oldguy
Always Broken
- Dec 26, 1999
- 9,411
- 0
2 weeks ago one of our local riders went down hard and suffered very major injuries. He is slowly coming out of the woods and at this point it would be nice to have people show their support in his recovery. His mother is proving to be way stronger than I think I could be in a similar situation and has been posting daily updates but here is the first one to show the severity of his injuries. It is long
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 8:13 PM, CST
On Sunday, November 8, Ryan was in a motocross accident. He was taken by ambulance to Mt. Carroll, IL, then transported via MedFlight to St. Anthony's Medical Center in Rockford, IL. While the ambulance left, Martin drove Kirsten and I to the hospital while Mike and Jordan loaded up the RV and proceeded to the hospital behind us. When we arrived, they said MedFlight had just arrived like two minutes before us, which confused me because we drove 67 miles to get to Rockford. They said they had problems incubating him at the MedFlight site so it took them longer than anticipated. We waited while they did their initial work and then the doctor came and got us. We had a wonderful lady dr. from out east and she was very aggressive in her care for Ryan, which we are very thankful for! She showed us the CT scan and explained that he was in a very serious accident and had a lot of head trauma/bleeding. In addition, he also has three breaks in his back on the T7, T8 and T9 bones (T4 is like bra strap line so just below that). She said she was going to be very aggressive in his care to make sure he had the best chance possible of recovering. By then, Mike and Jordan had arrived so they came back by us to go in and see Ryan. That was soooo hard to see him laying there with a breathing tube, neck support, iv's all over, and people scattering everywhere to take care of him. He was obviously unconscious and had been since his crash. We did talk to him and the staff was very good and understanding. They did two more ct scans after that to make sure they weren't missing anything. It was funny because his lady dr. said she was gonna keep ordering ct scans to make 100% sure nothing was missed and evidentally the neurosurgeon thought two was enough so she kept saying she was having a "pissing match" with him...as she explained out east that means a little disagreement but it did make us chuckle. They ended up putting a "bolt" in his head to monitor his ICP ((inner cranial pressure). This number can not go above 20 for any length of time. If it does, they give him a med that acts like a dieuretic for his brain. The worst case scenario was if they couldn't control the pressure, they would have to do brain surgery to relieve it but so far so good! As I am writing this, it is Tuesday night so I'm a little behind so hope it doesn't confuse you. They also put an arterial line in his thumb and a Pic line in his vein to avoid having to put so many IVs in him and to make it easier to get blood samples. They thought he may have a ruptured spleen but that ended up being okay and they could tell that from the blood counts. His ICP counts on Sunday were high teens but it did get into the mid 20s so they had to give him the med to get it down. Monday was a good day as far as the ICP...he kept it between 6-12 most of the day except about a 3-4 hour span where it was 14-18 but that was very good...we were happy with that! That was also the day that he showed movement on his left side when they let him out of sedation a little. He is not showing movement on his right side at this time but they said he may need therapy to gain that back. When they told him to hold up two fingers he moved four but something is better than nothing (and leave it to him to not listen...ha ha I think he just wants the cute nurses to come back and ask again!) They said to do a thumbs up and he moved it a little but they didn't get a thumbs up yet. He did show movement in his feet and toes so that is good. They let him come out of sedation a little multiple times a day to see how he reacts and if he can follow orders and then he is sedated again. He has not opened his eyes since the accident and has a breathing tube so he can't talk. They said his speech will most likely be affected by this injury but we don't know to what extent until he wakes up. Today (Tuesday) was a rough day for him. Unfortunately it was nursing student day at the hospital so we had a student as well as his normal awesome nurse, Courtney. The student I think was excited to feel important or something because she wouldn't leave him alone...she always had to be doing something which made his ICP go drastically up. Then she forgot to turn the machine on to suck the stomach acid out and he got VERY irritable and was trying to sit up, move, etc. which shouldn't be because he is supposed to be sedated. He does have his arms secured to the bed for his safety (and theirs---they said he will throw a mean left hook if allowed!) From his activity, his ICP hit an all time high of 30 so I flipped and said that the nursing students are not allowed to care for him any more! The main reason is these first three days are so extremely critical and I'm not willing to put Ryan's future in the hands of a nursing student! I understand they have to learn, but not on the most critical patients and maybe job shadow...not take over because if you even move his arm fast, his ICP goes up immediately. Ryan got a lot of ecards today so I read them to him....I know he can hear me but can't respond. I will read continuously to him until he can read them himself! I told the nurse she better fill her printer because there's going to be a lot more coming! The MX Community is wonderful and very supportive when a rider is down, and he has many friends and family that care for him. The nurse advised us to give him a break and let him rest because his numbers were inconsistent today so we went and grabbed a bite to eat. When we came back, she said she gave him the meds to make his ICP numbers come down as they were lingering around 20-22 which is too high. When we got back, his ICP was 11-14 range which is better...lets just hope it stays that way! They said that by tomorrow night (Wednesday), most of the bleeding/swelling "should" be (not guaranteed) maxed out so lets just pray we get through that time frame without any problems! He will most likely be in Neuro ICU for two weeks minimum. It sounds like after 10 days or so, they may have to put a tracheotemy in because his breathing tube can't be in any longer than that. I sure hope he can surprise them and maybe breathe on his own but they don't want him to have labored breathing because it will mess up his ICP again so its sort of a catch 22. They started him on some food through his IV today and he seemed to tolerate it so that's good! The head doctor said he will probably need a feeding tube at some point but I don't care if I have to go to Culvers every day, I am really hoping he can eat on his own! I can't imagine a "Cox" that doesn't eat---who ever heard of that? I also started a Journal for Ryan today to write every day of how his day went and what events took place so hopefully he can read it when this is all over. Plus he will have this website and guestbook to look at when he feels up to it!
