When I saw the WordPress weekly photo challenge theme on Friday morning, I knew right away what my pick would be. Since my five-year old loves to draw so much, I recently signed him up for sketching classes and the first class was last Thursday afternoon. His comment about the first class: “That was SO MUCH fun!” The teacher showed the kids how to draw simple pictures step by step using a wonderful book (yet it’s out of print) called “Build a Doodle“. They drew outlines for eight items during the class and the teacher encouraged them to color them at home. Here are two of the drawings my son drew. Simple, yet lovely. I’m a proud mama.
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Simple
But then on Friday afternoon I got one of those calls that changes it all. The call that makes the world collapse like a deck of cards around you. My husband went skiing over two hours away from our house that day. He had a very bad fall and suffered a traumatic brain injury (thank god for his helmet). He was airlifted to the nearest hospital and stabilized. We spent half the day Saturday in the car to go see him, although the kids had to stay in the waiting room as kids weren’t allowed in the intensive care unit. I quickly realized he wasn’t well physically and mentally. I requested him to be transferred to our hospital close to home and got my request fulfilled on Sunday night. He’ll hopefully get all the physical and cognitive therapy he needs over the next weeks (or months) to recover. Fingers crossed.
The hospital wanted me to take some of his belongings so I left with his cut-up clothes, his watch and his wedding ring. A simple wedding ring, in a simple plastic bag. Yet a constant reminder that my husband is in the hospital instead of at home with us.
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Simple
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Perfecting Motherhood 
I hope everything is going to be okay for you all. Do you have family and friends who can help with childcare and things?
Not really. We have friends that can help out with the kids for a couple of hours but no family to actually be at home with them and help out. That’s the part that sucks. I can handle being by myself and the kids every day, but having to deal with a medical emergency on top of it makes things really difficult. My husband is seeing a lot of specialists today and I hope they can get him into an inpatient rehab center so he can have all the therapy he needs. We’ll see.
I hope it goes well. You are all in my prayers.
Thank you for your support, Tilly.
Hey!
I’m so sorry about your husband being hospitalized..but I don’t want you to worry! Everything in our lives happen for a reason. And we have to trust in our hearts that it’s for the best. Maybe he fell from that exact spot so that he won’t continue climbing to the next one, where he might have had a much more deadly fall (thank God he’s OK).
I’ll pray for him to come back to his lovely family soon and for you to hang in there and be the strong, kind, active mother that we all got to know hun :)
Thanks for your support. We can use all the positive thoughts and good wishes out there. Things could have been a lot, lot worse and my husband is lucky to be alive and walking away with “only” a brain injury.
Oh, I am so sorry to hear about his accident. Fingers crossed that he makes a full and speedy recovery. I hope you can find another mom to watch the kids for you a few hours a week so you can have a breather.
And your son’s drawing is SUPERB!!!!
I’m really proud of my little man and I’m glad he’s enjoying the class.
My kids are in school several hours a day so it gives me time to visit my husband, especially since he’s finally back in San Diego. The doctors seem to think he’s not eligible for inpatient rehab center because he’s too well physically (I guess walking for 2 minutes with a walker was enough to disqualify him, go figure) so he’ll probably have to do daily all-day rehab after he leaves the hospital. I really hope he improves before he leaves because I don’t feel comfortable being responsible for him at home yet.
I may be over a thousand miles away in traveling time…but my heart is with you right at this minute. :)
When my husband was 36 and our 3 children were very small, he had a massive heart attack. He survived, but thought he would never pick them up or play ball with them or watch them grow. He is 66 now…and although he has had 3 more heart attacks in the ensuing years (his 3rd a month before our daughter’s wedding), he did play ball with them, was at every high school and college graduation and danced at our daughter’s wedding after walking her down the aisle.
I agree with the comment above…everything does happen for a reason…this crazy journey we call life can lead us a merry dance…and sometimes not so merry…but like the song says…just dance!
Prayers of healing for your husband and of courage for you to
find the strength to do what needs to be done.
