Sorry, Jackie, I never got your orginal post. You went through quite an ordeal, especially the part about not knowing if your son was alive. It sounds like he has come along ways surely because he had the help and support of you and your family. Family and friend support has got to be one of the greatest assets a spinal cord injury survivor has. The hospital and medical staff deals with the medical issues, but there is so much more that goes on in a person than what medical science can address. As tough as it has been for you, think of how far you and your family have come. He has accomplished a great deal and graduating law school. How wonderful is that? Welcome to the group and I look forward to your posts.
Candle http://community.webshots.com/user/Candle850 "Scars remind of us where we’ve been, they don’t have to dictate where we are going." ~David Rossi of Criminal Minds *********************************************************************** ________________________________ On 9/29/2012 8:48 PM, lawyerboysmom wrote: > >>Hi. My name is Jackie and my son, Bobby was injured in December 2010 in a >>motor vehicle accident. He sustained a C6/C7 complete injury. He is now 28 >>years old. The night of the accident he was out celebrating the end of the >>next to last semester of law school in a city about 4 hours from home. He was >>alone in the car and he slid on black ice and hit a tree, so thankfully, no >>one else was involved. I got that horrible phone call in the middle of the >>night and my husband was out of town. The police on the phone told me he was >>involved in a serious accident, but wouldn't tell me anything >>else...including whether or not he was alive. The policeman finally conceded >>that yes, he was alive, but I didn't believe him. I called my older son, and >>we took off. He tried calling the police back and they wouldn't tell him >>anything either. We drove down there convinced he was dead. We found a >>picture of the accident on the town's newspaper website while we drove, but it didn't say anything about the condition of the driver. I was too afraid to call the hospital, I didn't think we could take hearing that news on the road. Finally, my cell rang, and it was a nurse at the hospital. They found my number on a record he had there from some visit to the ER years before. She was like an angel on that phone...telling me he was alive! She put the doctor on the phone and that's when he told me Bobby hadn't moved his legs since they found him. That was devastating, but balanced against living or dead, not the worst, as I was expecting. My older son reminds me often that when we were driving down there I was begging God over and over to let him be alive, and that I would take care of him. So now, I am. And I am still grateful. I moved into his apartment for the two months he was in inpatient, then rehab, and ran my business as best I could from there. My family came down right after the accident, and again to celebrate Christmas with us. The law school very graciously put them up and brought us Christmas dinner. No one will ever forget that holiday. My husband was there on the weekends and as much as he could during the week. My friends were feeding my cats and arranging to get my house ready for Bobby to come home. I tried to get him transferred to a spinal cord unit at home, but he had no health insurance and I was in the process of getting him Medicaid qualified and they advised that he stay there. Finally he was able to come home, and we took him to be evaluated for outpatient treatment. They re-admitted him in a rehab close to home. We are lucky because he was a weightlifter in remarkable shape when this happened, so his upper body strength serves him well. He transfers and uses a wheelchair with"power wheels". He has since gone back to law school locally, served his externship in a local law office, and graduated from his original law school. He's taking the MPRE in November, and sits for the bar exam in February. He goes to a gym where they use the methods from Project Walk, and he still works out with weights. And, oh yeah, there's the girlfriend. She lives about two hours away and comes up every other week and stays for a few days at a time. His goal is to pass the bar, get a job and move out on his own with his girlfriend. I don't have to tell you that this is the hardest, most gut wrenching, emotional train wreck of an experience I could ever have Imagined. My beautiful perfect baby boy can't move, and I can't do anything to help him but to hope that medical science catches up with this soon enough to help him, and to try to make the best of a miserable situation. I am incredibly proud of him, and love him like nothing else, but some days it's hard to accept, and just hard to even get out of bed because the grief is so bad. But we do it...we have to...he needs me to be strong. Thank you for allowing me to tell my story. I feel better already. No one really understands this situation unless they have lived it. >>
