An Update

First, I wish to thank all of those who have prayed and those who have been kind enough to drop a personal note to me. God has been good. Our son is doing well – all things considered. The main thing is that he is stable.

He recently had an MRI and a series of x-rays. These were to determine if there has been any slippage in the broken vertebrae. So far everything seems to be stable which is what we were hoping for. There is still a great deal of edema around the affected areas and even the spinal cord is inflamed. His injury is pretty serious – even I as a layman can see it plain as day in the MRI footage and x-rays. The power and capabilities of the 3T MRI are impressive to say the least and fairly quick – it only took about twenty minutes.

Basically we're past the first hurdle – God be praised. If there had been movement the likely result would have been a rush to surgery in order to prevent a slip of bone that could leave him paralyzed.

The brace holds him steady and is meant to prevent all movement so he can continue to heal. He's got at least a couple of months to go and then after more scans, we'll see where things stand. He's uncomfortable but he understands it could have been a lot worse. Thankfully the pain is now low-grade and he's left all the heavy and potentially addictive stuff behind.

Please continue to pray for him. He's not out of the woods yet but the prognosis is good. Now after the brace comes off we're into another world of variables with regard to his physical therapy, whether he can return to his job, and all sorts of things like that – things I touched on in the previous post. But that's for another day. For now, we want him to be at peace, heal, and use this time for some good reflection and spiritual growth. As I've told him he may actually look back on this as something of a blessing.

Again, we are profoundly thankful that he's alive and walking. God has been merciful. Thankfully for our son, he's on the thin and wiry side and so he's able to move about better than some would despite the rigidity of his torso and neck. The thoracic brace (TLSO) is a 'clamshell' that is bound by a metal bar to a Miami J-style neck brace – some readers will have an idea of what I'm talking about. When he's on his back and we're taking it off it reminds me of the exoskeleton in the film Elysium or even a kind of Darth Vader experience.

Getting it on and off is a little touchy and we noticed that while we were in the imaging department the radiologists and techs were more than happy to have us back there and helping with its removal and replacement and giving some direction to the process. They were really good at using the flat board and pull-sheets to move him across beds and so forth. But no one wanted to 'own' that brace – way too scary. I definitely noticed the one MRI radiologist seemed a bit sobered when he actually saw the nature and extent of his injury and spoke more emphatically when the x-ray folks came in. My instructions about him not moving at all carried a little more weight and he subsequently echoed my instructions in unmistakable terms.

You learn a lot going through this – about the medical end, the business side of things, people, and technology – and all of this in the context of a rather emotional experience, fear, and learning to rejoice in the smallest gains. My son doesn't feel invincible any more. I remember what it was like to be young and feel that way. His perspective on a lot of things has changed and is changing. That's good. It's a watershed moment in his life but in some respects in mine too. As I said to my wife the other day, it's not so much that I feel old as a result of going through all of this – but I can say, I don't feel young anymore. Same difference some might say, others will know what I mean. It has all weighed rather heavily on me and I too hope that in the end it is for the good.

God be praised.