OMS Follow-up, Monday, June 29

Happy news, Jake had his follow-up at the Loma Linda Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Center and had the splints removed from his nose. Below is a picture, immediately post follow-up.

The process of removing the splints was quick and apparently painless, although I am assured that it felt "weird." That's not surprising, because it looked pretty weird. Those who've prepared calamari from scratch will have some perspective on this. Imagine you have a fresh squid and are preparing to remove the spine or "quill." Now, imagine that you are pulling the quill out of someone's nose with a hemostat. That's pretty much it. I was expecting some little tubes and what came out was as long as Denise's index finger, as evidenced by the following photo.
OK, that was pretty gross, but nothing like the rest of what came out, so we'll just drop that subject for now.

The other good news was that the doctor told Jake he no longer needs to elevate his head while sleeping. He's been pretty uncomfortable in bed and always looks like a contortionist by the morning, so I'm sure he'll welcome the option to sleep flat on his back.

We celebrated with lunch at Chili's. Well, Denise, Nick and I celebrated; Jake was not overly thrilled with the liquid options on the menu. He settled for a lemonade and a chocolate malt, which I thought was kind of a strange combination, but whatever works I guess.

Jacob is becoming increasing unhappy about the liquid diet. Not surprising, but unfortunate since he's only a week and a half in to a 6 week stretch.

He has been able to supplement his diet with some somewhat solid food (or at least liquids with a few incorporated solids). He gets to remove his elastics to brush his teeth, so he eats some chunky soup or whatever while the bands are off. Last night he had some red beans and rice (from a box, not my from scratch recipe) - I removed the casing from an Andouille sausage, minced it up in the food processor and added it to the pot to give him a little more protein. He seemed to enjoy that.

Tonight we are trying chili burgers. I thinned out a little canned chili with some beef stock and tomate juice, then pureed it with the stick blender. Grilled and chopped the burger in the food processor and also minced up a half a bun. So, the theory goes that he can take a spoon full of burger and bun, then wash it down with a spoonful of chili. I'm not optimistic.

(Update: The Chili Burgers were a success!?! At least he ate quite a bit and was generally please with the chili burger taste. He insisted that we all try some and it did, in fact, taste like a chili burger, albeit like a chili burger that had been pre-chewed by someone else.)

So, finally, here's a photo of Jake at home this evening, looking more than ever like himself, most likely because of his expression of annoyance at the photographer. He's not very tolerant of the Papa-razzi. (Sorry about that.)

Very Brief Update, Friday June 26

OK, I'm going to try to keep this short.

First of all, my niece ("I" before "E", except after "C"; did you know that the linguistic powers that be are trying to do away with teaching that?) Sara has implored me to fix the links on the photos so that they can be viewed in hi-res. Apparently there is some anomaly that when I move pictures within a post it breaks the associated link. I am working on fixing the previous photos. If you go back to the latest pictures of Jake they can be viewed in hi-res.



Last night I finally agreed to play Boggle and put Jake in his place. I got off to a slow start, but down by about a dozen points I came back on the final round and...lost. I scored 22 points on the final round, which I thought was kind of a coup. Unfortunately Jake also scored 22 points and logged his highest score ever.



Today his Aunt Terry arrived and did, in fact, put him in his Boggle place. She is something of a ringer.



Aside from beating the daylights out of Jacob (and Nick) Terry also provided some very helpful information regarding any issues that might arise with deferred registration at Humboldt State University, should that become necessary.



More on all that later. For now I just wanted to make sure the Sara is happy.

Thursday Follow-Up

One whole week gone since the surgery!

Today Aunt Jackie came up from San Diego and kept an eye on Jacob. She had a somewhat short day, because Jake had his one-week follow up with the surgeons. She was here long enough to lose badly, along with Nick, to Jake playing Boggle. Another step in Jake's word game domination. Yesterday Aunt Kathy was the Boggle-fodder. (I am mostly abstaining from play so as not to add a bruised ego to his injuries.)

After the slaughter, Nick and Jake took off and met up with their mother for the drive up to Loma Linda. I met them at the surgeon's office and we all piled into an examination room to see his checkup.

So, the doc removed his elastics and checked him out. With the bands out he had an opportunity to brush his teeth. I can't imagine how good that must have felt after two weeks and change. Apparently he is to keep the bands on 24/7 except to remove them to brush his teeth. I'm wondering if he can sneak down a spoonful of real food while they're off? He is definitely not supposed to chew, that much is certain.

The doctor removed the last of the sutures and staples from Jake's forehead. He also checked out his ears. Jake had been complaining of some pain in his right ear. Apparently the ear drum is fine, but there's a small laceration inside his ear canal. The doctor speculated that his jaw bone snapping back on impact may have actually torn the skin in his ear. (Nick thought that was so "Bitchin'!" I mean, who else do you know who can say they've torn the skin in their ear with their jaw.)

More good news, he has another followup on Monday at which they will remove all the splints from his nose. Then another appointment on Monday the 6th with the MD who did the surgery. I think at that point they may make a decision about whether he needs additional surgery on the orbit of his left eye.

During the visit they took a panoramic x-ray of Jake's mouth. With all the microplates, bolts and bailing wire it looked a little bit like something out of X-Men, once again prompting admiration from Nick. I hope I can get a copy to add to the family photo album.

(Our neighbor Susan from across the street just delivered dinner. While I was seeing her out I noticed that our friend Laura had dropped off some Muscle Milk for Jake. I cannot believe the incredible support we've gotten from everyone.)

So all good news from the MDs today. On the way home we stopped at a Wienerschnitzel. Jake celebrated with a vanilla shake, Nick with the #7 (2 corn dogs, fries and a Sierra Mist) and iced tea for me.

Jake is pretty wasted after a busy day, so he's catching up on his sleep. Quick before I go, a couple new pictures compliments of Aunt Jean. First on our deck...

And one in the vegetable garden, which is totally out of control.


More later.

Tuesday Night, June 23

Quick update - Denise convinced me that I need to taper off the blogging slowly; don't want people to have to quit cold turkey.

So far so good at home. My sister Jean came over from Newport to spend Monday and Tuesday with Jake while Denise and I try to get back into the swing of things at work.

Jean was a huge help, monitoring, medicating and feeding the patient. She also did the laundry, gardening and miscellaneous other tasks around the house. She did not have to cook dinner for us though, thanks to a gift of a home-made spaghetti dinner from my co-worker Linda and her husband Chris. It was fabulous, complete with Caesar salad and a bottle of Zinfandel (Jean and Denise were not much help with the Zinfandel; I pretty much had to throw myself on that grenade.) Jake, unfortunately nixed the idea of pureed pasta sauce and went with a vanilla shake instead.

