Good Morning Ilene, I just left Diane's blog and came here to see if you had already linked it....and you had.

I don't necessarily visit Diane's blog every day but try to go there at least a couple of times a week to catch up on everything and was stunned to read yesterday's entry.

Y'all, please keep Diane and Steve and the entire family in your thoughts and prayers. For those of you who don't know Owiebrain and her family well, they are living the adventure of building their own earth-sheltered home on their acreage in southeastern OK, and you just won't find a harder-working man than Steve. In addition to her frequent posts on her blog, Diane homeschools her children and is an avid gardener and long-time member of our forum family.

I don't expect we'll see Diane here on the forum for a while, but there is a comment section on her blog (linked above by Ilene) if you want to leave messages of support and encouragement there.

Dawn

Thanks, everyone.

I'm going back and forth between having no time to spare and having too much time to kill when I have to play the hurry-up-and-wait game. I'm not good at that so try to read to distract myself.

All of your prayers are appreciated! I'll keep you all updated. :-)

Diane

Will be praying for Steve and the family!

Diane,

I just went to your blog to look for an update, and then came and found you'd posted here on the forum.

Looking at the comments both here and on your blog, I have just one question for you: Do you feel the love? (I know you do.)

Hang in there.

Dawn

Diane,
You, Steve and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. Jay

Diane, I am praying for your hsuband, you and your family.
Jan

Diane, I too will be praying for your husband and your family. Keep us posted. Dorothy

I posted this morning, but it disappeared.

So, let me repeat how very sorry I am. I will be praying for your husband's full recovery. I hope you have friends and family close by to help you all though this.

glenda

Hi all!

I hope and don't think Diane will mind if I post an update here. I can see updates from her on one of those "social networking" sites that we both have "pages". She said Steve made it thru his first surgery fine some 17+ hours ago. I would imagine they addressed the most serious of his injuries first. She said it'll be a day or two before they know much more on the others. She was home around lunch time for a break and then heading back, which I think sounds positive.

I think we'll all be keeping them in our prayers.

Paula

They do wonderful things to repair Steve's type of brain injury nowadays. I didn't have a bleed, but had a "potential" bleed issue that is congenital. Discovered "by accident" when I had an MRI done on my neck. Called a arteriovenous malformation, where an artery and vein meet without an intervening bed of capillaries between them. Those capillaries slow down the flow so that the blood can be re-oxygenated on its return trip down the vein and back again up thru the artery. When that capillary bed doesn't exist, the blood flows at an extremely high rate thru a tangled web created by the artery and vein like one of those crazy straws?? and eventually can wear down the walls of the artery and vein. So, I could either live with it and hope it did not weaken and burst, or have it fixed. I had an endovasculsar embolization done by two neuro interventional radiologists, one at Integris Baptist, another flown in from a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, who came to mix and deposit an amalgam in the center between the artery and vein. But, that was back in 2003 and I'm fine.

It is just a miracle what they can do now to fix these things.

I left a messsage for Diane on her blog and will reiterate that my thoughts and prayers are with her, Steve, and the children. It is a tough situation, but I believe that prayer works!

Susan

Paula,

Thanks so much for the update. It's so good to know he came through the first surgery well. I intend to keep Steve, Diane and the kids in my prayers for a long time.

Susan,

They can do so many miraculous things medically these days that it just astounds me. You're lucky they found your condition and were able to fix it.

I absolutely believe in the power of prayer too!

Diane,

If you log on here to update us, please know we're sending you all the best wishes and positive thinking and prayers that we can.

Dawn

Diane updated last nite and said Steve's in a private room now so the kids can see him. The surgery was on his arm. As I said it went well, but they're going to have to do another one to "clean it up". The next surgery will be on pelvis (ouch) but since she hasn't gotten to see the Dr., she's not sure when and what all. His mother & sisters are here from out-of-state, staying in a hotel next to the hospital so YEA! They've got some family back-up right there. He's even got his cell phone back and it's operating too! Some one made the joke that it sounds like he's making a "speed" recovery. LOL She also said he's nuch more "mentally with it". I know they've got a long road ahead of them, but at least he seems to be "out of the ditch"!

