It has been 3 weeks since we got the scary phone call " You son Clayton has been in a car accident" . The pause between Greg's words seemed like an eternity....."he is alive".
Clayton was on a vacation weekend in Seattle with some friends when his friend, Will, ran a stop sign. They were T-boned by a truck. Clayton was in the back seat and the car rolled 3 times. They say his seat beat saved his life. He ended up having serious internal injuries. Nobody else in either car were hurt as bad as Clayton.
They took him to The Whidbey Island hospital emergency room by ambulance. The had to cut him out of the car. He was upset they had to cut his brand new $200 North Face jacket:) The emergency room doctor called us and told us he needed to be transferred to the downtown Seattle Harbor View Trauma Center for more tests and all. That worried us. It was an hour by ambulance. We were glad when he arrived there with the excellent medical care available. They admitted him for observation to do lots of test and all. I went to sleep at 3 am after I talked to Clayton and a social worker. They said we would know more in the morning.
Late Sunday night or really early Monday morning, Chelsea talked to a nurse that told her Clayton needed someone with him. She bought a ticket before we all woke up Monday morning.
The amazing thing was that a good friend of his, Diane from law school had just moved to Seattle a few weeks ago. He texted her and told her to call me. We connected by phone and we found out she only lived 10 minutes from the trauma center. She went immediately down there and stayed with him all day and night until Chelsea got there. She even went to get Chelsea from the airport. She was my eyes and ears all day. I will always love her for her service on such a difficult day for me. And all the help she gave them during the week an getting them back to the airport. I wanted to go and almost bought a ticket but Greg and Chelsea discouraged me because of my bad knee...I am a liability right now.. Chelsea had to sleep on an air mattress in the corner of the room. My good friend Laurene brought her a basket of food and the mattress.
And then took them to the hotel when they were released.
There were so many people that helped Clayton and us....near and far. The love and support
from the members of the church was immeasurable. I always knew how much it means to be a member of the LDS church and the connections that exist, but this was just another testimony of the blessings that can come and did. " By their fruits, y shall know them" . I am forever grateful for that kind of support. And many friends outside the church that called and followed up with us. We are so blessed to have wonderful friends in and out of the church. I could do a whole blog post just on that and all that happened during this scary and difficult time.
Back to Clayton : As time went on, he got worse. They weren't sure about his heart and the extent of his injuries. He went into ICU for a while and had lots of tests. He ended up having to have serious surgery on his colon and hernia. They got in there just in time before his colon split...which could have been fatal. Thank the Lord for skilled surgeons and great medical care. He was at one of the top 4 trauma centers in the country. I was so grateful for Tamara and Rachel who stayed with me after Recipe Club the night CTR had his surgery until 2 am. They helped me stay calm and distracted until he was out of surgery and Chelsea called. The news turned out to be the worst case scenario but he made it through and will eventually be ok.
He got through it with the help of his big sister , Chelsea. She was amazing at 7 months pregnant helping him with so many things. The hospital thought she was a doctor and a lawyer. But mostly the best big sister ever. She made a reputation for herself in the 10 days she was there. And we appreciate Dana working out his job so she could go and Regan going over to Raleigh to babysit the next week when Dana had to go out of town. He even helped Coco get a 4 on her school project...really hard to do and very exciting for her.
When he was well enough, they released him and he and Chelsea went to a Marriot hotel for 2 nights. They flew home to Raleigh, NC first class with the help of Airtran. We went down on the weekend to see Clayton. Lindsay and Regan came to get him and took him back to Winston Salem for a week to recover there. Denton ( and Fischer and Rocky) went down to get him last Saturday and brought him back to Richmond. Denton had brought his car down from DC 2 weeks before. He has had so much love and support from all his siblings ( including Jordan in Arizona) and is lucky to have such a good family. I am so proud of all my children and how they love and care for each other.
Clayton drove himself home Saturday night and actually went to church in his ward on Sunday. His friends had a welcome home Sunday dinner for him. He will telecommute
for work for another week at least, then will try to go in to work. The doctor said it really was a 6 week recovery.
Tomorrow a friend is driving him down to Richmond for his follow-up doctor's appt. with the surgeon that will do his surgery in 6 mos. He still gets really tired. He will have surgery and recover here in Richmond next April. I am going with him to hear what the doc has to say and then we will all go out to lunch.
It has been an unbelievable 3 weeks and we are so so so so grateful he is alive and his injuries will eventually heal and he will be whole again ( we hope). His seat belt ( and Heavenly Father)
saved his life. I have said so many prayers of gratitude.
We had a blog set up just for Clayton because we couldn't handle all the calls, texts, and emails.
There is a more comprehensive picture there ( Chelsea wrote it).
Here are Greg and I as the greeters and registrars for the YSA Harvest Ball and the downtown Marriott last night. One of our YSA took this of us and posted on FB. We have been coming to this for so long and I think we are the oldest people there. I love my cane in the background. What you can't see is the wheelchair Greg pushed me in with...I just can't make it that far right now. But if we are there next year, maybe I will be walking and even dancing with my new knee I hope to get in February.
