JerryFauq

Oh, that's great to hear. Thanks.

Oh, that's great to hear. Thanks.

This post is in response to the many requests for my status and updates from my great Melanoma Patients Information Page (MPIP) Family.  I love this group of caring, compassionate, and intelligent people that I have met during the last 4 years since finding the fabulous group Founded in 1996 by Jeff Paterson to honor his sister-in-law.

Update on my status from my horse accident on Aug 13^th about 8:30 pm. My last memory before Denver was as I attempted to mount the horse, I thought, "I should have my proper riding boots sent from Virginia."  The horse then became skittish as I tried to put my foot in the stirr-up.
      After being dragged about 60 feet face down, kicked in the face, the 1300 pound horse fell on top of me.   A neighbor tells me about holding my right eyeball back in place while waiting for the rescue unit to arrive.  My middle daughter, Tanya did an act that scared her, but actually saved  my life.  She was scared to move me, but saw that my mouth and airways were filling with blood and I could not breath.  She rolled me onto my side so that the blood could exit and I could gasp some air.  The Rescue squad told my daughter that I would most likely develop a major case of pneumonia from what had to be done to my lungs.
     It took about ten minutes for the local rescue personnel to arrive.  I was flown from my daughters house near Hartsel, Colorado to a level 1 Trauma center in Denver (~90 miles away). The Rescue squad installed an LMA to get me breathing in the front yard. It stayed in until the Tracheotomy was preformed on the 5^th day when Denver operated on me. (Since I was still alive!)  I was in a coma (partly drug induced) for 4 weeks. My only memory of this four weeks in Denver was the arrival of Jo, our oldest daughter at my bedside. I was told that of the 10 patients that entered the ICU that night only three survived. Pictures are in Facebook (T. Jerry Ellis)  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2089181&id=1540352732&l=db67787fce

