FRIDAY

Greetings:
Judy's surgery (moving the feeding tube) has been delayed again because
somebody dropped the ball.
Her bloodwork and clotting issue is not staying with her file, even though
they have been informed several times. As a result, blookwork is being done
again today, with results back in a day and a half, then the surgery "may"
take place Monday. They have been talking of doing this surgery all week
already. This is a very simple procedure.

I am quite frustrated with the hospital because this is not the first time
her care has been less than satifactory from my perspective. It is even
harder for me because I am not able to be there to ensure she gets proper
care.

Please pray for Judy especially because it is affecting her outlook. She is
frustrated today, and as a result, she gets more heavily sedated by hospital
staff. A positive outlook is very important for healing, which is becoming
more difficult at this (Royal Alex) hospital.

Ben

THURSDAY 26-Feb-09

Greetings Friends
Judy is still experiencing a lot of headaches. These are made worse by the
noise in the room she is in. We are praying that she can be put in a private
room in the next day or two. The Dr's want to put her feeding tune in
through her abdomen (it is currently through her nasal passage). She has
been schedule for surgery for a couple of days already, and I was informed
that it will not take place again today, but that she will need to fast and
that it will be done tomorrow morning. Pray for a successful operation with
no complications.

Aaron and I went to see the surgeon here in PG, but our problems are so
minor (in comparison to Judy's) it is hard for me to even mention them. We
are healing quite well, although there is a possibility that I might need
more surgery in my foot once I start walking on it. Time will tell. Aaron
still has some numbness in some areas on his legs and feet, but is able to
walk and get around, although he still tires quickly. Please pray for proper
healing.

PLEASE CONTINUE PRAYING FOR JUDY

Dear Friends:
Judy had a rough day yesterday and today.
She has several medical issues:
1. She is in constant pain. Please pray for release from the pain.
2. She feels alone. I know she needs me, the boys and her friends from
"home" around her at this time. Please pray that she can be transferred here
soon, even if it is only for a short time.
3. There has been some spinal cord damage, affecting her from speech to
movements of almost all parts of the body. To retrain her body will require
months of physio for her. timing and location are still being considered.
4. Her eyesight has been affected. She is seeing double, although the Dr's
expect this to heal over time.
Please continue to pray for her, especially in regard to the first two
concerns. She is starting to realize the damage to the spinal cord and the
impact it may have on her future. This is very difficult for Judy and
myself, as well as the boys.

Approximate time frames as we know them today:
Judy's return to Prince George could be in the next 1 to 2 weeks.
She will need to heal for another 6 weeks or so after she would arrive here.
After this she would be transferred for physio to GF Strong in Vancouver
(likely).

Each of these are approximate as the Dr's have informed us to date. We know
that GOD can improve her healing process, something we all are praying for.
At the same time we are also praying for God's will to be done in each of
our lives (especially Judy) as we are affected by this accident.

I am very much aware of the prayers and other contributions of so many,
because alone we could not walk through this dark and deep valley...

Ben Wiebe

SUNDAY

Greetings Friends!
Sunday is now over and Aaron and I were both able to attend church today. It
was so good to be back. Our strength is improving, but after Church I had to
have a nap, I was too exhausted.
Judy is slowly improving, she is enjoying being out of ICU and not having
any tubes down her throat, as well as breath on her own. She had to throw up
today, which has caused additional pain in her ribs. She is still in a lot
of pain, especially her head, ribs and back. Both the boys and I were able
to talk to her again today. It is so good to start communicating with her
again.
Ben

My apologies, if you read the post below, it states that Judy is not out of
the ICU (which is incorrect). She is in a semi-private room. Somehow this
broken arm and brace is still getting in the way of my typing...

Thanks so much to all of our praying friends!!
This is Ben trying to communicate for the first time. I was able to speak to
Judy for the first time today since the accident. The conversation was
short, but we were able t o hear each other and provide that first
expression of care and concern, and that God will help us through this. He
voice was very weak, but I was able to understand what she was saying. It
was difficult for me when she said "I need you here" several times during
the conversation.

Judy is not out of the ICU and also out of the 24 hour watch room and in a
semi-private room in the ward. She does not have any IV attached and is also
not assisted with oxygen any longer. Praise the Lord for the healing in her
lungs! She was able to lift her arm for about 5-6 seconds up about 6" off
the bed by herself; she is able to swallow; and is gaining strength
(although for both of us everything is moving far too slow). Rehab will be
doing an assessment on her in the next day or so.

