Nate just after getting the Halo on.
This isn't the last bike Nate will ever own....just the last time he'll ride on the road. From here on out it is dirt bikes only!
This is the windshield where Nate's head hit.
The totalled out PT Cruiser. (My kids and I now call these cars...PT Losers!)
As some of you may or may not know today is the 5 year anniversary of Nate's motorcycle accident. (I am going to write down the days' events for journaling purposes...so bear with me.) I'll never forget that morning standing in the garage in Saratoga Springs in our pj's, with Brady (5), Zack (3), and Rachel (18 months.) We wished our daddy farewell on his first ride to work on his new motorcycle. (Later Nate told me that just before we came out to say goodbye, he had knelt down and said a prayer wondering which road he should take to work, Lehi Main street (the busier road), or the back roads...he chose the back roads, which I guess was the right choice ;-) Just a little while later, while feeding the kids some pancakes for breakfast and writing down my grocery shopping list, I received a phone call. On the other end was a Lehi Police officer, telling me that Nate had just been in a head on collision and was being taken to AF Hospital. But Nate was conscious and was able to give the officer our phone number. I asked him where it happened, and he told me, but also said to go straight to the hospital, since I probably wouldn't make it to the crash site before Nate left. I rushed the kids into the van, and drove as fast as I could. I asked Brady to say a prayer as we passed Albertson's, and I will always remember the faith of that little boy and his little prayer. I had called my sister, Chalise, just before I left and asked her if I could drop off my kids, since they live right by the hospital. She and Kyle rushed out with her 3 oldest and grabbed my kids. Walking into the ER, I didn't know what to expect to see. Honestly I was expecting the worst, like a mangled unrecognizable face. There was some blood, but not anything I couldn't handle. Nate was scared, but so was I. Nate went in for an x-ray, and they found that vetrebre C-1, C-2, and C-3 were all crushed. (These are the vetrebre that hold the brain stem and spinal cord.) Nate had the same injury as Christopher Reeve, but his vetrebre didn't go out of alignment, they were just compressed with 9 fractures between the 3 of them. But the Dr's said that they weren't equipped to handle this type of injury, so they needed to send him to Utah Valley or LDS Hospital, but more than likely he would end up at LDS because he needed a neurosurgeon. So he was life flighted to LDS hospital, instead of an ambulance transport, because they didn't want to run the risk of his vetrebre moving and Nate becoming paralyzed. That wasn't very fun standing off to the side on the grass with Nate's mom, watching the helicopter take off. My mom came and got me at the hospital and we sped up to LDS hospital, and met Nate in the ER. His mom, and Kelly and Aimee were already there waiting for the latest word. After many hours he was assessed and put into a halo at about 10:30 that night. The Dr said that people are in halo's from 6 months to a year depending on how they heal. Nate was awake during the procedure of the Dr's drilling into his skull in 4 different spots. He also had a cracked left rib, tore his ACL in his right knee, broke this left wrist, and had plenty of road rash. He was transferred to ICU, for the first 2 days there. What a great relief it was when I first walked in ICU and saw one of our good friends, Wes Adams, who was a medical student at the time at the UofU, and doing some type of internship in ICU. I'll never forget Wes' face when I led him to Nate's room and started to tell him what happened. But he sure was a fountain of knowledge and was able to explain all sorts of medical terminology to us during our stay. Nate had a ton of visitors for the 4 days that he spent in the hospital. After 4 days they gave him to okay to go home, which was a little scarey for both of us. We didn't quite know how or where he was going to sleep. At home it was a bit of an adjustment, but we managed. The kids sure liked having their dad home. There were many times we would sit in the lounge chairs and just watch them play on the slip and slide, or run around outside. After about a week at home, Nate's boss called and told me to either take away Nate's pager, or he was going to confiscate it himself. (Nate was trying to work a little from home, which didn't sit well with anyone at work.) We had so many people bless our lives during that time, I'm sure I didn't get the chance to thank everyone appropriately. But they sure were in our prayers, because we were so humbled and in utter awe of the outpouring of love for our family. Nate was in the halo for 3 months. I credit his quick recovery to his great health and all of his basketball playing. (Plus I was a wonderful nurse who slept on the couch beside his lazy-boy recliner downstairs, so that I could help him during the night...even for potty breaks.) He doesn't have full movement in his neck, and sometimes people will ask if he has a stiff neck when he turns, but for all that he went through we are so very thankful to have him here with us today.
Zack and Mom on his Baptism day.
