Prayers for Rylie

02/09/2024

I was a guest on a podcast! You can listen to it on Spotify through this link https://open.spotify.com/episode/5bEMVJf67JkEVNgUUf8ej7

Episode · Dream Catcher - The Podcast! · Rylie nearly died in 2014 when she was part of a car crash.After being in a coma Riley was transferred to a rehab facility for traumatic brain injury. Where she received treatment for a month and a half. Fast forward ten years Riley is a healthy, outgoing p...

05/08/2021

Wow! This page hasn’t been updated since 2016! Lets change that 😂

Hi! My name is Rylie, I’m 24 years old, and 7 years ago today I was in a really bad car accident. Some years this day is sad and some years it’s a celebration. I’m not sure how I feel this year, it’s kind of a combination.

I will be graduating from Hastings College this December with a BA in English emphasis in Creative Writing. As of now I have no idea what I’m going to do when I graduate. I want to get a masters in creative writing but I haven’t applied anywhere yet so maybe I should get on that 😅

I’m still affected by my injuries from the accident. I process information slower and need more time on assignments in school. My leg still hurts sometimes when I walk for a while and I still can’t put any pressure on my right knee. But the scars are still fading so that’s good. And I’m excited for my last semester of college!

ALSO thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement and support over the years!! ❤️

15/05/2016

It's Sr. Prom night and Rylie graduates it 15 days. Got me thinking the last 20 months or so and it's trials, triumphs and changes. We couldn't be more proud of all of the hard work she has put in and her sensitive heart. She got her first job a couple of months ago and was part of a cast of 6 in a one act that made it to all state and competed in poetry as well. All this in a new school in a new state. She is more brave than I! Wanted to again thank everyone who has remained in this group and kept Rylie in your thoughts and prayers. We are so grateful. If you would like to send Rylie a graduation congradulations you can send it to this address 640 Bentley Dr. #1 Marion, IA 52302.

05/08/2015

365 Days. It was a year ago today that I got that call that no parent wants to get: "There has been an accident. They are taking them to the hospital. You should come." Longest 90 mile drive of my life. Seems like forever ago and seems like yesterday all at the same time. Rylie is doing well physically. She doesn't seem to experience soreness or aching or lack of strength in her arm or leg. She was relieved that the rod in her leg did not set off any alarms on the flights she took this summer.

In a week Rylie starts her senior year of high school. While for many this is a time of excitement and anticipation with a lightened schedule and most requirements out of the way that wont be the case for Rylie. Since Rylie missed most of last year she will have a full schedule of mostly required classes. She is trying not to be overwhelmed before school even starts but she also feels like there is a deficiency in her ability to perform academically as well as she has in the past. Rylie was able to attend a poetry camp this summer in Minnesota and loved it. It was such an affirming and accepting environment for her. She was able to do a lot of writing as well which was very therapeutic for her. We will work with the school to get her the help she needs.

We feel like Rylie's TBI has definitely changed how she interacts socially with us and others. Research has shown that is often the case especially in teens and especially in the first several months after the injury. Sadly, not everyone will understand and appreciate what someone with TBI goes through as they work through finding a new normal.

What we thought maybe was symptoms of PTSD we did discover, through her counselor, that Rylie is a "highly sensitive person"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_sensitive_person

That has been an interesting discovery and rings true with what we observed from her. It is helpful not to give her a label but to understand how she has been knit together. She has thoughts of pursuing a career as a counselor and she would be great at it.

We love her outlook and her attitude and she is a joy to have. We wouldn't change anything about her. We are blessed to have our Rylie with us and that she is doing so well. She is going to continue to do great things!!

Wanted also thank so many of you that have prayed faithfully and have been so generous to us over these months. We can not begin to express our gratitude to you for your support and care. We are blessed!

07/01/2015

What a second half to 2014 it was! So much to be thankful for and reflect on. Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers, concern and generosity. Rylie is doing well and has made such such great progress since her accident. We are so blessed by her recovery and her amazing attitude through it all. She graduated from her physical therapy sessions last month after a couple months 3X a week therapy. She continues to be motivated and likes to prove to her protective parents that she can do things (like walk the 3.5 miles home from school, at night, in the cold, without a coat) on her own. She was unable to audition for the one act play at school because she was still at Madonna at the time but she was able to reprise her role in A Christmas Carol as one of the Cratchit children. Today she started back to school full time. She did end up qualifying for having accommodations at school like extra time to turn in assignments and test and having the teachers provide her with a set of class notes. They gave her a test that she took last year and actually scored a point higher in the math part. She was really excited this morning on the way to school. She has also decided that it is about time she learns how to drive. It's something she never had much interest in in the past but is ready for a little more independence. I will try to update this if anything else develops or changes. Feel free to contact me directly for updates or questions. Appreciate each one of you so much!!