Please no comments about the conditions under which the initial pictures were taken. A couple of people questioned the timing. Tanya said she could not have taken any earlier ones as she was too busy holding my face and head together and she knows,.as our Dear JANE from Maine can testify, I like start to finish records (doesn't this include photos?)
       Somehow during this slack time of getting the rescue Squad out, Tanya managed to get Todd Ellis (My favorite Paramedic, on the line in Central Florida.) 'Our son then worked it so that he met the Colorado paramedics and our family members at the Denver, Co trauma center the next AM..
       That night and for the next week, no doctors present in Denver would give my wife any prognosis on my being alive by the next morning. none gave real hope for my survival, period.  My son, a paramedic, agreed with them and told my wife that even if my body survived overnight, I would most likely be brain dead. The day after one of the trauma doctors told my daughter that my organs WOULD soon start to fail and that they needed to just let me go, an elderly slow walking Neurologist shuffled into the room, looked at me and I'm told made the statement “That's a US MARINE you're talking about! He's tough. He doesn't quit and you don't quit on him!”
      I'm sure many of you have seen medic's touch someones finger, nose, toes and gently whisper, “can you feel this”?
      I was told that the mild mannered elderly Neurologist turned to me and barked in top notch drill Sargent tones, “Do You feel this”! My wife said she didn't know a lifeless body could snap to Attention under those conditions, BUT the next day my eyes opened and a brain from somewhere (Perhaps HEAVEN?) started answering the Neurologist and others questions. (I cannot believe they had been discussing a Stage IV melanoma patient donating organs!)
      In the accident, essentially every bone in my face was broken. I was on a ventilator for days to obtain oxygen, feeding tube ( percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube), cath, and all kinds of IV's. I had reconstructive surgery to put my face back together. The facial operation was expected to exceed 7 hours by itself. After a month, I was taken from the Denver Trauma ICU to a Long Term Acute Care Facility in Colorado Springs (by rescue transport.)
    Family managed to reach my eldest daughter who was immersed with serious problems in Oklahoma and I remember her arms around me and her voice telling how she loved me and forbidding me to go anywhere away.
     My first memory after this was opening my eye in my Long Term Acute Care Facility room in the Springs and wondering why they had two such weird shaped clocks in my room. (OOPS, there was really only one clock on the wall!) I couldn't read the time on either! Miss Faith, our youngest granddaughter was laying on my chest most of the time saying “I LOVE YOU, GRANDDADDY!” How could I not come back to the the love these grandkids expressed so well?
The tracheotomy and stomach tube insertion were certainly not a enjoyable part of the experience and continue to be unpleasant and irritating reminders to the healing process.
     I was in the Hospital in the Spring's acute care unit for three weeks and released 25 September to Home Health care at my middle daughters home. Most people leave this type of care to a inpatient rehab or skilled nursing home. I am not like most people and skipped those levels. I have been encouraged by the visits, emails, postings, phone calls, etc from all of you. Thank you for all the prayers and help to my family.  MPIP Contacts from Colorado went out of their way to come see me and assist my Family.  Thank you Laura and Jim.
      My vision is not as good as it was and I don't read a computer screen well right now. I am hoping to get a bigger screen and have my vision improve so that I can be on here more.  I miss the interaction with all the great people on here. I look forward to my late night chats(and anytime chats) with you all again.  You can email me at [email protected] to send personal messages.
      The first week at home the Home Health Nurse and Physical Therapist started paying me visits. The PT man wanted to know if I could put on shoes and walk down the stairs with him. He was amazed that I did not have to hold the handrail for balance. On the way down the driveway our Boston Terrier found several of the kids soccer balls that she expected me to kick for her, so I did so. The PT man then took the first two balls and carried them himself because he was worried about me kicking them for the dog (which I had no problem doing). The next visit the nurse told us that he had told her that he had almost passed out when I started kicking the balls. He had been sure that I would loose my balance and collapse. To date he has been utterly amazed with my physical recovery. The nurse looks at me every visit and says, “I just cannot believe that I'm really sitting here talking to you!”
      My major problems to date are the blurry vision from the right eye, the lack of anything tasting good from cut nerves from my tongue, the lump in my throat from the Tracheotomy that makes it hard to swallow anything including my pills and the healing scar from the cut muscles in my stomach from the insertion and removal of the feeding tube (PEG). Now I just need to get to a warm place so that I can get exercise to keep from getting too far out of shape, 60 days of bed rest is too much!

God must not be through with me here since he kept me from going to him now.

Semper Fi, JerryfromFauq

Hi Jerry!

Thank you so much for writing and sharing the details about this very difficult chapter in your life.  I thoroughly enjoyed our visit a few weeks ago and continue to be amazed at progress!  You have been such a good friend and help to many of us, and we are all pulling for you.  Please keep us posted and best wishes to you and your entire family (especially Tanya).

Warm Regards,

Jim

Hi Jerry!

Thank you so much for writing and sharing the details about this very difficult chapter in your life.  I thoroughly enjoyed our visit a few weeks ago and continue to be amazed at progress!  You have been such a good friend and help to many of us, and we are all pulling for you.  Please keep us posted and best wishes to you and your entire family (especially Tanya).

Warm Regards,

Jim

Oh, Jerry. Aren't you just something amazing! I'm afraid to ask what your next act is.

You are one incredible guy, and damn tough (for such a softie). Not that you needed to prove it to us.

I hope you will continue to gather your strength, and that any difficulties you have will be overcome soon. You have been sorely missed here, and I know there have been countless prayers for your recovery.

Love you, and hope to see your name back on the 'who's chatting' list soon.

Laura

Oh, Jerry. Aren't you just something amazing! I'm afraid to ask what your next act is.

You are one incredible guy, and damn tough (for such a softie). Not that you needed to prove it to us.

I hope you will continue to gather your strength, and that any difficulties you have will be overcome soon. You have been sorely missed here, and I know there have been countless prayers for your recovery.

