i might be gone for a while

[Omega]

As the title says, I might be gone for a while. My sister got in a car accident, and I'm about to head over to the hospital. Wish her the best of luck for me, please.

I'll keep you guys up to date as best I can.

-Omega

[Scotty]

That sucks, hope she's ok man, thoughts are with you.

Hope she gets better quickly.

[jdbnsn]

Oh dude, I sure hope she's okay. Good luck and God bless.

[calumc]

Our thoughts are with you, good luck.

[xRyokenx]

Hope she's alright. Car accidents are far too common... people drive like such assholes these days and get too impatient for anyone's good. Best of wishes to you man.

[Luke122]

You and your family are in our thoughts and prayers. :)

Agreed.. too many car accidents.

[Omega]

Well, we know what happened. Luckily my sister isn't at fault and nobody else was injured.

Here's the story:

She went to go change lanes, began moving over, you know, the usuaul. She was about to get hit by sombody in the lane she was going to enter, so she swerved and overcompensated, the car fishtailed and she went off the right side of the road, the car went into a ditch and rolled over then caught fire, knocking her unconcious. Luckily her car is a tank -- even though it has no airbags (but the paramedics said that airbags wouldn'tve helped anyways) but her pillars were strong enough to support the car long enough for the rescue people to get her out of the car and into an ambulance.

When she got here she was pretty beat up, no real broken bones that we know of aside from a slight cranial fracture. When she showed up at the hospital she had an altered mentality, and she was subdued to prevent complications.

I know other details but I would really rather not share most of them. the good news is that she just got out of the MRI and should be headed to the ICU now, so she's still alive.

-Omega

[Quakken]

Happy that she's okay. Too bad todays mirrors have blind spots in them, it could've been avoided from the story of what i see, but then again I have no bearing or any real idea what happened in the accident, so feel free to totally disregard this comment.

Seriously. Just keep on scrollin'.

[xRyokenx]

When I merge, I turn my head... they say to do that when you take the class, lol. But yeah, today's vehicles are aggravating, big blind spots and people with big egos and small brains, lol... well... small minds as they don't exercise them enough. Glad she's doing good though.

[Eclecticos]

Sorry to hear that. Hope everything works out for the best.

[Quakken]

I usually leave room for people to merge in in front of me, unlike some other drivers. That is, unless I just blow past them, with reckless abandon towards man, woman, child, and all laws/pedestrians. I've only had my license for a day though, what do I know?

[Omega]

Throughout the night, her condition has gotten worse. She's still alive, but here's the story.

Due to the head injury, the hospital staff sedated her while she was in the ICU at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, letting up the sedation medication every hour or so to see if she has become more responsive. I don't know when it happened, but I basically just got the news (not more than 10 minutes ago) that when they last lightened the dose of the meds, she didn't respond to anything (whereas before she responded to pain). They ran a scan on her and found a blood clot in her brain, however they can't perform the surgery like normal due to her other conditions. It would kill her.

As I type this, my sister is in a transport helicopter on her way to the UC Davis medical center, where there's a doctor that will be able to perform a very complicated surgery (going through veins and stuff) to clear that blood clot. Assuming she lives, chances are fairly high that she will be permanently mentally damaged, perhaps even to the point of retardation.

I swear to god on a stack of bibles, though, that if I could find whatever ****wit came behind her on the freeway and made her swerve, I would put my foot so ****ing far up their god damned ass they'll be eating my ****ing toes.

-Omega

[rendermandan]

Dude, I hate finding out when bad things happen to good people. I know I can't even begin to empathise (spelling?) with what you are going through right now. All I can say is, Hang in there. My thoughts and prarys are with you and your family.

[Omega]

Thank you sincerely, Dan. I'll keep you guys as updated as I can, but the UC Davis medical center is a 2 hour drive that I haven't started yet, and I don't know about getting internet access at the facility. Obviously, it's the least of my concerns.

[Luke122]

We are all praying for her, and for your family. Have faith that miracles are possible, and that things will work out. :)

[Airbozo]

She could not be in better hands than at UC Davis. They have one of the BEST Head Trauma teams in the country (according to my sis-in-law (who would know)). Good thoughts and positive energy to your sister all day today...

Hold strong Omega and give her some comfort by her side.

[Omega]

I just woke up (for the second time today). I'll probably be headed over to Davis in about a half hour. There's not really much I could do other than be by my mom's side, but that's enough. My ride insisted that both of us get a few more hours sleep and I'll admit that I feel better afterwords. As far as I know, she's in surgery as we speak and has been for an hour.



