Accidents and hospitals... part 2

After what seemed like an eternity we made it to the hospital. The word before we got there was that they were keeping him overnight and he would go home the next day. If only that had been true.

We ran into the emergency room to a sea of familiar faces. Buffy, Tracy, Stetson, Maverick, Caitlyn's mom and sister and my brother were there. I gave Garrett a hug and then went to see Jace. They only allowed one person in to visit at a time. They had him on some pretty serious medication so he was a little bit out of it in la la land. He wanted me to look at his injury so I did, because that's what mom's do. He babbled about things that were important, and things that weren't so important. He told me that I had to do his laundry now. And he was worried about work, and who was going to finish the tiling job he had to do.

They told us that he would be going to the operating room very soon, the doctor was just getting ready. He hadn't had a pulse in his foot for an hour or more and they checked the pressure and told us that he had to have the surgery immediately or risk losing his foot. At the time they were telling me all kinds of medical terms and reasons why, but it pretty much went over my head. Just that the pressure was too great in the leg, and that there was no place for it to go without cutting off the oxygen supply to his foot and damaging the arteries and nerves. They performed a four-compartment fasciotomy... basically it was a 10 or so inch incision on both sides of his calf. He was in horrible pain and I hated seeing him suffering that way. It's funny how they can be grown men, and still a mom would do anything to take away that pain! Monday was all about trying to control the pain that was completely out of control at this point. Changing the dressing proved to be even worse.

Thayne, Garrett and Tiffany were leaving for home on Monday morning. Thayne kept telling me he didn't want to leave me because it always seemed like he left me to something bad. I hoped that wasn't going to happen this time.... it seemed like as soon as he left last year when Nate was in the hospital that some sort of scary emergency happened. It was horrible to watch the dressing being changed but I figured if that was the worst, I could handle it.

Tuesday morning I woke up before my alarm went off. Caitlyn, her sister Jenna and I would be sharing a hotel room but they stayed with their dad that night. As I woke up I started praying. Praying that the swelling and pressure would be reduced and that they would be able to close the incisions... they didn't think they would be able to. I prayed that he would be able to heal quickly and that it wouldn't be as horrible as they thought it would be. I had no sooner said Amen and I got a text from Jace asking where I was, telling me that he got up to go to the bathroom and started bleeding... BAD! He said the nurse was freaking out, and that they were calling the doctors. Then he texted me that it was bad! By now I am shaking and scared and called Thayne. It was very early. I told Thayne that I needed him to talk me through this and to call Jace and talk to him while I got ready and got to the hospital. All day we waited.... his foot sweeling was getting worse by the minute and the doctors were in and out telling us that he would likely need surgery again to find out what was bleeding. One artery was severed with the gunshot wound but they said the other two were okay so they didn't reconstruct the artery during the initial surgery. That was a horrible day. Jace was in so much pain and it was a miserable day for everyone. By late afternoon they decided to take him to surgery immediately.... and as usual, immediately in the hospital means whenever they finally get around to it.