Love you, and hope to see your name back on the 'who's chatting' list soon.

Laura

whoa, well, you haven't gotten back up on the horse yet, but I have no doubt you will.

Anyway.  A cool trick to increase the size of everything on your computer screen is to press the Ctrl key and move the mouse wheel up and down( as if reading a web page)  works on basically everything (don't know about operating systems before windows xp-but that is what I am running)

whoa, well, you haven't gotten back up on the horse yet, but I have no doubt you will.

Anyway.  A cool trick to increase the size of everything on your computer screen is to press the Ctrl key and move the mouse wheel up and down( as if reading a web page)  works on basically everything (don't know about operating systems before windows xp-but that is what I am running)

Jerry, what you went through scares the heck out of me and, in addition, to the fight against the beast.  You are right, God must be planning something 'big' for you here on earth!!  So happy that you have gotten this far and may the remaining problems improve so that all will eventually be just a memory.  Thank you for your update, we have all been worrying and praying for you.  Val

Jerry, what you went through scares the heck out of me and, in addition, to the fight against the beast.  You are right, God must be planning something 'big' for you here on earth!!  So happy that you have gotten this far and may the remaining problems improve so that all will eventually be just a memory.  Thank you for your update, we have all been worrying and praying for you.  Val

Jerry, 

It is wonderful to see you posting!!  What a story you have to tell…..amazing. You are one loved guy on this board.

Keep the posts coming.

molly

Jerry, 

It is wonderful to see you posting!!  What a story you have to tell…..amazing. You are one loved guy on this board.

Keep the posts coming.

molly

This post is in response to the many requests for my status and updates from my great Melanoma Patients Information Page (MPIP) Family.  I love this group of caring, compassionate, and intelligent people that I have met during the last 4 years since finding the fabulous group Founded in 1996 by Jeff Paterson to honor his sister-in-law.

Update on my status from my horse accident on Aug 13^th about 8:30 pm. My last memory before Denver was as I attempted to mount the horse, I thought, "I should have my proper riding boots sent from Virginia."  The horse then became skittish as I tried to put my foot in the stirr-up.
      After being dragged about 60 feet face down, kicked in the face, the 1300 pound horse fell on top of me.   A neighbor tells me about holding my right eyeball back in place while waiting for the rescue unit to arrive.  My middle daughter, Tanya did an act that scared her, but actually saved  my life.  She was scared to move me, but saw that my mouth and airways were filling with blood and I could not breath.  She rolled me onto my side so that the blood could exit and I could gasp some air.  The Rescue squad told my daughter that I would most likely develop a major case of pneumonia from what had to be done to my lungs.
     It took about ten minutes for the local rescue personnel to arrive.  I was flown from my daughters house near Hartsel, Colorado to a level 1 Trauma center in Denver (~90 miles away). The Rescue squad installed an LMA to get me breathing in the front yard. It stayed in until the Tracheotomy was preformed on the 5^th day when Denver operated on me. (Since I was still alive!)  I was in a coma (partly drug induced) for 4 weeks. My only memory of this four weeks in Denver was the arrival of Jo, our oldest daughter at my bedside. I was told that of the 10 patients that entered the ICU that night only three survived. Pictures are in Facebook (T. Jerry Ellis)  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2089181&id=1540352732&l=db67787fce

