Thank you

Hello everyone.  Laura here.  As Kyle posted, I left the rehab facility and arrived back at our lake house on Friday.  It feels so good to be home, and I'm so very grateful for all the comments, well wishes and gifts everyone has sent our way.  I'm still getting my head around the accident and the long recovery period and it means so much to have such a support network behind me.

So far things seem to still be improving, but I know I have a long road ahead.  We had our first Garrett County PT appointment this morning, so I should have more structured recovery activities to look forward to soon.  Right now highlights are brief walks down our road, my daily nap and lots of time with Megan.  And, of course, my daily sudoku match against Kyle.  I know you all appreciate his efforts to keep everyone updated with my progress, I just feel so lucky so have such a loving, patient and kind husband.

RileyDawg?

Many folks have asked what RileyDawg has been up to during this whole endeavor.  Well, Riley has been in good hands, spending a few weeks at Team Z summer camp with Coach Ed, Talia, and BFF ring-tailed Pizsla Zoe.  And he is now is happily back at Happy Endings.

Riley is an old geezer dog now and requires much less exercise than his younger days as Pennsylvania Mile World Champion, so he is content to mostly hang out and relax, but he still has the occasional burst of Vizsla energy.

(no making fun of our sickly dock with the broken leg....)

August 19 - Early release for good behavior

DISCHARGED!

Laura is out of HealthSouth and back at Happy Endings three weeks to the day following her accident.  We had been scheduled for discharge on 8/24 but it was agreed that earlier would be possible, so moved up to Monday 8/22.  But weekends at therapy are more just killing time than active therapy, so I asked whether we couldn't just hit the road on Friday.  The doctor agreed this was a good move as getting out of the hospital will only help Laura's state of mind, so out the door we went!

Physical and Occupational outpatient rehab start next week at Garrett Rehab.  Depending on how it goes we will likely stay here a few weeks before heading back to DC and taking over the Sherwood domicile!

Megan, what do you say we blow this taco stand?

 

 

 

Yost family - exit stage right

Laura leaving the hospital on her own two feet!

August 18

Can I get some dorsiflexion in the house?  Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

August 15 - Kicking Ass and Remembering Names

Laura's doing great!  This weekend she has really seemed to come around mentally.  She sleeps less and just seems more "with it".  Even the nurses have commented on it.  Her memory is definitely improving and she whizzes through all the speech therapy sessions now.  You could converse with her before but her voice was quiet and you had to do the majority of the talking.  Now she's a chatterbox.  Maybe not much of an attention span, but a chatterbox.

Physically, the rehab is coming along nicely.  The left leg will be the long pole in the tent with the recovery, but Laura's walking is looking better and better every day.  Getting up and out of bed seems almost effortless now, and assisted walking is not all that assisted anymore, just a hand for guidance and balance.  Still, though, all it will take is one misstep and down she'll go, and with that fractured clavicle that would be very bad.

Sunday was Megan's 5th month birthday.  She's a sweetie.  Everyone loves her at the Rehab Center.

Moving Day (August 13)

Today (Saturday) was a whirlwind day away from the hospital to take care of business in DC, specifically clearing everything out of both the Georgetown house under renovation so that contractors have full ability to gut, as well as clear everything out of the Palisades apartment that is not a conducive residence for Laura to continue her treatment and so we are terminating lease.  Naturally, I underestimated the challenge both of these tasks, but thanks to a crowd of folks we made quick work of both tasks anyway.

My day started far from DC at 6am, but by 10:30am I had a 17 foot UHaul blocking half of Prospect St in Georgetown.  What I had explained would be a small job of moving some furniture and boxes turned out to be a far bigger job of packing lots of miscellaneous junk and moving far more furniture and boxes than I remembered still being left in the house.  Whoopsie.  The 17 foot UHaul was packed full and we headed off to Pete Warner's garage for storage.  Somehow we made it all fit with room to spare.  Thanks Pete and Igda, you are lifesavers!

Then it was off to the Palisades to pick up what I had claimed was a small amount of stuff that Laura and I had stashed there.  Well, turns out that small amount actually was pretty sizable.  We again loaded up the UHaul, and this time to McLean to the Sherwood's house which Laura and I will call home base when we get out of in-patient rehab and return to DC area.  Many thanks to you Dave and Karen for your generosity.

