This is just a warning that this blog post will have an extremely graphic picture of Rod's leg after his accident. So beware. Read at your own risk.
Last Saturday I received a phone call from Rod saying that I should remain calm but something had happened and I should not panic. My first thought was that something had happened to Alex and my blood just drained from my face. I felt sick to my stomach right away. I had to sit down to receive the news.
Rod continued telling me that he had collided with his friend Jayson up in Sundance where they went skiing for an afternoon. They had NOT raced down the hill 50-60 miles per hour but somehow were going that fast and collided with each other.
Rod said that he had a big gash on his right thigh that looked pretty bad. It wasn't life threatening but he was going to be life flighted out of Sundance. Hospital destination still to be decided.
When you hear "Life Flight", the first thought comes to your mind that IT IS life threatening. Rod hung up and said that he would call back. In the mean time I called Whitney and asked her to come get me and take me to the hospital.
Rod called back and said that he would be flown to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City. At this time Whitney and Craig had arrived and we went to pick up Alex from the mouth of the Provo Canyon where Jayson dropped him off. Surprisingly nothing had happened to Jayson. Whitney, Alex and I headed to Salt Lake while Craig went to pick up our car from Sundance.
Rod's self portrait in the Life Flight helicopter on the way to the hospital.
Lovely scenery from the helicopter.
Rod's knee is braced during the flight
Hi there!
Life Flight helicopter landed to U of U hospital
This is how we found Rod in the hospital Emergency Room. Dazed and somewhat drugged up already. Not a lot of blood came out of the gash. Thank goodness.
Rod's knee all wrapped up
Ouch! 8 inch gash all the way to the bone. No broken bones. The joint capsule was affected and he had to have surgery so the capsule could be flushed out from potential bacteria. Dr. Tashjian was called in to perform the surgery.
Rod's bloody ski pants. When he got to the ER, they cut his pants off of him. He threated the nurses not to cut his $450 jacket. They didn't.
Jayson and Jennilynn came to see Rod in the ER. Ken Brailsford also came and Jayson and Ken were able to give Rod a priesthood blessing in which he was promised that he would get a complete and full function of the leg back and that Heavenly Father wanted him to learn something from this experience and Rod would need to find out what it was.
We waited in the Surgical Waiting room on the 3rd floor while the 45 minute surgery took place.
Alex watching TV while waiting for his dad to get out of surgery. Alex was so brave throughout the whole thing. He saw the accident happen and he was a great help to Rod.
Whitney is talking with Craig who drove up on Saturday night to bring me our car. Whitney was such a rock and such a great help to me. I just loved how calm she stayed and was such a great help to Rod as well.
Craig, Alex, Megan and Kendall are waiting for Rod in his hospital room. Megan and Kendall brought me fruit because I didn't want to eat the hospital food. They also provided us with a lot of entertainment. Such great people.
Rod is drugged up after his surgery and sleeping.
Wish I was able to sleep. I slept maybe an hour. Others went home but I stayed and slept on a small couch in the room. Luckily it was daylight savings time, so we had one less hour. The night seemed endless.
In the morning Rod felt better and the nurse brought him some juice and crackers before the breakfast got there.
Rod was cleared to leave after his "Physical Therapy" which was basically the physical therapist showing Rod how to use the crutches and see if he is able to walk with them.
Before we left the hospital around 1pm, Rod still had a conference call with his Zija leaders. The wheelchair guy had to wait for 5 minutes for Rod to finish the call. I think it is so funny that even with this kind of condition, Rod wanted to make sure that the leaders were okay. Nothing better than working 24/7 with gash or no gash.
We drove to Whitney's house to pick up Alex. Rod was calling all of his Zija leaders to make sure that they were okay and sharing his skiing story. Obviously he was totally drugged up and sleepy.
Alex and I helped Rod to put his shoes on.
The following day, Monday, I took Rod walking around our neighborhood. Need to get the man walking so he will heal properly.
What a weekend. But Rod is really doing so well. He ran 10 miles before he went skiing on Saturday so I think that might be the reason why with almost no pain, he is doing remarkably well.