Please no comments about the conditions under which the initial pictures were taken. A couple of people questioned the timing. Tanya said she could not have taken any earlier ones as she was too busy holding my face and head together and she knows,.as our Dear JANE from Maine can testify, I like start to finish records (doesn't this include photos?)
       Somehow during this slack time of getting the rescue Squad out, Tanya managed to get Todd Ellis (My favorite Paramedic, on the line in Central Florida.) 'Our son then worked it so that he met the Colorado paramedics and our family members at the Denver, Co trauma center the next AM..
       That night and for the next week, no doctors present in Denver would give my wife any prognosis on my being alive by the next morning. none gave real hope for my survival, period.  My son, a paramedic, agreed with them and told my wife that even if my body survived overnight, I would most likely be brain dead. The day after one of the trauma doctors told my daughter that my organs WOULD soon start to fail and that they needed to just let me go, an elderly slow walking Neurologist shuffled into the room, looked at me and I'm told made the statement “That's a US MARINE you're talking about! He's tough. He doesn't quit and you don't quit on him!”
      I'm sure many of you have seen medic's touch someones finger, nose, toes and gently whisper, “can you feel this”?
      I was told that the mild mannered elderly Neurologist turned to me and barked in top notch drill Sargent tones, “Do You feel this”! My wife said she didn't know a lifeless body could snap to Attention under those conditions, BUT the next day my eyes opened and a brain from somewhere (Perhaps HEAVEN?) started answering the Neurologist and others questions. (I cannot believe they had been discussing a Stage IV melanoma patient donating organs!)
      In the accident, essentially every bone in my face was broken. I was on a ventilator for days to obtain oxygen, feeding tube ( percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube), cath, and all kinds of IV's. I had reconstructive surgery to put my face back together. The facial operation was expected to exceed 7 hours by itself. After a month, I was taken from the Denver Trauma ICU to a Long Term Acute Care Facility in Colorado Springs (by rescue transport.)
    Family managed to reach my eldest daughter who was immersed with serious problems in Oklahoma and I remember her arms around me and her voice telling how she loved me and forbidding me to go anywhere away.
     My first memory after this was opening my eye in my Long Term Acute Care Facility room in the Springs and wondering why they had two such weird shaped clocks in my room. (OOPS, there was really only one clock on the wall!) I couldn't read the time on either! Miss Faith, our youngest granddaughter was laying on my chest most of the time saying “I LOVE YOU, GRANDDADDY!” How could I not come back to the the love these grandkids expressed so well?
The tracheotomy and stomach tube insertion were certainly not a enjoyable part of the experience and continue to be unpleasant and irritating reminders to the healing process.
     I was in the Hospital in the Spring's acute care unit for three weeks and released 25 September to Home Health care at my middle daughters home. Most people leave this type of care to a inpatient rehab or skilled nursing home. I am not like most people and skipped those levels. I have been encouraged by the visits, emails, postings, phone calls, etc from all of you. Thank you for all the prayers and help to my family.  MPIP Contacts from Colorado went out of their way to come see me and assist my Family.  Thank you Laura and Jim.
      My vision is not as good as it was and I don't read a computer screen well right now. I am hoping to get a bigger screen and have my vision improve so that I can be on here more.  I miss the interaction with all the great people on here. I look forward to my late night chats(and anytime chats) with you all again.  You can email me at [email protected] to send personal messages.
      The first week at home the Home Health Nurse and Physical Therapist started paying me visits. The PT man wanted to know if I could put on shoes and walk down the stairs with him. He was amazed that I did not have to hold the handrail for balance. On the way down the driveway our Boston Terrier found several of the kids soccer balls that she expected me to kick for her, so I did so. The PT man then took the first two balls and carried them himself because he was worried about me kicking them for the dog (which I had no problem doing). The next visit the nurse told us that he had told her that he had almost passed out when I started kicking the balls. He had been sure that I would loose my balance and collapse. To date he has been utterly amazed with my physical recovery. The nurse looks at me every visit and says, “I just cannot believe that I'm really sitting here talking to you!”
      My major problems to date are the blurry vision from the right eye, the lack of anything tasting good from cut nerves from my tongue, the lump in my throat from the Tracheotomy that makes it hard to swallow anything including my pills and the healing scar from the cut muscles in my stomach from the insertion and removal of the feeding tube (PEG). Now I just need to get to a warm place so that I can get exercise to keep from getting too far out of shape, 60 days of bed rest is too much!

God must not be through with me here since he kept me from going to him now.

Semper Fi, JerryfromFauq