Lately I've had a bunch of people ask me how Taylor is doing, so I thought I'd write about him today :) For those of you who don't know, my youngest brother was hit by a truck while riding his motorcycle back in June. Can I just say...scariest day of my life. Brad and I (and of course baby) were at this parents house enjoying a day by the pool. We went inside to lay Avery down for her nap and I checked my phone since I had left it inside to charge. I had a couple of missed calls from my dad, and a voicemail. I listened to the voicemail, which simply said "Hey, Taylor's been in a motorcycle wreck. He's on the way to Gwinnett Medical right now. Call me back." My heart sank. Just as I was trying to call him back he was calling me again. I answered and said "I just got your message...we're on the way. Is he ok?". He said "He's alive, but we don't know the extent of his injuries yet. We're waiting to see him. See you soon.". I think all I could manage to get out to Brad was "We've got to go, Taylor was in a wreck. He's at the hospital". I bolted out the door. Luckily, Brad's dad was home from work and told us he would watch Avery and to just keep him updated on Taylor.
The drive to the hospital seemed like it took forever, when in all actuality it probably took us 10 minutes. But my head was racing...I think I watch too much Grey's Anatomy. We got to the ER to find my parents, Reece (my other brother), Kasey (Taylor's girlfriend), and Kasey's mom. 20 minutes or so later the doctor finally came out and told my parents they could go see him, but only 2 were allowed back at a time. Mom and Dad came walking out after about 15 minutes of being back in the room. Mom was crying and was holding a bag that had 1 shoe, and his helmet in it. Dad told us that both of the bones in his left lower leg were broken in half, his left hand was broken along with a few fingers, and he had road rash all down the left side of his body. Kasey and I decided we were next to go see him.
I wasn't prepared for that, and I don't know that I'll ever get the image of him laying in that room all bandaged up and in so much pain out of my head. I was just so thankful he was alive and I just kept telling him he'd be ok. After I left the room, Brad went back with Reece and then we were told it would be a few hours before they got him into a room in the orthopedic wing. Surgery to repair both his leg and hand was set for 8am the next day. Brad and I left and decided to spend the night at his parents house so that we could get up early and get to the hospital to see Taylor before his surgery. I didn't sleep at all.
The next morning we headed to the hospital to see him, but he was heavily medicated and not very responsive at the time. Surgery on his leg turned out to be much more invasive than originally thought, so the surgeon decided to postpone his hand surgery until a few days later. He had to have a rod inserted through the larger bone in his leg, along with some screws, to hold it in place. A few days later he had his surgery for his hand. They inserted a metal plate and some more pins to hold bones together. I told him he was turning into a real-life transformer! He was in a lot of pain the entire time he was in the hospital (the road rash didn't help) and I think we were all getting a little discouraged that it wasn't easing up any. Not to mention, they didn't just give him a wheelchair to roll around in, they gave him a walker with an arm rest on it so that he could learn to scoot himself around. It looked impossible to me, but Taylor did great with it. A week later he was finally discharged and mom and dad took him to their house to take care of him. He had to be on blood thinner shots for 10 more days, so dad got the job of administering those :/
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| He had just gotten off work and only had his undershirt on because it was almost 100 degrees...so this is what much of his left side looked like. |
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| Learning to use the walker |
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| He was ready to go! |
Taylor finally started to act himself again, just confined to a recliner and occasionally hopping around with the walker when he needed to. He began therapy on his leg and his hand and finally, in August, the doctor thought his bones in his leg were strong enough for him to try and walk again. He began very very slowly, but after a week or so he only had a slight limp. It was great to see him up and moving again...even if he wasn't completely back to normal yet. It's now been a little over 4 months since his accident. He is walking without a limp and has been released by his surgeon to return back to work and full activity. He will have to have another surgery on his hand sometime next summer, but we'll deal with that when we get there.
We're very thankful that we have Taylor back as Taylor. We're thankful that his helmet did it's job that day. We're thankful that Kasey wasn't riding with him, like she had done so many times before. We're thankful it wasn't worse than it was. You know that bumper sticker you see that says "look twice, save a life"? It's so true. Motorcyclist are everywhere and they can be hard to see. The man that pulled out in front of Taylor didn't mean to cause a wreck that day...he simply just didn't see Taylor. Unfortunately, Taylor couldn't do anything to stop in time. Now, we just have to convince him that he never ever wants to get back on a bike again and the he wants to drive an army tank around for the rest of his life...too bad he's on stubborn kid!
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Hanging out with Avery shortly after leaving the hospital :)
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| Taylor & Avery now! |
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