She'll be shopping in no time

Reading some comments, I am so glad that people are looking out for Mom's greater calling....deal shopping! I know she has shopped for many an occasion for Central, for family and for friends. Eric made a comment today on one of our visits with her that Kohls had called and were concerned that their December sales were down. I think we could hear a faint chuckle. If you don't know Mom very well, she loves Kohls! I will have to introduce her to online shopping.

It feels good to lighten the mood a little, though she will head back into surgery on Monday. It is amazing how alert she was during our last visit this evening before we left. Now, I am left thinking how she is tonight processing the bits and pieces of information she has learned throughout the day from us and her nurses. I pray for peaceful sleep.

It is a little quiet in her room so I think we are going to try to take a cd player tomorrow and a couple cds. Mom loves music and I hope it will bring her some comfort during the times when she is alone. Eric reminded me that I better bring some extra batteries, b/c I don't want to unplug anything. Oops! :)

Though undesirable circumstances, we had a nice family visit this evening. Our thoughts are with Lisa and the girls as they stayed behind in N.C. for this trip. Lisa, I hope you feel better soon and get some rest.

Thank you for the continued prayers. GOOD night.

Happiness is...

seeing your Mom's eyes. I have just had my first visit with Mom today and she is awake. The nurse says she has been alert starting last night and is nodding to answer questions.

Dad and Gary visited with her earlier this morning, as well. When Gary asked if they could say a prayer together, Mom nodded her head. Dad has been able to hold her hand and let her know that so many people are thinking of her and sending their love.

Medical stats: She is up to 57ccs of nutrition and is breathing only 8bpm with the ventilator providing the other half of her breaths on her own.

We are very excited about this progress, yet overwhelmed by the emotions that come with seeing Mom and wanting to talk to her and have her remain calm as she cannot talk back.

The doctor confirmed this morning that they will operate on her shoulder on Monday morning.

Eric will be here shortly and we are excited to share this special day with him.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stay updated on Mom and for your continued prayers.

Blue eyes, progress, and continued prayer...

Ed has been able to visit Anita several times today. He is settling into a pattern of being with her every two hours. At one point in a visit today while he spoke to her, Anita opened one of her eyes and Ed celebrated seeing that beautiful shade of blue once again. Overall, Anita is resting well.

From a conversation with the trauma doctor earlier, we learned the medical staff is pleased with Anita’s progress. They plan on increasing the amount of nutrition she is receiving today from 10cc’s to 25cc’s. The next major decision from the medical staff is when to work on her shoulder. Hopefully this decision will be made in the next few days.

Let’s continue to pray for Anita’s strength and comfort and lift up all of the Carwiles to God’s care in prayer throughout this difficult situation. If you would like to contribute meals for Ed, Kenny, and Allison send me an email at jscanlon@cpcatlanta.org and I will coordinate what is needed by the family.

Jonathan

A peaceful night to come

I joined Dad back at the hospital tonight to find Bill and Martha Kimes and Jonathan keeping him company. How wonderful visitors are these nights.

We went to see Mom and got a very informative report from the nurse. Mom is stable and doing well. She is well covered trying to warm up after being on the cold operation table. They have run some more tests so we will get the results of those tomorrow. They installed the filter to prevent blood clots so that is reassuring. They are also going to start feeding her to see how she responds. It has been 5 days so I am sure she is a little hungry. She would probably prefer prime rib, but baby steps. :)

We don't know any more about her shoulder so look forward to hearing about that tomorrow.

It's been a long day, but thank you to all the visitors and calls to Dad. We are surrounded by so much love.

Peaceful dreams, Mom.

One down, one to go

Here at the hospital. Dad spoke with Dr. Schlatterer, lead orthopedic surgeon for Mom today. After four hours, she is in recovery from hip surgery only. This is the average length for surgery of this extent and he said she did very well. He was concerned about some redness on her skin near her shoulder so they decided to wait and postpone her shoulder surgery for a few days. Unfortunately, that means she will now be in ICU for a second week.

