Mike Vs. The Rock and The Rock Won.

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on but for now I am only going to catch everyone up on Mikes condition. For any of you that are unaware Mike was in a rock climbing accident on Saturday. He was climbing up Big Cottonwood Canyon he made it to the top of a 75 ft wall and on the decent his belay lost grip of the rope and he fell 20-30 feet straight to his back. I was not there but I hear that he smashed his face on the wall then did three summer salts then landed on his back.While all of this was happening I was at home getting ready for our wards Chili Cook Off. I had just finished making my chicken dumpling soup and I was about to get the Kids ready to go to the cook off. I was so mad that Mike was not home yet and he wasn't answering his phone. Finally my phone rang and it was Mike I was about to really let him have it then I heard my mother-in-laws voice ask me "Are you sitting down?" I instantly felt so sick, I knew he was rock climbing and that he was probably hurt. She then told me "Mike fell, he is conscious, the ambulance just picked him up as a precaution and he will be at he IMC in Maurry." At this point my mind was playing out every possible scenario from Mike being just fine to me being a single mom to my two kids. I called my neighbor and ask her if she could watch London and take my soup to the party. She rushed right over and took London for me and I raced to the hospital. When I arrived there were two 20 something year old males that fell climbing up Big Cottonwood at the same time so it took a few minutes to figure out which one was Mike. When they knew where he was they had me go to trauma room #3 and wait while he was getting a CT Scan. In the corner of the room they had a basket with his cloths in it. They cut his shirt and harness off. So as I am sitting in the trauma room by myself I see his chart. It listed: aberration on face, aberration on nose, aberration on back 1 1/2 ft by 6 inches wide, L-spine deformity. After I read this I was really scared and nervous to see him. After about 10-15 minutes they rolled him in. He was on a back board and in a neck brace as I walked up to where he could see me he started to cry and my heart broke into a million pieces. I knew he was really scared. The doctor started asking him questions about what he remembered. He didn't remember the fall or even going climbing. He did remember the people in the room which included me, his mom, dad, brother and niece. I asked Mike if he remembered that he had kids, he started crying again and asked me "How many kids do we have?" I asked him "How many kids do you think we have?" he said "I only remember London and Tyler." I told him that's all we have. He asked me "How old is Tyler." I told him two months. He replied "What was I doing being so reckless when I have such young kids to take care of." Mike was given a blessing by his dad and brother. After the blessing I asked him if he knew where he was. He said no. I told him he was rock climbing and he fell 30 feet... again he started to cry. After that it became very clear that his memory was in awful shape. He would say where am I and I would tell him. Then he would say can I have a pillow I feel like I am laying on a stiff board. I would tell him you are on a back board and you can't have a pillow because you are in a neck brace. Then he would ask where am I what happened? Then I would proceed to tell him. he would ask the same sequence of questions over and over again. After about a hour we were finally taken to the room we would be staying in. I stayed over night with him in the hospital and it was the longest night of my life. Every 15 minutes he would say "Hey I just woke up. Is this the most coherent I have been? " I would have to explain that he has been awake the whole time. Then the same questions would start again where am I, what happened, then "Hey I am awake is this the most coherent I have been?" I thought I was going to lose my mind if I had to have the same conversation one more time, so I wrote down all the answers to all of the questions he was asking me so when he would "wake up" he could read for himself where he was. This went on all night and the next morning with out sleep. I would tell him you need your sleep your brain needs to rest he would reply "sleep? I just woke up." Finally at six in the morning he fell asleep.
When he woke up later that afternoon things were pretty much the same. After we received the results of the scans the major injuries were: concussion, fractured nose, punctured lung, collapsed lung. We feel so blessed to still have Mike with us this could have been a complete tragedy. We were able to go home Sunday night. Mikes lung is leaking air and we have to go have another chest x-ray this week and if there is still air in the chest cavity they will have to insert a chest tube to release the air.
We cant thank everyone enough for all of the love, support and prayers that have been offered in our behalf. Both of our phones were ringing non stop at the hospital. I tried to answer all the calls and return all of the messages I know I may have missed a few. Again to any one who offered help to us in any way during this very scary time we sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts.