Road to Recovery

First of all, thanks to everyone for the continued prayers and support.  There is no doubt in my mind that this road to recovery would not have been as “successful” as it has been without your love and prayers. Thank you everyone!

Yesterday we saw the Neurologist and there weren’t any surprises, really.  Time apparently is the best medicine for a brain injury (concussion & post concussion syndrom). However, I’m relying on God’s healing power and provision. Whether He chooses to heal my brain in 2 hours or 2 months is completely up to Him…thankfully!  Here are the big take-aways from yesterday’s appointment:

1. A little more than 2 weeks before I can return to work. A follow-up appointment was scheduled for Feb 13th @ 9am at which point in time I should be released to return to work. I’m definitely hoping and praying for a return by then!
2. Within that 2 week window I should have 6 physical therapy appointments. The focus of the therapy will be working on my balance and overall physical strength. Please join us in praying that the PT will get resolved. Workman’s comp wanted us to go to a PT 1+ hour away, 3 times a week for 2 weeks. My wife and our amazing church are working on getting this resolved today and things do look optimistic but prayers in this specific area are appreciated.
3. Additional medications were prescribed to help me with insomnia, severe headache, and soreness and stiffness in my neck.  The pain meds have done their part consistently with managing the headache over the past 4-5 days. The insomnia is a little different story as some nights are good and some nights aren’t, but there doesn’t seem to be much consistency here.
4. Bottom line, it will take TIME.  Again, I’ll take TIME as a side dish to GOD working this all out!

I’m really missing being at work. Not much I can do about that right now but it has been a great reminder how much I love what I do and the joy God gives me in ministering to and with teenagers. Grace Fellowship Church is an amazing place to serve and I’m so grateful to God’s calling that led us here and the amazing family that they are. Now that I’m becoming a little more alert and able to process information I’m looking forward to dream, vision and strategize Student Ministry. It will at least help me feel a little closer to working with teens again.

Praying towards the day that God fully restores me!

What happened?

Well, I don’t entirely know…

It’s been a little over a week since I busted my head against the floor of our church and received what the ER doctor called a TBI (traumatic brain injury).  Apparently that’s what it’s called when you get a concussion with short term amnesia and have symptoms stemming from post concussion syndrom.  Sounds pretty intense? Well it has been, to say the least.  I can’t remember anything that happened last Wednesday night from about 3 hours leading up to the head injury until Thursday afternoon. I told you it was pretty intense.

Wednesday night after busting my head one of our adult leaders (a medic and Army Ranger) checked me out and brought me home. Shortly after my wife took me to the ER where I received 2 staples to the back of my head and a CT scan before being sent home. I displayed emotions from complete confusion, fear, panic, and stress. Again, I have no recollection of this but it’s how it has been explained to me since.

Thursday morning everything felt like a bad dream and I woke up experiencing the same emotions and intense head ache and lots of pain. As I gained a little awareness of what was going on (still having zero recollection of the night before) my wife, Neva, brought me downstairs to watch TV for a little bit. The running joke since then is despite being COMPLETELY out of it I could still recall what channel ESPN was…13.  My emotional roller coaster took an insane turn toward everything being hysterical. I laughed, uncontrollably, at anything and everything. After calling our family doctor we headed back to the ER for more tests.

This ER visit included another CT scan, an MRI, removing the staples before the MRI (that could have been crazy), x-rays of my neck and lower back, plenty of observation and cognitive tests, and even more emotions. Apparently I got a a little belligerent for a short while, but it was thankfully trumped by my vast amount of uncontrollable laughter. We were sent home after everything came back “fine” to begin the slow road to recovery.

Tuesday we went in to see a doctor for follow-up and he seemed cautiously optimistic. He was pleased by the amount of progress I had made in 5 days but let us know it would probably be 2-4 weeks before I returned to normal. Evidently he doesn’t know I’ve never been normal so if he can accomplish this he’ll make medical history. Physical therapy is in  my near future to regain more balance control as well as PT for my neck and back pain.  His biggest message to me, “Take it slow!” He prescribed a better pain killer than I got from the ER and some sleeping pills since insomnia is one of the many symptoms of post concussion syndrom. I’m not allowed to return to work yet it seems he will take that week-to-week for the time being.

That’s the summary to date of what’s been going on since receiving my concussion. I plan to share more insights and what I’ve learned from this experience when I am able to gather my thoughts with a little more clarity. However, I would be remiss if I at least didn’t share this…

My recovery seems to be going very well to this point, in large part (or exclusively) due to the amount of prayer our family has received from so many people: our family and friends, our church family at Grace Fellowship Church (who have also been providing meals for our family – a HUGE blessing!), our former church family of Northern Hills in Colorado, our Dare 2 Share family, and the most amazing bunch of Youth Workers I am blessed to know: the IT3 team of Group/SYMC.  My wife: the care I have received from this most amazing woman of God has made my road to recovery comfortable and encouraging. She is a wonderful woman! I am 100% convinced that I wouldn’t have made the progress I have made in the past week had it not been for the prayers, the care, and the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.

THANK YOU ALL, ON BEHALF OF MY FAMILY, AND FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!