Hey, Aaron here again! just an update that Judy has come out of ICU! it'll be a couple days before she goes to a ward like I was in, but she's going through the illusions and nightmares I was having when I was getting out of ICU, so support for that, and prayer for relaxation would be great.

as for dad and I, my legs still don't like the amount of movement I want to allot myself, so I really have to limit myself, Dad was able to get out of the house for a short time today, but we're still really weak; However, we're getting lots of help from all kinds of people, making us dinners and lunches so we're rather well looked after here

Home!

I'm sure this is already up, but this is Aaron here updating the blog myself, and I'm home, got home Saturday as it says here, I'm doing rather well, kinda feel like a ran a marathon all the time, my legs are sore, but I'm feeling loads better than I did a few weeks ago! I guess I'm in charge of the big things on the blog now, so I'll be posting lots since I have a few months where I'm not allowed to work. As for the help, so far everyone has been wonderful and there's lots of snacks and things, I imagine in a few weeks my legs will catch up with the rest of me, my ankles are still sprained rather badly so I limp quite a bit, but I can get around if I need to. I'm also very thankful for the prayer and support from everyone who offered it! if was such a blessing in the hospital to know so many people cared for us.

Tuesday

Ben and Aaron are at home recovering.
They arrived this last weekend.
They thought this week they would be ok mobility/energy wise but they are more tired than they thought. Ben is able to get up to the kitchen once or so and it tires him out. Aaron is more mobile but also very tired.

Judy is still in ICU and will be for at least another week. It will most likely be 3 weeks before she is able to be transported to PG. She is coming off of very strong medications which are causing her bad dreams and hallucinations. The mental struggle. She can remember bits and pieces of the accident but not a lot.

Chris is back to work but around for suppers.
Jason unfortunately is in Vancouver for his annual hemophilia check up. So currently Ben and Aaron are home in the day time alone and will be until Saturday.

They originally thought that they should be fine doing lunches and etc. but after visiting today (Sarah K) I've bullied them into accepting help.
So what is needed is dinners and lunches. Even preparing leftovers is very exhausting.
So if you would please contact Chris if you would like to help out that would be swell.
thanks
Ben

lucky day!

i just talked to mom's nurse, hoping to get a better idea of what is happening with her and good news! she is now excabated! so no more tubes down her throat and she can talk, but not much or very loud yet, in her words 'she feels like shit' =) she told the nurse to tell me that because she figures i would laugh, which i did, hopefully you know mom well enough to laugh too. also dad and aaron are now in the hospital here, sounds like surgery north on the 3rd floor, good news!

friday the 13th =)

hey, sorry everyone that it has been a bit since i last posted an update, but my computer has bit the dust and i suppose i've been taking a little time to just relax for myself, besides there's always tomorrow right. sorry again if you don't think the same way i do =) as of right now, Dad and Aaron are somewhere in between their hospital in Edmonton and the PGRH, they were supposed to be here this morning already but i guess they didn't leave their own hospital until 4:30. so they are well enough to travel, by medivac, but they will still probably be in the PGRH for a few days. unfortunately mom is not so lucky. as far as i know she still has her breathing tubes in and her movement is increasing daily, not much but still, every little bit counts. dad and aaron got to go and see her again yesterday and they told her that they were leaving edmonton (not that they had much choice) and she was not at all impressed. so our hope is that soon she will be able to come home too. we are thankful though that Grandma is able to go to edmonton to stay with mom for the rest of the time that she is there. i think that she has been very anxoius to see mom and be with her in this time but unfortuantely couldn't because of eye surgeries. but now she is cleared and she will be able to care for mom in the way that the nurses just can't.
aside from all that, i remember mentioning that if you would like to help in any way, then to just email me and then i forgot to post my email address, it is all4thebigguy@hotmail.com, and i will be doing my best to orgaize things in that department. jason and i are fairly used to providing for ourselves but as soon as everyone is home again then i think there will be some more responsibility and help will be more appreciated. so just a short note about what you would like to do and when and i will get back to you as soon as i can with how things look from our side. thanks again everyone for your thoughs and prayers!