Finally, late afternoon dinner at Chicken Out for the merry gang of movers, return the UHaul, and back to DCL by 9:30pm.  I'll return to Morgantown early tomorrow morning to be back with Laura.  Yowzers, what a day!

Thanks so much to the moving gang who fell hook, line, and sinker for my claims that this would be a quick, simple move: counterclockwise: Richard, Charles, Chris, Haig, Sam, Pete, and of course Chas (not pictured)

August 12

Today is two weeks since accident.  In some respects it seems like yesterday, in others it feels like months.  Laura has come a long way.  And, has a long way yet to go.

She did treadmill walking today.  I'll share with all as it's so encouraging!

Megan's new trick

Megan showed off for us her new trick she has learned in the hospital.  (And no, it's not that she has learned to cling to the ceiling - flip your monitor upside down!)

August 11

Laura continues to improve.  Her walking is much smoother (new vids up for those with access pics/vids) and you can have a more or less normal conversation with her now.  Memory seems to be improving, though the 30 minutes to days ago memory timeframe is hazy.  She remembers experiences from that timespan, but not if it was this morning or yesterday.  State of mind continues to be mostly sadness, but that is understandable.  She still gets frustrated that no one will tell her the exact date she will reach precise milestones or that she will be "normal".  Her progress is so good that it's certain she will get there, but for now that explanation is inadequate to her.

Speech therapy today included a funny exchange between Laura and therapist.  Therapist was asking memory type questions such as "tell me how to get through your house from your front door to your kitchen" and then on to similar work-related questions.  After two or three questions about what a day at work for Laura would be like and getting the answer of "I can't tell you", the therapist thought Laura's memory was lacking until Laura clarified, "It's classified".  So, feel free to remove the bugs you've planted in all the rooms, DIA, Laura's vault of national security secrets has held strong!

I still have not seen CT images from Monday and I'm just going to go to the main hospital myself tomorrow to have them released to me.  All I've heard is that they are "much improved".

Megan rolled over this morning.  But, Laura isn't giving her credit for it, claiming it to be assisted because the bed wasn't level.  I'm not buying it; the bed seems pretty level to me!

RIP Summer - We Hardly Knew Ya - 7/4/11 - 8/10/11

This summer was to be our dream summer at the lake.  Laura was to be on maternity leave until starting school in late August, the DC house is being renovated, and Kyle was to split work time between DC and working remotely from DCL.  So, the lake house was to be the home base for the summer and it was to be our perfect summer at the lake with Megan in this awesome and fun 3-5 month age period.  But, all good plans go awry and the ideal summer at lake has come to an abrupt end, which means tasks normally slated for late fall need doing now.

For some reason the boat didn't get into the water until 4th of July weekend, and has only been out a few times this year total.  In fact, only 1/2 tank of gas was used all year.  Today, with the help of Ed Zerkle, the boat and the dock have been pulled for another long winter of hibernation.

The good thing is, there's always next year...!  :)

Thomas the Turtle, the Dock, and the Boat all enjoying their final seconds in the water this summer

Last trip of the season a one way journey to boat ramp

Pulled the dock - and busted a rusty old front wheel in the process.  Sigh.

Bring on Garrett County snow and ice - I dare you to defeat my taut tarping job!

August 9 - 3 Yr Wedding Anniversary

Monday and Tuesday have been busy days.  Megan stayed in the hospital for an extended stay from Sunday morning through Tuesday evening.  Two nights in the pack-n-play were met with mixed reviews: Laura said it went great (she'd be capable of sleeping through this if it occurred in our building right now), while Kyle may be getting a bit blurry-eyed...  Megan did get her five feedings a day from Laura, though!  :)

Back on Saturday evening Laura started complaining of severe pain in her right shoulder, the one with the fractured clavicle.  For over a week, Laura has taken no pain meds whatsoever except for one night in the ICU, so the fracture has been manageable.  Saturday night, however, Laura was in extreme agony and demanded something for the pain, so I knew she must be really hurting and wondered why this would come on now after 8 days.

