The collar bone.

An orthopedic surgeon took a look at Nate's x-rays to see what is going on with his collar bone.  He said if the bone overlaps by 2 cm he will need to have surgery and right now his bone overlaps by 1.5 cm.  So, to try to save surgery, Nate has a s l ing that pulls his shoulders back.  His parents need to tighten it a little every night to pull his shoulders back a bit more.  The hope is his bone will then seperate enough to actually line up and it will heal properly then.  Glad I'm not the one tightening the sling. 

Power of Prayer

It would be nice if we could prove the amount of impact prayer had on a situation so we could know exactly how much our prayers were being used.  But the truth is we don't have any way to prove it which requires faith to be necesary in our prayers.  I can only assume this means God wants it to be this way.  All-in-all though, looking at how Nate progressed I say that is evidence enough for me that all your prayers have made a difference in Nate's healing progress.  For that our family is very thankful.

In light of this impact, we ask you to continue to pray for him now.  He was just called back to the hospital for the orthopedic surgeon to take a look at his collar bone to determine if he was in need of surgery.  This appointment was orginally set for next week, so we don't really know why it needed to be moved up but we are praying they will say he doesn't need surgery.  Please join us in this prayer even though Nate is doing better but he isn't past needing your prayers for this situation.  Thank you and we will let you know what we find out.

Coming Home

Nate is officially home!!!  He went from ICU to being released.  Pretty incredible, but nothing less is expected when God is at work.  Thank you so much for all your prayers.  Now that Nate is home, he will actually need more assistance and patience during his healing process.

He would love to see his friends, but he is still very sleepy much of the time.  Feel free to call either Carrie or his Uncle Jeff and they will let you know if he is awake and up to seeing friends.  But please let him know you are thinking of him, that is one of the best medicines he can get right now.

A little video to see the progress

I got to see Nate tonight and he is doing amazing. It has really been theraputic for me to see him be able to talk and tonight he was able to stay awake more than ever before and talk more than before also. I thought since it was so good for me to get to see this, some of you would also like to see him talking and even walking. So you can go here to see him sending out a little message.

If he is able to get an x-ray standing up tomorrow that shows the fluid in his lungs won't pool, he may even get to come home tomorrow. We don't have a guarentee on that, but it sure would be nice.

Monday night update

So today was a very busy day for Nate. This has been one of the most active days he has gotten to have and we are very excited for him. He got to eat solid food and then he stayed awake for about an entire hour after that. He was able to bath and was even able to brush his own teeth today.

As per fashion, Nate looks dang good in a gown, but he has opted for actual pants as of today. Pretty cool cause he actually looks better in pants.

He was also able to get out of bed today and walk around. He moved himself from his bed to a chair beside it even. This does cause him considerable pain with all the broken bones and especially because he isn't taking any pain medication. An occupational therapist came to visit him today and gave him some exercises to do with his arm. It was painful but he did it all with no complaints. He is also doing breathing exercises to make sure he doesn't get pnemonia and to help clear the fluid that is in his lung. These are also incredibly painful with all the broken ribs, but he is doing them with no complaints and with no ways of trying to get out of doing them.

Trauma Dr. came in today with some good news. His lung bruise has gone way down and the fluid is reducing. At this point, they are only keeping him in the ICU now because of his brain injury. He is only able to stay awake a little bit at a time which is a bit of concern so they want to keep him under close supervision.

He also got to see a speech therapist in order to have a tramatic brain injury test. He passed well and was able to do some figuring in his head. The therapist says Nate just has a mild brain injury but all should recover. It may take longer than we thought, but he will recover.

Stayed tuned for more information and we will let you know when he can have visitors.

Nate's condiion as of Monday morning

So Nathan is still making some progress in his lungs. The x-rays showed some improvement which means he probably isn't bleeding anymore and is starting to clear his lung. This is good news as it was the top priority for the Dr. This is mostly what is keeping him in the ICU. I don't know more about the small piece of colasped lung at this point, but it isn't any more of a concern.As for his head, we don't know much. Yesterday they thought he was so sleepy and grogy from the pain medication, but they haven't given him anything except a small dose yesterday (side note--Nathan has only had two doses of pain meds through this entire thing. Pretty tough.) and he is still very grogy--only able to stay awake for a few minutes at a time and he has a hard time talking much. However, the time he is talking he seems very much like Nathan. They think this is due to the head injury then and not the pain meds, but they are still confident this isn't something permanent. He will possibly be displaying effects from the concusion for six months, but we don't really have details as to steps forward he will be making or what kind of effects that will be. He will get to be seen by a speech specialist today who will try to determine how much his speech and memory are actually being impacted right now.We are looking forward to seeing him awake for somewhat of an extended time so you can pray for that please.Thank you for all your concern and care and prayers.

