4 years (LONG POST)

Happy four years or life Josh!

Yes my husband is more than 4 years old, but it has been four wonderful years since God saved his life.

On June 25th, 2003 Josh and I went roller blading at a nearby park. The night before we had been shopping at Dick's and found a great deal on some K2 roller blades for him, I already owned some.

We made some last minute calls and found that my brother, although it was his birthday (Happy 23rd Birthday Jon!) was willing to babysit Merci so we could go roller blading on a beautiful evening.

We were having fun and laughing about the tight butt I would have if I kept roller blading all Summer, LOL. We the came to this big hill that lead down to Lake Erie. It was paved and people biked and walked it all of the time. Josh kinda looked at me like, should I. I don't quite remember too much but I remember him looking back at me like, Here I go. And the not so funny thing is I was thinking about how fun it looked and almost went too. And then I saw him collide with another person and fall. I kept looking down, thinking Ok get up already and then I heard someone yelling call 911 (our emergency #). I panicked and starting freaking out, I whipped my roller blades off and threw them, I ran down he hill as fast as I could possibly run. When I got down there, I asked someone what he looked like, before going near him. She told me there was blood all over, coming from his head. I was balling and in hysterics, yelling about how that was my husband and who knows what else. I went to him and held his head and was talking to him in his ear, which is when I realized he was foaming at the mouth and unconscious. I was relaying info to the wonderful person who was on the phone with 911. I then realized that we had no health insurance and that I had a little girl at home, and started panicking even more and running around, as a nice lady consoled me. Some comic relief...I remember going over to a group of people and telling them that this is what happens if their kids don't wear helmets... I was in hysterics and not thinking clearly because I never would have done this normally. All I know is that there was a group of people walking up the hill and supposedly didn't see Josh coming at them until it was too late. Josh ran into that person (as far as I know nothing happened to that person). It seemed like forever until the paramedics arrived, we were in the middle of the hill so they had to clear people from the hill and the grassy part of the park at the top of the hill to get to us. They took care of him and were questioning people around and trying to calm me down (there were probably 5-6 different vehicles there on scene).

So anyway, we get to the hospital and they tell me to wait in a room, and a social worker will be there any minute...she never came and I was loosing it. I had no idea what was wrong with my husband, if he was living or what. I just started calling number that came to my head..one of which was a lady I babysat for..why I called her I had no idea, but she called the church for me, and that night so may church friends came to the hospital to be with me. Ang and Ben stayed the night in the waiting room with me, as we still had no idea what was going on. He was in ICU and really late at night so they wouldn't let me in. What memories are flooding back to me as I read this.

To make a long story kind of short, Josh ended up with 4 separate skull fractures and the only reason he lived is because his ear drum burst (the blood was coming out of his ear) to let the bleeding head drain. The skull fractures were pretty bad, and everyone kept telling us how amazing it was that he was alive and for the most part recovering perfectly.

Josh was in ICU intubated for about 4 days, when they took the intubation tube out is was still a few more days before he was coherent. Well, enough to insist that the TV was the telephone!!
My favorite memory is the day after they took the intubation out, a friend Patrick came by to see him, Josh had barely spoken 5 words since the removal (it is very painful, his trachea was very swollen), and Pat asked him what's my name Josh..it took him about 2 minutes but he muttered "num nuts" an inside joke b/w them. From that point on I knew he would be ok!

Josh had to spend another 3 week in brain rehab. They worked with him to get his brain functioning again and other functions, motor skill, physical therapy etc. He did great from the start, but there was a lot of memory gone and his brain wasn't functioning at the normal speed. It was still very hard for him to even think..it hurt..obviously. He hated every minute of being there. I only missed seeing him 1 day of his month long stay.

To this day I don't know how we paid our bills. I worked 1-2 days a week at Babies R Us, and that sure didn't cover it. God was so faithful in our time of need.

All of our hospital bill were paid by the County, we never saw one!

Josh was supposed to have been in occupational and physical therapy for 1 year following his accident, after his 1st appointment of each they said he didn't need to be there.

Today Josh has very minimal damage. He cannot smell... we aren't sure how this happened...and he lost sight in the bottom right quadrant of each eye (if you divide the eye in fourths). HE still feel his thinking patterns are effected, but he functions normally daily!

I am so thankful to God and all who helped us in our time of need.

Isn't God awesome??