Update on Tyler

Well I have quite a lot of things to blog about...graduation, birthday, the cruise...but all those things have been temporarily overlooked because of Tyler. I think most of you who read my blog have already heard what happened to Tyler but it helps me to talk about it and vent. And I think the most helpful thing for me emotionally right now is to have everyone's support, which requires me updating you.

So Tyler was playing basketball on the 10th level of the cruise boat (on Tuesday, the 15th around 4:30 p.m.). The air was kind of misty and so the court was a little slippery. Tyler jumped maybe about a foot to rebound the ball and when he landed he rolled his ankle in and heard a loud pop. I was watching from just outside the enclosed court and knew right when I heard him scream that it was serious. I immediately ran to him and realized the most helpful thing I could do was run for help. I ran down to the next deck below whimpering "help!!!" the whole way and battling between trying to be brave and crying.

It was the most emotional thing to see my husband, who's suppose to be strong and protect me, be in such excruciating pain and being so completely unable to do anything to fix the situation. It's indescribable unless you've experienced something like that.

He had to climb out of the netted basketball court, almost tripping on the net, then walk across the deck, hobble down the stairs, before finally reaching a wheelchair. He was brought down to the medic station that they had on board. He was in so much pain at that point, which was eventually relieved by four shots of morphine. Doctor Bridgette reset his ankle, then casted it, then took X-rays. It wasn't until about an hour after it happened that we knew it was bad enough to send us home.

Although we were hoping that it might just be a sprain and that he'd have to rest for the rest of the cruise and cancel our horseback riding and snorkeling plans, we knew it was much worse than that. Our cruise fun ended immediately.

We began making plans to go home. Between Tyler's parents, the cruise, and my parents we worked most things out fairly quickly and left for home on Wednesday. Everyone on the cruise with us, especially Vickie and Paul, Dan, Joe, and everyone really helped me to feel like things would eventually be okay. Dan's spirit was especially helpful in calming me and blessing Tyler. His hug in that medic station is still the thing that helped me the most to this point.

Luckily much of the airport staff was very helpful in Mexico and Phoenix. It was long day as Tyler slept though much of it and I tried to fight back tears as random travelors reminded us how crappy our situation was. I couldn't have gotten through that day without all the help from the people who wheeled Tyler to and from different terminals. They doubled as my friends and family for the time.

We finally got home late on Wednesday night, and fed Tyler one last meal in case he could go into surgery the next day. On Thursday, my birthday, we made a visit to Dr. Hess. He was really spacey and even at one point wrote down the wrong ankle. I haven't been very impressed with him and he certainly has not been very patient in answering my questions which makes me more emotional.

Well, Thursday was a fairly good day. Whitney and Kollin were my angels that day when they came to celebrate my birthday with us. It was so refreshing to see them and have some normality to the crazy four days we've experienced. I can't thank you enough for being AMAZING friends to me!! Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!

Now, Friday, we came to LDS Hospital at 1:30 p.m., did some paperwork, and then sat in Tyler's own little waiting room until 4 when he was admitted to surgery. My parents came around 5. We got a phone call around 7:15 saying he was done with surgery, and they had stabilized his pain and were going to bring him to his room in about an hour when we'd be able to see him. Dr. Hess came out and showed us three Xrays of the plates, wires, and 13 screws he put in. He broke the news to us that Tyler wouldn't be going home tonight, which means the hospital bill will be even bigger, as he said it, trying to ease the pain of it but really making it worse, "it's only another small fraction to keep him here overnight." Swollow. It would have helped me if I could have asked him questions or if he would have reassured me that Tyler will be all right, but all he wanted to do was go home, so he left me in an emotional mess.

I finally got to see Tyler. He was in a lot of pain for awhile, but was doing relatively well. It only took him about three hours to down a ton of graham crackers, a smoothy drink, pudding, grape juice, and a turkey sandwich. What would Tyler be without his appetite.

So, I'm here at the hospital right now, sitting next to Tyler as he lays drugged up and currently sleeping. It's been an emotional roller coaster, and still will be a rollercoaster for awhile it seems. I'm trying to be brave and strong for Tyler cuz it helps me to see him smile, but it's hard cuz all I want is to hug him and cry in his arms.