In sickness and in health..

Wow, what a start to the year we have had! I don't know if anyone even follows me anymore, but my plan is to start blogging more now that things have calmed down. This post is going to be very long but it explains what we've been going through over the past almost two months.

Where do I begin?? New Years Eve was a normal day for us. We were excited about the night and I was enjoying one of my last days of being home with Caroline for the holidays before getting back into the work routine.

The three of us went to a friend's house that night to ring in the new year. We grilled burgers, played a board game, and had a few drinks. Shortly after midnight, we all went out into the front yard to watch the neighbors do fireworks. Mario was talking to one of our friends and, mid-sentence, decided to take off running and jump over one of the fireworks that was just lit in the street. I remember yelling to him "Mario, what are you doing? You're going to hurt yourself"...and that he did.

I watched him run, jump, and land on the ground and I keep replaying it my head. It looked like he maybe twisted his ankle or knee, lost his footing, and fell. I didn't see his head hit the ground, but it all happened so fast. We stood in the yard waiting for him to get up and run back over to us..and he didn't get up. I ran over to him with another friend and he was laying on his back, unconscious. I freaked out and tried to get him to wake up. I took his pulse..it was there. We honestly couldn't figure out what had happened and why he was passed out. Nothing was bleeding.

We decided to carry him into the house and evaluate things from there. At that point the neighbor that was doing the fireworks walked up to light another one and we explained what happened. He helped us carry him into the house. We laid him on the living room floor and he started to wake up. One of our friends is a nurse and started checking his vitals and pupils..everything looked good. Once he was fully awake, he rolled to his side and threw up. We noticed that the pillow we had put under his head had a little bit of blood on it. We felt all over his head and couldn't find a break in the skin..blood was seeping through his scalp. We knew at that point that he had a concussion and we needed to take him to the hospital. We started asking him questions and he was giving weird answers so we helped him into the car and took off.

We went to the local hospital and I was convinced that he just had a concussion and they would watch him for a while, give him some fluids because he had been drinking, and send us home. They told me to wait in a waiting room while they did a CT scan and they came back in after 10-15 minutes and said they were going to have to airlift him to a trauma hospital in Austin because his brain was bleeding. I was in shock. I overheard the doctor talking to helicopter medic about a severe skull fracture and I felt sick!

I called my parents (who were at a hotel in Austin celebrating the new year) and told them what was going on. They quickly packed up their stuff and drove to our friend's house to pick up Caroline. I had them call Mario's family to let them know what was going on. I decided to have my friends drive me to Austin instead of riding in the helicopter because I felt like I was going to be sick.

To make an already long story shorter, Mario ended up having a severe skull fracture and bruising on the frontal and temporal lobes of his brain. He was in ICU for 9 days and was in a semi-coma for most of that time. He was release from the hospital after 13 days and we started outpatient therapy (occupational, physical, and speech) three times a week for three hours.

I am happy to say that he is now almost back to normal and was cleared this past Friday to start phasing back into work. We were initially told that we were facing weeks to months in the hospital and the possibility of permanent brain damage. His doctors have used the term miracle to describe his recovery! We really can't thank everyone enough for the outpouring of love, support, thoughts, prayers, etc. It has been very touching to have so many people care about our family. Our lives will be forever changed..for the better.