Sunday April 26, 2009

Hi everyone! Jon here!
Lee & I had a great weekend! Saturday we went to the car show in downtown Grass Valley. Lee gets her exercise pushing me around in my wheelchair. I do most of my walking with my walker, which is getting much easier as my strength increases, but if I have any distance to cover I usually use the wheelchair. Sunday we went to the Home & Garden show @ the fairgrounds...again in the wheelchair. Bumped into old friends who were glad to see me out & about. We found a new food vendor selling battered & fried artichoke hearts! YUM!!
Jon

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Jon had an appointment in Roseville yesterday to have his femur/pelvis/foot x-rayed and got the good news that he was pretty much healed up and could start putting weight on the leg. We'll be moving back to our house within the week and can't wait to start sleeping in our own bed. Love to all, Lee & Jon

Friday, March 27, 2009

Jon had an appointment for x-rays today down at Sutter-Roseville. He is doing so well they have recommended weaning him off of his body and neck brace over the course of the next six weeks. He also gets to discontinue his coumadin after April 1st. His spine, neck and rib x-rays all looked really good. It amazes me that everyone knows who he is and what happend to him. Everytime someone asks what happend to him, after he tells the story they all say "Oh your that guy"! Jon is looking forward to a shower without all his gear on. He has another appointment in about three weeks to have his leg and pelvis x-rayed. We are looking forward to getting back to our own house and resuming a somewhat normal life soon. All our love, Lee and Jon

Sunday March 21, 2009

Jon has had a busy week. He has to have blood tests done twice a week to monitor his coumadin and has had an appointment with his personal doctor. On Monday he meets with the physical therapists up here and they will devise a work out plan for him. We are staying at my moms house for now, it is more handicap accessible for him. If you want to call Jon there the number is, 530-274-8008. My cell phone does not get good reception there and she has no internet access. Jon is in good spirits and is using his walker more than his wheel chair at this point in time. I took him to our favorite restaurant in Nevada City, Daddy's Little Grill, on his first full day back. He was so excited about it he could hardly eat. We'll update you next week on his progress. Much love, Lee & Jon

Monday March 16, 2009

Happy Monday to everyone! We are very excited to be going home today. Dr. LeBlue came in early this morning to say good bye to Jon, he had a conference in Reno (hopefully he'll make it over the summit okay) and wanted to see him before he went.
Many people have asked me how I'm holding up and I'm doing very well considering everything. Today I wept with relief and joy....I had not dared to hope for such an outcome for such a serious accident. I had always hoped for the best and prepared for the worst but in the end it is in the hands of others that Jon's fate had fell, I was just along for the ride. Our life has depended on so many people since the accident that it would be remiss of me not to thank them. To Matt and his family who opened his door to a frantic women so I could call 911 and came back with me to see if he could help, to the police officers, fire dept., paramedics, life flight pilots, who made sure that he went to the facility that would be most beneficial to him, I thank you. The head of trauma Dr Demare, his surgeons doctors Finkmeyer and Taggart for patching up his broken body, and all the nurses in ICU who were outstanding. Dr. LeBlue, and all the staff @ Roseville Rehabilitation Institute, especially Keeny, Chantal, Lannae, Vicky & Vicki, Wayne, Pat, Martha, Bonnie, Christy, Vince, Cheryl, Jade, Jen, Tosin, Michelle, and the countless others who made our stay here so successful. Lastly to all of our family, friends and strangers who kept Jon in their prayers and sent him good thoughts we give our heartfelt thanks. All of you and Jon, are who kept me going. I will still update the post with Jon's progress although not as frequently and when Jon can dance with me again my job will be through. All our love Lee and Jon

Friday March 13, 2009

Today is the anniversary date of Jon's accident. 28 days ago he was hit by the tree and he has made amazing progress in such a short amount of time. We have been all checked out on Jon's limitations and moving him. Jon practiced getting in and out of the car today and he did a great job. He also had to change rooms today and he is in a much larger one than before. His new room # is 6147 and his new phone # is 916-878-2547. We're looking forward to being home and back into a normal routine. Love Lee & Jon