This pain continued into Sunday and the doctor explained that healing bone "laying calcium" can get inflamed and increase the pain level.  I had not heard this and did not recollect the pain getting worse as my clavicle fracture healed (although I was on the bike riding Tour de France stages daily so my healing process was surely abnormal), so I was skeptical that suddenly her clavicle would start bothering her so much more than it had been initially.

Monday we had various therapy sessions, but also many interruptions as we shuttled off to Mon Gen Hospital for followup head CT scan, and then separately went off to in-house x-ray of her shoulder.  All told an exhausting day for Laura and me.

Now today, Tuesday, I get a look at the x-ray and it is clear that the formerly non-displaced clavicle fracture is displaced.  This sucks and obviously explains her pain.  How has this happened?  Has the therapy been too aggressive with the right arm?  They say that they have to work the arm or the shoulder could "freeze", a far worse condition than a simple fracture.  I say that we are in rehab for the brain trauma, not because of her contusions or fracture.  Nonetheless, we are at where we are at, which is a displaced fracture of the clavicle that has her in agony and has a very nice protruding bump.  I demanded, and received,  an orthopedic consult who advised that he would not operate on such a fracture as the two ends are non-overlapping and still near each other, but that we should get further films in a few days to ensure that the current placement is stable.  I have succeeded in pissing off the occupational therapists as well as the physicians assistant, but I don't care.  We didn't come into their hospital with a displaced fracture, and now we have one.  It may or may not matter for the course of care she receives or for how the fracture will heal, but they should not be so dismissive about it.  I got pissed at the therapist when she answered Laura's question as to why her shoulder hurts so much now when it did not last week with "You are doing therapy now and were not last week, so you are working it."  No, it hurts because the bones have shifted whether or not your therapy caused it, so tell Laura that.  Ok, blood pressure rising.

The doctor, for that matter, is not dismissive about it and reacted promptly in getting an orthopedic consult set up once he saw the x-rays and that his initial diagnosis of pain due to inflammation was wrong.

To end on a more positive note, after the long visit to the ortho consult, Megan had gone home, Laura was exhausted and she finally got a nap for the day.  Unfortunately for her, it was interrupted by me, and I wheeled her across the street for pizza at a restaurant to celebrate our anniversary.

I love you, Laura, and always will!  Good times and bad.  Sickness and health.

August 6-7

Weekend at the Rehab center is definitely quieter than weekdays.  Saturday Laura had therapy on the docket, but less than normal.  And the hour of occupational therapy was a joke; they just put Laura at a table of old-timers playing Uno.  Laura was none too pleased - "This is ridiculous" I believe was uttered more than once.  PT included a therapist who didn't know Laura's case (called her Linda and asked whether she had had a car accident), but at least the therapy was productive: 25 minutes on a combined hand/leg bike and 3 laps walking around the gym.  But, best of all was the two doses of speech therapy.  Laura wrapped up the standardized brain trauma cognitive assessment exam they've been doing since Thursday, and she aced it.  99th percential in three categories, and 91st percentile in memory.  The therapist said in 15 years she'd never measured anyone at those scores upon admittance.  What this means is that Laura is coming into therapy at high functional level, which is good reason to believe she will fully recover.

On Saturday Laura's clavicle started bothering her much more than it had previously.  By the evening the pain was agonizing and she requested pain meds, but doc has none on her orders so we settled on ice and extra strength tylenol to get through the night.  Megan nursed and left, Laura finally got to sleep, and Kyle got hungry and bored so went out for a crazy night on the town - wings and a beer at Applebee's across the street.  I don't think Laura even knew I ever left....

Sunday was a day with no therapy scheduled, but a morning doc visit and he made clear this was not best course of action for Laura so got some PT on her schedule for the day.  He also prescribed some percoset for pain, which can be taken while breast feeding.  Tom and Judy brought Megan for the day, and Kyle headed back to the lake for a nap and to visit with parents out of hospital setting.  Laura and Megan had a good day, and we are trying a new experiment: Megan is spending the night in the hospital room in her pack n' play.  She's asleep now, knock on wood that hospital noises and the occasional nurse to check vitals does not make us regret this trial.

