Well, if I am going to start blogging about my life as a caregiver, then I should share our story how my husband got into his accident. We were legally married, through a civilized marriage, about 7 months prior the accident. On July 16, 2011, we had a wedding ceremony and reception to share with our close relatives and friends. It was funny that I almost didn't make it to the ceremony due to being upset at Daniel the night before when he had his little "bachelor" party and he came back home around 2 am with most of the guys to hang out and cook some frozen pasta. At that time, I was around 3 months pregnant, hormonal, oh and I had to wake up early in the morning to get pampered up with my best friends. So we can just imagined how I felt. Anyways, the day of the ceremony turned out to be a gorgeous morning. I had a fun time with my best friends getting pampered and feeling pretty. I felt really pretty by the time I was done getting pampered and figured, "Ok, I'm this pretty that I might as well go to this ceremony." The ceremony happened to be at Daniel's cousin's backyard and I have arrived there about 15 minutes before the ceremony begun, and I'm still not in my gown. It turned out to be a beautiful ceremony and the night was perfect. Daniel was having a good time dancing and doing his back flips, and I was still going through some morning sickness that I had a hard time eating.
Around 10:30 pm, our DJ was suppose to be done for the night but our friends and family kept pitching in money for him to stay longer. Daniel begun the "Conga Line", which wasn't planned for our event, and walked around the backyard and around this built up pool that was 5 ft. Daniel climbed up the ladder to the pool and act like he was about to dive in. Daniel is 6 ft and climbed up to a ladder to a 5 ft pool and dove into the pool. I was right across from him from the pool when this happened. I didn't think much like he was really going to hurt himself so I figured he was going to pop right up. Couple of other people dove in right away only because they were joining in the fun, so I ran off and didn't want to get wet by the cold water. Just a few seconds after I took off, I heard complete silence. I turned around and saw someone holding my Daniel up. I was in complete shock at the time and I couldn't think, couldn't speak. When I came up to Daniel at the pool, a relative picked up Daniel under his armpits and got him out of the pool and laid him on the ground faced up. Everyone gathered around him and I yelled for my parents to come over, my mother is a registered nurse and my father used to be a trained paramedic and also trained search and rescue. Daniel yelled for everyone to be quiet and told us that he broke his neck and that he can't feel a thing. My father came by and kept pinching him all over Daniel's body and asking him if he felt it. He didn't feel anything. I even remember Daniel telling me that he's done, that he's going to die basically.
Just in moments later, a couple of police officers showed up and then the firefighters and the paramedics arrived. The firefighter chief came up to me and told me that they have to have him airlifted to a hospital that was a little over an hour away. They said that the helicopter is about 40 minutes away. I didn't want to wait for the helicopter to show up and watch them airlift Daniel. I knew that helicopters would arrive to the hospital quickly, and I wanted to be at that hospital by the time they landed. I didn't know how to get to this hospital and I was in too much in shock, so my parents took me. My mom called up my brother on our way, who just pulled up into his driveway from coming from the reception, what had happened. My brother lives about a half an hr away from this hospital and got to see Daniel landing. Me and my parents arrived shortly after and of course I was still in that wedding dress. Daniel's family wanted to change their clothes real quick so they arrived probably less than a half an hr after us.
It was my first time going to a hospital that you have to go through metal detectors and have security go through your stuff. I was confused. When I finally got to the ER lobby area, I went up to the desk and told them that I was Daniel's wife. They said that they don't have a Daniel here. Again, I was confused and told him that he was just been airlifted to this hospital. So they searched through their computer and found a "Evan Enigma" that just arrived in a helicopter. Confusion again, and so I had to sit in the lobby area until they call for me.
Close friends and family and myself waited in the lobby area for hours. We were all tired and hungry, but I couldn't eat due to the morning sickness. Finally, me and Daniel's mom, Helen, got to see someone to tell us what's the diagnosis. They said that he fractured C5 and that we get to see him for a little bit before they have to do more tests and procedures on him. We entered his room, and he was bundled up in blankets with a electric heater above him. We knew that he was in pain. A doctor came into the room and told us that they want to do an MRI on him. We left the room and didn't get to see him for another few hours later. By the time we got to see him again, it was around 5 am and everyone was beyond tired and wanted to go home. I didn't want to leave and was scared that he was going to wake up anytime, but I was still in all this makeup and a wedding dress on.
I arrived back at the cousin's house to get my car and try to search for Daniel's wallet. I got his stuff, but no wallet and no ID. It was very emotional when I got home. When I first stepped into our house and I'm alone. There was silence in this house except for my crying. I only had a couple of hours of rest, and when I woke up, I had a voicemail from the hospital saying that Daniel woke up and was asking for his family. I had to broke out in tears knowing that I wasn't there for him. I remember calling my sister up in tears, and she offered to give me a ride to the hospital.
When me and my sister Shanda arrived to the hospital, Daniel had a halo on. I came up to him and held his hand whispering to him that I'm here even though the hospital had him sedated. Just moments later, a staff told me that they were getting ready to transfer him to an ICU room. Helen arrived, and we followed the staff and Daniel up into the ICU. Daniel stayed in the ICU for a little over 2 weeks. It was quite an experience for all of us. Daniel couldn't talk due to the ventilator and shortly getting a trach afterwards, so we had to learn how to communicate with him by using either dry erase boards with rows and columns of letters or by just saying the ABC's and he would blink the letter. We had a moment where Daniel spelt out the word "sabotage" or "abused" from a nurse and was immediately had to get that problem investigated. Daniel couldn't talk and he didn't really want to communicate to the staff of what was happening to him and the man that was in charge of the ICU unit allowed to have 1 family member with him at all times. The nurse and the respiratory therapist that were involved were still working there when we left.
After his ICU days, Daniel was transferred to another facility for his rehabilitation. He stayed at this rehab for 8 weeks. I'd worked at a preschool, so I decided to go back to work while he was in rehab. I've always traveled down there to visit him after work and I stayed at a hotel during the weekends. The staff at this rehab were awesome and we weren't allowed to stay the night to keep an eye on Daniel. Only a couple of nurses there were disagreements, but 90% of the staff were awesome. I remember Daniel calling me up every morning at work before I had all the kids arrived for school. I was so thrilled to hear his voice, even though it was different due to having a trach. He would call me up to tell me good morning and tell me what improvements that he had made in therapy. I've always had a good day at work knowing that my Daniel was doing ok.
I had to type this up in the middle of the night, so I'm sorry if this story became too confusing for anyone. This story was way too long for me to type up and could not think straight! haha!
