Wednesday September 24, 2008 (Day 11)

Last night did not start out good after the surgery on his face, hip, and pelvic. I know that the last update said that all went well. It did but after the drugs started to ware off from the surgery his blood pressure started going up and he was in bad pain the nurses gave him more morphine to control his pain. Julia called me about two in the morning letting me know that they got his pain under control. He slept the rest of the night with Julia by his side all night. He was in surgery from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Central Time. He had little blood loss I do not thank that they gave him any blood during this surgery and if they have no one has told me so. They had to restrain his hands so that he would touch his had or pull out his tracheotomy until they got his pain under control. When he was better they undid the restrains. He now has signs on his room door hanging above his head and on his chest not to touch his face, because they went and set more bones in place in his face, while he was out for his hip and pelvic.

Later in the morning he woke up and they allowed him to sit up now that his hip has been plated and pined not sure of what they exactly did I have not seen the x-rays. He is getting frustrated at trying to communicate to Julia. So she went to Big Lots, yes they are in California too. She bought a magnetic white board with magnetic letters that we all played with when we were kids on the refrigerator he is able to push them around with his left hand and spell words or point to letters. He is still unable to write with his left hand but he is trying and he is doing better. I talked to the respiratory therapist today, they told me that he was doing better. They told me that if he keeps this up that by this weekend the respirator machine will only be breathing for him if he fails to take a x amount of breath a minutes. If we can keep a 100% blood oxygen level, they will take him off of it completely soon. He will need to learn how to breath through the tracheotomy until his jaw becomes unwired just incase they will to tube him again for some reason. He can’t move his right leg and he can only lift his right arm a bit. But it this time I will take what ever improvements I can get how every how small because each little improvements are going to add up to big ones. Julia and I know that he is there and we thank that he has a positive attitude about all this and that gives Julia a positive attitude about this. They still have his hand and arm in a plastic cast like cast that they have him ware for about two hours at a time with about an hour break between treatments. They are trying to keep his hand and arm from curling up until the nerves repair them self. The doctor told us that his nerves would repair them selves but it on heals about one millimeter a day. From what I understand that the nerves were damager at his humerus (upper arm bone) and the nerves go all the way to the hand. What I don’t understand is if the nerves have to repair all the way to the hand or just where they were damaged at the humerus. I would image that it just at the humerus it’s a good question to ask the doctor next time I talk to him.

Once Adam is off the respirator completely I thank they are going to start him on physical therapy trying to get him using his right hand and leg not sure what all this is going to acquire I really haven’t talked to any of the doctors about this. Julia and I were only worried about if we were going to have the Adam that we all knew and love.

Let’s talk about work a bit Julia has but here massage business on hold so that she can take care of Adam. So if anyone need a massage I’m sorry you will have to wait till she gets back. I have been asked by several people why I’m not able take time off from work under the FMLA well I took a new job in December of last year and under the FMLA you have to be employed for twelve months before you are permitted to take the FMLA time off. The company that I am work for has been understanding about the condition of my son and how I fell, they allowed me to take off a week and a half with out asking any questions. They are also allowing me to work 10 hour days and take four day weekends every other weekend. I am excited about this weekend I am driving Julia’s car to California this weekend I am taking Awna and Addison with me. We are dropping off Julia’s car to here so that she will have her car and we can return the rent car. It will not save us a lot of money but it will help. Julia told Adam that I was bringing Awna and Addison to California, Julia told me that he started to cry when he heard that I hope that means that he is happy that we are coming out to see him. I am taking Awna and Addison out of school Friday and we are leaving Thursday night so when you pray for Adam say some for me that we are safe. Addison is excited to but I thank that’s because he will get to drive some. So I will not being blogging, updating, or my own personal therapy tomorrow and maybe even Friday.

I not sure what is to follow and I have not really talked about the rest of Adam recovery this is what I understand so far however. If he recovers well and can walk, use his arm, hands, tie his shoes, and feed him self that he will properly stay in California for rehabilitation. If he can not do these things he will more then likely be coming home for rehabilitation until he can do theses things again then go back to California. I going to leave it like this because I do not want to acknowledge to any other thing other then he will get better maybe not 100% but close to 100% and we will cross this bridge when we get to it baby steps for now.

