After the Accident

I got the call Joey had been in an accident while I was at the laundromat. The message I got said he was OK, but he had a broken leg and arm, and he (Jake) would call me back once they knew which hospital they were taking him to. I didn't freak out, but the fact that Joey wasn't calling me, did have me worried. Jake called back about ten minutes later and said they were taking him to the Rifle, CO hospital so I called the boys at the bus and told them to get ready, I was picking them up. They were, surprisingly, ready and waiting for me. No one said a word in the car on the drive to the hospital, until I got another call from Jake saying the ambulance has finally gotten there and they're getting him out of the ditch now. WHAT?! Over an hour had passed since I was told they were taking him to the hospital! Another half hour passed, and I got another call from Jake: They're getting him in to the ambulance now. By this time we're already at the hospital and umm...trying not to freak out. Almost THREE hours since the accident happened, he finally arrived in the ER.


The kids were left to themselves in the ER waiting room while I stayed with Joey and helped the ER crew get the rest of his clothes off, and pull the basket he'd been rescued in, out from under him. He was amazingly very calm, and even joking with everyone. The Fire and Rescue guys put a traction unit on his leg and had his arm wrapped in a cast sort of thing. He spent about three hours in the ER taking X-Rays (which he says was the scariest part: him alone with five women and a pair of scissors), going through a CAT scan, getting morphine pumped into him along with shots into his wrist to numb it so the docs could set his bones back into place. The Doc showed me the Xrays and the best way I could describe his wrist was to compare it to broken glass. It was shattered.

We went straight to surgery after the ER, where the kids again had to wait, but this time the nurses were feeding them.....and I've long since declared them the best kids in the whole world. Joey came out of surgery around 9:30 pm and he was feeling GREAT! He was laughing, wanting to get back to his dream and wondering when they were going to do the surgery. Of course, he remembers none of that. During the surgery they put a rod in his right leg with a screw to hold it in place and the surgeon says it came out beautifully, and even showed me the Xrays. There were still bits of bone floating around in his ankle, but the Doc said those didn't matter, they got the most important bone fixed. They also had to do surgery on his wrist because the attempt to set it in the ER failed, and the bones collapsed again.


The kids and I stayed the night in the hospital with Joey, against the nurses wishes but there was no way I could leave him....and she wasn't allowed to not let us, so....Jonas and I spooned in the spare hospital bed while Jewel curled up in a chair and Jake slept in a recliner. Joey never slept.

The next day he had physical therapists teach him how to use the walker with a special platform to brace his broken arm, how to get in and out of the wheelchair, and to teach me how to put the "boot" on and off his leg. Joey's company got us a hotel room for the next ten days since there was no way we were getting him in the bus, and the hospital released him at six pm. Only Thirty One hours since the accident happened. Joey wanted to stay.

Our first hurdle was getting him into the Hummer. There was me..and three nurses... and us standing by helpless while we watched Joey pull himself up by his left hand into the car. Good thing he's strong! I don't know what we would have done otherwise. We stopped by the bus for the Wii and a few other things before heading to our hotel room.

The kids were ecstatic about the hotel. They had a heated pool and an indoor jacuzzi, so they declared this a vacation. I wasn't really looking forward to that long away from the bus, but staying in that hotel was exactly what we needed. They had an ice machine to keep his arm and legg iced up. They had a very nice continental breakfast which I took advantage of every morning. Twenty four hour hot coffee for Joey, guest laundry, yummy restaurants within walking distance, on site Pepsi machine for me, wi-fi, housekeeping, and a big bathtub for Jewel. Aside from the constant non stop caring for Joey, it was kinda like a vacation...

During the ten days in the hotel I made one trip to the bus to get a TV for the kids to play their Wii on, and to get Jewel's rat, and one trip back to the doctor so he could determine whether to cast the arm or do more surgery to put a plate in it.

He decided the five pins are holding his wrist together nicely so no need for more surgery. After a week of learning and dealing with worker's compensation (and their puny limits) that was the best news we'd heard all week! Jewel picked out a black cast for his arm, even though the doc and I tried to get her to pick hot pink.

Our ten days in the hotel was up. We could have asked the company to extend our stay but we all chose to come back to the bus. We couldn't wait to get home, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on my DVR. When we pull into the campground it's windy as heck and we immediately see screened tents blown over, so we brace for the worst. Yep, our sixteen foot awning has blown completely off and is flapping in the wind. Then I go check the black tank to make sure it got dumped earlier that day, and the handle to the valve has been broken off, and the tank is full. We are literally full of shit. The worst part, Joey can't do a thing about anything, and I have to deal with it all on my own.

I wake up the first morning back in my home, and I can't stop crying. I don't even know why I'm crying, but I can't stop (Probably because I held it all together this whole time). I called my Mom and asked them if we can come stay with them while he recooperates. Now I can take care of Joey, while my mommy takes care of me.