It was November 1st and I was at work putting highlights in a woman's hair when my boss handed me the phone saying my husband was on the phone. I grab the phone and it was that call that everyone hopes they never get. He told me my dad was in the hospital and all they know is that he was in a motorcycle accident and he is being taken to the shock trauma ICU. Instantly I started crying with this woman's hair in my hands not knowing what to do. Luckily my boss took over for me and told me to go home. I sat in my car crying I had just talked to him the night before on my daughter's 5th birthday. I wished I had talked to him longer, my mom had come to Idaho to help watch my kids and had been here almost 2 months visiting, she was scheduled to head back a few days later. By the time I got home my husband with the help of my in-laws had gotten us all plane tickets to Houston for the very next morning. Still no news til my brother called when he got to the hospital. Things weren't looking good. He had been on his motorcycle a few blocks from home and he decided not to wear his helmet that afternoon. We later found out from the police report that he was traveling in the left lane and a young woman 18 was in the right lane when she decided to change lanes and got over without looking and hit the bike causing him to lose control. Of course this girl has minimum insurance coverage and is only cited a ticket for failure to lane change safely. I am a daddy's girl always have been and always will be. Seeing him not be able to wake up for a week with all the feeding and breathing tubes were the hardest thing I have ever gone through. He was in the ICU for two tough weeks his head was swollen and huge his eyes were swollen bigger than golf balls his right arm had been sliced open on both sides to relieve pressure to save it. But my dad has always been the strongest man I know and he is a very stubborn fighter. He started opening his eyes when the swelling subsided and he started recognizing us after a while. But even tougher than seeing him those first few days out of it was seeing him so confused about what was going on, where he was. He took out his own breathing tube and feeding tube before the nurse were ready but turned out he was strong enough and they didn't have to re insert them. He had to be restrained because when you have been laying for so long you can't just get up and that is all he wanted to do. He would get so out of it and ask us to give him a knife so he could cut the restraints off and break out of the hospital. It was scary at first because the docs told us there was bleeding on the brain and prepared us for the worst but with therapy he was able to recover quicker than every on thought possible. Just this last Monday he was able to return to work which is good for my parents because he only had long term disability that would have kicked in next month but by then with only money going out and not in that would have been very bad. When we were in the hospital I was able to find a website that accepted donations that sent the donations as a check to my mom at the end. I am so glad I did and so amazed and humbled by how many good friends and family helped out so that their bills could still get paid for a little bit. We were lucky. As mush as I wish it had never happened because I know my dad is so much more worn out after all this but he is lucky to be here and we are lucky to have him here. I am telling my story to remind people to please pay attention when you are on the roads always double check for motorcycles. This could have been prevented.