I also wanted to say a little bit about Jordan. After Ryan's crash, Jordan was the one standing over him as he layed there unconscious struggling to breathe saying "It's okay Ryan...its gonna be okay" Jordan rode Kirstens bike back to the RV and walked all the way back to the top of the hill to be with Ryan. He was the strength to keep Mike focused while he was driving the RV an hour to the hospital wondering if Ryan was going to make it or not. Jordan chose to go home and go to school Monday which is probably best and will keep his mind occupied. It is sooo hard not being able to be there for him but Grandma is spoiling him I'm sure! We are sooo proud of Jordan handling this the way he did. As much as you keep Ryan in your thoughts, I hope you keep Jordan too! Its got to be hard being 15 and the rest of your immediate family is at a hospital over 2 hours away so we can't see him. I'm very thankful Jordan has his band to keep him busy...Lord knows he has coupon books to sell!!!! I just am soooo proud of Jordan and appreciate all he has done and is doing!!! Love you Jordy!
I am going to go in and sit by Ryan now and tell him what we posted for him! I will post again tomorrow night!:) Thank you all for caring and praying for Ryan! We love you all!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 8:13 PM, CST
On Sunday, November 8, Ryan was in a motocross accident. He was taken by ambulance to Mt. Carroll, IL, then transported via MedFlight to St. Anthony's Medical Center in Rockford, IL. While the ambulance left, Martin drove Kirsten and I to the hospital while Mike and Jordan loaded up the RV and proceeded to the hospital behind us. When we arrived, they said MedFlight had just arrived like two minutes before us, which confused me because we drove 67 miles to get to Rockford. They said they had problems incubating him at the MedFlight site so it took them longer than anticipated. We waited while they did their initial work and then the doctor came and got us. We had a wonderful lady dr. from out east and she was very aggressive in her care for Ryan, which we are very thankful for! She showed us the CT scan and explained that he was in a very serious accident and had a lot of head trauma/bleeding. In addition, he also has three breaks in his back on the T7, T8 and T9 bones (T4 is like bra strap line so just below that). She said she was going to be very aggressive in his care to make sure he had the best chance possible of recovering. By then, Mike and Jordan had arrived so they came back by us to go in and see Ryan. That was soooo hard to see him laying there with a breathing tube, neck support, iv's all over, and people scattering everywhere to take care of him. He was obviously unconscious and had been since his crash. We did talk to him and the staff was very good and understanding. They did two more ct scans after that to make sure they weren't missing anything. It was funny because his lady dr. said she was gonna keep ordering ct scans to make 100% sure nothing was missed and evidentally the neurosurgeon thought two was enough so she kept saying she was having a "pissing match" with him...as she explained out east that means a little disagreement but it did make us chuckle. They ended up putting a "bolt" in his head to monitor his ICP ((inner cranial pressure). This number can not go above 20 for any length of time. If it does, they give him a med that acts like a dieuretic for his brain. The worst case scenario was if they couldn't control the pressure, they would have to do brain surgery to relieve it but so far so good! As I am writing this, it is Tuesday night so I'm a little behind so hope it doesn't confuse you. They also put an arterial line in his thumb and a Pic line in his vein to avoid having to put so many IVs in him and to make it easier to get blood samples. They thought he may have a ruptured spleen but that ended up being okay and they could tell that from the blood counts. His ICP counts on Sunday were high teens but it did get into the mid 20s so they had to give him the med to get it down. Monday was a good day as far as the ICP...he kept it between 6-12 most of the day except about a 3-4 hour span where it was 14-18 but that was very good...we were happy with that! That was also the day that he showed movement on his left side when they let him out of sedation a little. He is not showing movement on his right side at this time but they said he may need therapy to gain that back. When they told him to hold up two fingers he moved four but something is better than nothing (and leave it to him to not listen...ha ha I think he just wants the cute nurses to come back and ask again!) They said to do a thumbs up and