Lance’s Road to Recovery

On the early afternoon of Sunday September 24th our dad, Lance, was involved in a 6 car accident on I-5 near the north fork Lewis river bridge. Luckily nobody else was injured, but Lance sustained a severe spinal column injury. After meeting with the trauma team at Peacehealth it was decided that the best course of action was to perform a cervical laminectomy with fusion on 5 of his vertebrae’s. This procedure was not a repair, but a necessity to ensure damage did not get worse. Two rods and ten screws were placed in his neck to help ease pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. This procedure came with no guarantees other than preventing his injury from worsening. On Wednesday September 27th he was moved from ICU to his own room and started his long journey of physical and occupational therapy. Within days our dad began working on mobility in his arms and legs. The extent of this mobility is unknown at this time. On that same Wednesday he had massive tingling throughout both arms, meaning his nerves were firing! Thursday he was able to sit for 8 minutes (fully assisted) and on Friday he sat for 12 minutes (fully assisted). The surgeon said his progress is promising and he hopes to continue seeing improvements. As of Friday he could also let us know that he was full after eating which means feeling in his abdomen has also returned some. He can move each arm a little up and out and his right leg can bend and move up and out also. His right leg still has very little movement but it has still shown improvement throughout the week. All of these little steps are huge milestones on the road of recovery that he is on so we will take each one of them with a grateful heart.

Next steps are making some house modifications to ensure that when he comes home he can navigate around safely. This involves widening doorways, extending an existing slope, a new ADA compliant shower, a couple of lifts in a few necessary areas of the house and possibly a hospital bed. Not to mention anything we may not have even thought of or realized yet.

Then there are the medical bills… we can’t even begin to know what all of this will cost. Between the ambulance ride, surgery, ICU care, hospital stay, inpatient physical and occupational therapy we are looking at some hefty fees.

We are asking for your continued love and support through this long journey ahead. If you can spare anything to help us create a safe home for our dad and to help ease the burden of these incurring medical bills we would be so appreciative. Thank you so much everyone!

Phil & Britt

*For anybody wanting to donate by cash or check, we have a Donation bank account (same account linked to this GoFundMe) where you can transfer or deposit funds. Please reach out to one of us or Linda directly for that information*