Nightmare on Christmas Eve

So, as detailed in my last "word" post, I was looking forward to wrapping presents, being off for a few days for the holidays and most of all, SLEEPING IN! As I saw it, my only day to sleep in was on Christmas Eve morning, until my busy boys awoke. Well, as some of you know, my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day plans, for that matter were pretty much derailed very early Christmas Eve morning.

Shane had to work that morning from 6am to 2pm and then once he got home, we were going to load up the boys and head for Nephi for our traditional Christmas Eve at Grandma Phyllis's. Shane kissed me good-bye and left for work at about 5am. I sort of remember him leaving and them I promptly went right back to sleep. I was trying to milk my one sleep-in day for all it was worth!

Some time later, someone knocked on my door. And oddly enough, my first thought was, "I think that's the mailman. I'm not getting up. He should just leave the package on the porch." The knocking was persistent and so I cracked one eye open and looked at the clock. 5:30am. Odd, I don't think the postman comes this early.

I staggered out of bed and down the stairs to the door. Standing on my porch was a Taylorsville City police officer. He asked me if I was Amy and if he could come in. Too stunned to blink, let alone speak, I nodded and motioned up the stairs. He asked me if Shane was my husband. That immediately woke me up. I said yes and asked if he was okay. The officer was far ahead of me at that point, reassuring me that he was okay. He asked where Shane was going and if his "normal route" to work was east on Twilight Drive. Then he asked if Shane had a medical condition. My heart immediately sank as he told me the bad news.

Shortly after leaving for work, Shane had had a seizure and lost control of the car just east of 4000 West and had gone through a fence and hit a house.

He reassured me again that Shane was okay, that he was awake, he did have some injuries, but they seemed fairly minor and the paramedics wanted to get a confirmation that he did have a medical condition. They were taking him by ambulance to IMC. He asked if I was okay and if there were any children home. I told him yes, but that my in-laws didn't live far and I could call them to come over. The nice officer left and I started making calls. I woke up Shane's parents, woke up my parents as I tried to throw on some clothes and think of anything I would need to take to the hospital.

I left the house as quickly as I could, knowing that I would pass the scene of the accident on my way to the hospital. I wasn't sure what to expect, other than lots of flashing lights. It was a shock to see the scene and know that my husband had survived it:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5159121

I arrived at IMC and after a short wait, I was taken back to the trauma room where they had Shane. It was a little surreal being there. The doctors were there talking amongst themselves like they do. They let me come to the head of the bed and hold his hand and talk to him. At that moment, I think we were just so glad to see each other that not much else mattered. The trauma nurse gave me a bit of an update while I held Shane's hand. So far, all the x-rays had come back negative, the head CT scan was negative, they had pulled some glass out of his eye and were at that point, waiting for the eye/plastic surgeon to come in and take a look at him.

After a few hours in the ER, most of it spent watching the very talented Dr. Georgescu sew up Shane's forehead and left eyelid, they moved him upstairs to a room on the eleventh floor. Dr. Georgescu had placed a patch on Shane's left eye because he did have a scratch on his cornea and he wanted the sutures on the eyelid to be protected at leasted overnight.

Initially in the ER they assured us that they would probably just keep Shane in the hospital until that afternoon or evening and then let me take him home. After the nurses got him all settled into bed and everything they told us the bad news: because Shane had hit his head, he had to stay overnight in the hospital for observation. They would check on him in the morning and after Dr. Georgescu came in and removed his patch, they would let him go home.

Luckily, my in-laws had the boys and assured me that they were fine and to just come and get them when I could. I stayed with Shane most of the day and finally, around 7:30pm I knew I had to go get the boys and go home. After all, it was Christmas Eve and Jaxton was expecting Santa to come! Even though I knew I had to take care of my boys, it was so hard to leave my husband in that hospital bed and go home.

The next morning, the boys woke up and instead of opening presents right then, we got dressed I took the boys back to Grandma's. I had to go try to spring my husband! After about a two-hour wait, Dr. Georgescu arrived to give us the final go-ahead to leave. He would have been there much sooner, but he had been told the night before that we had gone home!! But he did arrive to "de-patch" Shane and give us some final instructions so we could get home.

Finally, we arrived at Shane's parents' to enjoy our Christmas. The girls had arrived from their mom's and we could finally all relax.

It was most definitely not my ideal Christmas, but, as I reminded Shane many times during those two days and several times after, we were so lucky. It could have been so much worse. Shane had only minor injuries, no one in the house was hurt. Cars and houses and fences can be fixed, but my life doesn't work without him. And as hard as it was to be without him, I knew he would be there when I came back to that hospital room. And even now, three weeks later we still remind each other that things could always be worse.