Tomorrow Laura gets a brain CT to assess progression of diffusion of hemorrhage and edema.  Knock on wood..... :)

August 5

Today is the one week anniversary.  While it's hard to see the gains when you are living it so closely, taking a step back to where we were one week ago and I can see how far she has come in just this first week.

I went back to the Deep Creek house for the first time today.  Between one week of hospital living and I was finding myself becoming frustrated with Laura's constant repetition of the same refrain of questions, and I just needed to get away for a bit.  My parents (Carol and Jim) arrived yesterday which takes a little of the load off Tom and Judy with shuttling Megan back and forth.  Carol and Judy brought Megan to Morgantown today, and Judy sat through therapy sessions with Laura while Carol took Megan and I headed back to DCL.  Thank God for Reese's house in Morgantown as a place to take Megan during the day for naps and downtime.

It was nice to get away from the hospital setting, but I didn't like being at the lake house.  It didn't feel right with Laura in the hospital and no Riley running around.  Chris and I took the circular saw to one of the old, homemade bunkbeds in the smallest bunk room to take off the upper bunk and make the room more habitable for adults.   Using power tools felt good.  Then I packed up fresh clothes, inspected Laura's crushed bike and helmet in the garage, took a sneak peek at her PowerTap still on the bike (avg 186 watts, avg 22.0 mph, 33 minutes, 12.1 miles at time of crash - so she was working hard to start that ride), and headed back to Morgantown.

But who cares about me.  Laura is coming around.  The therapy tires her out, but her short-term memory is oh-so-slowly improving.  She knows she has asked the questions before, so I am making her talk through the answers for herself and either validating them or elaborating on them for her.  I think she's starting to believe that everyone thinks she will get back to her old self and I'm not just making that up.  Still no activity out of that lower left leg, but I asked the doctor tonight about that and he is not surprised by it.  To me, if it's brain related and the memory is starting to heal, shouldn't we be getting glimmers of activity there as well?  Nonetheless she appears more stable afoot and the transfers to/from bed and wheelchair and wheelchair/toilet are much easier.

We've been moved into a new room in the pediatric section.  Previously we were surrounded by some patients with brain injuries who were loud screamers (and one violent who slept in a cage) and I think having Megan around so much made it easy to get us moved to a quieter room.  The therapists and nurses who work there are truly impressive people.  We have found a manageable routine where Megan arrives around 8am and gets nursed 3x throughout the day and Laura pumps 1-2x otherwise and Megan gets 2 bottles (one early am, one bedtime) from milk Laura has frozen in past months.  So, we're close to breaking even.  It's important to Laura that Megan continues on breast milk and it looks like we will be able to pull that off.

I told SAIS that Laura would not attend this fall and they were very understanding and seemed legitimately concerned about someone they had never met.  "SAIS will be ready for Laura when Laura is ready for SAIS".  That was very encouraging.

Here's to a good 2nd week!
- Kyle

Flowers and Baskets and Cards - Oh My!

I received a call from the Cumberland Hospital (Western Md Health Services) that Laura continues to receive flowers and gift baskets even after her discharge.  I requested that they take a photo of the flowers, send us the cards, and then donate the flowers to any particularly sparse rooms in the CCU that could use some cheering up.

Again, thanks to everyone for the outpouring of support!  It is really touching.
Going forward, please send to:
Laura Yost
438 Brant Rd
Swanton, MD 21561

CT and XRay Images

 

Broken Clavicle (and ribs if you have a good eye)

Left lobe hemmorhage

Right frontal lobe bruise - likely cause of inability to use lower left leg

Subarachnoid hemmorhage (white splotches) - causing memory issues

August 4

We are settling in at rehab.  A full day of therapy, with double workouts for all of PT (Physical), OT (Occupational), ST (Speech/Cognitve).  Megan has been here already for two nursings and will get a 3rd later.  Laura is quite tired and eager to sleep during her breaks.

