O.L. Update

I asked our friend Amy to give me an update with all the details she knew this morning. She is such a good communicator and really delivered. I don't have a lot of time, so I thought the easiest thing would be to just paste her email here. Hope she doesn't mind. But, it gives you all the details as of late.

At the end of that there is another brief email that one of our other friends there in Longview wrote to us today updating us. Such great friends we have there. Anyway, loved the last line of his email. For those of you who know O.L., what he says in that last line is a good sign. :)

Ok. Here's the story as I know it from his cousin Kim.

Friday night he was heading North on Hwy 31 just past Reo. A Dodge Ram with 5 passengers, including drunk driver, was heading South on Hwy 31. The Dodge Ram lost control, cleared median, flipped and landed on OLs car and smushed it like a pancake. It took the jaws of life 45 minutes to get him out. One passenger in the other vehicle passed away. One passenger is walking with a neck brace. Another passenger is walking with minor injuries. Not sure about the other two or which one is the driver.

They did surgery on him for about 8 hours or so. His face got hit with something and his left eye is a little blurry and swollen but I'm pretty sure he'll be able to see fine when the swelling goes down. He has a vertebrae that is compressed (I believe that's what they said, I don't think it was shattered but it may have been). His right arm is ok for the most part. His right hand mobility is stiff but he made a Longhorn sign for me yesterday! :o) His left arm is in bad shape. There is a bone missing (probably crushed) so they've had to leave his arm open until they decide how to fix it. He has broken ribs but neither lung was punctured. He has no major internal problems in regards to organs or brain. His pelvis is completely crushed and he'll have to have a hip replacement because of it. His right leg is broken and his right ankle crushed. I believe they've already done some surgery on the ankle because he's in a cast (I'm not sure if it's a hard one yet or a soft one bc it was mostly covered by a blanket). His left leg is also broken and his left foot is swollen some. I'm not sure which femur is broken in which leg and what the other broken bones were.

He's being moved out of S-ICU tomorrow or Wednesday and into a private room. He will be in the hospital at least two weeks and will then be going to stay with relatives in either Kilgore or Longview. From what I know, he is expected to walk again once his bones heal. He'll definitely have to go through some therapy. He has several more surgeries ahead which I know one will be for his hip replacement and one for his arm. I'm not sure when these are scheduled.

He's supposed to be reevaluated today by the physician and we'll know more. He is swollen in several places but it's going down. He does have a new cell phone now but his SIM card was at his cousins last night so we weren't able to get it up and going. It should be up and going today or tomorrow but because of his limited mobility, his use of it will be limited. But, he wanted one so we got him one! He's still the social one! His mind seems to be functioning well. He was recognizing pretty much everyone whenever they were within range of his "good" eye. He's on a morphine drip right now but he says it's not working well. I'm sure it's working better than if he didn't have it though!

Anyways, that's the scoop that I know. He is thankful for everyone's prayers and well wishes. He's already making plans for when he gets out even though that is still very up in the air!

And now for the 2nd email...

He looks for the most part himself except his left arm was in a sling, his right leg was fully covered and in a cast and his head got scalped a bit so his hair was messed up. He was his talkative self though. He did seem to be in a lot of pain. The nurse said he should be in his own room in a few days and I plan to go see him again then. Keep praying.... Oh, and he seemed to be most upset that his phone had been smashed in the accident, lol.