The Beginning

Hello all - if you are reading this blog, then you probably already know why you're here! Our goal is to use this blog to help keep in touch with people. We are truly blessed to have so many people inquiring about both our well being and especially Judi's.

We would like to have this not only to document what goes on so that she can read it when she is with us again, but also to have a place for people to send their thoughts and prayers. I know that we appreciate it, and she will be uplifted to read it when she wakes up.

On Sunday, April 26th, Judi was going on a motorcycle ride with Steve. When going to turn out of our neighborhood, for some reason, she drove across the road instead of turning. We have been unable to talk with her to determine exactly what happened. A car was waiting to turn out of the office complex across from our neighborhood, and Judi clipped the front corner of the car with her motorcycle. This caused the motorcycle to flip over, and threw her into the shoulder of the road.

Emergency services arrived quickly and made the decision to airlift her to MCG. (We are going to be sure to let her know that traffic was stopped for quite some time on a busy road so they could land a helicopter for her!)

The initial scans and assessments showed that that was no bleeding in her head, but that she did have head trauma and a serious spinal injury. We spent quite a few hours watching her blood pressure go up and down, waiting to see it get high enough for her to be able to withstand an MRI. On Sunday night, they put in a small drain to relieve some of the pressure in her head. That night, she also had an MRI. We were very relieved to find out that her spinal cord was not injured. She does have a very severe back injury, but her spinal functions are intact.

On Monday morning, her intracranial pressure (ICP) started to rise again. This is normal with a head injury. Any injury that causes broken blood vessels will swell, and that swelling takes several days to peak before it goes away. She had also developed a small blood clot on the right side of her head, which is where the initial trauma occurred. Her doctors decided to be proactive and address this before it became an emergency.

On Monday afternoon, she underwent a procedure called a craniotomy. This involves removing part of the bone in her skull. When this bone is removed, it gives the brain room to swell without compressing itself. This procedure was successful, and the surgeon was able to remove the clot as well. A CT scan later that night showed that there were no more clots, and that things were looking good!

As of today (Tuesday), we are just waiting for her blood pressure to stabilize. She is resting well and her blood pressure looks good. We think she definitely looks better than she did. When dealing with head trauma, it typically takes 48-72 hours for the swelling to peak, after which it will go down. When the swelling has gone down, we will have cleared a big hurdle!

So that's about where we are today. I will do my best to update this every day, so that you will know how she is doing. Please continue to check in, and comment with your thoughts and prayers if you'd like. I know that they help us, and they will help her when she is recovering.

Thank you for reading! Keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.