The biggest challenge seems like it is going to be to keep Laura's spirits up.  Not surprisingly, Laura seems really down, and she still isn't remembering anything short-term, which makes keeping her spirits high a challenge.  So, she asks everyone what she should expect, they all tell her they cannot predict when she will be ready, Laura then presses them on best and worst case, and then Laura gets depressed when she give a range of weeks to many years.

We've put a whiteboard up of her FAQs which she asks repeatedly, partly for my sanity so I can point to it when answering.  We're going to get another whiteboard to put up best wishes sentiments from friends, so send them along in comments section and we'll put them on the board.  I have received many emails of best wishes, and I apologize for responding to so few.  But, time is tight and I am tired too.

In PT this morning she did a bit of walking.  Assisted by two PTs but without walker or crutch.  She tired quickly but definitely was more stable afoot and better steps than yesterday.  It looked very encouraging.  She also is much quicker/easier at getting in and out of bed to/from wheelchair.

Laura's FAQ

August 3

Because I don't know in the future what Laura's opinion will be of having her recovery documented so thoroughly and publicly, I am no longer going to post pictures and video publicly on this blog. However, I will be continuing to take these because she will remember none of this and it's already hazy to me.

If you are family or close friend (think, were you at our wedding?) then email me (kyleyost@gmail.com) and I will instruct you to where the pics and videos will be.

AM:
Good news. Laura has been accepted at Health South Rehab in Morgantown where they have a building dedicated to head trauma rehabilitation.  We can expect to be in-patient for about two weeks and then will either return to DC for out-patient and/or in-home care, or choose to stay in Garrett County for this.  We will be transferred to Morgantown this afternoon!  Hooray, a milestone reached!

Laura did another round of PT this morning and shows improvement.  More walking, this time with a crutch instead of a quad cane.  Slow going and tired quickly, but seemed a bit more stable afoot and a bit quicker with each step than yesterday.

Memory still lacking, but subtle clues that she is remembering more across sleep periods.  For the first time she does remember being on the bike ride during which she crashed.

PM:
We have successfully made the move to the rehab center in Morgantown.  Thus far it does not feel terribly different than the hospital, but the real fun starts tomorrow with all the therapy.  Center is about one hour from the house at Deep Creek, so Megan and support team will be taking advantage of great generosity of Reece McGregor who has offered use of a spare room of his house, which they will use for naps and base during the day and return to DCL for evening.  Reece was with Laura when she crashed.

At this point I am becoming increasingly confident that we will see full or almost full recovery, whether it is in 2 months or 12.  I think the greatest challenge will be keeping Laura's spirits up, as she still wants to find a path to "getting back to normal" by tomorrow.

Transfer!

August 2

PM:
Phrases you rarely ever hear: "The problem is in the brain, so that's good!"

It seems we have on our hands the always entertaining spectator sport of Dueling Neuros! (banjo music here)
Yesterday, Neurosurgeon says: "It's in the peripheral nervous system."
This evening, Neurologist says: "It's in the central nervous system."

So, here's where we're at.  This evening Laura had an EMG, which is a conductivity study to assess damage to nerves.  The neurosurgeon yesterday had concluded Laura's left leg issue and foot drop was related to damage to the perineal nerve in her left leg.  The neurologist conducted the EMG tonight and found that the nerves to the left leg conducts as strong or stronger than the right leg.  Which leads diagnosis back to the central nervous system, which is the brain and spine.  MRI of spine has ruled out anything there.

So, rarely is it good news to find that the root cause of an issue is brain trauma, but in this case it most likely is.  Brain heals itself in a number of ways, whereas regeneration of damaged or severed nerves is in the best case a very long process.

In the short term it does not matter.  The rehab is the same.  An MRI of brain or another CT scan could be taken to look for something in the right lobe that would explain this issue on the left, but it would serve little purpose.  The treatment is going to be identical regardless.  However, we have reason to be more hopeful for a fully successful outcome on a faster timeline!

AM: Doc says we are in the "White Room" (news to us) and that stimulation needs to be controlled.  Just like with Megan, it's all about blacks and whites.  Flowers and balloons and pictures are heading to home base at the lake.  Back to drab hotel room, and visits are off limits as she is interrupted too much as-is by PT, occupational therapy, speech therapy, regular old nurse stuff, .....  Even I am to stay out of the room to remove distractions.  :(

"How Can You Help" List?

