And the light at the end gets further away...

Everything for Craig has been going great. Until today that is...

Yesterday he graduated from Physical Therapy, last week the Neurosurgeon said he was impressed and thought he was doing great and over all he is almost 100% himself.

Today Craig talked to the FAA. They said two years, May 18, 2012, before he can apply to fly. It just seemed to be going so well that this was a devastating blow to us. Craig is pretty sad. He really loves flying. He can't fly any airplane unless it's a remote control one during this time period. Yesterday the light at the end of the tunnel seemed so close. Today it got further away.

Why two years you ask? Well, they found his injury to be moderate, not mild or severe, according to their guidelines. This is the predetermined amount of time he has to wait. Everything is based off of the initial injury, not how fast he has recovered. We still have the right to appeal the decision. We are not sure if that will make a difference or not though. The hard part is that is when he can apply to fly again. Not when he can start flying again.

Both of us are still processing what this will mean for our family. We have a lot of decisions ahead of us but for right now we are just trying to absorb it all. SkyWest is pretty good about these types of situations and we are hoping his job will still be there for him at the end of the two years.

I think we were both looking forward to a normal life again. It's hard to believe one split second can change your life so much. I think this is a good wake up call for all of us to always be paying attention to what we are doing and to listen when we are counseled to get out of debt, save six months for an emergency like this and to be prepared to face the challenges that come our way.

The Joy of Testing...

Today Craig got to meet with the Neuropsychologist. We weren't supposed to see him till August 2nd, but he had a cancellation and his nurse called to see if we would come in today. We got there at 8:45 am and didn't leave until 3:00 pm. Poor Craig, he had to take test after test after test. After the brief 30 min part I had I got to entertain myself at the mall... poor Shannon :)

Craig's testing was done at 1 pm and at that time he got an hour lunch break. We ate lunch at the hospital cafeteria. Craig was amazed at how well I knew my way around such a big hospital. I reminded him that while he was on his luxurious vacation in Rehab I had the joy of wandering the halls.

The test results were ok. He is not 100% yet. The Neuropsychologist said he tested like a normal 36 year old male. There was just a few areas that need improvement. He has to go back in 6 weeks for retesting. The Neuropsychologist said Craig's brain just need more healing time and he expects him to be close to 100%.

It has only been two months which in brain healing time is not much!

Craig had a hard time with this news. Hopefully the fact that he gets to go back to work tomorrow, only on the ground, will help to cheer him up. Sitting around doing nothing but healing gets old fast!

Craig also gets to see the Hand Surgeon tomorrow. He is hoping to get the brace off so he can start doing more.

HE CAN DRIVE!!!!!

I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog but life has been pretty boring. Doctor's appointments, physical therapy, phone calls and paperwork. Nothing much to blog about until today.

Today Craig saw the neurosurgeon. He was very impressed with the progress Craig has made over the last seven weeks. He checked all of Craig's reflexes and cleared him to drive!!! He also does not have to have someone with him 24/7 anymore. I am so excited not to be his chauffeur/babysitter anymore!!! Not that I don't like spending time with my husband but not having to drive him to all his PT appointments will free up a good chunk of time. Now to figure out what to do with me time again. :)

The neurosurgeon also cleared Craig to do work as long as it is on the ground. He prefers that he not fly for at least six months after the accident. Craig is ok with that. He has been working in the training department at SkyWest before the accident so hopefully he can do some work for them. He has been VERY bored here at home not being able to do much. Working again will help to lift his spirits.

He also said that Craig should make a full recovery with out any long term effects. There may be some changes to his personality , which we have already noticed, but that could be chalked up to having a near death experience. None of the changes are major. He is just very thankful to be alive and to have wonderful people who care about us. We think part of it is boredom. When your used to being extremely active and now all you can do is sit around it is hard to deal with.