14/10/2014

Thanks for continuing to check in on Rylie's progress. It is slow and steady. As I wrote before Rylie was able to start weight bearing on her right side starting a week ago. They started her off pretty slow but this week are asking her to put more than 50% of her weight into her steps. She is still using her walker at home and her wheelchair whenever we go somewhere else. She has also started to go without her arm brace most of the time. She keeps it with her and puts it on if/when it starts to hurt her. So far so good. Her therapist mentioned today that her posture is already a lot better than last week as she has started to lean less heavily on her left side and her shoulders are beginning to become more level.

She started school a week ago and has enjoyed getting back into all of her theater classes. On top of those she spends and hour a day with her home bound teacher. They are still trying to asses what will be challenging but not overwhelming to her with academics. So she is at school for about 4 hours. Three days a week she has therapy for about 2.5 hours so even though she doesn't have a full academic load she stays quite busy.

They continue to work with her on memory, concentration, making inferences and many other things that we take for granted all of the time. Everything I have read said that many times it can take a full year or longer to for the brain to finish recovering as much as it is going to. So there is a long way to go before we can really see how much of what she is experiencing is lasting and how much is temporary.

She remains in good spirits and celebrates every small victory. We were in Lincoln over the weekend for a baby shower and we stopped in at Madonna for a visit. She was excited to see her nurses and tell them how she is doing. We got there around shift change so she got to see many of her favorites. We head back to her orthopedic surgeon on the 20th for a check on how the bone in her leg is healing. We will take that opportunity to stop in at Madonna then to visit her inpatient therapists that day as well.

I know I have shared this before but just wanted to give the link in case anyone wants to take the opportunity to share some of their resources to aid in Rylie's recovery.
http://gfwd.at/1qDRMvy

Thanks!

Let's rally around Rylie who needs our support with unexpected medical expenses as she bravely recovers from arm, leg and brain injuries. Rylie was just 2 short weeks from starting her junior year of high school. As she and 3 of her friends were traveling to a nearby town to a concert the car she wa…

14/10/2014

For some reason I can not copy and paste the link to Rod's latest update from my computer and my phone is about dead. Check the caring bridge site today for a new update!

01/10/2014

I can't believe we have been one for a week already. Rylie has had lots of visitors and has been relaxing at home for the most part. The day after we got home she had therapy appointments at Grand Island Physical Therapy. After hearing her story and progress they decided on that facility rather than Children's. Same company, different facility. She likes her therapists and they seem very nice and helpful. She will be going three times a week for physical, occupational, and speech therapy back to back to back.

In the afternoon on the day after she got back we had a meeting at her school with several staff people and her therapists from madonna on the phone. It was a good meeting and the school has been very helpful. She starts next week going to her theatre classes and doing some one on one review of some of the subjects she was signed up for. They will play it by ear what academic classes she eventually goes to but it most likely won't be this semester. She will get credit for whatever they can giver her credit for but she won't be in jeopardy of not graduating with her class but maybe not have as light of a load as some seniors might.

She is looking for ward to getting weight bearing on her right leg on monday at therapy. They will work on getting her ready to do stairs with both legs as well. Hoping up 20 stairs on one leg and one arm can be exhausting. They have her doing exercises at home and she has been good about remembering to do those

Anyway, wanted to update you all. She is doing well adjusting to home and looking for ward to all the baby steps and leaps she has ahead of her.

17/09/2014

Feeling reflective...Six weeks ago tonight I was speeding down interstate 80 after getting a call that Rylie had been in an auto accident and all the girls were heading to the hospital. I didn't know what I would find, I didn't even know what city I was going to. It seems like forever ago. When we were 8 days in after the accident Cheri had to return home for the start of school. She called me that night and asked if Rylie's condition at the time was permanent. We had just gotten to Madonna and Rylie was awake more but moved very slowly and did not always respond to commands. I tried to sound very convincing and said "No, not at all. We're just getting started with the recovery process." Hoping and praying I was right.

