So where to begin, not the beginning that was almost a year ago. I'll have to post that one day when I have NOTHING ELSE TO DO, but I promise I will so that ya'll won't feel left out if you don't already know where this all began. Okay, you twisted my arm, picture it:
October 29, 2011, a crisp Saturday morning. The St. Louis Cardinals had just won the World Series the night before. It was opening day of juvenile hunt for deer season. Trevor and Eli were at his parent's house for the weekend and Neely and I were having "Girl Time". 8:40 a.m., Saturday morning Trevor calls home. He tells me to stay calm that there has been an accident...(even as I type this, I remember the whole in my stomach). He says he and Eli fell out of the deer stand that morning at 6. That Eli is okay, he is being life-flighted to Jackson. He tells me that Eli has a broken leg and has been awake the whole time. He is calm for a 9 year old that has fallen 16 feet, but he's in a helicopter so there are tons of cool point for a 3rd grader. Trevor's voice is shaking and I ask him if he is okay, he said that he's okay but his back hurts.
He tells me to get dressed that our nephew, who goes to school at Union University, is on his way to our house to stay with Neely until we know more on Eli's prognosis. I am to call him as soon as I get to Jackson General because Trevor wants to know who the attending orthopedic is on call. The thing with having a husband who works there is knowing who you want to see your son and who you don't. As soon as I hang up, the nephew is at my door. Let me tell you how wonderful this guy is...He is a Junior at the time, it's a Saturday morning for a college kid. He is at my door, dressed, and very composed. He had been called at 6:30 that morning and had been sworn to secrecy until "the" call had been made by Trevor to me.
I get to the hospital, Trevor calls and says that the hospital had refused Eli and they were taking him to LeBonheur. At the time, I was livid...deny him?! But now in retrospect, we are all good with that decision. Jackson General is a great hospital and has great physicians and a great cancer center but they are not a pediatric TRAUMA center. LeBonheur was the best choice all the way around. Eli said is was like staying in a hotel, except for having a broken leg! Anyway, I have to wait for Trevor and his parents to get to our house so that we can all go to Memphis together. I call my sister and tell her she needs to be at LeBonheur when Eli gets there. I don't want him there with no one there he doesn't know. She said, "I'm walking out the door!", and when we got there, she had literally been walking out the door. She is a great auntie!
Trevor and his parents get here, he can't pick his feet up to walk he's in so much pain. I don't know which was worst, the emotional pain he was trying to work through because he couldn't explain the fall or his back. Trevor is safety concious, especially with his children and the outdoors. He teaches them safety and respect for the outdoors and wildlife. Eli was already in the deer stand and Trevor was on the last wrung climbing into the stand to put their safety harnesses on when the stand shifted around the tree and tossed them both out. 16 feet down, in the pitch black, side by side they landed. Eli screamed his leg was broken and Trevor gets the wind knocked out of him. He has to crawl on all fours to find Eli in excruciating pain. Trevor explains to Eli how he's going to have to roll him on his back and how he's going to have to stabilize his leg with seat cushions and limbs. He tells Eli that this is like Bear Grylls or Survivorman, gotta keep it real! Trevor manages to get up on his feet and explain to Eli he's going to have to walk up the ridge to try and get cell coverage to call for help. God's hand is ALL UP IN THIS SITUATION!!! Where they hunt, there is very rarely cell coverage, depending on how high up the ridge you go or if the wind is blowing...the "Can You Hear Me Now" man could make his commercials there-sometimes!
Trevor walks about 20 yards and while he's walking away from Eli, he's trying to keep him talking. Eli is talking and hollers "Dad, did you hear that turkey? OH, my leg! Dad did you hear it? I heard that turkey again, OH my leg!" Trevor calls his mom, she calls for an ambulance and she and my father-in-law get in the vehicles to come help. A retired TWRA wildlife agent hears the ambulance call on the scanner and comes with his gator to help get them out. They meet the ambulance and take them back to where Trevor had parked but then they had to get on the gator with a stretcher, EMTs and get Eli. They load him up onto the gator, go to meet the ambulance and go out to a big field to meet the Air-Evac wing that the ambulance had called. Again, God is ALL UP IN THIS TOO! Usually when Air-Evac is called to Big Sandy, you have to get to the city park so that the helicopter can land in the ball field but where they were hunting there is a huge field that the helicopter landed in.
So Eli flew by helicopter to Memphis and Trevor refused treatment my EMS. He wasn't going to have anything done until Eli had been checked out. We get to LeBonheur, my sister was there before the helicopter landed and had prayed with our son and for our son. My mom got there and they both prayed again with Eli. Trevor and I got there with his parents and Eli was getting x-rays. Looking at him on that table, I think he had on every piece of camoflage on that he owned. Trevor said that Eli didn't want to get cold so he put it all on and the flight nurse had to cut all of it off! There were leaves everywhere, a deer could have walked in that room and no one would have seen if for the camoflage and leaves that Eli had on him.
When he saw me he said, "MOM, if you're here where's my sis?!, is she okay?" He called her and that was the end of hysteria for both of them. He was calm and it calmed her to hear his voice. I've been blessed to babies that love each other that much that they think of the other in dire circumstances. Moving on...Eli had a scrape all the way up his face, from his chin up his nose and his forehead. His nose was so swollen, I thought it was broken but they said no it was just swollen from kissing the ground. All along, my man is in excruciating pain. He can hardly move, he can't sit down at all because it hurt too bad and he was being torn up inside by watching his son hurt knowing he couldn't do anything to help, but pray.
Eli went into surgery to put a nail into his left femur because it was broken in 3 places. The orthopedic surgeon we saw is a great man, Dr. Jeffrey Sawyer with Campbell's Clinic. And since we have been released from his care in August, there have been 2 other people that we know that see him. He sees pediatric patients and has the greatest bedside manner. After he was done with Eli, he sent Trevor to Methodist University hospital for treatment. Saturday night in Memphis, full moon, Halloween weekend...you can picture that emergency room and if you can't find an old episode of ER and you'll get a good picture. Trevor had sustained 3 compression fractures to his back.
So here we are 11 months out and his back is much better, although lots of riding will wear it out and it will start to tighten up. But during this whole tree stand altercation, he had a sinus infection that we had been treating with sinus/allergy medicine. We both have seasonal allergies and they start when farmers start cutting beans or when Trevor starts preparing his deer plots. 11 months ago he had a sinus infection that kind of lingered until we found out in August that the sinus infection that would not completely go away was cancer...
Please pray for Trevor's strength. His endurance over the next 7 weeks. His emotional strength as he continues to be an encouraging, loving father but is becoming very tired because of the chemo and radiation that has a cumulative affect. The more treatments he undergoes, the more it builds up and the tiredness will linger a little longer after each treatment.
Nehemiah1:11-"O Lord, I beseech you, may your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and the prayer of your servants who delight to revere your name, and make your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man."
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