chris

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i would just like to start by thanking all of you for your continued support and encouragement. jason and i are back in prince george now, we drove home yesterday, and i am not sure when we are going back to edmonton exactly. most of the next few weeks will be played by ear and made up as we go =) this last weekend there was a good one, dad got the chance to see mom in the royal alexandra hospital for the first time since the accident. it was pretty hard for him to see mom like that, i know how he feels, that if any one should be suffering it should be him, and it seems that he is the least affected by all of this, but we are very thankful that uncle Harold and aunty Dorthy were able to come and give dad a ride to the other hospital.
mom is doing better, she is out of her neck brace after the surgery and now she has both of the tubes out of her chest that were draining the fluid from her pleural lining. the nurses said that they have also turned down the respirator that she is hooked up to so that her lungs will continue to be strengthened and soon she can have those tubes taken out. it will be a great treat to hear her voice again, but i am going to guess that it will be a good while before she is up and singing again. during the surgery they had to fuse her skull back to the top vertibrae in her neck, i guess the top vertibrae had been dislocated and was putting a lot of pressure on her spinal cord, also the ligaments that held her head to the spine were torn, so it was kind of a big deal. they say she will have some loss in her range of motion, but that's still better than being dead. mom has been very tired lately and pretty sedated after the surgery, she is responsive but it is still hard for us all to communicate well with her.
aaron is also doing a lot better, yesterday he got a clam shell, to stiffen his torso so that he can move around without fear of injuring his back, he of course picked a tie die blue color, so it is good to see that not too much has changed. he is also starting to eat again but has to stay relaxed or he ends up having anxiety attacks which cause him to throw up. so he is spending most of his time making sure that he doesn't get worked up, and i can't really read to him much because of this and i guess because of the drugs he is on, and he ends up having wild dreams of hallucinations that keep him up at night. so that's kind of too bad but things are getting better and more manageable all the time.
dad is going to be having surgery on his foot this morining if all goes well, and then he will be all put back together and will have a little more freedom. he figures at this rate, both himself and aaron will be discharged by this coming weekend so he is trying to make up his mind as to what he will do or need to organize for that. he doesn't want to leave mom alone in edmonton of course but because his right side is quite busted, he's not exactly in the shape to just get around by himself. so that is on his mind and he is also now starting to deal with both icbc and lowyers. sort of unfortunately my mom's family has had a lot of dealing with lowyers and so we are getting a lot of advice from them and also my dad's good friend has delt with icbc from the legal side of things for several years professionally so he is also helping dad make decisions and letting him know what he is entitled to or should expect.
so i know that for dad it is probably nice to be able to finally do something about all of this but it's a messy buisness and so if you would like you can pray for us regarding all that.

on another note, if you are wanting to help out our family at all, i realize that it is ridiculous to try to stop you, until now i have been away though and the hospitals have been taking care of mom, dad and aaron, then what would make it easiest for me (as i get to organize stuff now) is if you would email me what you would like to offer and i will do my best to let you have a chance to serve or be generous when both our schedules coincide. thanks again so much for caring, it has changed my perspectives on this world quite a bit!

we were up really early this morning so we could see mom before she went off to surgery, she was in a fair bit of pain this morning and was sent off to the OR about quarter to ten. we got to see her again this afternoon but she was very drugged, so even less chatty than normal. some of the good things though are that she is not in a neck brace at all and her eyes are moving together even though she isn't really responding to much more than noise. the nurses say that she is still expected to make a good recovery but still in a long time.
aaron is in good spirits, he is having some trouble keeping his liquids down so he is only having ice right now to keep his mouth wet until his organs start responding again.
dad is still doing very well, he is not taking his pain meds and that seems to be fine with him.
so we are all thankful that moms surgery has gone well and we are very much looking foreward to talking to her and having a chance to talk to her and have her respond with more than just facial expresions. thanks for all your prayers and thougths!

chris

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Twice the fun— Share photos while you chat with Windows Live Messenger.

Saturday

I just had Grandma Krocker (not sure on the spelling) call me, Judy's mom in Abbotsford.

She had just spoken to Chris.

Judy is out of surgery.

Aaron is having a rough day throwing up a lot, can't even keep down water.

Ben is very positive and very upbeat.

