Just as we were finishing our breakfast and getting ready to head home from Vegas we got a phone call about BJ's dad. He was outside pruning his fruit trees and fell off his ladder. He landed on the curb of the sidewalk next to his yard. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He broke his T5 vertebrae (its just between the shoulder blades and behind the heart) in two spots. He broke 6 ribs in 10 spots, and had a partially collapsed lung. He has been in the ICU for the last 9 days and was just moved out of the ICU today.
Last Tuesday, he had surgery on his spine. Normally for that surgery the surgeon would go in from the front and the back. But due to the location of the break on the spine (behind the heart) they had to go in through his side. The side of all the broken ribs actually. The broken ribs are what Frank is suffering pain wise from the most. So I can only imagine what it must feel like after surgery. They had to cut up his muscle and pull it apart and the ribs out of the way so that the spinal surgeon could get to the spine. Then they removed the T5 vertebrae completely and put in a “cage” in its place. … OUCH!
BJ sat at the hospital with his mom all of Tuesday and kept her company during the surgery and then kept the rest of us updated via text. When Frank was out of surgery and starting to wake up, BJ said he was in so much pain he was moaning and trying to talk but couldn't very well. He could hardly breath because it hurt his ribs so much to fill his lungs with oxygen. The nurses were hustling around to get him situated and hooked up to all of his I.V.'s BJ said that they just seemed like they didn't know what they were doing tough. He was so frustrated with them and to see his dad suffering in so much pain. At one point all of the nurses stepped out of the room and BJ's mom told him to quickly give him a blessing. He did and during the blessing Frank seemed to calm down some and breathe just a little better.
Just after BJ administer to his dad, he said a prayer to himself asking Heavenly Father that if it were possible to share with his dad whatever strength and lung strength that the Lord was going to give to BJ that he could give it to his dad and BJ would take whatever was left. BJ came home and told me this and I at first found it to be a strange request but then thought it was sweet and didn't think much of it after that. Well, the next morning BJ woke up incredibly sick! I still didn't think much of anything until we got word that BJ's dad was doing well and his oxygen levels were better than they have been since being in the hospital. My eyes filled with tears when BJ told me this and we hugged. We knew that Heavenly Father had heard our prayers and a little miracle had taken place.
Frank has a LONG road to recovery ahead of him. He will have to wear a brace that looks like a turtle shell for three months. And he is not allowed to bend, twist, or lift for a year! BJ and his siblings have been frantically working at their parents house to put in a shower for them. In all of BJ's growing up that family of six children shared 1 bathroom and there was no shower. EVER! Until now. BJ says as soon as he is done putting in the shower he is going to strip down naked and be the first to shower in that house. It's been a long time coming.