One very nice surprise was that when I arrived home on Monday, Jake and Jean were busy playing Boggle. The nice surprise being that he was not wearing his eye patch. I figure his double vision must be clearing up if he is able to focus on the lettered cubes in this word game. His cognition doesn't seem to be impaired at all because he's as competitive as ever. In fact, Jean reported that he "beat the pants off her" (hopefully not literally) when they played today.

In addition to the Boggling, the two had an outing to Albertsons today, primarily so that Jake could cash in his change collection at the CoinStar. (At no charge, because he cashed in for an Amazon gift certificate.) They also took a trip through the soup aisle so that Jake could pick out some new liquid meals to try. Apparently he did pretty well with some canned soup, so he's starting to get a decent amount of calories.

Unfortunately for Jean, her only reward for all her hard work was a viewing of Sean of the Dead, from our extensive collection of classic motion pictures.

Tonight Jean had to head home, so we have to fend for ourselves for the evening. I had a successful attempt at feeding Jake something that he liked; a Pumpkin Pie Shake. He finished that, which puts him at about 1500 calories for the day. He's got quite a few left to go to get to the target of 2000 to 2500, but this has probably been his best day so far. He can't taste stuff really well, which I attribute to the fact that he can't breathe through his nose, so he's not getting any of the olfactory sensations.

Anyway, his Aunt Kathy will be here tomorrow, so Jake will be breaking in a new care giver. Then on Thursday Jake has his first follow-up visit with the surgeon. So, hopefully we'll have more good news to report Thursday night.

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! It turned out to be a pretty good Father's Day, since Jacob was able to be home for it.

We are slowly getting a handle on the whole process of caring for Jake without professional medical care. Sleeping arrangements are a little tricky. He's not supposed to sleep flat on his back; the doctor wants him to keep about a 30 degree angle to help with any drainage from the surgery. Last night he tried sleeping in his bed with a bunch of pillows piled up to support his back. Not a rousing success, but he seemed to be sleeping fine when I went in this morning.

Tonight we'll try something different. I bought some sheets of 1-inch foam and I've cut and layered them into a big foam wedge. I think it should be fairly comfortable based on my quick testing.

He had more visitors today. Giovana, her brother Gus and Mom Gina all came over for a bit. Bonus for us, Gina brought some barbacoa with all the fixings. Can't wait for dinner! I'm going to try to puree some of the meat and juices for Jake so that he can at least get a taste.

So far Jake is not eating a whole lot, so we have to keep working on that. He's had some smoothies, protein shakes and Gatorade, but I think he needs to get a few more calories.

We took an outing to The Yard House this afternoon for lunch with our friends Mike, Jane and Michael Griffin. Jake finished most of a rootbeer freeze for his lunch. (I had the Seared Ahi Caesar Salad. ) Not much of a dining experience for Jake, but it was good to get him out of the house and interacting with some friends.

Jacob took a little rest when we got home, as seen below, using a stuffed bear from Grandma as a headrest. Leo has been keeping a close eye (OK, nose) on Jake.


He had some more visitors this afternoon; JD Voechting and his Mom and Dad, Bev and Gary. They brought Jake a nice gift...

That's a plant potted in a bicycle helmet. Note the skull and crossbones on the helmet.

So, starting tomorrow Denise and I have to get back to work. Denise has a very full schedule. I am hoping to play things a little by ear. I have some conference calls and what not that I can take from home, so I can be a little flexible. Fortunately, my sisters have worked out a schedule to help out with Jake for the next week. Jean is coming over tomorrow morning and staying through Tuesday. Kathy will be here on Wednesday, Jackie on Thursday and Terry on Friday. I'll be around in the morning to check them out on the medications, blenderized meals, etc. I think by next week he will probably want to start taking care of himself, but we'll see how it goes.

Going forward I think the frequency of blog updates will taper off a bit. I'll be updating the blog with news as we get it. The next major thing will be his followup appointments with the surgeon, psychologist and maybe orthopedist, sometime later this week.

Until then, thanks to everyone for all the support that we've received. I don't know how we would have handled this without it.

Motherhood and the Middle of the Night

Eighteen-year-olds don't often remind us of the cuddly infants we nurtured all those many years ago. And so it should be.They have new endearing qualities such as language and independence. But last night was one of those nights that just had so many similarities: sleeping near-by, listening for their breathing, counting the hours in a row they sleep, monitoring intake and out-put. I even behaved like the mom whose baby is starting to sleep through the night by lying awake from 4 to 5 am waiting for him to wake up. Overall, it was a good night. He was only up three times from midnight to 6 am. Then he was uncomfortabble in that chair and we moved to the other room. Our fatigue and the "June Gloom" resulted in us sleeping until 8:00 or later. Ahhhhh. At 5 am during a med dosing, Jake complained that the birds outside were singing too loud. OMG! After constant beeping and alarms and hissing and suctioning and lights and talking and snoring at the hospital, he's complaining about the birds! I close the window and went back to sleep... Home Sweet Home
MomDenise

Saturday AM

Made it home by about 11:00PM and more or less settled in by midnight. Denise set Jake up in the family room, Jake in Lazy Boy and Denise on the couch, so that she would be available when/if he needed anything.


I toasted Jake's homecoming with a short Glenfiddich (compliments of my friends and coworkers at Toro) and crashed in bed about 12:02. I slept absolutely uninterrupted for eight straight hours (haven't done that in months) and woke up, still exhausted, to the sounds of Leo crying to get in to the house.

I went out to check on the family and found that they had migrated into the living room during the night. Apparently Jake did not find the Lazy Boy to his liking so he had moved onto a big easy chair and ottoman. Will have to work out some way for him to recline in his own bed.

Took a quick swing through the garden. It's amazing how you can leave a vegetable garden for 3 days and come back to pattipan squash the size of hubcabs and baseball bat zucchinis.

Blended Jake some breakfast of milk, frozen banana, vanilla ice cream and chocolate protein powder. He chased that with some Gatorade. For now I'm tracking his intake on a whiteboard to make sure he's getting a decent amount of calories and nutrients, but I have some software that will make the tracking a little easier. Just need to install it on a PC by the kitchen so it will be a little more convenient.

Medications will be interesting. Since everything needs to be in liquid form we ended up having 2 grocery bags full of bottles, instead of a few pill bottles. The pharmacist pointed out that I had great medical insurance to cover one medication in particular, "This one is normally about $2300." My co-pay for the whole batch was $71 and change.

