January 1, 2008
To all our
friends,
We have come to realize that we have
not fully explained on this
website how Tony was injured or what his diagnosis is.
Wednesday, December 12th was a warm day,and after several snowfalls and
another storm on the way, Tony came home early to clean the gutters
over the front door. He was on the ladder and it started to slide. He
braced himself for a fall forward, the ladder stopped but his body was
already in motion. He was thrown off in a somersault and landed on the
back of his neck. He only fell five feet. He dislodged his spinal
column between the C4-C5 vertebrae. His spinal
cord was
"sandwiched" in this movement. Nothing was broken, but a lot was
severely bruised. Surgery moved his spinal column back to its
correct position but the damage to his spinal cord cannot ever be
repaired.
The following news may be
hard for you to read, as it is so very hard for us to write, but
his official diagnosis is a C4-C5 Quadriplegic. Our spinal cord at C4
is
our shoulder muscles ; C4-C5 is our biceps (which he loves to flex),
but
he can't move them. He tells us that working out with weights
has helped him with his Bionic Man image! His muscles below
are our
prayers - wrist, hands, and triceps - would be a gift to him.
He's in Spaulding and the reality and the hard work have begun. I
attend all the classes I can with him and Anna goes down on
some days, too. We carry your prayers, love and hope through the doors
of Spaulding each day. Keep writing; your messages make us all smile
and he looks forward to them every day.
Love,
Sue, Tony, Katie and Anna
Please also be sure to also check the postings and message boards at CarePages.com to get the latest news from Tony's family and friends. Sign in to the "tonyy" carepage and you will be automatically notified of the latest TonyY news.
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Read it here.