She could not be in better hands than at UC Davis. They have one of the BEST Head Trauma teams in the country (according to my sis-in-law (who would know)). Good thoughts and positive energy to your sister all day today...

Hold strong Omega and give her some comfort by her side.

Yeah, my mom told me about this. Apparently they have two of the best brain surgeons in the nation (world even?) at Davis, so despite things, I'm optimistic. My sister is a strong person and she has boatloads of people pulling for her.



-Omega

[Omega]

My sister's still being operated on at UC Davis, but there's some wonderful news:

She's responsive. The doctors lightened up her meds to do the surgery and as they've got more of the blood clot out she's opened up her eyes and tried to hit one of them (which is totally something Sara would do in this sort of situation, not because she doesn't like doctors, but because it's probably a shock to have strange people poking around inside her), so obviously my sister's still alive and kicking (literally?)

I'll be headed over to the UC Davis medical soon.

I'll keep you updated.

-Omega

PS. I am seriously so happy right now, just to know that my sister's still there and obviously she's not changed much as far as we know. =D

[SgtM]

That sounds promising. Hoping for the best possible turnout for your situation.

[BigJohnson]

That sounds awesome man. I hope things continue to get better. Good luck. We're all here pulling for you.

[Omega]

Just got home from the medical center.

The good news:

My sister's become more responsive. Poking her ear, rubbing her shoulders, touching her and talking to her make her eyes move (Although they're still closed), but she is responding. Also, we talked to her and she began to tear up. This is all very good news. Basically now she's just asleep. The respirator isn't helping her as much as her nervous system has taken back over, and as I said she's responding to sensory inputs.

On a somewhat related note, I visited my school today.

The amount of support I saw was amazing and I was actually shocked. The entire school knows (my sister is a former student there) and they all know her too, and most of them are on good terms with me. I didn't even get three feet from my car before a crowd of ~10-15 people basically mauled me with hugs. It was simply amazing.

The bad (but not extremely so) news:

I almost got hit in a car accident on the way home. I don't even completely remember what happened but I know it involved a big rig stopping abruptly in the lane next to us and my dad getting us away just before the traler hit us. Somebody else wasn't as fortunate and ran into the back of the truck then got hit again from the back, their car was totalled but they were fine. My dad called the police and helped the guy who got hit to get his car off of the freeway (and almost got hit 4 times in the process), and then we were on our way. But man, that shook me up bad. I had to walk it off kind of bad. Had my dad not reacted as abruptly as he did, and I wouldn't be talking to you all now (I'd be alive, but probably at some hospital or something).

So despite being a little shook up, I'm still alive and well. But god damn, it feels like the world is coming down all around me. First my sister and today, almost me, too.

Now if you will all excuse me, I am going to go take a long, hot shower, and go to sleep. God knows I deserve it.

-Omega

[xRyokenx]

Holy crap, glad you're alright dude. Progbuddy and I were on the way to my house one day to try to get Linux or something to work on my PC and almost got in a wreck... we were just chatting and out of nowhere this dude coming towards us goes to cut across the road and make a left. I reflexively swerved to the right and went to honk the horn (but accidentally put the turn signal on) and it took a couple seconds for what almost happened to sink in. People are dangerous in their giant metal bullets, a good many probably should not drive as they cut through small gaps and tailgate and overall have no patience. It's all "rush rush rush" and no care taken to do things right and safely. That or people are overworked and tired and can't focus on driving as well...
/rant-debate-thingy

Very glad that your sister's doing better, that's awesome.

[Crazy Buddhist]

May your sister make a swift and full recovery.

[Elenril]

That's fantastic news about your sister responding and on the way to being back to normal. I don't pray, but my thoughts and hopes are with you and your sister.

[Drum Thumper]

Like many others here, I will keep your sister and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Here's hoping for a full and speedy recovery.

[Omega]

Oh god.

We found out something. She's not been in a coma. She never was. She's what the doctors call "Trapped In", where her brain can think just fine and her body is fine but the two can't communicate well. The portion of her brain that had the clot ended up having a stroke so she can't control some parts of her body.

Now, the real problem here is this: Nobody has any idea where to go from here. It could get better, it could get worse or it could stay the same. What's worse is if she doesn't change her condition. She can't speak, they only know that she's in there by telling her to move her eye up for yes and down for no then asking her yes and no questions. The doctors did that and she got all but one or two questions right about what happened over the past two days. As you can probably imagine (and I can only), She's probably terrified because she does know that she's not well and she does know what's going on.