March 10, 2009

Today we got the best possible news. Jon gets to come home next Monday! We are so excited and can hardly wait. He still has a lot of work to do before then, learning how to get in and out of the car for one, but with all the progress he's made so far I'm sure it will be a piece of cake. See all of you soon.....
Lee & Jon

March 9th, 2009

Jon had a stellar day today! This morning in therapy he walked 20 ft. with his walker, in his afternoon session he walked 50 ft. with his walker. Jon's brother arrived today and keeping Jon in good spirits. We also wanted thank everyone who came to the fundraiser and/or made a donation. Doug and Sheri raised over $1500 at the fundraiser and another $700 in donations. We really appreciate all the help especially in these hard economic times.
Lee & Jon

Sunday March 8th 2009

Today our son, Brody, brought our dog, Ruby, for a visit. It was the first time Jon has seen her since the accident.
Jon graduated from a rolling bath tub to using the shower in his room yesterday, Yeah! He has to wear his body brace in the shower but it makes it infinitely easier to clean and move him. One more step in the homeward direction.
Weekends are quiet around here, so Jon and I went for a walk around the building. He did have many visitors today too.
Jon's brother, Mark, will be coming up to visit on Monday and he's really looking forward to that.
Lee and Jon

March 5, 2009

Jon is doing exceedingly well. I call him in the morning and let him know when I'm going to arrive at the hospital and he is always waiting for me at the front door. Today we hit a milestone......Jon walked 6ft in a walker! They have traded in his big wheel chair for a more compact one. I have to go through a training to make sure I know what his limitations are. We're starting to feel hopeful that Jon will be home soon.
I also wanted to remind everyone about the fundraiser on Friday, March 6th. Sheri & Doug will have light hor-douvers starting at 7:30pm
silent auction and/or raffle (Doc Joe also will have airline tickets to raffle off)
music starts around 8pm until 1am at Vega's
There is a parking garage directly across the street from Vega's
Vega's is located next to the Spud Place on Old Sac
at 910 Second Street
Please NOTE that Vega's is donating the entire nightclub for us to use
It will be CLOSED to the general public!
There will be a doorman
Your name must be on the guest list to enter or say your there for the Jon Hurst Fundraiser. We'll see you there. Lee & Jon

Hello From Jon

March 3, 2009

Jon's doctors and therapists had a team meeting today, but have decided to wait another week before they will decide on a discharge date. They have given him three goals to get through this week instead. To be able to transfer from his bed to his wheel chair with only one person to "spot" him, to be able to be independent in his wheel chair, and to be able to toilet all by himself. So he has a lot of work to do this week. Jon has had a lot of physical therapy today. He does most of the hard stuff in the morning. Today they had him practice standing up in a walker and then sitting down and working on his arms on the universal gym. Then in the afternoon someone came in and did leg exercises with him.
In an aside, Shayla has informed us we will be the proud grandparents of a bouncing baby boy in July! His name will be Jonas Jeffery Rabe.
All our love Lee & Jon

March 1, 2009

Today is Sunday and Jon's weekend is almost over. His physical therapy is light on the weekends so we've had a lot of free time to roam the halls and just hang out. He had a bath today and it gets easier each time we do it. For Jon to take a bath is quite a bit of work and is considered therapy in and of itself. He has to get undressed in bed and then we have to transfer him from his bed to a gurney that has a kind of soft tub attached to it. We wheel him down the hall to the big shower room and pretty much hose him down, soap him up, rinse him off, dry him off, cover him with warm blankets and wheel him back to the room. Then we get him dressed and either put him to bed or like today, put him back into his body brace to take him to lunch.
Our videographer (Josh) has a slight cold so we're keeping him away from Jon for a little while. We'll try and get to the video blog later this week.
Tuesday or Wednesday we will have a team meeting with his doctor and therapists and they will give us a discharge date.
All our love, Lee & Jon

February 27. 2009

Today Jon has made great strides. He was able to pull himself up on the parallel bars from his wheelchair several times today and transfer from his bed to his wheelchair with just a "spotter". He still has respiratory therapy everyday to help keep his lungs strong. We are going to try and post a video blog of Jon tomorrow. Lee & Jon

February 26, 2009

Jon is doing very well today. Part of his physical therapy is that he gets to play Wii. He whipped his sister at tennis and she creamed him at bowling. He also got to take a bath today and feels like a real human again. He has made a sacrificial decision to cut his hair. It was terribly matted from the time in ICU and he is not really capable of taking care of it himself. I cut his pony tail off first and we are going to donate it to Locks of Love. He looks a little like Mozart today. We'll get it tidied up as soon as we can. All our love Lee and Jon.