Update on his condition

More progress. I just left his room when he got to eat soup and jello and ice cream (2 helpings of the last) and he was awake the entire time. He has only been able to stay awake for 5 minutes or so each time, so it was nice to get some extended time with him. He was even able to pick up a cup and take a drink by himself at the end of the meal!!They actually got him out of bed for the first time just a few minutes ago and into a recliner. He fell asleep right away, but at least he was able to be moved.He seems to be able to remember a few things better, the most important is that he is almost always confident in realizing he will make a full recovery. He seems aware of all his injuries and recognizes they will all heal in time even though it will not be a short time. I'm just so glad to get to see his brain working well and being able to see progress in that area every time he wakes up. He is beginning to remember more conversations we have with him, but he forgets enough that he isn't liable for anything he says or that is said to him. Pretty convenient for Nate if you ask me.Not sure when he will get moved out of the ICU and can then have visitors, but I'll keep you posted on that.

What happened?

Many are asking what actually happened to Nathan so here it is. He was on a snowboard trip with The Farm. We went to Keystone for two days of riding and on the second day Nathan was doing some jumps in the park. He had already been doing well on the jumps and decided to do a little bit larger jump that was about 30 feet from the top of the jump to where he could land. Unfortunately he went off the jump off balance and landed a little ways down the landing on his back and hit his head. All-in-all he traveled about 40 feet in the air before impact. The impact knocked him unconscious even though he was wearing a helmet. They got paramedics on the scene very quickly and they determined he needed immediate help. He was taken down the mountain on a sled while a paremedic road with him and helped him breath. They decided to sudate him in the mountain ER and take him to Denver via flight for life. At the hospital he had a CAT scan where they were able to asertain the entire damage. Altogether he broke ribs 1 through 5 on his back which caused a little bit of fluid to gather on his right lung. They will be keeping a close eye on this in case of pneumonia. He also broke his colar bone but that looks okay. He does have a brain injury but doesn't look like anything permanent. He also has some minor fractures on his vertibrae but nothing close to his spinal cord and absolutley no paralysis--he has already moved all of his limbs.He is currently sedated and can only have immediate family as visitors. Please be praying for him and us and we will let you know when he can have visitors. Quick update: They are still keeping him under to let his body rest. He is in ICU still. Just monitoring to make sure that nothing changes. Still hasn't been conscious. It looks like he has a wicked concussion but he doesn't show any signs of bleeding or swelling. Dr. said if he hadn't been wearing a helmet it could have been much worse. Thanks again for all of the thoughts and prayers. NATE IS AWAKE!!! They took him off sedation and he started to wake up. Once he started to wake up he was trying to get the breathing thing out of his mouth so they went ahead and took it out. He was able to sustain breathing on his own and now he can talk. He is already joking around and the thing he is most bummed about is not being able to snowboard for the rest of the season. He seems to be completley himself. We told him how serious it was (cause he doesn't remember anything) and his reaction was, "Thank you God." He is recovering so much faster than the Dr. was saying so we are so thankful for your prayers and God's power in this. Thank you.So, since they took the breathing tube out last night Nate has been breathing on his own with occasional oxygen when he's on pain meds. His right lung still has some extra air (?) and some blood in it so they are keeping a close eye on that. He is starting to feel some of the pain now and they have him doing breathing exercises which hurt but will hopefully keep him from getting pneumonia. Kyle came in last night from Maine. Nate is very in and out and mostly drifts out mid sentence. I guess he needs some rest. But, praise God, when he is awake he is very much himself. He's asked us not to eat in front of him because he is starving and can't have food yet. One of his first sentences last night was, "I wish I could have a BCB or a cheeseburger." You can see what I mean about him being himself. Also he's bummed that they had to cut off his snowboarding jacket and pants. He is healiing faster than they prepared us for at first. If all continues to go well he will be out of ICU by the end of today or tomorrow.