You know, as a mother of two boys, I’ve thought many times what would happened if my husband passed away, and what would happen to us. And in my mind, I always found peace of mind and thought things would be OK eventually. But I never imagined what it would be like if I got seriously injured and I’d have to take care of him as well as the boys. We had a rough 2011 medically and in other ways so I really was waiting for a break in 2012. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Argh…
Oh, I do feel for you. I hope all goes well and that your husband improves quickly.
Thank you, I do hope so too.
Hey,
I’m glad he’s been transfered now and it’s easier for you to visit. I’ve been thinking about you a lot…
We’ve had medical emergencies too, and had to drag the kids along due to having no one to look after them. It’s bad enough going to the emergency without worrying about/running back and forth to your kids. Hospitals should really be better equipped for these kind of situations. At one, the kids slept on the floor in the corridor (it was during the night) and I felt sick to my stomach seeing them lying there.
I hope you get a lot more support in the coming days and your load will be lightened.
I think you’ve been through a really difficult time of late. I know how much you were looking forward to the New Year and a fresh start. I really hope this is a glitch (a rather big glitch) and that you have a lot of positive stuff ahead of you.
On that note, that picture is AMAZING. You have every right to be a proud Mama!!!
I can’t wait to see what my son gets to draw in tomorrow’s class…
Thanks for being so understanding. I have nobody here who can (or will honestly offer to) stay at home with the kids for an extended amount of time so they’ve had to come along. But they were very happy to see their dad in the hospital and I think it’s important they see each other every day. Looks like my husband is coming out of the hospital tomorrow (Thursday) so I really hope I get help soon.
I had missed this until now – how horribly shocking for you.
‘Brain injured’ can cover a huge range of problems. how seriously is he affected? Is he speaking and communicating with you OK? Is his memory OK?
Although it feels scary to have the responsibility of his care at home, home is often the best place for proper recover, especially if he can then have structured physio and other therapy to aid in the recovery process.
I hope the discharge home goes well xx
He came back home tonight and seemed quite restless trying to go to sleep (the nurse warned me he would be). He’s taking meds to help with that but they clearly don’t work perfectly. He’s also on anti-seizure meds, just in case. He’s been improving every day so this is good news. He can walk on his own but has poor balance and his judgement abilities are very impaired, so he’s a danger to himself. He’ll get all day rehab when he’s ready to put up with 6 hours of daily physical and cognitive therapy. Until then, he’ll get therapy at home, so I can’t complain. His speech improves every day but cognitively he needs a lot of help. I’m not too worried about the physical part as I see improvement every day. His father is arriving tomorrow so he’ll help out with his care. I need to take the kids to do something fun this weekend. They’ve had way too much time at home doing nothing, in the car and in hospitals this past week. We need a change of venue for everyone’s sanity!
How is he reacting to you?
He’s OK, mostly compliant but often unsafe to himself. Last night was horrendous because he kept tossing around, sitting up, standing up, not even knowing why, so we both slept very poorly. We now having relaxing pills (for him, but I sure could use one!) so hopefully tonight will be better.
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I just discovered your blog through the weekly photo challenge. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult things are for you at the moment (and I hope there has been some improvement since this was written). My husband had a triple by-pass a couple of years ago at the age of 42 and it was a horrible time. Health problems of any sort put enormous pressure on a family, emotionally and financially. Hang in there I’m sure you are doing a great job! Try to find strength from somewhere and hopefully each day will see improvements for you and your husband.
Thank you so much for your support! A brain injury has many consequences on someone’s body: physical, cognitive and even psychological. I could have handled one or two aspects “easily” but three of them is very draining. It’s been almost a month since the accident and we’re looking at another month of rehab and rest and hopefully the recovery will be almost complete.
Just found you via Shambolic Living and wanted to be sure to take a moment to send my warmest wishes to you and your family as your husband recovers from what sounds like a very scary accident.
Thank you for your kind wishes. It looks like it will take another four weeks of rehab/recovery but at least we’re on the right track. There’s something to be said about avoidable accidents that would make life easier for many of us. ;-)