Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Still Recovering...

Well, we are all still recovering from such an emotional weekend. My dad is feeling a lot better, but according to my mom he is looking worse. All of the bruises are starting to show up now, and he is a little more swollen. But he is okay, and home and that is the most important thing!

It's just the phone call you NEVER want to get. Mom checked her voice mail as we were leaving Sams on Saturday morning and it was the nurse from the hospital. All we knew for about 30 min to an hour was that he was in a car accident, unconscious, careflighted with head trauma. Mom and I hurried back to my house, threw stuff in our bags and headed to Ft. Worth. Kaitlyn was a little unsure of everything - she could tell something was wrong and started to get a little upset. I tried to calm down a little bit and just told her that Pappy wasn't feeling good and we were going to help him feel better. She just said, "Oh no! We have to go rescue him!" Sweet girl. She LOVES her Pappy.

Once we were on the road, we started calling people. My dad's brother was on his way - he lives in Ft. Worth, so we were ready for him to get there and give us more information. My mom's sister got there pretty quickly too. Every phone call we got after that got better. The cat scan came back clear, and he was starting to wake up and become more alert.

We were pretty nervous about seeing him once we finally got there. And while it could have been much worse, it was SO hard to see my dad like that. No one had bothered to "clean him up", and he still had not received stitches in his head. You can just picture what that looked like. When he saw mom and I, he just started crying. That's also something I'm not used to seeing.

I was VERY much surprised that they released him from the hospital that same night. I really wanted them to keep him overnight for observation, but they didn't think it was necessary. So, we all checked into a hotel. He got pretty sick once we got there, and that was scary. But it was just from taking the pain medication on an empty stomach.

So.. it was pretty much the longest day of my life. I've always thought my dad was invincible. Nothing can ever happen to him. This just really woke me up.

The next day he wanted to go back to the scene of the accident - that was weird. We also went to see the car so that he could try and get his things out of it. That was also a strange experience. All of the CD's were scattered around the car, they had put all of the wreckage in the back seat, you could see on the windshield where his head hit, we found a T-shirt of someone who had apparently stopped to help and wrap it around his head. The car was a total disaster, except for his Sonic cup that was still in the cup holder, and his glasses that didn't have a scratch on them and were still folded in the seat. Crazy!

Here is a picture of the front of the car:
















So, he is a lucky guy! He had a follow up appointment yesterday with his doctor back home. Things are looking better for him. Thanks for keeping him in your prayers!

6 comments:

Erica said...

I am so glad your Dad is doing better. Praise the Lord that he was able to go home with no major injuries. I know how scary that must have been. That is definitely the call no one wants to get ever. It was good to talk to you last night. We will continue to pray for a speedy recovery.

See you tonight! Kaylee is so excited about the trophys.

Unknown said...

Unbelievable. I am so thankful your dad is ok and on the road to recovery. What a wake-up call for us all! We'll keep praying for him and you guys.......

Hollie Reese said...

I am so thankful everything is okay. We will keep praying...

Shanta said...

Leslie-thanks for the updates. I can't imagine how scary that was for all of you. Keep dishing out that TLC and we wish him a speedy recovery.

courtney said...

Leslie, what a scary ordeal! I'm glad everything is fine now. Y'all are in our prayers!

Candy said...

I'm glad he's on the mend. How scary, for sure. Thank you, God, for holding Kaitlyn's Pappy safely in your arms. Continue to heal him - body, soul and spirit.