We hope to see her soon, but if not, she needs her rest so we will wait to hear from the doctor to determine if Dad and/or I comes back this evening. Dad will return tomorrow and is typically here around 10 am.

I will update again tonight, if we learn more.

Thanks for your prayers.

Going in for surgery

Mom really needs your prayers today. We have just learned that she is headed back in surgery this morning for shoulder and hip repair. We were anticipating the hip repair and knew the shoulder might be a possibility so we are glad that she is strong enough for the doctors to want to go ahead and take her back in.

Though we are surprised by the sudden timing (she may be in surgery before dad even makes it to the hospital), I think it is just because we were unable to connect with the doctor yesterday. They feel like they can go in and repair the hip and try to make the socket tight so that she might not need any hip replacement in the near future. Please pray for the doctors who will be working on Mom today that they will have clarity of thought and precision of hand.

Dad will be at the hospital today (by 11 am) and probably for most of the day waiting for Mom to get out of surgery. I am back at work today though plan to get to the hospital this afternoon. If anyone can make it down I know he would appreciate the visit.

Thanks for your prayers.

We had a nice visit

Amy and Allen Mast and Jackie Jenkins just left as we are here in the hospital this evening. We had some good laughs enjoying our fond moments with Mom. Thanks for the visit. How was that contraband biscuit, Jackie?

Unfortunately, never crossed paths with Dr. Spence so we can only go on our time with the nurse and surgical resident. We learned that they lightened Mom's sedation so that they could cut down the ventilator and have her try to breathe on her own with support as needed. She did so well this morning that she did it all day. Now, she is pooped (as her nurse would say). They were giving her a break this evening, but were pleased with how well she breathed on her own. Way to go, Mom!

Her fever has broken so hopefully they will be able to insert the filter tomorrow.

We give thanks for all of your care and prayers. They really mean so much to us.

Just in from the Hospital

Though we don't know all the details, yet, the nurse informed Dad that they are lightening Mom's sedation medicine and bringing her to a lighter sleep. This began last night and into today.

Dad was able to go to the hospital this morning and learned they are going to place a blood clot filter in mom's veins to act as an umbrella and catch any potential blood clots from her legs and keep them from traveling to her lungs and brain.

She is running a slight fever so they have given her some fever reducer and are monitoring any further infection symptoms. This fever might hinder the procedure above from happening today.

Unfortunately, Dad was not able to see her doctor (Dr. Spence) before Dad had to leave for an appointment so he is to call him this afternoon.

Dad and I will be returning to the hospital this evening, possibly sooner rather then later, depending on what we hear from Dr. Spence and what we learn about them possibly trying to wake Mom up.

Dad had a touching moment with Mom this morning when he went to see her and speak with her. Mom's eyes teared up and ran slightly down her cheek. We truly believe she can hear us when we speak with her and are anxiously awaiting the next few hours and day as she might possibly wake up.

The Story Unfolds

I now understand the adage, "Only time will tell".

Today, it told alot. Dad and I were able to visit with Mom's doctor and learn that she remains stable and will learn her results tomorrow. For now, everything looks good. Please keep her in your prayers.

We were able to meet with the investigating officer and were informed how the accident actually happened. It is not as simple as we thought, nor how Dad thought he saw it. Traveling from the other direction was a car slowing down to turn left into a neighborhood. Another gentlemen, came up behind at an excessive speed and was unable to stop behind him. He swerved off the road to the right to miss this car, but then swerved back and lost control crossing back into traffic and into Mom's lane hitting her front left side. The guy turning was a key witness and shared this story with the officer and thankfully was able to remain unharmed. We still don't think Mom saw it coming because it happened so quickly out from behind the stopped vehicle turning. More unfortunate news is we learned that the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol and there were two other people in the car that fleed the scene after the accident. The driver suffered minimal injuries and was released that night with a DUI charge.

As I now process this news of actual events of Saturday, I am angry and enraged, but am remaining calm and focusing my energy on Mom and her incredible fight. I want to continue to be here for my dad and keep positive energy towards mom's recovery. I know this is a similar story of many other accidents involving DUI and that we must continue our fight for Mom and continue the fight against letting people drive drunk.