Keep praying!

Paula

Diane,
Keeping you all in my prayers daily. Along with your family support there, you also have the support from us okies here!! Will definitely be praying for a tremendous healing daily and for strength and patience for you and your kids. Hang in there and be strong!!
Melissa

Y'all can see Diane's latest update, posted 2-28-10, on the link below.

It sounds like Steve's making great progress considering the serious fall and the nature of his injuries.

Diane & Steve & Family, Still praying for the best and quickest recovery possible.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Diane's Blog Update of 2-28-10

Just zipping through to say howdy and thank you all for the continued prayers and support!

He's making amazing progress and should be home before too much longer. I'm working on getting everything set up for him to be home so that, once he's here, we can just be here for him. I don't want to be running for groceries or anything until he's settled in. So it's crazy busy right now but it's positive craziness. :-)

Diane

Diane, I am so relieved and happy for you. Having him home will be wonderful. I know what trips back and forth to the hospital are like!

Here's wishing for continued progress and a full recovery.

glenda

Great news, Diane!

I know it will be a great relief to have him and his miracle cell phone back home again. Y'all need to let his cell phone manufacturer know about the phone's miraculous recovery too. Maybe they'll put Steve and his phone in a commercial.

Hmmmm? Positive craziness at your house? I guess that means everything is getting back to normal. If there were no craziness, y'all wouldn't be y'all. : )

I'm glad he'll be home soon and think that is great news, BUT I don't envy you having him at home in the sense that you're going to have a heck of a time making him behave himself and heal fully. He doesn't strike me as being a sitting-around-the-house-patiently-waiting-for-his-body-to-heal kind of guy. LOL I have a funny feeling that the minute you escape to your happy place to pot up a few plants, he'll try to sneak out the back door to work on a few projects of his own. How in the earth are you going to get him to sit still long enough to heal those broken bones?

Dawn

Any word on Steve lately?

George

George - the good news, it's darn near a miracle. The Man Who Could Not Fly (as owiebrain lovingly calls him) has been home for almost 2 weeks. The CAT scans showed minimal damage and healing in the brain, his arm is pieced back together with a couple of pins but is healing also and his pelvic breaks are healing on their own. He has a walker all rigged up for his left arm and he's walking (albiet slowly) every day. On her blog, Diane posted a pic of him working on a new mail box last week!

Can't keep a good man down!

Here is a link that might be useful: Steve's determination

Paula,

I laughed out loud last week when I saw that photo on Diane's blog. I just knew he wasn't going to sit around patiently doing nothing while his body healed.

Dawn

Yep, he's doing okay. I actually try to paint a brighter picture for the blog because his family reads it and I don't want to worry them. ;-)

The mailbox episode was just a bit of torching and then he had to give it up as it proved to be too much after a few minutes. His pelvis is showing no healing yet but his arm is healing nicely. His head is still a bit of a problem. He's on pain pills for the head pain and he still can't hear well out of his right ear. We don't know if that will be permanent or not but, if that's his biggest permanent issue, it's not a big one in the grand scheme of things.

He'll be healing for 9-12 months according to the docs so it's going to be a long, tough recovery. But, he WILL recover and that's the important thing. We have a lot to be thankful for!

Diane

Diane - here I thought all those prayers had carried off a miracle...and I guess they did. Bless your heart...and his. I can imagine that head paid is horrible!!! I had a car wreck at a very young age that resulted in a broken bone in my face. The concusion took months and months to heal. I was 18 then and it caused me problems up to age 23. The wonderful blessing is he is still here and functioning. I wondered if you had just caught a few good moments with that camera. He's going to have to realize this was WAY serious...and he's GOT to give it time. When you guys make it to the Spring Swap, I'll hug him first...then slap him on his good side! He has GOT to take good care of himself as I'm sure you're providing.

Now, I'm going to shoot you an e-mail about our project for the kiddos. I think I've got everything covered so I hope it lightens your load. See ya on FB!

Paula