Evening everyone.  Update for today.

First, thank you to those who have contributed by clicking “Tribute”, which means you’ve sent money.  HOWEVER and PLEASE READ-Yes, we are looking well into seven figures of medical bills and we are certainly going to need to figure that one out.  BUT when you click tribute, it’s actually a donation to Caring Bridge, the company, not to Huddy’s medical bills.  We may form a Go Fund Me at some point (we don’t have the energy at the moment and frankly its just not what’s most important), but unless you want to support Caring Bridge the company, do NOT send money through Tribute. 

OK-Carson and Update-Got Carson over to Swedish last night.  Our courageous daughter, Hannah, stayed with Carson from midnight on, while Barrie and I got an amazing 5 hours of sleep in our own bed.  Coffee never tasted so good. 

Carson however had a rough night.  Didn’t get transferred to a room out of the ER until about 2am and was in tremendous pain during the transition from the ER team to the trauma care team.  Pain management moving from IV drip to oral meds was really hard.

We settled in early this morning, however.  The new team at Swedish has been amazing, the pain management protocol was refined by the wonderful Dr. Quan and is working wonderfully. 

Today ended up great with another 20 of Carson’s friends showing up for the third day in a row.  They laughed together for the better part of an hour before Carson was whipped and needed more pain meds.  Such great and loving friends.  And for those who couldn’t be here, thank you all for the notes of encouragement and support that have been so meaningful to Huddy (Carson), Hannah, Barrie and myself.  So much love and what a beautiful reminder of the choice to be that love, whenever we have the courage to remember. 

This morning we got to meet Dr Desai, a highly recommended Plastic surgeon with tremendous limb rescue (nerve repair) experience.   So humble, gracious and caring.  We love him and feel we would be in great hands.  However, we are still exploring all options for this life changing decision in front of us. 

Our friend Leanna last night sent us a story of a boy of about 17 years old who, 5 years ago was in a remarkably similar accident with similar injuries to Carson and most notably, the severed and severe sciatic nerve damage.  The anecdotal story was about the innovative solution the surgeons at John’s Hopkins tried to repair the sciatic nerve.  It worked and after 10 months, the kid was walking.  Most never do. 

Short version, Dr Desai was not only open to the innovation, but is going to call the surgeon who performed the procedure to consult and jumped on a call today with colleagues locally to brainstorm innovation as a result of the video Leanna sent us.  He’s already shared some ideas, but more on that after another surgery tomorrow to help him and the orthopedic assess the conditions they are dealing with in Carson’s leg. 

What we didn’t know truly until today was the reason for our very cautious optimism.  The sciatic nerve (which is about the thickness of a grown man’s thumb) is responsible for the majority of signally to the lower leg.  No nerve function, no toes, no ankle and no leg movement.  Many people whose sciatic nerve is severely damaged or severed and cannot be repaired end up amputating the lower leg and living with a prosthetic instead.  We recognize this is a real possibility (though Carson is going to make shit happen). 

The hard thing at this moment is twofold-What is the methodology we authorize and Dr Desai or someone else might be comfortable performing.  And second, we have to wait months to see if it worked.  The nerve will need to regrow from about the top of Carson’s Hamstring all the way down to his foot (I won’t bore you with the medical details) and it grows about an inch a month.  So we are talking a long time before we have a sense of whether it’s working. 

Now, miracles happen. And that’s where our prayers, meditations, Carson’s mindset and determination all come in.

And like I said, it’s many, many surgeries on this journey, the sciatic is the most important one.

So tomorrow, Carson has another 2-3 hour procedure of debridement and investigation to assess the sciatic and orthopedic surgical plan.  We are hopeful we can align on a plan by midday Monday (he’ll have a day of rest that day) before a very significant potential surgery Tuesday to reconnect and begin the hopeful healing process of the Sciatic nerve. 

We are stable, more rested, deeply loving each other, supported and feel Carson is getting great care.  Now that he survived the first two days, Carson is facing a moment of profound consequence and we can only hope for a remarkable surgical team, all the luck in the world and all the divine intervention to cause not only the nerve to regrow, but to reignite its relationship with the muscular structure in the lower part of Carson’s leg over time.