Update 8/2: 11:00am:
Thank you everyone.  We've got people working on the Pack and Store task and options for housing that we will decide once more is known on timing and needs.  You folks are all incredible friends, I am really touched.  Keep eyes to this post for the list to grow.  This delegation stuff is fun!!! :)

-----------------
I'll edit this post as I come up with things that outside help could potentially take care of for me.  But off the top of my head, here are some things I could use others to start looking into for me:

If you lay claim to a task, just add a comment to this post so someone else doesn't do the same.

Just email me directly with any finding: kyleyost@gmail.com

1. Look into DC area apartments so we and "support team" can get back home and leverage the better options DC area has for out-patient and in-home rehab facilities.  Our Georgetown house is being renovated and is not livable.  Our current apartment will not work, so we must cancel the lease.  Specs:
• at least 1 bed, bath, kitchen all on ground level
• 2 bedroom minimum.  Den or office or something for crib would be preferrable but not necessary
• bath, kitchen
• furnished (possibly could be avoided if timed with 2 below)
• pets
• parking
• month to month lease
• Not going to bankrupt us
2. Price out "pack and store" options for the Georgetown house being renovated.  Our plan was to avoid storage by leveraging new basement once finished and juggling furniture around between stories to free up rooms as they are being renovated.  That just seems impractical now and I should just pay to have the house emptied out and everything put into storage.

August 1

 

6:30pm: neurosurgeon confirms lumbar/thoracic MRI shows nothing that would explain the left leg issue.  Diagnosis is perional nerve damage and foot drop, and time will tell how well the nerve repairs itself.  Rehab will focus on two areas: mental/cognitive and physical to walk with brace and adapt to foot drop.  This is doable!!

Monday.  A very busy day of tests, PT, visitors, etc....

Laura's cognitive state is unchanged.  She can hold a conversation but remember little of what she has told you.  She asks questions that follow each other and make sense based on your responses.  But still no short-term memory.  Megan successfully nurses.

Morning MRI of lumbar/thoracic to rule out spinal cause of left leg nerve issue.  No results to date.

PT visit puts Laura in leg brace and practice of assisted "marching" in place.  Speech (or was it occupational) therapy visits and Laura does very well on long questionnaire, though struggles on short-term memory questions (what state are you in, what is the date, ....) but can name more states and fruits and such than anyone reading this.

Kyle is very frustrated with the bedside manner and level of communication of her official doctor, the trauma surgeon who saw her upon admission.  No reason to second guess the quality of care provided, but unhappy with the level of information he is providing and other aspects of his bedside manner.  Unimportant though the fracture may be, I am not happy to have to learn from a plastic surgeon consult reading Laura's charts that she has a fracture in her face.  Maybe the trauma doc is a great with a knife, but his bedside manner is for shit.  This is a Traumatic Brain Injury case, we deserve 5 minutes of explanation even if you didn't have the privilege of cutting her open.

Haig and Sam return to DC.  Katie arrives from State College to assist Tom and Judy.  Much appreciated flowers and balloons arrive from SMH and Book Club crowd to liven up the room.  Too many supportive emails and text and facebook posts to count are coming in, thus this status blog.  Thanks to everyone for all your concern and support!

- Kyle

July 31

Sunday.  All the days run together.  Overnight Laura started to wake more and stay up longer and the ache of the breaks, lacerations, and abrasions bother her for the first time, at least that she verbalizes.  They gave her morphine at 4am and she (and I) sleep nicely until 8:30am

Haig Colter arrives from Bethesda and proves great assistance to Tom, Judy, and Sam.  They pull a fast one on me, and trick me into a hotel stay so I get even more sleep but miss an orthopedist visit.

Laura is awake more and verbalizes better, but has no memory.

Sunday evening the neurosurgeon confirms that the left leg weakness is not brain injury related, but likely a nerve issue.  This is good news and bad.  Good in that her right leg and left arm are "fine" in that they function.  Right arm has broken clavicle and elbow laceration.  And left leg is likely explained by nerves, thus there are no major functional physical issues due to brain damage.  That's great news!  Bad news in that perional nerve damage and "drop foot" does not generally heal.