So there's a few different paths from here. The part of the brain that had a stroke might not be dead. If it isn't, bringing her into a drug induced coma so the brain can rest would be the most reasonable option, and speed her recovery greatly. If that part of the brain IS dead, it'll take a lot of time to get her to the point where we can even care for her outside of the hospital.

Because she can answer yes or no questions, my mom asked the doctors to ask Sara the following question:

"If you stay like this (this being the "trapped in" dealio), would you want to stay alive?"

Now. My mom does NOT have to do what my sister says, however my mom has told me that if Sara does not want to live, she will not force her.



All this is very hard to cope with, to be honest. She's heard everything. She's felt everything. She's thinking normally, but can't move most of her body. Kind of like being covered in saran wrap.


What we're looking at here could be such a broad array of things that for the most part I can't even imagine what it's like for her. On one end of the spectrum, she might prove everybody wrong and make a full recovery (although it's nigh impossible due to the stroke). She could end up getting to the point where my mom could care for her at home. She could end up staying just like she is now, needing life support to stay alive, or she could end up dead.

I'll be completely honest here, too. For her sake, I don't know which one would be best. Thank god I'm not at liberty to decide, because I wouldn't be able to.

-Omega

[Crazy Buddhist]

Omega,

In the early days of this kind of injury things can change rapidly. The body and mind can work around very significant injury. My thoughts are with you and your family and your sister - you are right for her this must be terrifying. That she is awake and able to comprehend and respond is a good thing.

The body will shut down to an extent in order to recover and the doctors may be able to assist in this with different treatment options. She certainly seems to be getting the best medical care.

Try to keep hold of some sense of calm inside yourself, for your own sanity, but also because when you are with her this will be very helpful for her and you - as you said she is aware of what is going on around her and she will pick up on the state of mind of those around her.

Life is very random and tough and even cruel at times - and we all suffer the same feelings of hurt, fear and pain. Keep on in there dude.

Matthew

[Omega]

Trust me Matthew, aside from the few moments when my mind manifests the bad possibilities (which isn't often), I'm relatively calm and collected, if not almost too calm. People tend to think I'm high because I am so calm most of the time.

And usually, I really am optimistic. But knowing that Sara is there, alive and cognitive, brings a whole new level to the game. It's no longer what's best for her medically, but what she wants and with the state of things, what's best both medically and for her.

Anywho, I am going back to the hospital tomorrow. Now that I know she's there and can hear us and comprehend it just fine, I have a lot of catching up to do. There's a lot of things that I want to say to her that I haven't yet.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Omega,

I'm glad to hear you are so and meant no offence. I apologise if that came over as patronising - it was written from a sense of compassion.

It is easy to get caught in negative loops of thinking so I have no doubt your stability of mind in this sense will be a great help to Sara whatever the outcome and whatever her wishes.

Matthew

[crenn]

The brain can slowly adapt to things gone wrong. I hope all goes well, if you need someone to talk to, just let us know. I can even phone you if you'd prefer someone with a voice.

[jdbnsn]

Omega-

My heart goes out to you and your family, especially your sister. I see cases like this often and it always makes my stomach drop to the floor. I hope with all my heart that she improves and enjoys the best quality of life possible. This is clearly not easy for any of you, so we are all here to support you however we can.

Jon

[Omega]

Due to the ease of use, we have a blog up:

http://sarastatus.blogspot.com

All updates will be put there.

[Omega]

Anybody who reads the blog might have seen this already, but here's a link anyways:

The Community Voice (http://www.thecommunityvoice.com/)

The Community Voice is a local newspaper that's running a week-long online article about my sister. They are going to leave it up as the main article online for a week and possibly publish it in the next weekly installment of the paper version.


Man. It's so surreal, knowing that the largest/second largest website in Sonoma County has my sister on the homepage. =|

[armadilloben]

omega im so sorry i didnt read this thread till now i feel so bad reading the thread brought tears to my eyes (and im not relle an emotional person) and the strength that you have is amazing i would be flipping ****s right now if i was in the same position i read all of the stuff u posted including the blog and i almost want to be in that room (albeit that'd be weird) were all praying for sara and shes gonna get better
my grandpa is in the hospital as well
hes had emphysema for like 8-9 years so i know how u feel well actually i dont but you understand
best of luck to sara and im relle glad shes communicating

sincerily -ben

[Commando]

Good luck Omega,

We're thinking about your sister and your family.