The power of prayer has given my Adam a speedy recovery from surgery most of the doctors and nurses are amazed at how well he is doing. Let’s not stop now he still has a long way to go and he is going to need the strength that only God can give to get through what’s to follow.

Again I can't tell every one how wonderful it is to have friends and family like you all.

David Abshire

Richard and Linda

I have thought about this quite a bit and even talked to Julia about this and called Robert Lawler about this, it’s more of a prided thing with me.

After talking to Julia and that she is not working while in California it has shorted our income. The military is reimbursing some of our expenses but not all of them and really not enough for what it cost for Julia to stay in California. Plus with Julia not working I have had to tighten up the shoe strings a bit. They do give us an allowance every 10 days or so but it really not enough. After talking to Linda about advantage miles I now understand these are not just mile for mile and it takes a long time to save up these miles.

This has become some what of a unplanned financial burden on Julia and my self and we are asking our self what we are going to do. We would not be able to do what we have done if it was not for friends all ready and so many people have all ready helped us so mush and given us so mush I just hate to ask for help like this.

If some people are compelled to send money into my account I not going to say that I want use it or even give it to Adam if he should need something to help him manage with any disability he may have later in life. It would be greatly appreciated I can not my self ask for this help because of my pride and the reasonability of being able to take care of your family. I ask myself if I am doing something wrong, it almost feels like an old country song if it was not for bad luck I would not have any luck at all.

Thanks for your understanding and help.

David Abshire

Tuesday September 23, 2008 (Day 10)

Well I am back in Dallas and I am sitting by the phone waiting on the phone call I talked to Julia this morning. It was great she was in the room with Adam and he could grunt I LOVE YOU he did to me over the phone and I got a call later from my mother that he said it to her too. He is aware of where he is at and what is going on around him. From what I understand he is still having some problems with communicating bit, getting better. I hope that today’s surgery does not set him back and have to start over again.
They now have his right hand in a plastic brace to keep his fingers and arm from curling up. There are other parts that are hurting him but I want talk about them just incase he reads this one day. A prayer blanket came today thank you very much for the blanket. He not moving his right leg very much, anytime anyone moves his leg he’s not a happy about it. Still have to remind him each time he wakes up what happen but I thank he starting to remember more and more. He went into surgery about 10 o’clock Central Time Zone I have not heard a lot back yet I keep calling Julia and asking how she is doing and if the doctors have called and told her anything yet. I now feel like you all waiting on an update. The surgery is going to run about 6 to 10 hours and I image that it will be late, I will try to send out a quick email when I find out how it all went and how he is doing. I just about to send this email when I got a phone call from Julia. Adam did fine during surgery he lost little blood. He will be sleeping for a while for a while Julia is leaving the hotel and on her way to the hospital now. I will give a short update when I know more.

It’s amazing to me the way that people come together and help each other out I owe you all so much for support and praying for Adam and my family. I am in a constant state of prayer. I was told by some in a prayer group that God made red lights to pray I know what they meant by that know.

God Bless all of you

Monday September 22, 2008 (Day 9)

Good news everyone

I went to the hospital early today I wanted to spend as much time I could possibly could before I left to come back home. It funny what you call home, while I was in California I called the hotel home. I did miss Awna and Addison after being with Adam and in the shape that he is in it makes me hold them closer and tighter.

This morning visit with Adam was some what more promising then the other days. When I got there they had just finished giving him a bath. And he was some what aware of things. I talked to him and as I have done every day I explained to him where he was at what happen and all his injuries and his surgeries that he had. Today as I was telling him about his plates in his face and jaws and about how his jaw was 2 millimeters out (oh that reminds me the plastic surgeon called, the risk out way the benefits on doing more surgery on his face I get to all this later) as I was explaining about his jaws being wired shut he stuck his finger in his mouth to fill the wires. That tells me at least he might understand what I am telling him. I told him about his arm and leg and back. He got pretty upset when I told him about his back. I told him that it would heal and we would be fine. I asked him if he knew where he was and all I got was a blank stare I told him about the car accident again. I told him about Zack his best friend that was driving the car. He started to point to his chest I thought something was hurting him and I would ask him question after question trying to figure out what was wrong. I finally figured it out when I asked him if we wanted to know if Zack was still in the hospital I had to explain to him no that Zack got out six days ago, I don’t know if he was happy that Zack was not hurt as bad or sad that he was still in the hospital I like to thank that he was glad that Zack was not as badly hurt. A little while later he started to move his hand back and forth with his hand in a shape of a “C” I could not tell what he wanted I asked and asked until we were both to the point of giving up with tears in our eyes. I then found out he wanted a drink of water well with a tracheotomy in your neck you can’t have anything to drink. I asked the nurses to if I could run ice chips back and forth on his lips and I was told yes. As I was running the ice chips on his lips he smiled and seemed to feel good to him. About this time the sun is starting to come up and I asked him if he wanted me to open the blinds on the windows so he could see and feel the sun light he shook his head yes this is a on going battle between me and the nurses I open the blinds in the morning and they close them in the afternoon I usually don’t say anything because the sun is pretty bright there in the afternoon but I go back and crack them after they close them. While I almost forgot this part as I was opening the blinds he tried to snap his fingers for me to give him more ice chips.