All the medications come with little stoppers that allow the liquids to be drawn out into a dosing syringe. The gradations on the syringe allow accurate measurements. Once we have the liquid drawn we attach a short piece of tubing. Jake slides the tube back in by his cheek so he doesn't shoot the stuff straight down his throat. We have to keep a water chaser on hand because the taste apparently leaves something to be desired.

He has 2 different pain meds (one narcotic, the other not). Each calls for one dose every 6 hours, so he can overlap, taking one or the other every 3 hours so that he can control spikes in pain a little better. He also has an antibiotic (every 6 hours), eye drops (every 2 hours) and nausea medication to take as needed. And, because he can't brush his teeth, he has a prescription mouthwash that he has to use 2 times daily.

For now, Jake is sitting down playing his Ghostbusters X-box game. (He was disappointed that he could not create an avatar with an eyepatch; had to settle for a monocle.) He seems to be enjoying it, can hardly get a word out of him.

The next big thing on the agenda will probably be a shower.

Ready To Bolt

Well, the surgeon is working toward discharge. He came in and replaced the rubber bands in Jake's mouth and removed the staples in his head. He has to drink more and only take oral pain meds. We are apprehensive and relieved and happy and scared and.... Most likely that we'll be home later tonight. IV coming out. Whoo Hooo. Thanks to Alma who got some liquid food supplies for us. Wish us luck!
MomDenise

Message from Jake

Thanks everyone for following up on my blog. I haven't read anything yet but I'll get around to it when I'm home, hopefully tonight.

Nightmare

Man, all this sedation is messing with Jake. He was sleeping peacefully when he suddenly threw off his ice packs, sheets etc., bolted upright, thrashing about in a total panic. I couldn't make out exactly what it was about, but something about a cliff and a creek or river. Sounded like he dreamed he was being forced under the water. Scared the hell out of him and me both.

So, I'm streaming "Best in Show" to my laptop at his bedside. He can't watch, but he can listen. I think that movie will be pretty safe. Not much to be scared of there.

More Info

OK, the TV next door is blaring some Spanish-language Jerry Springer knockoff and is going to get really old, really fast. I'm going to have to bring the surround system from home and establish audio supremacy.

In answer to any earlier question, Jake's jaws are not wired shut. They installed some sort of surgical braces with attached rubber bands. I think they are kind of like regular dental braces on steroids. I haven't really gotten a good look yet, cause it's not like he wants me poking around in his mouth. I guess it will be more comfortable than having his jaws wired, since he will be able to open his mouth a little, but he will still be on a liquid diet for 6 weeks. I don't think it will have to be stuff pureed beyond recognition, because he won't have to strain stuff through his teeth.

On to another question regarding visitors; Jake is still really wiped out from surgery, so for now he just wants to sleep. His parents are accepting visitors, in case anyone cares.

Lastly, on the question of when we will be home, it's starting to look like it will not be happening today, unless it is very late. For now, Jake is just sleeping and keeping ice packs on his face. He was able to take an oral pain medication earlier, but I think he needs to work on his fluid intake, as well as his physical therapy, before he will be ready to be discharged.

Surgery Day plus One

Back in the hospital after a fairly decadent 5 hours or so of sleep. Denise came in early last night; I wasn't expecting her until 2:00AM and she showed up around midnight, so I got a bonus 2 hours.

Denise mentioned when she arrived that it felt like we had cashed in our frequent flier miles with the upgrade from Bed 2 to 3. Might be an interesting marketing campaign for a hospital.


Jake had a little bit of a rough night, lots of post surgery discomfort and pain. He's starting to get a little testy and short with people, or at least with his parents. It's trying my patience a little, but of course I get a periodic break while he's stuck here 24/7, so I will continue to cut him some slack.


And I got peed on for the first time since he was about two. He can hardly get his eyes open, so he was sitting on the side of his hospital bed, eyes closed, using the urinal when I, like the moron I am said, "Hold it up a little higher, you're going to miss." I should have been a little more explicit and said, "Hold the URINAL a little higher." Oh, well what's a little urine among family. (Jake will most likely kill me for recounting this little tale.)

Photo update, Jake's mouth looks much better...



And, he continues to look more like himself...

One surgical note correction; Denise met with the surgeon who said that he did not repair the fractured skull. Somehow Denise or I got confused on that one. I wondered about that last night, because his forehead is still somewhat disfigured. That fracture will have to be evaluated later to see if any further surgery is required. That error in reporting was not my only mistake yesterday; the first was feeding Denise CornNuts. I should leave it at that, because SHE will definitely kill me if I recount the rest of "The CornNut Incident."

The surgeon was apparently very pleased with the outcome and the progress so far. Jake will have to follow up with the surgeons on about a weekly basis for the next several weeks. I think they will remove his staples in about a week and the splints from his nose in about 3 weeks.

He's got a lot of additional treatments and rehab in front of him, but we are definitely over the hump.

Jackpot!

As if getting our son through surgery isn't cause enough for celebration, tonight the nurses moved Jake into the coveted "BED 3!" Those of Jake's family and friends who've been here know just how fantastic that is; a window with an actual VIEW, another patient on only ONE side, and actual FLOOR SPACE!

For the last 7 nights we've had the hospital equivalent of tent camping, with the curtains from the adjacent beds encroaching on all sides. It was almost impossible to move without becoming entangled in the curtains. I can actually stretch out in a chair without blocking the nurses access to the patient.

What's more, there are 6, count 'em, 6 open AC outlets. No more crawling through the thicket of IVs, vacuum lines, electrical cords, phone lines, call buttons and TV remote controls to get to the lone AC outlet by BED 2.

Best of all, now that they've moved him into more comfortable quarters he's almost guaranteed to be discharged tomorrow.

Back in his Room

First photo post op. The picture doesn't do much for him, but he looks much more like himself. Right now we are down in CT for a post-operative scan. Should be back up his room soon.

Denise is off to the motel to get some sleep.

He was very shook up when we got up to his room. "Coming out of anesthesia is never a picnic," per my sister Jean who's here keeping an eye on us.

I think between all the meds and anxiety over the surgery he was about to melt down. Just wanted to have his Mom and Dad with him.

After a bit he settled down and seems to be resting, comfortably for the most part.

More later...

News from the Surgeon

Denise spoke to the surgeon and everything apparently went well. In right around 3 hours they fixed every bone that was displaced; skull, left orbit, left cheek, jaw, and splinted his nose.

His forehead scar will have to be revised at some point, but there is no rush.

He's been moved to recovery, so we are just waiting for the word that we can go see him.

Good News!

Just got a page.

"Surgery is over. Patient is doing fine."

Off to the OR

OK, the nervous energy is taking over, so another quick post.



