I can't make this stuff up!

waiting to see doctor in hospital 

I am not kidding, I can't make this stuff up! Our life gets crazier and crazier...
Last Tuesday I worked at a local Colony in the morning and came home at lunch time and went for a walk around 2 pm. I just began interval training for running, I decided to run the interval timer the entire 21 minutes and then walk the road back.
I got almost a mile and a half from the house, when my phone rang and it was Denis telling me that he needed my help, he was "caught in the post pounder" and he had "already called 911".

I tell you about the running part because I had ran most of the 1.5 mile and now I was that far from home and had to run back...
I started running back to the yard to help -- unsure of what I was going to find when I got to Dennis -- and as I ran I called our neighbour to see if they were home and could come and get me so I could get to Dennis faster and so I had help with whatever I was about to encounter.
Luckily,  they were home and were able to come to get me immediately. Corey started the tractor so we could start the post pound and release his hand which is what was caught.

Sam showed up then and we got Dennis into the car and met the ambulance on the highway so they could take him to Neepawa (which is where they wanted to take him, possibly assuming that his hand was severely damaged and would require further attention in Brandon or Winnipeg).

{Dennis had been making new rubber pads for the post pounder and had thought to put a brace in so that it couldnt slam down and hurt him, but somewhere in-between thinking it and walking back into the shop, the thought left him and he made one rubber pad and then tried to fit it on and he must have leaned on the pounder lever and caused it to slam down onto his hand...}

Once we got to the hospital and xrays were taken it was discovered that there were no broken bones!! Hallelujah!! God is good! The doctor thought that it is a good possiblity that Dennis' wedding ring saved his finger from more severe damage! But there is concern that the knuckle of the finger may become a "boutonnière nuckle" -- so he has to keep it straight for 2-3 weeks.  If it bends at all in between that time, he has to start over from the start.

Concerns about Boutonniere Knuckle

The wedding ring that possibly saved his fingers! 

He has 3-4 stitches in the base of the finger, which we have had looked at by our doctor and it turns out the finger was wet, too wet in fact. SO wet that the stitches were not even really doing anything. We had it redressed and on Saturday we went in to have it reassessed at the local hospital and the nurse or aid that dealt with Dennis didnt listen to us (we repeated ourselves a few times about the injury and what we were supposed to have done) and they still did stuff we discovered this morning when we changed the dressing  that the stitches and the finger were wet again...
Dennis is also concerned that there is no real feeling in the ring finger or the middle finger. So we are hoping to see our doctor this week to address this issue and have stitches removed if possible.
Here is Dennis almost a week after the accident...

I am worried about this all as we are now into our busy season (calving starts in a month) and Sam is also going for a stress EEG tomorrow. Josh has been sick with something in his chest, Hannah has been sick with a cold and has started Driver's Ed, Isaac's grad and the school play he has a lead in is coming up -- all 'minor' things I know, but they all add up. I am getting so tired and frustrated at myself with things. I have been trying to lose weight and get healthier and my stress levels go up, so that isn't helping the weight stuff... which doesnt help the stress levels... all catch .22  ... and I have also been feeling sick and just  'not well'... I am just so tired

I know this sounds incredibly selfish (espeically after a 3 week dream vacation in New Zealand recently), but when do I get to be sick, when do I get to stop running around being over tired? when will someone look after me...

like I said, selfish I know...

rant over...

2431 days...

**sigh**

2431 days...

that is approximately 6.5 years...

that is a loooong time...

2431 days between Sam's accident and when we actually were seen by a neurologist.

Not a neuro-surgeon.

Not a pediatrician that was head of the Brain Injury division in the hospital.

Not an epileptologist.

Not the family doctors.

An honest to goodness neurologist.

Last summer, Sam was having some issues with major headaches and loss of peripheral vision in his left eye. He had had a few of these instances over a few months before he finally told us and we were able to take him to see someone about it.
That day in October, started out with a trip to the walk in clinic (to the north of us 30-45mintes), followed by a referral to the optometrist (to the south of us 1.5hours from home in Brandon), which lead us to the hospital ER (referral from optometrist). The ER doctor then sent along a referral to the neurologist, which we finally got to see in March!

I am not complaining.... well not much.... ok I am trying hard to not complain.
I am just tired and frustrated with our medical system.  The last few years (especially since the seizures started) Sam has had many different manifestations to stress. Beginning with the seizures, he makes a strange clicking/clucking noise when he gets stress, headaches and then the partial blindness and headaches. I worked hard to find someone to help Sam in dealing with the stress ever since his accident and yet all professionals kept telling me that "he was fine". Sam has never really dealt with the reality of his BI. He will tell people about it, but it is mostly just to see their reaction or to shock them.
In reality, Sam will not readily admit to an injury other than the pure physicality of it. He will admit he has 3 fragments still in his brain, but he is not admit that he has issues to deal with, so forget about looking for help to deal with the issues. NO matter what we tell him or how we tell him that everyone has something to deal with just that he has a much cooler story to tell!

So now we are finally seeing a neurologist, after 2431 days, and he is 19years old (but acts more like  17yr) and we cant work as hard to get him the help he could use, because he is 'technically' an adult. We are always working to help him keep moving forward in life. To try to gain those 2 years he lost socially. W try to help him to set up his finances, appointments and schedules so that they work for him. One thing that helps is that he works with us and since he has been here he hasn't had any headaches or peripheral blindness.... that that doesn't mean he hasn't had other issues.... because he wont tell us about them until he has had them for a while.

This neurologist has us going for CT's and EEG's again here soon and Sam is not impressed with this. The Dr. wants to be sure that all seizure activity is gone and he wants fresh scans of his brain. I am happy about these as the EEG will help to settle my mind on the seizure issue (as I said before Sam wont tell us if there is anything occurring until it gets to be too much for him).

just another example of how TBI's are  life long...

no matter how far you have come...

no matter whether you think you are done with it all...

it will still jump out and bite your ass ... just to remind you it is there...