Baer's Anatomy

I have always thought (and hoped) that if my life were to resemble a TV show, it would be "Friends."  

Well, now that I am older and have kids, it might be more "Everybody Love Raymond."

For the past 2 weeks, our lives have seemed a little more like an episode from "Grey's Anatomy."

Most of you have already heard about this.

For those of you that haven't . . .

Last Saturday, while helping out with something at Girl's Camp, Joe (my father-in-law) was crushed by a falling tree.  He was life-flighted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.

He had crushed vertebrae (6 I believe), and some broken ribs.

Amazingly enough, he was not paralyzed.

We were informed that all he needed was time to heal (like a year) and a special brace for his back.

After a few days, there seemed to be more wrong.

He wouldn't eat, and was having trouble breathing.

They discovered fluid compressing his lungs, and put in a tube to drain it.

Then there was a problem with blood clots, and he still was having trouble breathing.

They eventually intubated him, and planned on doing some sort of surgery on his lungs.

At this point, my mother-in-law finally decided to have him moved to a closer (and better) hospital.

I will just say that I am NOT a fan of UVRMC.  They did not make it easy for her to transfer him.

He was then life-flighted (again) to IMC.

They performed the lung surgery Wednesday evening, and took out his breathing tube yesterday.

They are still debating on whether or not to do any back surgery.

This is one of the times that I wish we did not live so far away.

If we were within driving distance, we could have been there for a lot of this.

Being 2000 miles away makes driving not so convenient.

And plane tickets are so expensive that we have difficulty flying out at a moments notice.

I know that we can't make him better by being there, but at least I would feel like we could alleviate some of the burden on Rocky's family because we would be there doing our part.

Instead, we wait here every day for news, hoping that it is good.

We are grateful to everyone who has been able to help, with fasting, prayers, visits, and the general love and concern that friends, family and neighbors have shown.