Jake spent a pretty good night. They cut off his fluids at midnight, but let him have a little water so that he could rinse & spit to keep his mouth from completely drying out. He slept most of the night, but sat up for a while and we talked about stuff we'll be doing at home while he recuperates. He's got a couple projects he wants to do in the garage and we are thinking about trying out some custom t-shirt screen printing. I pulled up a YouTube video on how to screen print. The guys in the video are total nerds, so I think Jake enjoyed it.

Denise showed up at about 4:00-ish and I headed to our motel, a short 2 blocks from the hospital. Got about 3-1/2 hours of sleep. Woke up, had a shower and a hearty breakfast of black coffee and chocolate covered espresso beans and headed back to the hospital.

Got here in the nick of time; as I was walking into the unit Denise called to say they were there to take him down to surgery.

Rode the elevater to the OR, said our "See you in a little" and "Love You" and then parted company. Now we start waiting. The hospital issued us a pager, so we'll get some updates when he goes into surgery, midway through, when he's out and when he's in the recovery room. So now we hurry up and wait.

My poor sister, Jean, was on her way to be with us this morning, but is stuck in a Sigalert on the 91 freeway, going absolutely nowhere. Unfortunately she's in no-man's-land now; can't turn back and can't go forward. She'll be here as soon as she can.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and well wishes. I will update everyone as soon as he's back in recovery.

OK, One More Post

It occurred to me that anyone who doesn't know Jake or me or my family might think I am an insensitive guy, because of some of my attempts at humor. Just in case, I should point out that...

1. It's not my intention to make light of any of Jake's problems and I generally only joke about things unrelated to serious health issues.
2. Humor helps me deal with the uncertainty, pain and stress of the situation; I guess it's a sort of gallows humor, but then in the end, isn't all humor gallows humor? (That must be a quote I heard somewhere. Can't possibly be an original thought.)
3. Laughter is the best medicine. (Now I know that HAS to be original.)
4. "Insensitive guy" is generally redundant.
5. What the heck, I AM insensitive. I'm a GUY!

Wednesday Night

Back at Loma Linda. Denise has taken off to get some sleep.

Took three tries to get here this evening. First try I got to the end of the block before I realized I was supposed to bring some recent photos of Jake for the surgeons. I guess all that money we spent on senior portraits will turn out to be a better investment than we could have known.

Second try, I got as far as the 60/215 freeway, about 15 minutes from the hospital, when I got a call from Jake letting me know that the doctors wanted the mold of his bite taken after his braces were removed and his retainer, to help with the reconstruction of his face. So, I turned around and headed back to Temecula.

Third try was the charm, but by that time I didn't arrive until about 7:00PM, meaning that Denise put in about a 15 hour shift today.

Jake is doing very well today. When I received his phone call he sounded almost completely like his old self. He was up and out for a couple pretty long walks today. His vision and balance are a little questionable, so he needs a spotter and someone to push his IV rack along behind him. He's been eating a little more, mixing in some pudding, sherbet, Boost, and I don't know what all else. He did say that he found the pureed pears kind of disgusting. I don't think he liked the presentation; everything on the tray was some shade of beige.

He saw the speech and physical therapists again today and also had a long talk with the psychologist. Not surprisingly, he has some anxiety about the upcoming surgery and he was able to talk through some of those. Denise said that the psychologist is off tomorrow, but promised she'd call Jake again before his surgery.

The plan is for surgery around 10:30AM, but that's subject to change depending on what sort of other delays or emergencies might happen. Once they're ready to take him to surgery they'll give him something to quell any anxiety and then it will be off to the OR. Denise and I will be given pagers so they can contact us when the surgery is done.

Jake was seen by the opthamologist again yesterday. His double-vision has not decreased as the swelling has gone down, so there is potentially some damage to the muscles around his left eye, preventing it from aligning properly with the right. Jake has been booked for a checkup with the eye docs in late July. At that time they'll determine whether he'll need additional surgery to re-attach/-align his muscles to correct the vision problem.

In the meantime, the doctor recommended wearing a patch on one eye so that he can see without the double-vision. Here's a scary little piece of information though; the doctor cautioned to be sure to switch eyes on a regular basis, giving equal time to each eye. Apparently, if you stop using one eye for a lengthy period your brain will eventually just ignore that eye and you will never get the vision in that eye back again. So, we're setting countdown timers on all our cell phones to track this stuff to the minute.

I think that is just about all the news that's fit to print.

This may be my last posting until post-op. On the other hand, I may end up posting constantly, just to keep my mind occupied until he's out of surgery and back in recovery.

It just occurred to me that I never had dinner. I wonder if the cafeteria is still open?

On Scarring, Eyepatch and Missing Teeth

Scarring, Eyepatch and Missing Teeth Hotness Test

There has been a lot of commenting on the affect of scarring, etc. on one's hotness. I suspect the hotness derived from scars, eyepatchs and missing teeth depends to some extent on the circumstances under which they were obtained. To illustrate my point, I created a brief test.

Select the answer most closely matching your situation.

1) How did you lose your tooth (teeth)?
a) Cross-checked, overtime, game 7, Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Bonus point: Scored game winning goal on ensuing power play.)
b) Stumbled into a signpost during pub crawl.
c) "Flossing?" "What's flossing?"

2) What caused your scarring?
a) Donated both kidneys to brother. (Just in case he ever needs one.)
b) Tattoo removal gone bad.
c) Running with scissors.

3) Why are you wearing an eye patch?
a) Strained eye staring death in the face.
b) Stared at a total eclispe.
c) Poked with a home-made light saber.

Take 3 points for each A, 2 for each B and 1 for C and total.

7 to 9 points = Smoking Hot!
3 to 6 points = You'll do if the smoking guy is taken
1 to 2 points = There is nothing wrong with celibacy

Wednesday Dawns (OK, Wednesday Mid-Mornings)

I sort of missed the dawn.

The night was pretty uneventful after my previous post. He had what appeared to be a much more restful night. Unfortunately that didn't translate into anymore sleep for me.

Denise got to the hospital sometime around 4:30AM, I think. I was made it home by around 5:30, driving like a bat-out-of-hell on the theory that you can't fall asleep at the wheel when driving at "the brink of adhesion," a phrase I picked up from an interview of Jackie Stewart a long time ago. (Man, that was random!)

Nick was up and getting ready to head out, so I got to see him off. Our next door neighbor Larry was kind enough to give him a lift to Ontario Airport, saving Denise and/or me another drive. After an hour drive, one-on-one with Larry, I suspect that Nick will have developed a sudden passion for John Wayne, rotary dial telephones and good tequila.