I however made one mistake today while trying to talk to him I told him that we were going to have to find a different way to communicate with each other. After I said that he stopped doing everything just laid there. After trying to talk to him I found that he thought I meant he was never going to be able to talk again and after I explained that it was just temperately until they remove the tracheotomy and unwire his jaw he would be able to start talking again. He does not like the feeding tube in the side of his belly either he keeps scratching at it.

Well the other news the CT came back and the lower jaw bone has not moved any and we are not going to do the surgery on placing plates on his lower jaw. The major benefit that we get from adding plates to his bottom jaw is that he gets have his jaw unwired a week. The risk are having the side of your face paralyzed I thank we can live with a little miss alignment and not take a chance of having his face paralyzed. However he is having hip and pelvic surgery tomorrow I do not know what time yet. While they are doing surgery on his hip and pelvic they are going to do some work on the bridge of his nose, they are also going to rewire his jaw to adjust some of the alignment. I just hope its not another eight hour surgery tomorrow don’t know if I can wait that long not being there.

Well that’s it for today and I am back in Dallas for a while and THE PRAYERS ARE WORKING I SEE ADAM GETTING BETTER EVER DAY PLEASE NOT STOP SENDING YOUR PRAYERS.

Sunday September 21, 2008 (Day 8)

It’s getting harder to keep track of the days they all seam to run into one long day that never ends. You sleep when you can and you eat when you can. We found this real nice cafe by the hospital its called Charlie's they let us order what ever we want more or less, all the people that work there are very friendly plus there food is the old fashion kind of cooking that you makes you feel good.

There is no new real new update on Adam this morning at six I have not talked to any doctors. He is less sedated and they are trying to manage his pain more. When we talk to him there is more of a blank stare for 30 seconds that he has his eyes open. He moves his left arm up and down quite a bit and his left leg. His left leg keeps falling from the bed as he moves it. This has to be very hard on him, I know its hard on Julia and myself. He may be becoming aware of his injuries and pain. We thank that he hates the tracheotomy but how wouldn't like that and not being able to talk or communicate with anyone.

We talked to the plastic surgeon this morning. The lower right jaw is not lining up straight and it’s out of alignment about two millimeters. They are going to do another CT today and we are going to make our choice about having another surgery on his face or not. There is also some issues with his nose and when they go for surgery on his hip Tuesday they are considering doing surgery on his nose at the same time.

During the day to day he pulled this tracheotomy apart from the connection. They said if he did it again that he would have to be restrained to keep from doing that. They had to restrain his hand while cleaning his face and his mouth. Just for all those that are wondering if he still has his good looks well he has about six stitches across the bridge of his nose and about a dozen from the center of his right eye brow down to the corner of his right eye and about an half an inch past the corner of his right eye. It looks almost like a single crows foot coming from his right eye.

I am flying back to Dallas this Monday to take care of Addison and Awna. It’s a hard choice that I have to do, my other two kids are in need of there family. We are going to try to fly them out here in a couple of weeks to see there brother as soon as I get everything taken care of at work. Please make sure that you keep Julia in your prayers all the time by the end of the week she will be out here by here self for a couple of weeks or so. I will be in contact each day. I will try to do my best to keep the updates coming I have been asked by several people to do so. I can’t thank Linda and Danny McMullen enough for every thing that they have done for me and my family.