February 25, 2009

Jon had such a big day yesterday we didn't get a chance to post. They have moved him from trauma ICU to accute rehab. He is doing so well and getting stronger every day. His room # is 6143 and his direct line into his room is 916-878-2543, He is therapy quite a bit today, just because everyone is evaluating him and he is not allowed to have meals in his room he goes to the communal dining room for those. All our love, Lee & Jon

February 23, 2009

Jon is doing really well today. They will be moving him to accute rehab tomorrow. He will be doing three hours of therapy a day, it will be a little more structured for him and he will be getting up a lot more than he is now. He will probably be in accute rehab for about 2-3 weeks and then hopefully home. Lee & Jon

Feb. 22 2009

Last night was a bit of a rough night for Jon. His left lung collapsed last night and he was in some pain. They fixed him right up though and he's back on the road to recovery today. He's started physical therapy on his leg from his bed. They hook his leg up to a lovely machine that is apparently quite uncomfortable on his booty. Not sure if that's actually the case or if Jon just wants people to pay attention to his butt : )

The pain medication that he's on apparently has some hallucinogenic qualities. Jon is convinced that there is a special AC unit in his room that drops down from the ceiling, and I believe some lobsters stopped by to hang out for a while too.

He's had a lot of visitors today which has been wonderful. Jon loves seeing everybody and we're all grateful for the support. He's pretty worn out from everything right now. He was standing up and in his body brace again today. The physical therapists even put him in a wheelchair for a while. The Doctor's have been kind and allowed solid food! It's a nice change from a feeding tube and clear liquids. Ice chips are still his favorite snack though.

The Doctor's have been amazed at Jon's recovery so far, it's a long road we're on but he's making great progress. All the nurses adore him (shocking) and say that he's their favorite patient. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts. I know it's by the grace of God that we still have Jon and I know we're all so thankful!

Josh

Feb. 21, 2009

Today has been a big day for Jon. They have removed the stitches in his forehead, removed one of his chest tubes and the physical therapists got him to stand up twice today. We are all very excited that he is on his way to recovery and that it is all going so well. The are talking about moving him into accute rehab soon. All our love Aileen & Jon

February 20th 2009

We are having a GREAT DAY!!!! They have removed the ventilator tubes and Jon is breathing on his own. Although he is not suppose to be talking too much, he is so over joyed to be able to he hasn't really shut up. I cannot tell you how good it is to hear his voice. They will be removing his chest tubes tomorrow and if all goes well he'll be moved out of the Trauma ICU and into a regular room by Sunday or Monday. He will eventually be relocated to the rehab center. We know it will be a long haul but the doctors are saying he is doing remarkably well. All our Love Jon and Lee

This is Shayla. We had a good day today. They repositioned the breathing tube. It had been slipping. They have been backing off the sedation too and weaning him off the ventilator. It will be nice for him when that's gone. He gets a little frustrated that he can't talk and we feel bad that we can't read his mind. The way his neck is positioned, it is difficult for him to write his messages down, plus he is a little swollen and weak.

Some friends are throwing a little fundraiser in Dad's honor. It will be at The Vegas Nightclub and Sportsbar at 910 2nd St in Old Sacramento from 9pm until 1am on March 6th. Come and raise a glass to Dad. Thanks for the prayers and support. Love to all, Shay.



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Feb. 18 2009

Jon is doing about the same today. They found some fluid in his lungs and have removed it. They have backed off on some of his pain meds today because his blood pressure was low again. All and all he's doing well and we just keep praying for a little improvement every day. Lee

This is Josh (Shayla's Husband)

I just wanted to give a quick update.

