Jayson Update

Here is a copy of the emails I sent out in case I missed any of you:

(sent Monday night, June 22nd)
Last night, while Jayson was building in the garage he cut his fingers badly on the table saw. He “partially amputated” his left index finger, badly injured his middle finger--severing the tendon and multiple nerves, badly cut his ring finger and nicked his pinky (yes, I know how stupid “nicked” is to say after that report.) We spent the night down at U of Mi in the ER trauma department. They took x-rays and determined that he had also fractured the bone in his index finger. Though we are so grateful that it wasn’t any worse, the doctors are still waiting a bit to see what the best treatment will be. In ER the chief of hand surgery came and consulted with us. He said the tissue in the index finger is very badly damaged and he isn’t sure it will recover. If the flesh dies, the wound was so deep --remember the “partial amputation” thing, yeah, that deep—that their best course could likely be to “complete the amputation” salvaging as much of the finger as possible, which would likely be at about the top-most knuckle (meaning he would still have most of his finger and could still do a pincher grip (they say that’s the most important thing)). They cleaned, and stitched, they put a pin in his fractured index finger to assist healing and dressed his hand in a splint and sent us home. The hand clinic contacted us this morning and set up surgery for THURSDAY JUNE 25th to repair the middle finger. The chief said that we should know whether or not the index finger tissue will survive within about 48 hours, so at the time of surgery, they’ll make an assessment regarding that finger and what is to be done.

Please pray for Jayson as he is in a lot of pain.
Pray that the nerve damage will be reversible, and pray mostly, that he will get to keep all of his index finger.
Pray for the kids and I, and for Gayle, Jayson’s mom—she was (and still is) pretty shaken up.
Thank God with us that Jayson was spared from what had potential to be a much more horrific accident.
Thank God for friends who are pouring out so much support. THANK YOU!
I will update you all when I know more. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Mindy

(TODAY'S UPDATE)

Dear friends~

Thank you so much for your prayers for Jayson and our family. I sent out some text updates throughout the day, but a few of you have said you didn’t get them, so here’s the scoop.
The surgery went great! They gave him a nerve block in his arm to numb him from the shoulder down and put him under anesthesia without intubation (they call it “twilight”). It really helped the post-op recovery and he felt good for most of this evening. The surgeon was able to keep all of his index finger, and although there is still a small chance they might need to go in and take the tip off in a week or so, the surgeon said the finger gave every indication of at least remaining in tact. They are not sure how much feeling he’ll have, or when he might regain it, that takes some time. That is also the case with the middle finger, although they were easily able to find the tendons and repair them, and even some of the nerve bundle. The nerves will take a few months to grow back into the finger tip, but he should regain at least “protective sensation” back in that finger. The ring finger didn’t end up needing the graft; they just cleaned up the wound and repaired the cut. The surgeon said he will still be able to play guitar and golf (his two big concerns!).
He’s heading into a week of rest/recovery and then he’ll begin about 8 weeks of some intense physical therapy/rehab next Wednesday. They have warned us that the recovery road is an intense and painful one; the fingers tend towards stiffness quickly after an injury of this kind.
Please join me in thanking God for his faithfulness to us. I feel so upheld by all of your prayers! Thank you! This outcome is the best case scenario we’d been praying for. We are so grateful to our merciful God. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers over the next week and into recovery. Pain management is going to be an issue over the next few days, I’m praying God would just surround and protect, comfort and heal Jay.
We’re also so grateful to God, and to you all, for all the support we feel. We’ve had childcare, meals, phone calls, emails, and just felt so over-all supported. Jayson mentioned to me this morning how encouraged he was by all the texts and emails of prayer and encouragement he was getting. Thank you so very, very much.

In His Mercy,
Mindy (for all the Schoebs)