Dearest friends and family.
It has been 6 whole months since my last blog. Things have been rather hectic on my side and we have been through a roller coaster of emotions and trials...but God has been there every step of the way :)
My brother-in-law, Pieter fell with his bicycle (not a motorbike, just a normal bicycle) on the 22nd of May and was immediately unconscious. He went cycling with my father-in-law and they took the trail they always do. On their way back Pieter was in front and he went through a dip in the dirt road, not a very deep one but the road makes a dip. He went up in the air with the bicycle and on impact with the road the bicycle went out from under him and he hit his head against a rock. He was wearing his helmet...my father-in-law saw it happening and when he got to him he was just lying there. He phoned my husband to come and help. By the time Quintus got there, Pieter still had not gained consciousness. My father-in-law had phoned the ambulance by then and they were on their way. This happened on a dirt road next to the highway and two other men who came cycling past them also stopped. But no one could do anything, they were afraid to move him, not knowing if he had broken his neck or worse. Once the paramedics got there they worked on him for 50 minutes, they did an incubation to help him breathe before driving him to hospital. To make a long story short...we waited at the hospital for any news and updates and they told us that he had vomited at the scene of the accident and the vomit went into his lungs, he suffered oxygen shortage...they had to wash his lungs out. He was still unconscious and by the next morning they confirmed that he was in a deep coma. They had him under sedation just to be careful that he does not wake up and start pulling out drips etc and hurt himself. And of course he also had a hole in his throat where they put the pipes in, i do not know how to spell it.
Just to give a bit of background. He and his wife Chandre have been waiting to have a baby for 9 and a half years. She was about 3 months pregnant when he fell. You can imagine the shock of this incident after the wonderful news of their baby! It is truly a miracle and now this....
It was 60 days of different kinds of emotions and knowing that we had to be strong for his sake, his wife and unborn baby and ourselves. And knowing that we serve a mighty God who can do anything!!! Thinking and hearing of so many others God has brought through similar things and worse. But my dearest friends, i cannot begin to explain the feeling of not knowing what tomorrow holds. He had infection in his lungs and they had to operate to drain his lungs and at the same time they washed the lungs a second time. His brain basically moved back and forth in his skull with the accident...making his brain injury all across the brain in different areas.
At first he had tube feeding through his mouth but later on they operated on him and put the tube feeding directly into his stomach when he was stronger.
I have learned more about coma and brain injury in these past few months than i ever knew. A coma is not just sleeping and waking up one day and talking. It is such a long process. When he reached the point after many weeks to open his eyes he still did not focus and he would look around and not really at you. But he followed our voices and responded by either squeezing your hand or opening and closing his eyes. They kept us up to date on his progress by testing him on the Glasgow Scale and others. That way we could read more about it and know what to expect next. So much happened during those weeks...i would go on forever writing about it. But slowly we started seeing improvement. He drank with a straw (which really means a lot because coma patients battle to swallow at the beginning) and later he could hold the can which he drank from, with difficulty and a bit of help but he did it. He would show us thumbs up when we greeted him and when someone would pray for him he would close his eyes and open again after "amen". About a week before going to rehab he talked, but a very soft whisper.
He went to rehab after about 60 days and by then he was able to sit in a wheelchair. They had closed up the hole in his throat, but he was still on the tube feeding and liquids. He was very thirsty but had to take it slow because he would cough easily.
He was in rehab for about a month or so and then his wife and my in-laws asked that he rather comes home where he will then be an out-patient at a rehab closer to us.
He gets different kinds of therapy each week now, including speech. He talks so much clearer now and he can read, but he battles to write. His brain was damaged on the right side mostly so his left side is affected by it. He writes with his left hand so that is why he can't write now. He also has aqua therapy and that helps him to exercise his left leg and arm a lot.
He still has his days of confusion. He still needs prayer and so does Chandre. Their baby is due on the 23rd of Nov.