I got to sleep around 6:00 and slept til 10:00-ish. I decided to give up on sleeping for the time being. Leo was waiting to be let out and fed, so I figured I might as well get up.

Someone (I guess maybe most people) asked how I'm doing, so I'll give a little update on my status. I will let Denise speak for herself.

I am doing OK, but really tired. I have had enough with the sleep deprivation and am going to ask if I can't please be switched to water-boarding instead, just for a change of pace. We were supposed to be houseboating this week after all, and the way I waterski, waterboarding can't be all that different.

The worst part for me is all the driving. I figure we lose 6 to 8 person hours in the car that we could be spending with Jake/sleeping. We're putting a couple hundred miles a day on the cars with all the shuttling back and forth, so we are developing a Sasquatchian carbon footprint.

Our dog, our garden and primarily our kitchen have been being pretty much neglected. Fortunately for Leo we've managed the schedule so there's always someone home with him at night. I need to try to take him for a walk today before I head off to the hospital.

Thanks to Irritrol PC Control, our garden is being watered regularly, but it's not getting much attention beyond that. Nick and I harvested some vegies yesterday afternoon and made ourselves some crookneck and pattipan squash quesadillas with cheddar and dry-aged Jack cheeses and dried chipotles. Pretty darn tasty. I don't think it's a recipe we'll be blending up for Jake however.

Our kitchen is probably the worst. Not being around a lot we haven't been doing a lot of home cooking. (Unless you count the Bloody Marys.) As a result we are fostering biodiversity; in our refrigerator. I found a leftover sweet potato that was a lovely shade of green and some moldy leftover ground lamb. I haven't worked up the courage to open the produce drawer yet and I'm not going in there without a tennis racket or some other blunt instrument to fend off the alien life forms.

Emotionally, it's getting a little easier day by day, as I can see Jake's condition improving and as we get closer to the surgery that will help get him on the road back to some kind of normalcy. My feelings about the surgery are somewhat mixed; obviously there's no alternative and it will dramatically improve his condition, so I can't wait for it to be done, but there are also the risks that you worry about, however remote the possibility.

I should say that the process of blogging seems to be somewhat cathartic. I thought about suggesting that the hospital provide access to a blogging site as a service to their patients, and then I realized that I'm probably violating some sort of HIPAA regulations by posting about someone's medical condition.

Blogging also helps me to keep some kind of a grip on all the information that's passing between the medical staff and the family. And it's certainly streamlined the dissemination of information to the extended family and friends. I thought about Twitter, but half the medical jargon won't it in a 140-character Tweet. Now, if only my Mom had any interest in the Internet. My sister Jean has been calling to read her the blog updates, so she is staying in the loop. Thanks Jean, we have been a little remiss about calling her.

And while I'm on the subject, thanks to everyone who has posted a comment or emailed with well wishes and offers of support. I know that we haven't taken a lot of people up on their offers yet, but that is mostly because we really need to stay directly involved with Jake at this point. It is certainly not because those offers are not appreciated.

I should sign off and get back up to relieve Denise. I have a lot more to post about Jake's condition, but I want to coordinate that post with Denise, since she is the one who spoke with the doctors.

Thanks again and will post at you later.

Aunties Dote

Hi all - Jake's Aunt Jackie "guest blogging" here and filling in some news from Tuesday afternoon / early evening while we (Aunt Terry and I) took a shift at the hospital so Jim, Denise and Nick could go out to dinner together before Nick leaves to head up to Davis / Shasta for a remaining bit of the "terribly inconvenienced" vacation.

The best news is that Jake is in really good spirits - definitely has kept his sense of humor. He had us laughing many times with his usual Hanten dry sense of humor. My favorite Jake-joke can't be relayed in full as it involved a nurse and his w**n*r and this is a G-rated blog and we don't want the search engine indexing that sorta thing cuz then you just never know who will end up following this blog. Instead I'll relay this exchange:

Me: You want some Boost?

Jake: OK

As I hand him the vanilla Boost …….

Jake: Oh, never mind. I thought you said "booze."

In other good news, the two things I was most concerned about going in, turned out to be no worries at all. Worry number one was: What will the urination situation be? I knew the catheter was out but didn't know if we'd have to help. (I mean, I'm just an aunt. I'm only good for so much....) Anyway, this was no problem. We just had to help unhook him from all his accoutrement and help him sit up by the side of the bed and then Jake instructed us to go stand outside the curtain and talk amongst ourselves, with a stern, "No peeking" order. (I shant reveal whether we peeked or not.)

My number two worry was: Will we have to see his butt if the PT comes in and makes him walk around? Figured he'd be wearing the standard gown w/ the useless tie-ups in the back. (I'm sure it's a fine butt, and his parents are very proud and the gals at school might dig it, but again, I'm just an aunt.) Anyway, I'm happy to report that the PT did in fact come in, and Jake did in fact get up and walk around his room with the walker and nary a cheek was visible, thanks to hospital-issue green shorts.

A word about his room. The word is: bummer, man. (OK - that's two words.) They have him in the center bed of a 3-bed room. There is very little space on either side of his bed and just moving around and getting 2 people seated is a complicated exercise of rearranging furniture and trays and 87 pillows. The Hantens are all holding up quite well considering they've spent several days in this confined, noisy space.

In other good news, Jake ate vanilla ice cream for the first time yesterday (mixed with a bit of Boost). It took about 30 min, but it went down well. Any day you can eat ice cream is a good day in my book, and Grandpa Hanten would have agreed. We delivered a stuffed bear from Grandma. I don't know what this bear is filled with, but he's VERY heavy. We told Jake he could use it for arm curls while he's stuck in bed. He did a curl or two, then set it down and said, "I think I need the intermediate bear."

We also presented a gift-to-come from all his aunties: the new Ghostbuster video game (http://www.ghostbustersgame.com/us/index.html). It was presented with photos of Terry and me in our old Ghostbusters Halloween costumes. We asked if we should go all out and get the super deluxe "Slimer Edition" and he suggested we "shouldn't skimp on Ghostbusters." He added that now he wouldn't have to be depressed about being stuck in his house for 6 weeks.

Jake has now added an eye patch to his look. (We’ll let his parents explain the technicalities.) Two potential blogger comment discussions: (1) Which will be his biggest babe magnet – missing tooth, scar or patch? (2) Should he shave or keep the "beard" he’s got going?

That's pretty much it. I just have to add a word about how strong all those Hantens are. Jim and Denise actually look pretty good considering all the coming and going and worrying and not-sleeping they've been doing. Nick has been a huge help, and Jake is so very strong. He's really keeping a good attitude and seems to be holding up really well.

