Through Your Mind, Food, ICU and Now

There are several, many, things 

that go through

your mind when someone you 

love goes through what

DJ has gone through. Esp if 

you are dealing with

someone so young. With DJ, 

of course we were all

so thankful to still have him with us. However, some of my

thoughts were, "we still have him with us",

also, "thank goodness he did not lose that eye" (the

one where he was cut on the eyelid, just a little

more pressure, or the cut a bit deeper, it might

have turned out different.

Other thoughts were, he is not paralyzed,

and he did not have brain damage.

As a mom, Amber's main thought that was

so hard for her to come to terms was,

"he laid there in that ditch, ALONE".

My hopes were that being thrown 

from the truck, maybe he was knocked out,

and maybe he will not remember that time.

In ICU he did mention that he remembered

coming too in the ditch. My heart broke.

Other events after bouncing around in 

the truck, seeing a tree (large crepe myrtle), 

he does not seem to remember.

I am thankful for that.

I tried to keep all up to date during the 

ICU, hosp stay, and rehab but when some are

not on FB, it became hard to remember who 

I had to call, who to text and who was

able to see it on FB. When he went to 

rehab I decided I was worrying myself

to pieces keeping all up to date.

I did a DJ Recovery page on FB.

That made life so much easier esp since

the better part of Hickman Co. was

following the accident and recovery.

Yesterday, Amber's fear of DJ being 

alone, laying there in a ditch, not fully 

aware of where he was or what was

going on, why he could not move and 

etc., was answered and we learned that

DJ was not alone.

A young man sent us a message via

PM on that page.

Hello My name is Drake

I was at your sons

accident when it happened,

I was the one that

called 911 and sat with

him until they got there

I’m so very glad he is alive and home I’ve spent every

night wondering since it happened I'm very glad he is

recovering i genuinely cried

tears for him and his family

that day if you ever need

anything to help just let

me know! Have a blessed day!

Yesterday I made some chicken salad and

for Amber a squash casserole

so, I

took them over about lunch time.

When I got home Amber called to

see if I had seen a PM from a guy

named Drake. She read it to me and I

lost it. I could not stop those thankful tears.

Both Amber and I thanked him on 

the message and he is planning on coming

to the Welcome Home event at the 

community center on Oct. 3rd. 

Through our conversation Drake also

told me this...

I will be there! I’m so glad

I saw your page,

he asked me that

morning what my name was

and I said my name

is Drake, buddy it’s nice to meet

you and he said my names

DJ it’s good to meet

you too, even on the worst morning of his

life he still was very kind and calm

So, that answered the question was he

really aware of the accident, was he

awake and would he have been alone.

Thankful Drake.

More of the conversation,

Even though we had never met before

I could tell that morning he was a fighter,

and I’m very grateful he is recovering well! I look

forwarding to meet you guys!

 

I don't know what to do, I so 

want to do something special for 

Drake. I am doing some heavy 

thinking on this one.

All I can think of is, had he not

been there, DJ would have opened his

eyes and no one would have been

with this scared 17 yr old boy.

Not only that, the fast responses 

to getting 911 there could very well

have been what saved DJ's life. 

DJ is excited to REMEET Drake.

To recap, 

DJ in ICU when I saw him for the 

first time.

If you have a iffy tummy, 

scroll past.

I tried to keep pics of each day,

but that got hard to keep up 

with. This pic below is after the 

second surgery on the face/head.

Since DJ was only 17 he was considered

a minor and was in the children's 

hospital. The head of peds plastic

surgery did the second surgery. The first

was to pull the scalp back in place

and clean it up.

This is now. Look at the great job

the doc did. 

Thanks to Drake, the amazing ICU

team, all his nurses and docs, 

Vanderbilt Hosp., and everyone at

rehab. But most of all, the 

biggest thing is DJ's attitude 

through all of this. His will to

heal, the will to push through it

all, and his never saying NO to 

anything he was asked to do in rehab.

Drake was his angel on earth

but everyone that has had a hand

in his healing are amazing.

The cards, comments, calls, text, 

and visits helped him so much.

He would smile and say, "everyone

loves me".....

This county's response was amazing.

I do not want to forget Braden in all 

this either. Braden was offered to ride in 

the truck also, in the bed. Thankful he was 

smart enough to say NO.

I would hate to think about it, but

while sitting in ICU, we probably would

have been planning Braden's funeral.

Just goes to show you, you never know,

when one choice, one event, even in one

second, life can change. All this could have

ended up so differently.

Oh, and have you ever heard of ICU

Delirium? It's a real thing.

After over a week in ICU, then into

a room, DJ had terrible ICU delirium. 

When he was a young kid, he had night

terrors and with the ICU delirium, it

came back. He would wake and yell out,

asking Amber to untie his arms and legs

(cause of the swelling of the spine), the 

head of the bed was in between two

cabins, he woke one night about someone

putting him in a cabinet....it was not pretty. 

Read up on it if you get the chance.

Thanks for all your well wishes for

DJ,

Pam