So my friends and family, it has been hard and looking back we cannot believe what he has gone through. But we know that with God ALL things are possible. Thank you to those of you who have been praying with us...may God richly bless you! I love you all and i have missed blogging...but you will hear from me more now :)
It has been 6 whole months since my last blog. Things have been rather hectic on my side and we have been through a roller coaster of emotions and trials...but God has been there every step of the way :)
My brother-in-law, Pieter fell with his bicycle (not a motorbike, just a normal bicycle) on the 22nd of May and was immediately unconscious. He went cycling with my father-in-law and they took the trail they always do. On their way back Pieter was in front and he went through a dip in the dirt road, not a very deep one but the road makes a dip. He went up in the air with the bicycle and on impact with the road the bicycle went out from under him and he hit his head against a rock. He was wearing his helmet...my father-in-law saw it happening and when he got to him he was just lying there. He phoned my husband to come and help. By the time Quintus got there, Pieter still had not gained consciousness. My father-in-law had phoned the ambulance by then and they were on their way. This happened on a dirt road next to the highway and two other men who came cycling past them also stopped. But no one could do anything, they were afraid to move him, not knowing if he had broken his neck or worse. Once the paramedics got there they worked on him for 50 minutes, they did an incubation to help him breathe before driving him to hospital. To make a long story short...we waited at the hospital for any news and updates and they told us that he had vomited at the scene of the accident and the vomit went into his lungs, he suffered oxygen shortage...they had to wash his lungs out. He was still unconscious and by the next morning they confirmed that he was in a deep coma. They had him under sedation just to be careful that he does not wake up and start pulling out drips etc and hurt himself. And of course he also had a hole in his throat where they put the pipes in, i do not know how to spell it.
Just to give a bit of background. He and his wife Chandre have been waiting to have a baby for 9 and a half years. She was about 3 months pregnant when he fell. You can imagine the shock of this incident after the wonderful news of their baby! It is truly a miracle and now this....
It was 60 days of different kinds of emotions and knowing that we had to be strong for his sake, his wife and unborn baby and ourselves. And knowing that we serve a mighty God who can do anything!!! Thinking and hearing of so many others God has brought through similar things and worse. But my dearest friends, i cannot begin to explain the feeling of not knowing what tomorrow holds. He had infection in his lungs and they had to operate to drain his lungs and at the same time they washed the lungs a second time. His brain basically moved back and forth in his skull with the accident...making his brain injury all across the brain in different areas.
At first he had tube feeding through his mouth but later on they operated on him and put the tube feeding directly into his stomach when he was stronger.
I have learned more about coma and brain injury in these past few months than i ever knew. A coma is not just sleeping and waking up one day and talking. It is such a long process. When he reached the point after many weeks to open his eyes he still did not focus and he would look around and not really at you. But he followed our voices and responded by either squeezing your hand or opening and closing his eyes. They kept us up to date on his progress by testing him on the Glasgow Scale and others. That way we could read more about it and know what to expect next. So much happened during those weeks...i would go on forever writing about it. But slowly we started seeing improvement. He drank with a straw (which really means a lot because coma patients battle to swallow at the beginning) and later he could hold the can which he drank from, with difficulty and a bit of help but he did it. He would show us thumbs up when we greeted him and when someone would pray for him he would close his eyes and open again after "amen". About a week before going to rehab he talked, but a very soft whisper.
He went to rehab after about 60 days and by then he was able to sit in a wheelchair. They had closed up the hole in his throat, but he was still on the tube feeding and liquids. He was very thirsty but had to take it slow because he would cough easily.
He was in rehab for about a month or so and then his wife and my in-laws asked that he rather comes home where he will then be an out-patient at a rehab closer to us.
He gets different kinds of therapy each week now, including speech. He talks so much clearer now and he can read, but he battles to write. His brain was damaged on the right side mostly so his left side is affected by it. He writes with his left hand so that is why he can't write now. He also has aqua therapy and that helps him to exercise his left leg and arm a lot.
He still has his days of confusion. He still needs prayer and so does Chandre. Their baby is due on the 23rd of Nov.
So my friends and family, it has been hard and looking back we cannot believe what he has gone through. But we know that with God ALL things are possible. Thank you to those of you who have been praying with us...may God richly bless you! I love you all and i have missed blogging...but you will hear from me more now :)
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