On snowy Tuesday, December 3rd Addie and I were eating at "The place to eat" (Chick-fil-a) and had just started to eat. When the phone rang. " Hello this is Jim. Cal was working at my house. Something is wrong with him we have called the ambulance. I think he might be having a heart attack. He is having a hard time breathing and his left side hurts. I'll let you know more when the ambulance gets here". Trying not to ball because the worker was standing over my table asking if we needed any. I felt like everyone around us was staring at me. I tried my best not to cry because Addie cries sympathetically. Just waiting for hear from Jim again seemed like forever. He called back and said " They don't think he had a heart attack but think he fell. There is a huge goose egg on his head. They are going to take him to take him to McKay Dee hospital". Trying to keep my emotions to myself but trying to get Addie out of the play area was difficult. Addie was upset when we started to leave and didn't get him hot chocolate and lunch because that was the plan. I tried to explain that Daddy wasn't feeling well enough for food.
We pulled up to the hospital just after the ambulance arrived. They took us back to him a few minutes after we got there. When we got close to the room you could see a lot of doctors and nurses in there working on him which I think scared Addie. She wouldn't go near his room. The nurses noticed this and sent in a child social worker to help so I could go in and see Cal. After a quick assessment they told me he probably fell and has a severe concoction. They need to do a CAT scan to check to see what other damage he might have from his fall. He just laid there with his eyes closed lifeless. Not really aware of anything. While Cal was getting a CAT scan I told our families. Cal's parents and Stu his brother came up and gave him a blessing. (Jim the home owner also gave one to him when they first found him.) The results came in: he has no bleeding on his brain, but there is an abnormal growth on his pituitary that we will need to have checked later. He broke his left clavicle, 3 ribs below that which puncher his lung, and he broke 2 ribs in the back and when one of those broke it broke off one of those fingers off your vertibra. He would have to stay in the hospital for a few days to make sure there is no more problems from the puncher in his lung. After grandma and grandpa took Addie to their house for a few days. Which was a great blessing. Cal didn't really actnolaged that anyone was around him until about 8:30 that night. All of this didn't really sink in until that next morning when I was getting the boys off to work and getting my computer packed up to go send the day at the hospital. I'm grateful for neighbors that comforted me at this time. When I got to the hospital he was doing better but still seemed to not be there all the way yet. The good news we got that day was he didn't have to have any surgeries everything would heal on its own. Later that day they got him up and walking with help. But we kept him one more day at the hospital because his oxygen levels were still low. I'm grateful for the many people that came up to see him. Each day he seemed to look and act a little better. Thursday he was able to come home. And we would have to figure out how to make life work with Cal down and out, still have the business run, and take care of Addie. With so many great people around things ran smoothly. Cal lived in the basement for weeks. I'm glad that we went and cut down our Christmas tree early this year because if not we wouldn't of had one.
After about 3 weeks Cal seemed to be moving a little more by his self. He was going stir crazy the week before Christmas. He went plowing with Golden on the back of his four wheeler. Which I think he over did it. He was on there for 3 hours. Sunday before Christmas he went down hill. He had fever chills and a cough. But we already had plans to go up to EJ's cabin so we went anyways. Over that night he got worse. We hurried and packed up and went to insta-care Monday morning. When we got there he threw up. We just thought it was just nausea since that's what would happen with his meds he was on. After hours waiting to be seen and having x-rays, all they said was he has bronchitis and gave us more meds to take. Through out the rest of the day Cal threw up. That night was the Eve of Christmas Eve which we always spend at my parents but with Cal not feeling well we stayed home and had our party. We all slept on couch with Cal and made sure we had the 3 little pine trees lights turned on. We still got to open one gift of new pjs. Christmas Eve morning Cal was really out of it and was still throwing up. Our neighbor is an EMT and firefighter, he came over and did a quick assessment on Cal. Then a few minutes later was doing and IV on Cal. He gave him over 4 liters of fluid. With all that going on I still made sure we had a fun breakfast. It wasn't green pancakes made into faces but Addie loved it.
We pulled up to the hospital just after the ambulance arrived. They took us back to him a few minutes after we got there. When we got close to the room you could see a lot of doctors and nurses in there working on him which I think scared Addie. She wouldn't go near his room. The nurses noticed this and sent in a child social worker to help so I could go in and see Cal. After a quick assessment they told me he probably fell and has a severe concoction. They need to do a CAT scan to check to see what other damage he might have from his fall. He just laid there with his eyes closed lifeless. Not really aware of anything. While Cal was getting a CAT scan I told our families. Cal's parents and Stu his brother came up and gave him a blessing. (Jim the home owner also gave one to him when they first found him.) The results came in: he has no bleeding on his brain, but there is an abnormal growth on his pituitary that we will need to have checked later. He broke his left clavicle, 3 ribs below that which puncher his lung, and he broke 2 ribs in the back and when one of those broke it broke off one of those fingers off your vertibra. He would have to stay in the hospital for a few days to make sure there is no more problems from the puncher in his lung. After grandma and grandpa took Addie to their house for a few days. Which was a great blessing. Cal didn't really actnolaged that anyone was around him until about 8:30 that night. All of this didn't really sink in until that next morning when I was getting the boys off to work and getting my computer packed up to go send the day at the hospital. I'm grateful for neighbors that comforted me at this time. When I got to the hospital he was doing better but still seemed to not be there all the way yet. The good news we got that day was he didn't have to have any surgeries everything would heal on its own. Later that day they got him up and walking with help. But we kept him one more day at the hospital because his oxygen levels were still low. I'm grateful for the many people that came up to see him. Each day he seemed to look and act a little better. Thursday he was able to come home. And we would have to figure out how to make life work with Cal down and out, still have the business run, and take care of Addie. With so many great people around things ran smoothly. Cal lived in the basement for weeks. I'm glad that we went and cut down our Christmas tree early this year because if not we wouldn't of had one.
After about 3 weeks Cal seemed to be moving a little more by his self. He was going stir crazy the week before Christmas. He went plowing with Golden on the back of his four wheeler. Which I think he over did it. He was on there for 3 hours. Sunday before Christmas he went down hill. He had fever chills and a cough. But we already had plans to go up to EJ's cabin so we went anyways. Over that night he got worse. We hurried and packed up and went to insta-care Monday morning. When we got there he threw up. We just thought it was just nausea since that's what would happen with his meds he was on. After hours waiting to be seen and having x-rays, all they said was he has bronchitis and gave us more meds to take. Through out the rest of the day Cal threw up. That night was the Eve of Christmas Eve which we always spend at my parents but with Cal not feeling well we stayed home and had our party. We all slept on couch with Cal and made sure we had the 3 little pine trees lights turned on. We still got to open one gift of new pjs. Christmas Eve morning Cal was really out of it and was still throwing up. Our neighbor is an EMT and firefighter, he came over and did a quick assessment on Cal. Then a few minutes later was doing and IV on Cal. He gave him over 4 liters of fluid. With all that going on I still made sure we had a fun breakfast. It wasn't green pancakes made into faces but Addie loved it.
Christmas morning Addie was so excited and couldn't wait. While opening gifts Addie started to get sick like Cal; fever, chills and throwing up. We just spent the day on the couch with both of them sick. My parents were kind to drop off dinner for me. They both got better as the week went on. I'm just glad I never got it.
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| First night at the hospital |
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| View out his window |
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| Next morning much more awake. |
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| Helping Golden |
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| Christmas Eve! |
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| Christmas morning |
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| Christmas day! My sickies |
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| Visiting with Santa. Addie didn't want to sit on his lap. |
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| Our Chirstmas light display this year |