Well we are 5 weeks later now and you can read many of the little steps she has taken since then on this site. She got her stomach tube removed Saturday. She celebrated being totally tubeless. She was so excited! She is getting to be quite a pro getting in and out of the car from her wheel chair. She gets a little annoyed when I try to be too helpful but I can't help myself. Of course she never complains. That's one of the many things she has taught me through all of this. When life gives you every reason to complain it doesn't mean you have to. I'm praying I can practice that as much as she has.

She continues all of her therapies and takes over 220 steps with her walker now. They took X-rays of her hand that has been bothering her and sent them to the ortho surgeon. He didn't want to do anything with it. Her occupational therapist said it wouldn't take much for whatever is poking up on the back of her hand to poke through the skin. So they won't work her right hand much any more. She does have a followup visit with the surgeon next Tuesday the 22nd. He will update us on if she can be weight bearing on her right leg as well. We are making preparations to have her back home. A week form tomorrow! She will have ongoing therapies here locally. I'm not sure yet when she will start school. I know Madonna has talked to the high school to get services in place that she will need. She continues to make baby steps with memory and length of concentration and has a long way to go physically as well but we are expecting an eventual full recovery. She can't wait to get back home to see her friends and find some normalcy.

We are so grateful for everyone's support, our family, friends, church, school, old classmates, co-workers and people we don't even know have blessed us through these weeks and will continue to do so. Thank you so much for keeping up with Rylie.

12/09/2014

Rylie's appointment with the Neurosurgeon went well. He told her he didn't need to see her again for any more follow ups! She was pleased with that. We are starting to get recommendations and prescriptions from her various therapists of what she will need at home when she gets there for safety and mobility. I have some minor demolition to do in the next few days.

Rylie remains in good spirits. She told me the other day that she was glad that she was the one that was injured the worst in the accident because she would hate if anything worse happened to them.

She is actually very funny about her accident. I wanted to share some tweets she has made recently.

· Aug 29 - first i get in a car wreck then i loose at uno when will my life come together

· Aug 30 - im not a metal head anymore

· Aug 30 - by that i mean i got the staples out of my head

· Sep 7 - ive been sitting in the same chair for over a month talk about lazy

· Sep 8 - i make so many jokes about my situation i constantly make my nurses laugh

Just heard Rylie is having some pain in the back of her hand. The nurse said it looks like one of her pins is trying to poke through the skin on the top of her hand. They will hopefully have someone come look at it in the morning.

Rylie's next scheduled appointment is the 22nd with the orthopedic surgeon with a release date still being the 24th. I'm headed back to Lincoln for the weekend and then Thursday the 18th Cheri and I switch places for the last time and I will be with her through the 24th. Praying this hand gets figured out in the AM!

08/09/2014

Thought I would write a little bit and get everyone caught up on Rylie's progress. Her appointment with the plastic surgeon went well. HE thought that the spots on her face that he stitched up looked good and would continue to heal nicely. He had us buy some silicone tape to put on her chin to help to start to flatten out the scaring there. I asked him to look at the back of Rylie's hand where she had a blister that covered her whole hand. I just wanted his opinion on how it was healing because it is the only place that she has ever complained about hurting and i don't think he had ever looked at it.

Rylie is scheduled to have a follow up with the neurosurgeon on Wednesday. I might give them a call and see why. He put in Rylie's cranial pressure monitor when she was in the ice but Rylie didn't have neurosurgery so I am trying to understand why the need for a follow up with him.

This week she was able to go without a bandage on her tracheotomy spot and it is healing up well. She was excited about that. She is walking (or should I say hoping) with her walker for longer periods and they have increased her one-on-one schooling time during the day. She continues to make progress in her short term memory and finding her words. This will all take time for a 100% recovery. They are giving her strategies and have put her in charge of keeping track of her schedule and getting herself where she needs to be without prompts. She also is gaining independence in her personal care which is a big deal for anyone.

We have been going on a lot of outings now that Rylie has been cleared to leave the hospital. We have visited the mall, Wal-mart (for glasses adjusting, gone for ice cream a couple of times and of course have been to Dickey's BBQ a couple of times as well. She likes getting out.

Rylie has resigned herself to staying at Madonna for the duration of the time they had originally set for her. Sept 24th is her release date. We are fine with that because we want her to get as much help as an inpatient there as possible and that means less outpatient therapies as well. Rylie and I were pretty amazed a couple of days ago when we realized (on the 5th) that it had been a whole month since the accident. Rylie took the opportunity to read through all of these updates and all of your comments here on Caring Bridge. It was pretty interesting for her and liked reading what everyone had to say. She said maybe she will make a guest post next week when i am there.

Thanks for all your prayers and support over these last few weeks.