Just our luck......

Nope I didn't fall off of the face of the earth....but boy do I feel like it!  We were on vacation from March 26th-April 3rd....while driving to our destination our back brakes went out.  Since Joe didn't have his tools we decided to hire someone down there his boss suggested.  On the 2nd day we blew a tire and Joe had to change it in the pouring rain :(  The rest of the trip went ok, besides the fact 3 out of the 4 girls got strep-throat, ugh!  But it could have been worse and we still had a blast! (blog to follow).  

On the way back home we noticed the front brakes were going out (just wonderful).  Joe said he had changed his brakes on his truck several times so he could do it.  He went to work that morning and came home early that afternoon to change them.  I took the rest of the day off and was just getting back from getting groceries.  I took them inside and was walking to my room when I heard Joe screaming from the garage.  All sorts of thoughts went through my head....I just KNEW that the van had fallen on him, but it was all S-L-O-W motion as I was running out there.  I didn't want to see him crushed, I was scared to even look!  When I got out there, he was laying on the garage floor.  He was crying in pain.  I asked if he could get up, he wasn't sure, but we managed to get him up and into bed.  We tried to asses the injury, but he wasn't sure how bad it was.  He was being a typical man and didn't want to get an x-ray.  So I told him we'd go in town and  see his friend that is a chiropractor.  

When we got there, he suggested we get an x-ray before he did anything invasive.  Joe wanted to wait until the next day, but I said he was going that night through the ER, I didn't care what it cost.  So I had his mom take him to get the x-ray and I stayed with the girls.  This all had occurred around 4pm, and by 9:30pm I still had not heard anything from them...both their cell phones were dead so I couldn't reach them.  I finally got a call that all the blood work and initial tests came back ok; they were just waiting for the last CAT scan to come back.  When it did they called me from the hospital and said they were rushing Joe by ambulance to Deaconess...that if he even moved or twisted the wrong way he could be paralyzed.  This was around 10:30pm I think....so I called my mom and she rushed over to watch the girls and I drove down to the hospital.

When we first arrived, the ER dr there was VERY rude.  She acted like we shouldn't even be there...had no idea why they sent us.  We didn't know, we just did what the dr's told us to.  So I got to the point where I just said, TALK TO THE DR THAT TALKED WITH OUR DR!!  JEEZ  LADY!  So she did and when she came back she acted completely different.  They were treating him for a compressed fracture of his L1.  He had to log roll if he wanted to move at all.  He couldn't get up to even use the bathroom!  They had to bring him a hospital urinal (thank goodness he's a guy) lol 

So long story short we had to wait until he saw the neurologist the next day before we knew what to do.  Once we saw him he told us Joe would have to be fitted for a brace.  He would have to wear this brace for 2 months.  He cannot drive or even be in a car unless he HAS to.  One thing they told us was that if he would try to drive while in the brace and he's in an accident, insurance WILL NOT cover it...so don't do it LOL  

 Here you can see our girls sent him some love =)

 Getting "molded" for his brace--laughing b/c

I'm taking his picture and he can't do anything 

about it!

 I'm sure he's ticked at me ;)

 Alli Jo feeding her daddy =) 

He is doing "ok" now.  Home and trying to rest as much as he can with 4 ladies in the house.  I have to admit, I didn't realize how much he did around the house until now...it absolutely sucks being a single mommy taking care of 3 kiddos and an injured husband...all while taking care of myself!!  But I THANK GOD that Joe wasn't injured worse or even killed.  He was definitely watching over him!  Thank you Jesus!