Trust me Matthew, aside from the few moments when my mind manifests the bad possibilities (which isn't often), I'm relatively calm and collected, if not almost too calm. People tend to think I'm high because I am so calm most of the time.


It's totally ok. We all deal with stress differently. Being calm and collected helps those around you more than you think.

Hang in there. Life tests us all the time. Especially when you least expect it.

[Omega]

omega im so sorry i didnt read this thread till now i feel so bad reading the thread brought tears to my eyes (and im not relle an emotional person) and the strength that you have is amazing i would be flipping ****s right now if i was in the same position i read all of the stuff u posted including the blog and i almost want to be in that room (albeit that'd be weird) were all praying for sara and shes gonna get better
my grandpa is in the hospital as well
hes had emphysema for like 8-9 years so i know how u feel well actually i dont but you understand
best of luck to sara and im relle glad shes communicating

sincerily -ben


Ben,

I have been going bat**** insane for the past 8 days. Hell, I've cried more in the past week than... ever, I think. A lot of people are worried about our entire family, but I'm concealing my mind so that people worry about the person who actually needs it right now. Whatever my problems are pale in comparison to Sara's right now. You have no idea how many people have asked me if I'm alright in the past two days alone. Hell, that alone is driving me insane. But I'll deal with it, and there's more important things to deal with now.

Me and my mom were talking earlier. She said Sara had a hard day. Recently I've grown a set and I've taken it upon myself to keep things in perspective, even if I come off as abrasive or crass to my mom. I merely told her "This is the 8th hard day in a long, long chain of hard days, mom". I've also had to remind her (sadly to no avail, yet) that she needs to stop going to the hospital every day and she needs to get working (Independent Contractor, no work = no pay).

Really, all I want for this family right now is to ensure that we still have a place to live, electricity, food, internet, etc. Sara's on her stepmother's healthcare at the moment, but once that runs out (hopefully not soon), we get to bear the burden of all the medical bills. Fun.

Anywho, I'm rambling. On to the next post...


Good luck Omega,

We're thinking about your sister and your family.


Trust me Matthew, aside from the few moments when my mind manifests the bad possibilities (which isn't often), I'm relatively calm and collected, if not almost too calm. People tend to think I'm high because I am so calm most of the time.

It's totally ok. We all deal with stress differently. Being calm and collected helps those around you more than you think.

Hang in there. Life tests us all the time. Especially when you least expect it.

Oh, I know just how much my calmness helps others. If I can radiate an aura of quiet, collected strength, others around me will pick up on that and relax more (and possibly do the same). As I said, I'm tripping the **** out right now and I have been since this all started. Nobody else knows that but me (well, and you guys) and that's for a reason. As I said before, if they knew I was flipping ****s, they wouldn't be focusing on Sara as much.

Oh, and I know how life tests us. God, do I know. I may be 16 and living with a nice family in a nice, relatively quiet suburb in California, but my life hasn't come without it's bumps (of which there've been lots). I don't really want to ramble on about my life, but I've almost always had family issues (My father abused me, general abrasiveness, etc) and such and this is no exception to the fact.



Nobody said life was gonna be easy. If only it were.

EDIT:

Man, it's still so surreal seeing my own writing on one of the major news websites for my area. I think they've been watching TBCS, too. On the front page, it says:

""Just so you guys know, I might not be here for a while. My sister got in a car accident. I'll keep you posted." The rather ominous post on an Internet message board about a week ago by Tech High student Michael Baker couldn't begin to tell the story of what's currently happening to his older sister, Sara. Quotes in this article are from a blog updating Sara's condition, which can be viewed at http://sarastatus.blogspot.com. It began Oct. 26 and continues to monitor and update on Sara's status."


Sound familiar? Yeah. They used some more of my updates through the article before using my mom's (Because my mom is more up to date).

http://www.thecommunityvoice.com/


It really is strange seeing my sister on the front page there.


-Omega

[xRyokenx]

God... I suck at thinking of things to say... umm... Take it easy?

I am glad you're not hitting rock bottom, this will get better soon... it always does. If I were a man that prayed, I would pray for your whole family, but since I am not, you have my best wishes and I will keep mentally willing your sister to good health. :D

Take it easy, dude.

[crenn]

Just bumping this up.

[Aero]

Holy crap, I can't believe I missed this thread. Thanks for the bump crenn.

