7.30.10

Larry is home from the hospital and he is, well... hurting to say the least. They had a block in his neck which numbed the right side of his body and now that it's out he has a lot of pain. He is really happy to be home though. We are thinking there are probably better days after this weekend.

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This is a photo at the Colorado hospital right after his accident. His friends wife was in there with him and she took the photo.

7.28.10

SURGERY:

Larry went in this morning at 5:30am it's about 9:30am here, and I just got a call from my mom, who just talked to the Doctor. They are just finishing his shoulder. He said everything went really well. It was extremely shattered and twisted, so they put in a few screws and a plate and then scoped everything to make sure it was put together well. He seemed really happy with it. They will move him into a room in a little while and he'll stay one night maybe two.

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Thank you all so much for your kind messages, phone calls, visits, prayers, emails. You are all so sweet.

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Now, he's officially on the road to recovery, yeah!

7.26.10

SURGERY WEDNESDAY:

They are going to do surgery first thing Wednesday morning. There is a young doctor who seems pretty confident in performing it. I guess they will go through the back of the shoulder instead of the front to avoid that nerve. He will be in the hospital overnight and home sometime Thursday.

7.24.10

Larry's side. This continues up under his arm but I didn't want him to hurt his shoulder to prove it. The grimace smile explains enough. Cute Chloe and Wyatt at our 24th of July BBQ Saturday night.

7.23.10

FRIDAY- SURGERY SCHEDULE:

Yesterday evening the shoulder Dr came over to the house. He sat down with a note pad and pen and showed us what Larry's shoulder now looks like. His shoulder blade is fractured in a few different places, with pieces of bone floating around. He said they won't do anything to this part of the shoulder, that it will have to heal on its own. The part that they are concerned about is where the shoulder fits into the socket. There is a piece in the shoulder called the glenoid, which is where the shoulder and the socket meet (kind of, hard to explain). This piece in Larry's shoulder is broken off and and also floating, twisted. So this is where it gets a little scary. In order to fix this they need to screw that piece back in place. The problem is that there is a nerve at the bottom of the shoulder socket that if it's tampered with it will cause permanent paralysis to his right arm. The Dr said to us that he doesn't know what they will do to fix it. He is going to meet with three other specialist this weekend and they are going to look at the xrays and get a plan to put this back together. Best case scenario is that they will start the surgery on Monday, but we won't know until Sunday night if that's for sure.

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The Dr said that he has never seen a break to the shoulder this bad. He also said that if he would have hit his head it would have been instant death, there is no way he would have survived a crash that hard to his neck or brain. We all felt a little sick to our stomachs to hear that.

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I'll post some pictures in the next day or so. He has some bruising that's pretty crazy.(!)

7.20.10

TUESDAY:

Dad, mom and Riley made it home about 7 last night. He said the car ride wasn't too bad and he was just really happy to be home. He is really swollen, I told him he looks like he gained 20 pounds. He's in a lot of pain. We set up a couch and footstool for him to sleep on in their room. I guess he has to sleep sitting up or awhile. I think the next step is to get some heart tests done and to schedule this surgery. He's hoping to do it as soon as possible so he can get on the road to recovery. Thanks for the emails and comments. He's very appreciative. Love to you all.

7.19.10

MONDAY MORNING:

I just spoke with my mom. She and Riley arrived about 7 pm last night. My dad was extremely happy to see them. Riley said the hospital is like a mountain retreat. He was wishing he could check into a room for a weekend getaway.

They are doing some final testing on Larry and are planning on sending him home this afternoon. They are still watching the enzymes in his bloodstream. They also are watching his oxygen levels. Sounds like they are assuming once the altitude level changes that they will be closer to normal. They are at 9,000 feet. I felt a little worried that they are releasing him while they are still watching all of these things, but my mom assured me that they will do a full analysis of his heart before they perform surgery on his shoulder next week.

7.18.10

SUNDAY

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Right now my mom and Riley are about two hours from Breckenridge, it'll take them about 61/2 hours to get there.

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I spoke to my dad earlier this afternoon. He explained to me what's going on. I guess he was going pretty fast, took a corner and the next thing he knew he was headed straight for a tree. He said it came so fast he didn't even touch his breaks. I guess that explains how his shoulder is so crushed. The Dr said you would have to hit extremely hard to break it the way he did. They now know that he also broke the bottom third of his shoulder socket, which means his shoulder won't fit back together. They will have to do surgery, but he will do it once he comes back home. They also can see some weird enzymes in his blood which indicates he bruised his heart pretty bad, so they are keeping him another night to check on that. They also want to keep him to check on that one lung. He's been doing certain breathing exercises to keep the water off his lungs so he doesn't get pneumonia. The Dr said that his one side (of his ribs) is really swollen, which is why the pain is bearable right now, I guess once the swelling goes down the pain will increase because there will be nothing there to support.

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If all goes well he will be able to come home tomorrow. My mom and Riley will drive him back.

7.17.10

STATUS ON LARRY: SATURDAY

Yesterday my dad and three other bike friends went to Breckinridge Colorado to ride in a mountain bike race. The race was today. It was 70 miles. I'm not exactly sure how many hours into the race he was, and I'm not exactly sure how the crash occurred, but he wrecked and hit a tree. I believe he then tumbled down a hill. He knew he was badly injured but had to walk out about 2 miles with bike (bike unharmed) until he reached an aide station. An ambulance took him to the hospital from there.

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We know that he has 7 broken ribs. He also completely shattered his scapula (shoulder blade.) He also did some damage to one of his lungs. They sent a photo of him in hospital and all of the skin is taken off his one shoulder from the tumble ( or tree?). They are going to have a specialist look at his shoulder to see if, and what, surgery needs to be done on his shoulder. They are going to watch him tonight to make sure his lung is OK as well. I believe in the morning they are going to test his breathing to see how long he needs to remain in the hospital. We will know in the morning if we have to take a trip out to Colorado to bring him home. We spoke to Mike Young (Dr) tonight and he said this is a horrendous injury. 7 broken ribs means basically no support on the one side. And a broken scapula is a long recovery. Pretty much this is going to be extremely painful.

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So we all are heart broken, he of course number one. He still wants to go to Leadville and we're all planning on going with him.

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Let you know when I have more info.

7.10.2010

Photos from Angels Landing

Swimming at the pool

Such a wonderful trip. Love to you all.