Roboversary

September 28, 2013 was a very eventful day. For his 30th birthday in April, I gave Jesse motorcycle licensing lessons. September 28 was his first day riding on the motorcycle after a few evenings of classroom work.

Here he is before leaving. So happy and unaware of what will happen mere hours later!

He made it through most of the day, but then there was a turning exercise. Jesse isn't entirely sure what happened, but he suspects that it had something to do with braking. Even though we don't know exactly what went wrong, the outcome was rather devastating. I got a call from Jesse's friend, who was taking the class with him, just as I was getting ready to go to the Relief Society broadcast and accompany our ward choir. Let me sum up, "So, don't freak out, but Jesse fell and an ambulance is taking him to the hospital. It looks like he for sure broke one wrist, but the other one just looks sprained. He's being taken to such and such hospital. I'm riding with him to the hospital and I'll wait with him until you get there." Ummm, world crashing now!

She held the phone up to his ear, so I knew he was fine. After that fear was calmed I was just angry. Really angry. You see, we currently don't have health insurance because Jesse wanted to wait until the exchange opened. Thoughts of $20K+ in medical bills were swirling through my head. How could Jesse be so reckless? It's a class, nothing bad is supposed to happen in a class! How could the instructor let this happen? Why were there no warning signs? How are we going to pay for this?

Then I got to the hospital. I was still mad, but he looked so pitiful! The picture I took in the ER is on Jesse's phone, so I'll add that later. The next several hours in the ER were filled with me manning texts and phone calls on both my phone and Jesse's phone, x-rays, pain meds, running to get clothes and pizza, and finally being admitted to the hospital around 1AM.

Here are the x-rays that were taken in the ER. We were told that he'd need surgery to put in titanium plates. They didn't tell us when the surgery would be, just that it would happen on Sunday. Both arms had nearly identical breaks. The radius was broken and the ulna dislocated in both. The right arms was/is worse because the dislocation was more severe.

I left the hospital (I wasn't allowed to stay), got home around 2AM, and went to bed. I had just woken up and taken a shower when I got a call from Jesse. His surgery was scheduled for 8:30, it was 8, and I was 30 minutes away from the hospital. I won't lie, some very not nice words slipped from my mouth. I had told them only hours before that I needed to know when the surgery was to be scheduled so that I could get there in time. Seriously people?!

As I drove as fast as I could without getting pulled over, I was worried about finding someone to give Jesse a blessing. No one from College Park would get there in time! Thankfully, I had visited the Laurel Ward YW the week before, and I knew that the church building was close to the hospital. I called the building and the bishopric was already there for their meetings. I explained the situation and they agreed to get some men over there. They got there before me, and I walked in just as they were about to start. I will be forever grateful for all the many things that led to my husband getting a blessing before surgery!

He was wheeled down to the OR waiting area. The doctor and PA came and explained to us what was going to happen. They were great! I didn't like the anesthesiologist so much. He made Jesse sign the liability slip instead of me...who does that to guy with broken wrists when his wife is there?! Then, I was led to the family waiting room for a couple of hours. I was having a hard time. I was too stressed to sleep, but I had also only slept for about 4-5 hours. I ended up watching Frasier on my phone.

The scariest part was after the surgery when Jesse was coming out of the general anesthesia. He didn't recognize me and was frantically trying to pull out the oxygen tubes from his nose. Then it was about 2 hours of alarms going off when he wasn't breathing. When a person is on that many meds, their breathing slows down. I had to keep poking him to remind him to breathe. They kept giving him different pain meds because they wouldn't take him back up his hospital room until his pain was a 5 or 6.

Finally, we got up to the room. I watched netflix on my phone while Jesse slept. That was most of the day. Jesse's cousin visited us, which was nice. I doubt Jesse even remembers. We were told that he'd probably be discharged on Monday, but no one would give any specifics. When I got there on Monday morning, he was doing well. We ended up being there all day, which was annoying and totally unnecessary. They called an OT, which was sort of helpful, but not really. Basically the OT told him he couldn't do anything, so good thing he has me! The only good thing she gave us was a universal cuff, which Jesse was able to use with his stylus and tablet about 2 weeks later. Then we were visited by a social worker. They have to do that for people with no insurance. Finally, the floor doctor came in around 5pm, gave us Jesse's percocet prescription, and gave discharge orders. We left the hospital around 6 or so, headed to the pharmacy for the pain meds, and got chipotle. I took off work on Tuesday, so I could get Jesse settled in at home. I was also exhausted, so I caught up on sleep.

The first two weeks, we had friends from church bringing dinner (so unbelievably helpful!), family constantly checking in (we're so loved!), and Jesse's work being very understanding
. Two weeks after his surgery, Jesse got a hard cast on his left arm and another soft cast on his right. We celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary with robot jokes and a raincheck on a fancy dinner. Three week post op, Jesse started going to work a few days a week because he was bored at home, and four and now five weeks post op, he's working full time.

Our current routine consists of me waking up, bathing Jesse, brushing his teeth, dressing him, feeding him, driving him to the metro. Then, I pick him up from the metro on my way home from work, feed him, tuck him in, and go to sleep. I do laundry all of the time and have less time to myself, but it's all working out. I've had to do some pretty gross (only because I truly love you) things for Jesse, but the medical bills weren't nearly as bad as we thought they'd be, I've had some job opportunities open up, and we may be looking into buying a condo or something in the area. Things could have turned out so much worse, and I am so grateful for family, friends, and a mostly healthy husband!