ryan is home :)

Ryan came home Thursday the 9th! This young man is a walking miracle. Praise God for his healing mercy.

Read the CarePages post from Dan:

Progressing Every Day
Posted Oct 11, 2008 11:32pm

Here’s a bit of family pride I’d like to share... Of course as parents we wanted to be with him every minute of his hospital stay. However, did you know his big sister Megan was there to support him every single day during both the hospital and rehab? His oldest sister Cara had to go back to Memphis to continue dental school but before she left, she purchased Ryan a card and a gift for each day she was gone! She then wrapped each of them up so he could open one each morning when he woke-up! What great kids we have!

Ryan was in the trauma unit for a week, the step-down unit 4 or 5 days and Vanderbilt Stallworth rehabilitation hospital for nearly a week. He is now back at home and is doing absolutely great!

Ryan had been asking to come home ever since he woke up in the hospital. Now that he is home, he’s resting very comfortably and getting better quality sleep than ever. That’s not much of a surprise though, because in the step down unit and even in the rehab center they regularly gave him pills, shots, withdrew blood, checked blood pressure, and applied salve to his many road burns and cuts. They did this all day and night and it’s hard to sleep at 3 AM when they are drawing blood from your arm. At home, he’s still getting waited on hand and foot but we mostly push food and drink rather than needles. Are you comfortable Ryan? Want some water? What do you want to eat? Can I tuck in your blankets?

Sherry and I are still taking turns watching him 24-7 to make sure he doesn’t injure himself somehow but we are getting more comfortable with his ability to manage on his own. He is now fully aware of the extent of his injuries and takes precautions to safeguard himself. Although we trust him more, we are working to accident proof the house and we still carefully watch him whenever he walks anywhere. This level of caution may seem a bit over the top but he’s still in danger from the surgery. For those of you that haven’t seen him, they removed a large section of his skull on the top / left side of his head. How big? If an average sized man puts the tips of his middle fingers together, then the tips of his thumbs to form an oval, that’s about the size of the open area in Ryan’s head. Not to mention the open wound in his throat from the tracheotomy. He’s amazing because he actually jokes about all this quite often.

Other than the remnants of all the terrible but life saving surgeries, he is physically O.K. He’s tired quite often and has very little stamina but that will dissolve soon enough. I have no doubt that once the skull is put back and heals, he will push himself to exceed his pre-accident physical condition. His mental condition is what I most consider a miracle. From what every doctor, nurse and therapist who has seen him said, with the extent of the brain trauma he suffered he should not have rebounded like he did. He remembers everything prior to the day of the accident. On his second day of speech rehabilitation therapy, the therapist told Sherry she was having difficulty finding any tests hard enough to challenge him. She said she had given Ryan a page of math questions where Ryan was calculating percentages in his head faster than the therapist could with a calculator!

Ryan’s brain swelling has also decreased dramatically in the last week. You ask; Dan, how do you know that? You aren’t a doctor! Well, as Forrest Gump once said “I might not be a smart man but” I can actually SEE the swelling going down! When Ryan was in the hospital, the area of skull they removed was almost “inflated” due to brain swelling. Right now, the same area is actually concave and has sunken well over an inch, maybe two. While kind of gross to consider but this is great news because that’s exactly what the doctors want to see before putting the skull back.

Please pray for Ryan’s continued healing and for the remainder of his brain swelling to go away. Our next goal is outpatient therapy and to meet with the surgeon regarding the possibility of putting the skull back.

God bless you,
Dan