Lee, Brody, and I met with Jon's Doctor yesterday early afternoon. The doctor said that Jon is doing very well considering. He's been much more stable over the last 2 days and they've been able to control his pain much better. I think there was some confusion over exactly how many ribs Jon has that are broken, I think we all heard a different number. After more x-rays, he has 14 broken ribs. He's doing a lot of sleeping at this point which is great. He is still intubated and will probably remain that way for at least the next few days. The general feeling from the meeting with the doctor is that he/we still have a very long road ahead of us. He's doing much better and everyday brings Jon one little baby step farther towards a full recovery. He also had surgery on his back Sunday to fuse 2 vertebrae together. This will help with the healing in his spine and in his ribs.


We've had several requests to do news interviews but have declined them at this point in time. I'll let Lee explain further, but that being said stories have still been running. I'm inserting hyperlinks to a few of them, watch them for what they're worth.

CBS 13

NBC 3

The Union

Friday, February 13, 2009

Jon and I woke up about 7am (he 's off work on Fridays due to cut backs) we decided that after we took the dog on her morning walk we would come home and watch a movie we had started and generally be bums that day. We bundled up and leashed the dog up and headed out the door as we have done everyday for the last 8 years. It had snowed the night before but when we woke the sun was shining and it was clear and cold. As we walked through the school we noticed the weeping birch trees all covered in snow and wished we had the camera. We walked along one of the corridors and headed across the basketball court towards the field we were about half way across when we heard the "crack" I heard Jon yell and I only got two steps and then it was all over. When I had stepped out from behind the tree I had taken shelter under, I thought "wow that was close". I started yelling for Jon. He did not answer, and I couldn't figure out how he could have gotten so far away and not hear me in so little time. I kept yelling for him but still nothing. Then I noticed the dog running around, but there were no other footprints in the snow. Then I started looking at the tree and I found him towards the top. He was slightly bowed in on himself face down. I cleared the snow from around his nose and mouth (while frantically screaming his name) there was a lot of blood and I was very scared. I knew I had to get help but I did not want to leave him. I ran towards the front of the school and tried to break a window either to set of the alarm or to get to the phone, either would have worked for me at that moment. The windows proved to be the better match and I was torn between going back or going to find help. There is an apt. building that was just as close as Jon was to me so I headed that way. The first apt. I came to had the lights on and I knocked (very persistently). It was young couple the dad was up feeding the two babies breakfast, his wife coming out of the bedroom too see what the commotion was. They let me use the phone and I called 911. The dad came back with me to see if he could help. Jon had regained consciousness, and the police dept. showed up minutes later. It took 5 of them to lift the tree off of him but no one dared touch him until the ambulance showed up. A few minutes later the paramedics were there and lifted him on the backboard and that's when I knew something was really wrong. The right leg sat at an odd angle and they could not straighten it out. When they started to cut off his clothes one of the officers a friend of ours told me I should take the dog home and he would come get me and drive me to the hospital. I ran home and fed the dog and changed my clothes. When he came to pick me up he told me Jon was going to be life flighted out and that they would not let me ride with him. I was so upset, had I known I would not see him for god knows how long I never would have left him. He did not know where they were taking him but he would call as soon as he heard. Then I heard the helicopter it was flying right over the street headed for the school. I debated running back up to see him before they loaded him up but knew I would never make it. I called Shayla and explained what happened and that I would call as soon as I knew where they were taking her dad. She had called one of our friends, Vanessa, and had her come over and stay with me. I found out he was being taken to Sutter-Roseville and called Shay back. She works only 5 min. away from the hospital. Vanessa drove me down to the hospital through icy streets and got me there safe and sound. When we arrived Shay and Josh were already here, then the doctor let me know what was happening. Jon had a fractured femur, fractured pelvis, fractured spine, and four fractured ribs. The upside was his internal organs were intact and he had no head injury. Jon was awake and pretty coherent considering everything. The hopital transfered him from Emergency to Trauma ICU and got him stabalized. Once stabalized they took him in to repair his femur. They have attached a metal plate to his femur he had a lot of small pieces in there so the plate will help keep everything straight. The surgery took about 3 hours and he was in a lot pain afterward but it went well.