Last week Craig got his cast off. He had to go that same day and have a custom brace made for his thumb. He had his first Hand PT appointment today. He has great movement in his hand. The therapist said that they will mostly just need to work on getting his hand strength back. We have to wait until we see the hand surgeon in two weeks before he can start on strength exercises. When they took the castoff the doctor made him promise to be very careful or he was going to have to recast it. Craig would much rather have the brace!

Enduring to the End

Today I took Craig to the fire station to meet the first responders on the scene. We walked in and I told them my husband had been in an accident last month and wanted to meet them. I didn't even have to tell them which accident, they all knew. It was a pretty cool meeting. The first two on the scene looked like they were going to cry when they saw how well he was doing. They really didn't think there would be this good of an outcome. After accidents like this they very rarely get visitors who are in as good of shape as Craig.

They went into detail about what they saw and experienced when they were on the scene. They even gave Craig a great description of what the car looked like after he hit it. (Pretty gruesome) We had a lot of our questions answered about exactly how he hit the car and where he landed. Craig had fun showing off the x-rays of his thumb.

One of the firefighters has been doing this for 16 years. He said Craig's accident is the first one that actually made him go out and buy a helmet for his motorcycle. He has seen plenty of motorcycle accidents where the helmet made no difference. But seeing how Craig's helmet protected him in this instance made him a believer.

Craig volunteered to speak about bike safety for them anytime they want him to. They said they were planning on taking him up on that. We kept his helmet. That and pictures of his bike and the car will make great visual aids.

We also spent the day going from place to place getting copies of Craig's medical records. Yesterday we received the list of all documents (which is long) we will have to submit to the FAA. They will review the documents and send us a letter stating the length of time before Craig is considered medically cleared to fly again. They said this period can be anywhere from six months to five years. The length all depends on the severity of his injuries. There are many factors which they go by so it is hard for us to predict what they will be telling Craig. We are hoping for closer to the six months than the five years!!!

Knowing it could possibly be a long time before Craig can fly again has been hard, but we know we just need to Endure to the End. We have been taken care of so wonderfully up to this point that we just need to have faith that it will all work out in the end!

The power of prayer (and fasting)

Today has been the best day we have had yet!!! We are convinced the power of prayer and the ward fast, which was held the Sunday after Craig's accident, have gotten us this far.

(The picture is of our celebration - we took the kids to Cold Stone for ice cream)

Speech - Craig's speech therapist could not find anything wrong with him no matter how many rocks she looked under. After four visits she discharged Craig. She has been doing this for over 20 years and she told us she has seen full recoveries but never this fast! She kept looking at me and saying, "You know how luck you are, right?"

OT - Craig passed all the OT testing including the two drivers test. She too discharged him after only four visits. She also said, "You know how luck you are, right?" She then followed that up with a couple of horror stories so I really understood how lucky we are.

Both OT and Speech said they see no reason Craig would not be able to fly again. We still have to meet with a Neuropsycholigst for testing before he can be cleared. Our appointment isn't until August 2nd. They like to wait at least two months after the accident before they do the testing. That's ok. He still has three broken bones that need to heal! (And lots of PT to help get back range of motion.)

That being said we are still aware there can be set backs. Both therapist want Craig to go "back to life as normal". I am supposed to watch closely for any changes or behaviors that are not quite right. Neither thought there would be any but just in case. You never know with a head injury.

I of course fully know just how lucky we are. I got a good look at some of the other patients in Neuro Rehab and I TRULY know how lucky we are. I have also felt everyone's prayers helping us along our way! We are both grateful for a Father in Heaven who loves us and watches out for us. This truly has been a miracle.

A week makes all the difference...

Today I took Craig to his OT and Speech appointments. They were both amazed at the progress he has made in the past week.

The speech therapist gave him a number of test. He passed all of them without any problems. She said he is doing well with his attention (with and without background noises), deductive reasoning and that his speed is good. Speed seems to be the one area he can work on. She figures he is just fine and that having to write with his left hand is what is slowing him down. She pointed out that his chattiness has subsided to an almost normal level. She also sent him home with homework. A sequencing worksheet and sudoku. The therapist also said she wishes the neuropsychologist could meet with him before August 2. She figures he will have no problems passing those test.

