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.