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Dear Family, Friends, and Supporters:
For those of you who know Paul, you know that he is a loving husband, caring father, adoring grandfather, loyal friend, and hard worker. His life has been one that has been lived to the fullest! His son, Anthony, and daughter-in-law, Jennifer, daughter, Stacie and son-in-law, Adam, three precious grandchildren and many friends are such a source of great joy! His greatest joy comes from The Lord! He loves his Church family and serves through the media ministry at Northside Baptist Church.
On Saturday October 30, 2010, Paul was cutting a limb off of a tree in our back yard. The limb broke loose, knocked the ladder out from under him. He landed back first on the ladder, breaking his back, fracturing his neck, and fracturing numerous ribs. The fall destroyed the T7 leaving Paul paralyzed from just above the waist down. We are now at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA, where he will rehab until December 29, praying for a miracle, but accepting whatever The Lord has in store for us! This is a path we would not have chosen, but it is one we will take together.
In spite of the many struggles that he faces, Paul is determined to return to a productive life through the support of his family and friends. It will be necessary for Paul and Beth to make wheelchair accessible modifications to their home, in addition to hopefully purchasing a handicapped accessible vehicle that will provide Paul with greater mobility and independence. Insurance does not cover any of these expenses and as you can imagine, home modifications and a vehicle will be extremely expensive.
To assist with these and other injury-related expenses, a fundraising campaign in Paul’s honor has been established through the Catastrophic Injury Program of HelpHOPELive. HelpHOPELive is a nonprofit that has been serving the transplant community for more than 28 years. In 2000 HelpHOPELive expanded its mission to assist patients line Paul who had suffered a spinal cord injury. All donations are tax-deductible and are administered by HelpHOPELive for injury-related expenses only. Please consider making an end-of-year, tax-deductible contribution today.For more information, please contact HelpHOPELive at 800-642-8399.

Thanks for your support!

Updates (10)

November 13, 2010

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Not much different today--sat up in the chair again today and went to eat lunch in the gym with other patients here. He was originally scheduled to go outside, but the plans changed because of the amount of oxygen he was requiring.

After sometime in the chair, he began to experience terrific pain in his neck again. The pain became so severe he began to shake uncontrollably. I was in a caregivers meeting and Stacie was with him--really unnerved her. Dr. Murray came in to talk with him about the severity of the pain and to try and control it better. He seems okay if they just stay on top of it. Guess it will take time for the pain to subside. As long as I know that it is "normal" pain, I'm okay, but it's always a concern to me that something may be going wrong with the neck--especially since it had several fractures they did not repair. Dr. Murray feels sure that it is just "normal" pain. They need to get him up and he needs to be off of his back, but it just is difficult to watch him quiver in pain.

As you can see, Stacie arrived safely. So happy to have her with me--such a comfort. Paul cried when he saw her. He has been emotional today--guess that is normal, too. Please pray for less pain each day so that we can begin aggresive rehab.

I met another family today--a young man and his stepmother. His dad (her husband) was in a motorcycle accident and suffered brain and spinal trauma. They have been here 7 weeks and are still in ICU. They, too, are just thankful he is alive. The day of his accident, they were told he would not live. Please pray for them and for the dad, Bill. He is just a few years older than Paul and has a much longer road to travel. We cried together and talked about our blessings even in the midst of our trials.

Thanks for traveling this road with us! Love you all so much!

November 13, 2010

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Just going to ask for specific prayer request tonight. This afternoon, the Pulmanary doctor told us that he believes Paul has blood clots in the lungs. The reason for this determination is due to the fact that he is requiring so much oxygen. Paul does have a small amount of fluid on the lungs, but he doesn't feel that it is enough to cause him to be requiring this much oxygen. Since they found clots in the legs, he feels that more than likely some clots have gotten into the lungs. He could do a scan with contrast to make sure, but says it is really useless since they would not do anything different than they are doing right now to treat the problem. He is on blood thinner and they have upped the dose to hopefully get the blood thinned to the level they need (the nurse says he is at 1.5 and they want him between 2 and 3).

After they took him to rehab this afternoon, he was in horrible pain--his whole body just shaking with pain--almost as bad he was shaking in the trauma unit the day of the accident. It took nearly an hour to get the pain under control. They are pretty sure this was due to the lack of pain meds and not the rehab itself. He could have had something for pain around 2, which is when he went to rehab, so he didn't get that dose until 3:30. You can bet we won't let that happen again. It is heartbreaking to see him suffering like that!

Pray for Anthony, too. He is so torn -- trying to handle work, lots of issues for me, care for his family, and wanting to be here with his dad. Even though there is very little we can do, I can't imagine what it would feel like to be that far away. He and Stacie are both struggling with this type of heartache. Stacie will be here tomorrow and Anthony's plan was to come back on Sat with Jen and Maria. Pray things go well tonight and that Paul will do well enough tomorrow to allow Anthony to have some peace about being away until Sat. morning.

Again, we treasure every word and every prayer! You are such a blessing. Boy do we love you all!

Beth

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November 15, 2010

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Anthony