And what a fight this is. Dad, Kenny and I were able to go see Mom's vehicle today and it is a miracle that Mom survived. I definitely believe she is meant to keep on doing good things on this Earth. It was like she was completely captured in this capsule and the car just crumpled around her breaking the force. We could see how it was long and difficult to get her out and know for sure that when they are ready, mom and dad will be purchasing another Honda Odyessy. I truly believe that car saved her life.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers.

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December 4th update - Allison & Dad

We are so glad to see that the word is getting out.
We are here at the hospital waiting to talk to the doctor about what the next step is. We visited with mom this morning and she remains stable. We will be here for about another 2 hours or so (depends on when the dr. makes his rounds - this is a very unknown timeline).
Dad and/or I will plan to return to the hospital this evening to see her again. We expect to be here between 8:00-9:30 after we have been able to eat dinner and get back down here.

End of Day December 3rd

We want to thank each and everyone that has called, come by, emailed, prayed or thought of us during these last couple of days. The outpouring of love and heartfelt care really means a lot.

To catch-up for those that have only heard bits and pieces to this point, here is what happened:

On Saturday evening at about 9 pm, December 1st, Mom was driving home in the Honda Odyssey after having had dinner with the Palmers (Central friends) with Dad following close behind in his truck. Driving on a residential road, frequently traveled by us to get to their home, Mom came over a slight hill where a gentlemen in an SUV, not stopping at a stop sign, had made a wide right turn coming into her lane and hit her front left side almost instantly. Though very unfortunate that Dad witnessed this tremendously horrible accident, he was able to safely stop behind her and be with her almost instantly.

Mom was responsive at the scene and talked to Dad slightly and remained very calm.

It was difficult to get her out of the vehicle with the jaws of life being unsuccessful and only able to get open the back right passenger door. After about 30-40 minutes (time is very fuzzy for Dad understandably), they were finally able to remove her sliding through the very back door. She was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center arriving at the hospital a little after 10 pm. She was immediately assessed and cared for by the fine trauma team on call. She was awake upon arriving at the hospital and cognitive of having been in an accident and being at the hospital. Due to the extent of her injuries and pain, they induced a slight sedation to help her relax and help her body combat the trauma it had just experienced. She has remained sedated since her arrival.

A note to make at this time that Dad shared with me, as well as others of you, is while Dad was waiting for the fire and police to pull mom out, some nearby neighbors who had heard the crash came out to see how they could help. After seeing the severity of the situation, they gathered in a circle and said a prayer for mom and our family. Dad went over and placed his hand on their shoulder and was truly touched by their gesture of a complete stranger in need. Thanks to God for these women during that initial time!

Here are her known injuries to date, most sustained on the left side of her body:

Broken arm at the point just under her shoulder blade

Deep laceration above her elbow damaging soft tissue and source of a lot of blood loss

Fractured elbow

Dislocated and fractured hip

Fractured knee cap

Lacerations and sprain of her ankle


Head laceration above her right eyebrow with slight bruise on her brain (very common for head trauma)

Cracked ribs

Right hand/wrist fracture and severe dislocation

Status - It has been almost exactly two days from her arrival to AMC. Here is where we are at after a long, hard day for Anita (Mom):

She was successful today in her surgery for the injuries to her left and right arm and the repair of her kneecap. Her head injury has been sewn up and they are monitoring any possible damage to her brain. She still needs surgery for her hip, but they are going to wait to see how she does in the next 24 hours before deciding to pursue any further action.

The things to monitor at this point are infection and blood clots. They will be monitoring these closely.

She remains under a heavy sedation with multiple pain medications, but is resting peacefully and remaining stable.

We want to use this site as a way to keep in touch with everyone and give updates and serve as a place to post messages or ask questions or let Anita know anything at all.

Mom is an amazingly strong women and we have hope that she will continue her fight through this critical first week.

At this time, Dad is staying with us for the next few days so we can be together as a family and provide him with support, in addition, to what many of you are providing as well at the hospital.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!

With love to you all,

Allison (daughter)