Omega, I hope eveything is going well. I've added your blog to my list of daily items to check, so its now amoung the ranks of gmail, TBCS, woot, facebook, and Craigslist. Agiain I hope the best for your sister, it sounds like things are getting better, slowly, but uphill none the less. Thats always good. Please keep us all up to date if anything major comes up.

Best of luck.

-Curtis

[armadilloben]

yeh i also check the blog daily just to see if shes getting better
omega u relle got me good.
and all i can say is we all support u guys and especially sara

-ben

[Ichbin]

Omega....Wow....

Life has weird ways of doing things man. All I can really say is what Ryo said, just take it easy.

All my prayers are out towards your way man.

I know she'll turn for the best ^.^

[Crimson Sky]

Omega I'm so sorry, I had no idea this thread was here, I would have called you and your mom to lend some spiritual support. I'll be watching the blog and cheering your sister on during her recovery.

[Omega]

crenn, thanks for bumping this and thanks to everybody for the support.

As it turns out, the doctors at Santa Rosa Memorial hospital could have prevented the stroke and did not. Effectively, they were trying to kill her, but being subtle about it, or they didn't realize. What they did was fail to check some vital things that allowed her to stroke. When she was put on the chopper, nobody expected her to make it to Sacramento. And here we are, a month later, still fighting. To think, only 5% of people survive this type of stroke.


Well, basically, Santa Rosa Memorial and the doctors that were caring for Sara are in some deep **** already and it's only going to get worse for them from here. We've already got lawyers throwing themselves at us for the chance to handle this case, especially since with the circumstances, it's almost definitely a win for us. The compensation is quite a bit -- I'm not going to post how much -- but it's a very, very large number. There was a LOT that they could have done to prevent her from being locked in, and they didn't.

I told my mom that for the doctor's sake, she shouldn't introduce them to me. Normally I'm not a violent person, but I'm pretty sure I'd send these ****s to the grave. Nobody, and I ****ing mean nobody ****s with my sister.


In other news:

-Apparently Viagra has been used on patients with locked in syndrome and has almost completely positive results across the board, with patients making almost complete recovery (having the ability to walk, talk, basically everything). My mom is going to contact the doctor who is performing this and see if my sister is eligible, with her permission, of course.

-We should have a paypal account set up soon enough for people who want to donate money. Any and everything is appreciated and I can guarantee you it'll go to a good use. I'll get the info up here as soon as I get it.

[Omega]

It's crazy to think that we're coming up on the three year mark.

Unfortunately, my sister is still quadriplegic, mute, and basically completely dependent on other people.

She's been home for at least a year now, probably a year and a half. Things have settled down a whole lot since October 24th, 2007, and even more so since she's been home, but she still has a long road ahead of her.

I remember in the first few weeks and months after her accident and subsequent stroke -- she couldn't open her eyes, and mustering up the energy to look up or down (our early system of communication, up for yes, down for no) to answer few questions would tire her out. I remember spending the first few months after her accident scared every day over if she was going to make it to tomorrow or not. It truly was a stressful few months.

Luckily after about a year and a half to two years spent in various hospitals, she came home. It was a nice change, for the first time in nearly two years at that point, to have our little "family" back together, regardless of the circumstances. If anything, though, this was somewhat harder. We didn't have nursing staff for the first three weeks or so, Sara was still stabilizing and acclimating to her new environment, and while we were waiting for the nursing service to assign RNs to our case, me and my mom were essentially the nursing staff, all day, for three weeks.

Since we got our nursing staff in -- and Sara fully acclimated, things have been going pretty smoothly. Progress has been slow and sporadic but she is still progressing, which is good. She went from being unable to open her eyes, requiring a ventilator to breathe and needing 24/7 nurse supervision to having voluntary control of her head and neck to a limited degree, somewhat developed facial expressions, involuntary arm/leg movement (which can be quite the thrill when she spasms and ends up hitting you...), and some vocal cord use. No talking yet, but you can hear her faintly laugh when you do something really funny.

Anybody who's kept reading the blog (that is before it went private) would have certainly noticed all the posts with big text and generally saying random stuff -- That's Sara! She has a computer that she uses to communicate by way of blinking and the Blog is basically her only outlet to the world, so she puts it to good use.

Anywho, I just figured I'd give you guys an update. I know it's been a (long) while since I've been here, but you all were the first to know and I figure there's probably still some of you out there who wouldn't mind an update.

[SXRguyinMA]

wow man I must have joined after this because I missed it! My condolences to you and your family. I'm glad she's hung on! She's strong. I hope things continue to get better from here on out

Will