So Sunday was a great day! I was able to travel 77 miles to Springfield to meet with April Garrett and Shawna Cunninngham. They are related to 18-year old Luke that in May had an auto accident where the truck flipped six times and he was ejected from the vehicle. He broke C5-C6, torn arota, crushed his face, ribs, lungs, pelvic bone, had a bleed in the brain, and even more injuries. He has been in the Springfield hospital but the end of this week he will be moved to the St. Louis hospital where he will be treated for his jaw and begin therapy.
His family was told that there was no need to repair his injuries because he would not make it. They gave him a week to live and when he made it that long they gave him a little ore time. Now it's been three months and all they have done is put a cage around his C5-C6 injury. Now his jaws has healed wrong so they will have to go back in and rebreak the bones to set them. He was on a ventilator for a while but now he's completely off of it! He's gotten decent shoulder muscles and even some wrist movement back already. At my three month period I was only at moving my arms, one finger and possibly some slight wrist movement. It's odd because I was always told that my functions had came in backwards.
I had a blast meeting his family and I hope to do it again real sure. Prayers for Luke's Facebook
We sat and talked about four hours straight! It was surprising that only one to truly cry was my mom though Shawna started to when we introduced our-self. I am very glad that I will now have other people besides my mom to talk to about the tough stuff I cannot talk to my mom about. It's just nice to have someone in a similar situation to relate too. I would not wish a spinal cord injury on anyone much less their family's. I could relate to April a lot, she's only nine years older than I am and we have similar taste. She's a photographer which is one thing that I want to learn to do! I told her maybe one day when we were up there I could be her Barbie doll for the day and she could take some photos. I think that would be a good time for both of us. I'm trying to become a model but I haven't been able to reach any photography places near me to start building my portfolio.
So much has been going on I've had just a million things going though my brain. I need to shut it off every once and a while it might help me get one thing finished before another idea pops into my brain. I've write a lot compared to my usual post but anyway. Please say a prayer for me, Luke and his family!
-A