Some of Adams friends have got a face book page that his friends are blogging on http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=26707181307&ref=mf if you don’t have an account you will have to create one to be able to logon or even read the blog.

We have also meet real nice women Chaplin Castle and her husband has been helping us spiritual. She and her husband are some very special people they help out with the Marines and when there is a terrible accident like this they help out with the family and making sure that they are met with all the spiritual needs. They are some wonderful people. They have been praying with us and over Adam everyday. God Bless them.

Saturday September 20, 2008 (Day 7)

Adam had surgery last night on his right arm and one his lower back. He did well they gave him 1 unit of blood before and 1 during. After he came out of surgery his face was face down in a halo for about 6.5 hours. His face was swollen petty bad after surgery. His blood pressure was up and his fever was up a bit but not as bad the night before.Today was a day of rest for Adam, Julia and I. It was well needed rest after the last six days. The next step is that they are going to start winging him off his sedation meds and more of pain meds. He will hopefully be more awake. However this is when we find out how his brain is working and if he can see and remember who we are. He is barley wiggling his toes once or twice a day and he is still having problems on his right side. He can give us a half way thumbs up on his left hand and barley move his fingers on his left hand a mill meter. Please don't stop the prayers. They are not only helping Adam get better but they help Julia and I as well knowing that we are all praying for him each day. Today I did not email everyone will you please forward this to everyone thanks for all your help.

Friday September 19, 2008 (Day 6)

Talked to the orthopedic doctor last night. They are going to do surgery on his arm and back today around 2 Cali time for those that are time zone challenged that's going to be 4 Texas time. He did well through the night. The CT from yesterday came back and is worried about some other problems in his face and is talking about doing more surgery on his face we have another meeting with plastic soon don't know when will update as I can. Yesterday Julia and I went to see the car and where the accident happens it was properly one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I have seen car wrecks before it was different when it is your son in that was in the car. Where the accident happen the medical supplies laying scattered on the ground along with parts of the car still there and some of Adam's personal belongings. I can not begin to explain the feelings that I felt or Julia felt. I only pray to God that no one ever again has to experience the feelings that I felt yesterday. We also meet with the commanding officer yesterday the military is being very helpful in keeping us informed on what is going on. I have learned that there is another boy that was diving into the ocean on some of his time off in broke his neck he was paralyzed from the neck down and is now only from the waist down. Adam friend Zack that was driving the car is having a hard time with what has happen. I am asking that you remember the two kids in your prayers too. I have been asked what we can do to help and there is so many asking. I do not know the answer your prayers and support has been so helpful. A couple of things are Adam has had a lot of blood and if you are one that donates at Carter or Red Cross here is his account no. Carter is SPON047067 Red Cross blood bank # is 91533. The Red Cross I not sure but from the few phone calls I have made they do not have a blood bank to donate blood to. Carter you just need to give them the no. The other thing is you can send cards and letters to him we read them to him as he gets them. He seems to enjoy the letters and cards I am sure he will be here for at least the next couple of weeks the hospital address isPalomar Medical Center555 E. Valley Pkwy Rm 635Escondido CA 92025 Thank you all your help and support.

Thursday September 18, 2008 (Day 5)

First of all I would like to say thank you to every one for all the prayers it means so much to Julia and me. If you are squeamish you may want to skip to the end. Second today surgery was about 8 hours long and he came out well. The placed plates on the left and right sides of his face by his eyes. The best I can explain is that they pulled his nose and the bridge back out to open his sinus cavity up. Then the placed plates in the roof of his mouth to keep his upper jaw together and then they re attached is upper jaw back to his skull. After that the added plates to the front of his lower jaw. The doctor did not put plates on the side of his lower jaw do to the possible nerve damage he did a line his jaw and wire the lower jaw to the upper jaw. To keep them together, they are going to do another CT in the morning to check and make sure all is in good alignment. There is some chance of him infection in his face do to the injuries in his mouth. He is still in heavily drugged and has many more surgeries to go. His commander officer and the staff Sgt came to the hospital and gave Julia and I his diploma for Assault Amphibian Crew man Course and his Operator's Identification Card for Assault Amphibian Vehicles A friend sent me this today; Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. (Matt 18:19) Please keep sending the prayers he has a long from being out of the woods.

Julia and I went and looked at the car today all I can say is that God was watching over him and must have some great plans for him.