not have survived that accident. I realized that I needed to change my life. I needed to move on from the first life changing event that I was still stuck trying to deal with.
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So I was lying in bed. I was thinking of all the things I wanted to do with my life. I realized that I had a future ahead of me. But then I came back to reality. It might be a quadriplegic future. I started scaring myself with what-if questions. What if I had to have surgery and something goes wrong and I end up a quadriplegic and a burden to my family? What if I went through the accident only to die in surgery? I decided that there was only one thing to do. I said a prayer and put it all in God's hands.
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I was in traction for the first full day. The following morning, more x-rays were done...with a portable x-ray machine, even! The doctor came in with an odd look on his face. "The traction did it. It pulled all of the bone fragments back into place. The bone fragments are exactly where they need to be, but I want to make sure with another CT scan. And so they did.
**********They took me out of traction after my first full day in the hospital. The next day I was sitting up. I got to eat real food. I got to dangle my legs off the side of the bed. I asked them when I could go home. They sent me a physical therapist that day. My mom and I described the layout of the house, that there were 12 stairs up to my room and the bathroom was downstairs. And so we began working.
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It took me a while to figure stuff out. Those halo's are heavy and awkward. There are 4 pointed screws in your skull connected to 4 iron rods that connect to the vest. I couldn't look down to see where I was walking. I couldn't lie down. I couldn't see where the steps were. I couldn't even bathe myself!**********
I thank God for my mom. She helped me figure things out. Day 2 I was sitting up. Day 3 I was walking and figuring out what I needed at home to help me. Day 3 I was walking up and down stairs. It was odd, not being able to watch where I was going. Day 4 was one more set of xrays and I went home!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Home.......this chapter is titled Boredom, Drugs, and Humility
I made it home and up to my room with no problem. Mom had gotten tons of pillows and my daybed was pushed into the corner. I could not sleep lying down. There were 2 bars going from my halo down my neck to the back of the brace. If I laid down, my head would not touch the pillow...I wouldn't stand it. So I slept in the corner of my bed against the wall, with tons of pillows around me. I had a tv in my room now and a brand new Sega Genesis (yes, it was a long time ago!) I had my pain medication and muscle relaxers and took them faithfully. I relaxed and watched tv and played video games and read, but was quickly bored. I spent less and less time in my room as the days went on. I hung out with mom and dad. We talked. Dad and I played Yahtzee. I learned a very valuable lesson at this point in my life. It was called humility. At 23 years of age, my mommy had to give me a bath. I was not able to help much, either. God bless the mothers out there!!! I adore my mom and am grateful for everything she has done for me!
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I had the halo for about 6 months. Then I had a soft collar that I wore off and on for a very long time. The halo atrophied my neck muscles. I had more neck pain when the halo was taken off than I did when I first came home. The weight of my head on my neck was terribly painful. It took a lot of time to rebuild my neck muscles.
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Now?? I'm fine. I have one side effect from the accident: I have migraines. I take meds for them and it works well enough. Migraines are certainly better than the other possibilities I was facing!!
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