The Phone Call

So, Tues. the 19th is the day we were headed home. As we're on the plane, taxiing out to the runway, my mom calls. I could tell in her voice something was wrong. She informed me that my brother had crashed his motorcycle and was pretty banged up. He was in the hospital. That's bad enough - but then she continued. Two of my sisters were the first ones to the hospital to see him. One of my sisters passed out and hit the floor hard enough that she cracked her skull, and was bleeding. She was still in ICU. She had been since Saturday night when this all happened. My brother had been in ICU, but was in his own room now. Wow! What news to come home to, right? So, we did some quick deciding, and instead of going home, drove straight from the Tulsa airport to my in-laws, where our kids were. It was a loooooooong day!
Wed. morning, we got up early and headed to the KC hospital to visit the invalids. My sis was pretty out of it still. She did open her eyes and look at me, but was pretty tired, and mostly slept. The kids had made her a card, and I had bought one. I hung them up on her wall, and she did look at them, but I couldn't tell if she was actually able to read them or not. Mom was there with her, and had been most of the time. She would go back and forth to each kid's room, which thankfully, were pretty close to each other. When I saw my brother, he looked better than I expected. He was sitting up in bed, and had been out and about around his floor. Most of his injuries are fractured bones that aren't casted, or anything, so there's not much outside evidence of everything that was hurt. His back was really torn up, though, and he had other scratches and scrapes on his arms. He has to take it easy, though, and let everything heal. He can't put weight on one leg for 6 weeks, due to a fractured hip and he also has fractured ribs, which make using crutches painful. He was released on Thurs. the day after we visited. His bandages on his back have to be changed daily, and they want him to do rehab for his back when his hip is better. For now, he is staying with another sister who is trying to keep him from over-exerting. Good luck!

We went back later that night to visit again. My sis was more awake this time. She would talk to us, and try to take out IVs and disconnect sensors, etc. (which are actually all good signs). She would only eat grapes, so I had brought her some, and she really wanted her phone, which I also brought to her. She knew who all her visitors were, and we were all relieved to know that she had some memory, movement, coordination and speech. Each new thing she would do was a relief, because we really didn't know in what shape she'd be in once all the swelling went down.

As of now (Wed, 8/27), she has been moved to a rehab center. They will be working with her to try and get her back to normal. I think the main concern is short term memory. She's still on meds, so we're not sure how much the injury may have affected her behavior and personality. I'm just glad she's made such great improvements since I saw her a week ago. She likes to get up and walk around the hospital and is at least getting some excersize now.

Between the morning and evening visits, we took the kids out for a "fun day" in KC, which I'll post next. We headed home the next day, Thursday, and brought these two munchkins with us. They're my brother's kids. With my bro not able to walk or lift anything, he would have a hard time caring for them. (He has full custody). My mom was spending all her time at the hospital w/ my sis, and everyone else had work or school. (My sis that's in the hospital was also their child care) So, we took them for a while.