We love you guys. Nurse Jackie and Nurse Terry signing off until the next shift.

Tuesday Night

Quick note before I pass out.

The surgeon was in tonight to take care of a bunch of prep for Thursday's surgery. He gave us the litany of risks involved and had Jake sign the informed consent documents. You really get a sense that your child is an adult when he is the one who signs the legal docs. I didn't even get to co-sign for him.

The MD also took some "before" photos from various angles around Jake's head. (I got to practice a little medicine; I held up the dark cloth backdrop for the photos.) He finished by taking molds of his upper and lower jaw. I recall that type of thing as fairly uncomfortable at the dentist. Doing it with your face all broken up looked excruciating, but Jake seemed to handle it fine.

Now we need to bring some photos from home, so they know what he's supposed to look like.

He's been out and about today. Was able to get up and go to the bathroom to rinse the leftover mold material out of his mouth.

There's a bunch of other news, but I'll post that later. Right now I'm really tired.

Tuesday Morning

Well, I did not get much sleep last night, so I am going to keep this brief.

I had thought that with all the speech and physical therapy and new tests and visitors (Pendar, Brandon and Eric) that Jake would be totally wiped out and just crash last night, but he ended up having a pretty bad night.

He was having a lot of trouble with pain. He is on a morphine pump, which will administer a small dose of morphine on-demand, but not more than one dose every 10 minutes. His problem arises when he dozes off. Since he's asleep he's not hitting the morphine button. His pain starts to spike, he wakes up and starts hitting the button, but by that point he's behind the curve. Can't really catch up to the pain with these very small doses. So, the nurses yell at him for not hitting the button and end up giving him some supplemental pain medicines to try to handle the spikes.

Of course, all of that wasn't helped when he developed symptoms of a urinary tract infection, causing quite a bit of additional pain.

The facial surgeon came in somewhere in the middle of the night and re-examined him. He reiterated the plan to do a single surgery this Thursday. He seemed a little bored by the whole prospect, just another facial surgery, no big deal. (Which I guess on some level is nice to hear - if he was sweating bullets over the case it would be pretty disconcerting.)

I think I finally fell asleep, more or less for good, sometime around 4:30 or 5:00. I woke up a little after 6:30 and Denise and Nick had arrived.

After the nurses shift change Jake got a new nurse, Myra, who came in to check on him sometime around 7:00. Among her questions was whether Jake was passing any gas. Shortly after she left Jake announced, "I just passed gas."

Nick was indignant. "You didn't even say 'Pull my finger.' A clear violation of protocol!"

To which Jake replied, "I've been medically cleared to pass gas."

Benefits of a classical education.

Oh, and finally the latest photo. (For some reason his maniacal smile reminds me of Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange.

Monday Evening

Denise arrived today shortly after the PT visit. I took the opportunity to go into my office for a few hours this afternoon. I'm not sure whether I intended to catch up on some work or some sleep, but the latter didn't happen. By the time I was ready to leave I decided I wasn't up to the drive home, so I came back to the hospital to spend another night.

The internal medicine guys decided to do some more tests relating to Jake's high blood pressure and rapid heart rate, so he received an echocardiogram and later an ECG. (His night nurse, Karen, just came in and mentioned that those test results came back fine.)

He's sitting up in bed and removing his c-collar a lot more now and he's drinking, mostly water. Because he's able to drink he's doing a lot less swabbing and suctioning. I don't recall whether I've gone into this previously, so I will s'plain.

Jake has had a lot of drainage and blood clotting in his mouth. With his mouth so badly injured the staff can't really get in there to clean it up properly (at least not without sedating him). And, because he hasn't been able to drink he's had a hard timing clearing up all that junk. So, on about an hourly basis, he has been using these sponge-stick swabs to scrub the inside of his mouth and then uses a suction tube to clear it all out. He has to do it himself, because he can work around all the damaged, sensitive spots without hurting himself any worse. He seems to be fine with it, but it is very painful to watch. (At some point I realized that I can't look at his mouth, or even think about it, without involuntarily reaching my hand up and covering my mouth.)

So, the good news is that the drinking water is helping to clean up all the clotting and he has had to do very little swabbing and suctioning today. (I am hoping that this will translate into a little bit more of an opportunity to catch some sleep tonight; most nights we're up at least hourly passing him swabs or suction tubes or whatever he needs to complete the process.)

A few of his friends have shown up, so I'm going to close for now.

Pandemonium

It's crazy here today. Hardly finished the post on speech therapy when the physical therapist (Valerie) arrived.

She got him up out of bed and he took a quick lap around the unit with a walker. I don't think he really needed the walker, except that he was a little dizzy after spending that last 5 nights in bed. That coupled with his double-vision probably made it more of an adventure than it needed to be.

Anyway, PT will be back each day to do some more work with him until he's ready to walk on his own.

Now Dr. Ritter from internal medicine just showed up. The MDs have decided to check on him because he's running high blood pressure and a high heart rate. The doctor said he's not too surprised by either of those, under the circumstances.

Speech Therapy Update

The speech pathologist (Barbara) was just in to check his swallow. Raised him up in bed, removed his C-collar and gave him a few ice chips and teaspoons of ice water.

He had a little trouble at first. After the first ice chip he said he had nothing to swallow; his mouth was so dry it just absorbed all the water before he could swallow.

After a couple tries his throat loosened up a little and he seemed to handle drinking fine. Barbara was explaining the whole swallowing process; how your tongue moves fluid to the back of your mouth to initiate the swallow. With all the damage to his mouth and teeth it's hard to initiate the action, but there's nothing wrong with his throat.

So, he now is cleared for a full liquid diet, which I guess includes puddings and purees and stuff, but he and Barbara seem to agree that he should stick to the less grainy fluids.

He now has the C-collar just for comfort so he can remove it when he wants to drink and can actually drink from a cup.

Monday Morning

Nick spent the night with Jake last night, so Denise and I each got a little sleep.

Jake's looking better again today. Somewhere along the line they cleaned up his face and got a lot of the blood and betadyne off. Photo is a little dark (didn't want to bug him with the light), but you'll get the idea.

He was pretty uncomfortable and itchy this morning, but he got a sponge bath and a change of linens and I think he's feeling better. He even got to have the C-collar off briefly so they could clean up his neck. They're getting ready to start a new IV, because the one they are using had been installed for about 3 days and is starting to bother him.

A co-worker had emailed that she had seen the blog and that her daughter said she thought Jake was hot. When I relayed that information to Jake he said, "I don't blame her." So, he still has his sense of humor. The other day he mentioned a silver lining that since the crash he's getting a lot of girls phone numbers.

