Day 17 of the 30 Day Challenge

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

May 11th, 2009, Mother's Day, BetterHalf received an e-mail that he was accepted into UVU in the Technical Theatrical department. It was a wonderful Mother's Day. We had spent the first part of the day with MomJ and the last part with Madre.
The next day my BetterHalf went to help DadJ trim GDot's tree. As he was climbing down the ladder, the ladder just started falling to pieces beneath him. He fell twenty feet and shattered his L1 and L2. I was at home, which was next door, playing the piano while LittleOne was taking a nap. I must have been playing louder than I thought because I didn't even hear the ambulance come down the street. But DadJ called MomJ and she came and got me. She brought me to the hospital. KJ watched LittleOne for us. They did a scan and discovered his problem. Almost immediately they got the best surgeon in the state there to take care of his back. Elder Hafen (who lived right across the street from us) just happened to be having an appointment with the surgeon. He came rushing over with the surgeon. He came and with the assistance of the Preisthood holders present gave my BetterHalf a blessing. Which was the only thing that really seemed to help him with the pain previously to going into surgery. After about 10 hours of surgery he came out looking pretty good, for his condition. Over the next couple of days I received help in keeping my BetterHalf company, especially since I wasn't allowed to sleep in the ICU, but could be there all but from I think it was 4 - 6. After about 3 days he was transfered out of the ICU and into the regular Hospital. He was in the regular hospital less than a day before they came, got him to stand up, with a brace on and some help. They transfered him to the physical rehabilitation area. He was amazing. The therapists referred to him as Superman. Everytime they asked him to do something he would do twice as much as they wanted. Dario was his main therapist, he quickly learned to ask my BetterHalf to do half as much as he wanted. A couple days before Dario wanted my BetterHalf insisted on standing up and walking without help from someone else. (Though he was holding on to some bars for support.) It was amazing, he's amazing. In less than a month he was home. It was one step at a time. Slowly up and down stairs, slowly taking trips one at a time. Never pushing further than the back allowed. Some days he couldn't get up, most he pushed himself as far as possible. Swimming is something that helps. He still has to take it easier than he likes. Every now and then he has issues. He's strong. He's amazing. He has now been cleared to do as much as he can without pain. One step at a time. :D