Sunday evening Laura is transferred out of ICU into critical care unit.  Security is strong thanks to two full-time police guarding the federal prisoner residing next door.

All told, Sunday is a quiet day in the hospital, and while Laura is awake more frequently it is never for long so she gets a good day of rest.

July 30

Laura is more aware when conscious.  Very confused and no short-term memory from one sentence to the next, but understands there has been an accident and she is in the hospital.

3rd head CT scan confirms bleeding in subarachnoid and intercranial (left lobe) of brain, but confirms no worsening which is the big concern.  Right side of face and body lags the left, which is expected from bleeding in left lobe.  Angiography of neck shows no issue with carotids, standard xrays of legs and lower back show no fractures.

Late afternoon visit with neurosurgeon is very happy with cognition improvement day over day.  Approves removal of Foley catheter and neck brace.  Approves PT to come and work with Laura to sit up and stand.

Evening PT visit difficult.  Able to sit assisted on edge of bed.  Unable to stand without full support.  Left leg is weaker than right, which is odd as right side should be more affected if brain related due to left lobe bleeding.  PT mentions "foot drop" symptom which means nothing to me, but turns out to be important observation that the neurosurgeon missed.

Laura questions anyone and everyone repeatedly on how long it will take to get normal.  Doesn't matter who and doesn't matter the answer, the next line of questioning will be the same: what did I do to get so sick and how long until I'm normal.  Her "default" seems to be that she is in a hospital in Philadelphia and that she has an illness, so we regularly explain that she is in western Maryland and crashed her bike.

July 29

From email update on July 29, day of accident:
"Quick update:

Laura went down riding 2nd to last in a group of 5 going down a hill.  No one is quite sure why as the road was smooth and straight, but one of the lead riders said there was a decent sized stick in the road running parallel to the direction of travel, and if you were to catch that just wrong at high speed and unaware, it could easily throw your front wheel and you'd be down before you knew what happened.  That's best guess to what happened.  They were in a remote stretch of territory and first responder EMTs transported her to a field where she was airlifted to Cumberland due to lack of responsiveness on scene.

She has broken collarbone, numerous ribs, bruised femur, laceration on elbows, face, shoulder, etc....  Major contusion under left eye.  Helmet saved her life almost certainly.  Most serious is bleeding in the subarachnoid space of the brain.  According to neurologist it is something that will diffuse over a number of days and does not require surgical intervention but they are keeping close eye on it.  She has rarely been conscious all day and it takes much to get her to be responsive, and when so, she is not lucid or coherent.  She is less responsive on the right side of her body and one pupil is dramatically dilated compared to the other.  The neurologist seems less concerned by these symptoms than me, nonetheless they have just taken her off to more scans.  I am awaiting results and assessment by neurologist.

Because everyone else here is calm and not overly concerned with her injuries, I am trying to be the same.  But, it's been a tough day and I'm pretty freaked out, though.  Will update further when there is new news that will surely be news for the better.

- Kyle"


Sam Galpin, Jimmy Railey, Reece McGregor, Ben King, and Laura were riding the SavageMan course. The crash occurred on Savage River Rd descent, a fast but not technical or dangerous section.  It is believed she hit the guardrail and bounced back into the road.  Abrasions are on knees, hip, back, shoulder, neck, face.  Big laceration to right elbow requiring stitches.  Broken right collarbone and two ribs on right side.  Major contusion under left eye and abrasion on left face and neck and also right shoulder, which must have been tough to pull off.  Helmet is intact but crushed.  Large contusion on left thigh and matching bruise on right, probably from handlebars or guardrail.  EMTs transported Laura by ambulance to Big Run where medivac picked her up and flew her to Cumberland.


I drove to Cumberland with Megan and we spent the day and evening with her in ICU.  Laura spent little time conscious that day and evening, and was incoherent and non-sensical for the brief moments that she was.


Laura's mom flew from Kentucky to Pittsburgh and got to Cumberland at 9pm to take over care of Megan.  Laura's father Tom arrived from Dover later that evening.