Yesterday was a pretty boring day. Had a visit from one of the trauma docs in the morning who reiterated that they were planning to start him on fluids and that the facial surgeons were planning to operate on Thursday. Other than that we didn't see anyone other than his regular nurses. Denise arrived around 4:00PM and I went home.

After I left, Jake's fried Keith and his Mom came in to visit for a while. Also, one of the facial surgeons stopped by. Apparently they are still shooting for surgery on Thursday, but he's not officially on the schedule yet.

Today he is supposed to see...

• physical therapy, to start getting him out of bed
• speech therapy, to test him for starting on fluids by mouth
• someone from the facial surgery department, to take a mold of his teeth (not sure how they're going to accomplish that)
• and, he's asked to talk to the psychologist

His trauma doc was in earlier for a quick check. I asked about when/if he would likely be discharged. He said he could be discharged by tomorrow, Tuesday, but when I asked about managing his pain on oral medications, he said that, yes, that might keep him in the hospital longer.

Oh, I forgot to mention that when I got home last night someone had left the "Get Well" card from Grad Night by the front door. It's about 3 by 4 foot poster board completely covered in well wishes. There was also a prize bag; apparently they put his name in for the prize drawings. Got me all choked up again.

ON SCARS AND TEETH

In answer to the stitches question, I have tried to count his stitches and staples but he's having none of it. Tried to do it quietly while he was sleeping but couldn't get around there. It actually seems like his one forehead scar will be minimal and he can have Plastics fix it if not. The bad scaring could be in the hairline. So, hopefully he won't have inherited the hairline from my mom's side of the family or the hair will be receding in the next 10 years! He will have one bottom middle tooth missing for several months. Nick tells him that chicks dig guys without teeth! Any
comment on that from the girls? We were suspecting that teeth were just a bonus up in Humboldt! Jake says he'll hang out with the toothless farmers.

Mom Denise

"Glamour Shot"

He's looking much better. Go back to the earlier shot from the ER if you have any doubts.

Sunday

Just relieved Nicholas and he is on his way home to get some sleep.

Jake looks MUCH better this morning. His swelling is subsiding and the nurses were able to clean him up quite a bit, even washed his hair a little bit to get out some of the dried blood. The swelling around his eyes is down and he can actually open both eyes. I'll try to post a new picture today if he is up to it.

When I came in, he was sitting up watching a little "Star Trek", a classic episode by the way, "Spock's Brain". It was good to see him finally able to do something to break the monotony.

Early Saturday morning the team of doctors arrived to check Jake out. At that time they said they would be able to clear him to start taking some liquids by mouth. That's part of preparing him to be discharged. He needs to be able to take fluids and oral pain medication before they can send him home.

Unfortunately, being cleared for fluids is not as straightforward as simply giving him a glass of water and a drinking straw. They have to schedule a speech therapist to do some swallow tests or something before they will start giving him anything to drink. Since it's the weekend there's no speech therapist available, which means that now it won't be until Monday that he will be cleared at the earliest. You would think they would have a process that wouldn't require waiting an entire weekend to get a drink of water. (All of which tends to confirm my basic contention that the term healthcare is an oxymoron. OK, that's not fair, the staff here is very nice. I say that sort of stuff to make Denise mad.)

The plan still appears to be to discharge Jake and have him return later for surgery. According the MD on Saturday morning, he would be discharged as early as Sunday or Monday. At the time I thought that was an incredibly agressive schedule. Now that he won't be on fluids until Monday I'd be very surprised if he is discharged by Tuesday

Jake had a few visitors on Saturday. Brandon, his Mom and Ryan came up together and spent some time with him. Giovanna also drove herself up to visit. I don't think Jake was able to talk very much (he's pretty wiped out), but I'm sure he enjoyed the company.

That's most of what I know at this point, since I was out for most of the day. Denise will probably be able to add more later.

BTW, I have set up this blog so that Jake can update it via email, so hopefully he'll be adding some posts as he starts to feel a little better.

Short post

Nick is doing night shift with Jacob this evening. I will be going in to relieve him around 4AM or so and Denise will come out later tomorrow morning.

More later. I have to get to sleep.

Info on Hospital Visits from Jake's Mom

I know so many of you want to visit Jake and see for yourself that he's OK. We've asked people to hold off for a few days as he tires easily. There has been so much action (5 CT scans in 24 hours, 5 different teams of doctors, etc). We don't yet know when he'll be home. If he comes home in a few days, he'll be back for his facial surgeries next week. So, if you plan to visit him before he gets home (and even after he does) please be understanding because you will only get to see him a few minutes. It's about an hour drive to Loma Linda from Temecula so you can decide if it's worth it. Those close friends who plan to come on Saturday please know it will only be a few minutes each. Jake is back on his phone but he can't always answer you right away as he needs to sleep a lot. Please try to get hold of me (Denise) on my cell phone and let me know the situation if you are coming. (You can also send a text to Jake's phone.) There is a waiting room where you can all wait together. Nap time on his unit is 3-4 pm so those are not good times. I, along with Jim, am so grateful to you guys who helped Jake at the scene and am so touched by EVERYONE who has offered help in any way. Jake is well loved and, though it will be a long haul, it appears he will recover from all his injuries. I am so proud of him. He has more strenghth than I could muster.



Denise

Jake's Graduation

Video from my phone of Jake's graduation. I wanted to capture the reading of his name.



Jake wanted Denise and I to attend the graduation ceremony (he told me that he knew it was "important to Mom").

The ceremony was actually very nice and I was glad we went. Jake's friend Giovanna, the CHS ASB President, opened the ceremony and acknowledged Jake during her speech. As the graduates were announced, Jake's counselor, Mrs. Searl, announced that the next student could not be present before reading off "Jacob Daniel Hanten" and the class gave a standing ovation. It was very touching.

After the ceremony we were able to talk to some of his friends and get a few pictures to share with Jake when he is ready.

We also took a quick walk through the gym to see the Grad Nite setup. They had a giant "Get Well" card stationed by the entrance for all the kids to sign. I'm sure he will be very happy to receive that.

"What are we doing here?" Saturday, June 13, 7:00AM

A little earlier Jake suddenly said, "What are we doing here?"

I said, "What, you mean you and me?"

"No, the whole group."

"Whole group? Are you having a dream?"

"Yeah."

Scared me a little at first because I thought maybe he was losing some awareness, but he had been talking in his sleep a little before that, so I figured it was just a dream.

Trauma doctor came in a few minutes ago. Apparently since the orthopedic surgeons cleared Jake's spine he should be able to start getting liquids later today. I don't think that can happen soon enough for Jake.

