A little background

Four years ago, just before my son was to start his senior year of high school he was involved in a major traffic accident. He and 2 friends were returning from a day at the lake, my son was in the passenger seat, a 16 year old was driving and his 14 year old brother was asleep in the folded down area of an older Ford Explorer. Apparently the driver fell asleep, only a few minutes after leaving the lake, veered off the road and hit the only damn thing there was to hit in a big corn field: a utility pole. My son was thrown from the vehicle as it flipped and rolled, they had to cut the brother out of the truck. The driver walked away with a banged up knee and split lip. The brother has his spleen removed that evening and a spinal fusion done later that week - lucky for him he had no cord damage. My son broke his back at T12 (about the waist), his right thigh, his pelvis in 2 places and had a few other bang up injuries. He went to the trauma unit for 3 weeks. He was not wearing his seat belt, and surprisingly this was good. There was no part of the truck left where he was sitting, the engine was in the back seat on the passenger side. Again, I will spare you the photos, they aren't pretty. They pinned his leg and fused his spine that night. He was left as a complete paraplegic, meaning no feeling or movement below the level of his injury.

He also lives alone and goes to school. Dates, hangs with friends, cooks (sort of, but he's only 21 and a guy), shops and drives. He graduated that June with his class. THAT'S a picture I will share: Life does go on, just not the same way.

He's had a rough time in recovery: a staff infection, rod failure, fusion failure. He's on his 3rd set of hardware and it's likely that it will be replaced this summer (that's his xray at the top of my blog, you can see the hardware). Most of his high school friends went off to college while he was in rehab. His girlfriend dumped him (yeah, probably would have ended anyway, they were 18). He's still struggling to finish an associates degree while fighting pressure sores and UTI's. There's so more to being paralysed than not walking.

Thank you to all of you who cared and are concerned, it means a lot. It's ok to ask. I will answer if appropriate.