Too close to home

You know those things that you hear about that happen to people, both good and bad, and you always think "Oh that will never happen to me or anyone I know." Well one of those things has happened to some one I know, someone I'm close to, someone who's been a really good friend to me and last night as I walked into her hospital room in the ICU and I had a huge reality check.

Last Saturday (8/28), while her husband, Dustin, was at the store and her son, Ryker (1), was napping in his bed, my dear friend Christy fell down her stairs and hit her head really hard. So hard, in fact, that she fractured her skull and has had a lot of bruising, bleeding and swelling in her brain. After three surgeries and 12+ CT Scans she in stable but still in very critical condition. Just yesterday they tried to take her breathing tube out but there was so much swelling and mucus that she was having a very difficult time breathing on her own and her windpipe started to collapse. So they had to sedate her again and re-insert a new, smaller breathing tube. Her ICP (internal cranial pressure) has gotten better, but still fluctuates up and down. She is responsive to her husband and others through head nods/shakes and hand squeezes. She even squeezed my hand as I held it and talked to her for a minute.

It was very hard to see her like that. Words cannot express the grief and remorse that spread over me. I don't know what I had expected to see, but that was just a major reality check as to just how bad of shape she's really in. She's currently in a stable but still very critical condition and it's still in the fluctuating state.

I pray for her every day, multiple times a day. Please pray for her and her family to be able to make it through this rough time.

Here is a blog on Christy's status.
http://prayersforchristy.wordpress.com/

Please help with a donation to the Ericksen's in this time of trial.

Thank you