He's complaining this morning about swelling getting worse in his mouth. I think the doctors said that the third or fourth day will be the worst for swelling and we are well into day 3 at this point.

I posted a couple pictures that I shot at the CHS Graduation. They're not very good, but I wanted to share them with Jake when he's up to seeing them. Got a few shots of Jake's friends posing with his mortar board.

"A terrible inconvenience" - Friday, June 12, 11:55PM

I'm back on night shift and Denise is home catching up on her sleep.

Nick spent the day with Jacob so that Denise and I could attend Jake's graduation ceremony at CHS. More about that later.

Jake is sleeping peacefully at the moment. Shortly after Denise and Nick had left he said "This is a terrible inconvenience" and if that doesn't display a gift for understatement, I don't know what does.

It has been a long day...

I spent last night in a chair next to Jake's bed. Sometime in the middle of the night, one of the male nurses was kind enough to roll a recliner. He said he'd spent night in hospitals with his own children and knew what it was like. That was really nice as I was able to get a couple hours sleep.

There was not much change in Jake's condition by this morning, but there was a lot of progress throughout the day today.

The nurses gave him ice packs for his face overnight, which brought the swelling around his eyes down quite a bit.

There has been a parade of specialists through his room at all hours, so I'm starting to lose track of who said what when.

The trauma surgeons from the ER were the admitting team, so I guess they have primary responsibility. There was quite a bit of concern about Jake's spine because of the CT scan at Inland Valley that supposedly showed fractures on several vertebrae. Jake had no apparent nerve damage, but they weren't taking any chances and have kept him flat on his back in a C-collar the entire time.

This afternoon Jake was given an MRI and they determined that the damage that was spotted on the CT scan was either part of an old injury or possibly early disc disease, but not a result of this accident. So, they have relaxed his spine control; he can sit up a little and roll himself onto his side to try to make himself more comfortable. They are still keeping the collar on, I think primarily to stabilize his face and reduce any pain he might get from turning his head.

The have also placed him on a morphine pump, so he can control his own pain medication. The morphine seems to be controlling the pain pretty well.

He's still not allowed to take anything by mouth. He really wants some ice water or some ice chips to suck on to relieve his dry mouth.

Since he can't drink, he swabs his mouth periodically with a wet sponge stick and then suctions his mouth to clean up all the blood and fluids that accumulate. He has a bunch of clotted blood on his tongue and the inside of his mouth that really bothers him. The doctors said that they could clean that up when he is put under for surgery, but for now it's best if he suctions it himself since he can work around the tender spots and avoid hurting himself.

The neurologists don't seem to have any major concerns about any nerve damage or the bleed that was spotted on the CT scan. He's alert, has a full range of motion and no numbness, so he seems OK on that score. They will continue to monitor; when I asked they said that if he stays fine for 3 or 4 days he should be out of the woods on that score.

The opthamologist checked his eyes and found no problems other than a little double vision which he thinks is a result of his facial swelling. Denise said that during the afternoon one of the doctors mentioned that there is a possibility that there may be some surgery required to repair the bones in the orbit of his eye, but the opthamologist is apparently optimistic that that won't be necessary.

Denise also spoke to a face surgeon (I forget the actual designation, OFM? OMS?) who said that Jake would need only one surgery (excluding dental work). He also said that Jake had lost only one tooth. Early on we thought he had lost several and couldn't really tell since his mount is so disfigured. This was good news because we were expecting several surgeries and a bunch of dental implants.

Sounds like the surgery will be scheduled as soon as all his swelling subsides, I guess as early as next Thursday, according to what the doctor told Denise.

Jake also had his first non-family visitors today. Pendar and Mike (I think, actually I wasn't there) came up to visit. Unfortunately they didn't get to spend much time with him because the doctors arrived on rounds during their visit and shortly after that Jake was taken for his MRI. Jake's aunt Pam also drove down from Ojai to see him.

Overall I think he was pretty worn out from all the activity.

It has been weird. Early today I was thinking, "this is taking so long" to get any results from the doctors, but then I realized we were only midway through the second day. It only seems like a week already.

I can't even imagine what it feels like for Jake. He has been holding up incredibly well and even shows the occasional flashes of humor. Denise brought him this little graduation balloon of some sort of non-specific creature in a cap and gown. He looked at it and said, "What is wrong with this thing, has it got leprosy or something?"

Anyway, I will post more tomorrow. It's about quarter to one and I should try to sleep a little while he is out.

Jake in Loma Linda ER

I took this photo with my phone in the Loma Linda ER late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, I can't remember clearly. I didn't really want to take it, but I think it will help us track how much he's improved as his treatment progresses.

Recap

OK, for those who have not been on the email chain previously, here's what has happened...

On Wednesday, June 10, Jake and some friends were riding BMX bikes at the local skate park. Jake crashed attempting a jump and landed on the concrete on his head and face. Denise and I received a call from the Temecula FD stating that Jake had suffered a serious injury and was being transported to Inland Valley Medical Center.

At Inland Valley we were told the extent of Jake's injuries. He had a severe laceration running from the inside of his right eyebrow, running up his forehead and turning above his hairline to the left side of his head, creating a flap exposing his skull.

He suffered a fractured skull, shattered orbits around his eyes, a broken nose, broken cheek bone, broken bones around his mouth, a small bleed on his brain and possible vertebral damage.

They sutured his laceration and and placed him in a cervical collar. Inland Valley did not have a facial surgeon that could handle the level of damage done to Jake's face, so they transferred him to Loma Linda Medical Center, about an hour north of Temecula.

The good news was that while Jake blacked out after the initial crash he regained consciousness and was lucid in the ambulance and ER. The doctors felt the bleed was not probably a problem, but needed to be monitored. He had no loss of sensation and could move all his extremities with not problem. His vision did not seem to have been damaged, but his eyes were so swollen he could barely open them.

Loma Linda moved him to their Rapid Admission Unit, kind of an interim location where they can move people out of the ER before their regular unit is ready to receive them.

Denise and I spent the night and most of the next day with him. I arranged for a friend from work to pick me up on Thursday afternoon and drive me home so that I could get a few hours sleep (Thanks Bill).

Nick (my son) was already scheduled to fly down from UCD that evening. My sister Jackie picked him up in San Diego and drove him up to Temecula. Nick then drove me back to Loma Linda so that I could spend the night shift with Jake and Nick took Denise home for a night's sleep.

One other note, the paramedics and hospital staff all commented on the great job Jake's friends did in treating him until help arrived. Ryan used his shirt to try to stop the bleeding with pressure on Jake's laceration and they kept him stable until the paramedics arrived. I'm certain that they saved his life. I can't thank these guys enough.