OT gave him a visual/perceptual test and a reaction test. His reaction time had to be at or under .5 seconds. He was right at the .5 seconds. He also passed the driving assessment test. Too bad he has all those broken bones that are keeping him from actually driving. The OT guy said that Craig was definitely a different man from last week and that he was running out of things to do with him so he might be done with OT early. He also gave Craig homework after I asked him to. He has been so bored at home that I need something to keep him busy.

They are not starting any of his PT until we see the Ortho Specialist and the Hand Specialist on June 29th.

Craig finally agreed to try taking some sleeping pills for a few nights to help him get his sleeping schedule back to normal. He has not been sleeping well at night so he has been taking naps during the day because he is so wiped out and then he can't sleep well at night again and so on and so on. He slept all night last night and has not had a nap since he got up for the day. I figure a couple of days like this and things will get back to normal for him. (And I can actually get some sleep too!)

Like I mentioned earlier Craig's chattiness has gotten much better. He also has not been as overwhelmingly loving and thankful. He is still kind, loving and grateful though just not in such an overwhelming (almost creepy) way. I know a few of you will be grateful for that. Thank you to all his friends and family who put up with him through that phrase. Although I think Jesse might be sad that he won't get to buy Craig a pink bike. :)

I have gotten a few phone calls about Craig's leave status. At this time he has hit the maximum amount of leave that SkyWest will allow to be donated him. If Craig cannot come back to work at the end of three months they may allow for more leave to be donated although I am not 100% sure about that. I just want everyone to know how grateful we are for the leave which was donated. This has been a very stressful time in our lives and having to not worry about no pay checks for the next few months is such a relief!!! We will be forever in your debt.

New Updates

Sorry for the lack of post lately. My computer was at the computer store being fixed.

Things have been going ok since Craig came home. He talks nonstop and we all know that is not normal. He also likes to go up to perfect strangers and start up conversations. He said he just knows they want him to go and talk to them. He has a hard time sleeping. Nighttime seems to be the worst time of day for him. He loves to sleep on his left side and that's the side he got hit on so every time he rolls over in bed he is in pain. He has been having nightmares and he has a hard time riding in a car. He keeps thinking someone is going to hit us. I wonder why!?!

We started his many doctor appointments. Yesterday we spent six hours on doctor's appointments today it was two. He has to have three different types of therapy, OT, PT and speech, twice a week. That is all in addition to the regular doctors appointments. This summer is going to fly by! :( (Since summertime is my favorite time of year I don't want it to fly by!)

Craig saw the had surgeon yesterday. He took off his big bulky cast, took out the stitches and recasted his hand. The doctor said he has nine pieces of titanium in his thumb. One metal plate, 4 regular screws and 4 small screws. The doctor decided to put a cast on his hand instead of a brace so that it has more time to heal right. He said he was working with bone crumbs and there isn't much left to work with if it doesn't heal right. I tried to talk him into a fun color cast. He chose the conservative blue in case he had to go into work before he got it taken off. I tried to remind him he won't be working for a while but he still didn't want a wild cast just in case they wanted him to come in.

The OT and Speech therapist he has met with so far have been impressed by how well he is doing. His long term and short term memory testing has been just fine.

Speech said they won't need to work on his speaking ability just his speed of processing and his insight into situations. She said the head injury is what is making him talk A LOT. She would ask a simple question and he would give a paragraph for an answer. All of that is normal for a head injury and should go away with time. (keep your fingers crossed)

Ot is also going to work on his processing skills just in different ways. He had to do the test where they show you a tray of items for 90 seconds and then they cover it back up and you have to tell them what is on the tray. Right after he got 13, fifteen min later he got 19 and 24 hours later he got all 20. I couldn't even remember all 20! They were all impressed.