Changing Tides

Over the past few days, I've had some time to contemplate on how quickly life can change.  It all started on Sunday, around noon, when we got a call from Jodie's mom.  Within 5 hours of that call, we had Jodie and Joseph in Phoenix on an airplane heading to Salt Lake City.  Jodie's brother, Chad, had been in a rock climbing accident and fell over 40, breaking his wrist, ankle, and a lumbar vertebrae; for how bad his injuries were, he is doing remarkably well right now.

On Saturday, Chad and his climbing buddy were down in St. George, getting ready for a rather extensive rock climb.  In order to get into position for their big climb, they had a do a smaller climb.  As they got started, they soon found themselves in the wrong path.  While attempting to get back on track, the rock holding Chad's anchor cracked and Chad fell over 40 feet to the ground.  After attending to Chad's immediate needs, his climbing buddy ran over an hour to get help.  After help arrived, they had to wait through the rest of the night before they could even start to evacuate him, which proved to be an extremely slow and arduous process.  Ultimately, just over 24 hours had passed by before Chad had even gotten to the hospital in St. George.

Once Chad got to the hospital, the initial evaluation showed that he miraculously not sustain any neurological damage with his fractured vertebrae.  Also, x-rays showed that his wrist and ankle had been badly fractured.  Planning for the needed surgeries and an extended recovery, Chad was flown to Utah Valley Medical Center in Provo, UT.  Jodie and Joseph were the first to arrive in Provo to be with Chad.  They were joined a few hours later by her other brother, Shaun, and his family; they hopped on the first flight out of Florida.  Lastly, Jodie's parents arrived early Monday morning after driving 5 hours following their flight from Honolulu to Las Vegas.  As an outside observer, I am thoroughly amazed and impressed by how quickly this family came together from across the country to support Chad; all of them arrived in Provo before his first surgery.

So far, Chad has had two very successful surgeries.  The first priority was to stabilize the fractured vertebrae.  The surgery went very well on Monday early afternoon.  As of right now, they are planning that he'll wear a turtle shell brace for 6-8 months and he'll be as good as new.  The second surgery was today on his left wrist and it had been fractured worse than they had initially expected from the x-rays.  However, a rod and 10 screws later, his wrist is set to start the healing process.  The current scans of his ankle are indicating that he shouldn't need surgery, just a cast/boot.

While his injuries are serious and he has a long road ahead of him, Chad is doing remarkably well.  His spirits are high and he remains very positive despite some rather excruciating pain in his wrist.  While his current condition is nothing short of miraculous, we are definitely not out of the woods yet.  For being in the elements so long after the accident, one of the main concerns right now is the risk of pneumonia; which, in a best case scenario, is a very serious complication for his recovery.  Accordingly, he is being forced to perform respiratory exercises and monitored very carefully.  Additionally, to help prevent the development of blood clots, he is going to be pushed to "walk" as is humanly possible.  For at least the next 8 weeks, this will require the use of a walker given condition of his wrist and ankle.  Currently, Chad is expected to have extremely limited mobility for the next 2-3 months and full recovery between 6 months to a year.

While nobody ever wishes for such accidents to happen, we find ourselves extremely blessed for how things have happened.  First and foremost, if Chad hadn't been wearing a helmet or been in the shape that he was, he wouldn't be with us today.  Secondly, if Chad didn't have such a devoted and well-prepared climbing buddy and friend, he probably wouldn't have made it either.  Lastly, without the skill and care of the rescuers and hospital staff in St. George, Chad would likely have little hope of being able to walk again.  So, while we have a long road to recovery looming ahead of us, we consider ourselves very fortunate and extremely blessed.