he moved it a little but they didn't get a thumbs up yet. He did show movement in his feet and toes so that is good. They let him come out of sedation a little multiple times a day to see how he reacts and if he can follow orders and then he is sedated again. He has not opened his eyes since the accident and has a breathing tube so he can't talk. They said his speech will most likely be affected by this injury but we don't know to what extent until he wakes up. Today (Tuesday) was a rough day for him. Unfortunately it was nursing student day at the hospital so we had a student as well as his normal awesome nurse, Courtney. The student I think was excited to feel important or something because she wouldn't leave him alone...she always had to be doing something which made his ICP go drastically up. Then she forgot to turn the machine on to suck the stomach acid out and he got VERY irritable and was trying to sit up, move, etc. which shouldn't be because he is supposed to be sedated. He does have his arms secured to the bed for his safety (and theirs---they said he will throw a mean left hook if allowed!) From his activity, his ICP hit an all time high of 30 so I flipped and said that the nursing students are not allowed to care for him any more! The main reason is these first three days are so extremely critical and I'm not willing to put Ryan's future in the hands of a nursing student! I understand they have to learn, but not on the most critical patients and maybe job shadow...not take over because if you even move his arm fast, his ICP goes up immediately. Ryan got a lot of ecards today so I read them to him....I know he can hear me but can't respond. I will read continuously to him until he can read them himself! I told the nurse she better fill her printer because there's going to be a lot more coming! The MX Community is wonderful and very supportive when a rider is down, and he has many friends and family that care for him. The nurse advised us to give him a break and let him rest because his numbers were inconsistent today so we went and grabbed a bite to eat. When we came back, she said she gave him the meds to make his ICP numbers come down as they were lingering around 20-22 which is too high. When we got back, his ICP was 11-14 range which is better...lets just hope it stays that way! They said that by tomorrow night (Wednesday), most of the bleeding/swelling "should" be (not guaranteed) maxed out so lets just pray we get through that time frame without any problems! He will most likely be in Neuro ICU for two weeks minimum. It sounds like after 10 days or so, they may have to put a tracheotemy in because his breathing tube can't be in any longer than that. I sure hope he can surprise them and maybe breathe on his own but they don't want him to have labored breathing because it will mess up his ICP again so its sort of a catch 22. They started him on some food through his IV today and he seemed to tolerate it so that's good! The head doctor said he will probably need a feeding tube at some point but I don't care if I have to go to Culvers every day, I am really hoping he can eat on his own! I can't imagine a "Cox" that doesn't eat---who ever heard of that? I also started a Journal for Ryan today to write every day of how his day went and what events took place so hopefully he can read it when this is all over. Plus he will have this website and guestbook to look at when he feels up to it!
I also wanted to say a little bit about Jordan. After Ryan's crash, Jordan was the one standing over him as he layed there unconscious struggling to breathe saying "It's okay Ryan...its gonna be okay" Jordan rode Kirstens bike back to the RV and walked all the way back to the top of the hill to be with Ryan. He was the strength to keep Mike focused while he was driving the RV an hour to the hospital wondering if Ryan was going to make it or not. Jordan chose to go home and go to school Monday which is probably best and will keep his mind occupied. It is sooo hard not being able to be there for him but Grandma is spoiling him I'm sure! We are sooo proud of Jordan handling this the way he did. As much as you keep Ryan in your thoughts, I hope you keep Jordan too! Its got to be hard being 15 and the rest of your immediate family is at a hospital over 2 hours away so we can't see him. I'm very thankful Jordan has his band to keep him busy...Lord knows he has coupon books to sell!!!! I just am soooo proud of Jordan and appreciate all he has done and is doing!!! Love you Jordy!
I am going to go in and sit by Ryan now and tell him what we posted for him! I will post again tomorrow night!:) Thank you all for caring and praying for Ryan! We love you all!