Grandma can see!! After getting eye surgery her eyes have begun to normalize and she has been able to catch up on all the Daily Bread reading she has missed. God has really made himself known to her, speaking particularly about both of her two daughters who were in separate accidents this week. Please keep praying for Judy's sister as doing even little things produce great amounts of dizziness, so that movement is very restricted.
I believe the boys are rumored to be driving home on monday.

so mom is going to probably get surgery tomorrow morning, i think some words may have been a bit confused, i don't think there is any dislocated vertebrae rather separated, and so that is why they explained it to me by needing to fuse the skull to the spine.

she will be getting a plate fastened to the first two of her vertebrae which will restrict her movement but her head wont roll off so that is a good thing. it is a pretty major surgery though keep her in your thoughts and your hearts tomorrow, as i am sure you already are.

aaron now moved out of the icu, just this evening. he will be in the observation room in the trauma ward. he is doing a lot better but is still in a lot of pain from the broken ribs, internal hooey and his busted back. so it is hard for me to see him like that still.

dad is in as good a mood as ever, i don't know if that is at all attributed to the drugs he is on for the pain, but he doesn't seem to be hurting at all so that is good.
so that is all for another day.
Chris

So i've been able to spend a good bit of time with my family over the last couple day's, reading them some stories, praying with them and just hanging out. yesterday morning Aaron got all the tubes taken out of his lungs and so he is just on some iv's now and a little oxygen via his nose, about 70% they said, so that's good. he's still really tired and so we only saw him a little, there were more of my dads family that came to say hi so we let them have some time too. i ecpect Aaron should be moving out of the ICU in the next couple days and just into trauma care with dad, but probably not in the same room still. oh well.

dad had the surgon look at his foot and he told him that they have to wait until the blisters caused by the fractures there have to dissapear before they can opperate. so they expect that it should be in the next 3-7 day's and then a couple day's for recovery and he should be up and about either on crutches or maybe we'll just start in a wheel chair.

my mom i just found out this morning that she will have to have a pretty major surgery, she does have something about a dislocated vertebrae, but i suppose what the doctor has told me that the neuro surgens are most concerned about is that she tore the ligament that holds her skull to her spine, so the are going to fuse the skull back to the spine to make that better. other than that, she has been showing signs of improved strength by sqeezing our hands while we are with her and moving her legs and slight nods and shaking her head to try to communicate. all in good time i suppose.

i heard something about a pay pal set up on the blog site, i don't know anything about that but we don't expect any donations, i am here to visit my family because they are more important than money to me, jason is at home only because he had pneumonia but the doctors mom works for have been generous enough to buy him a plane ticket out here for the weekend. other than that any expenses that we incur should be covered by icbc, in the long run.

i can't believe it's already been a week since the accident, i don't think that arron and mom can either. dad seems to have a better grasp on things though, but still, what a week. thanks again all of you for caring!
chris

"Administration" Stuff

Jason's flying out to Edmonton tomorrow. Not sure if Chris is comming back this weekend (I'm guessing no) so he'll probably be flying back again then on sunday night/monday?
______________________________________________
Comments: If you do not have a blogger account and if you leave a comment, please sign your name or initials at the end of your message. It's nice to be able to read who wrote what. Also if you would like to not have to check the blog daily to see if posts have occured sign up to become a "follower" of the blog. It will email you anytime a post has happened. It's on the top left corner. Or if you'd rather not sign up or aren't internet savvy you can email me at: keslers1@cnc.bc.ca
and I'll add your email to mailing list.
______________________________________________
Food: If you would like to prepare part of a meal/edible things....

• It's a good idea to make sure whatever you made is freezable.
• I don't think they have any food allergies but I'll find out quickly in the next day or so.
• I know generally boys like things like: meat & sweets, but I'll also check to see if there is a list of favorite things. I'm guessing tofu casserole won't be so hot unless of course you mislabel it something like: "Steak Stew"
• Also remember when making meals for the family to eat later that serving sizes maybe different from your own family. Sons generally have larger appetites/capacity to consume than daughters, and trust me I've only been able to out eat Chris once!
• Write your name on all pieces of rubbermaids/containers you want to get back. Glasswear can be tricky... not sure how to solve that one other than duck tape
• I will be house sitting again this weekend and can be available to recieve stuff at their house: Saturday Morning 9am- 5 pm Sunday After Church 1ish - 6ish pm
• Leave a message at the home number for me to call you back and set up a different drop off time
  

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Cards/Letters: I don't actually know what or how to go about sending things to people in the hospital. I think it's straightforward but if you'd like the Wiebe's Prince George address please leave a comment.
thats all for now
s.kesler

an update

so thanks first to sarah for setting up this blog, i have heard that it is a great idea from a lot of people and so now i guess i may as well use it. i hope that you all got my first update some way or another, if you didn't then just ask on the blog and i'll set it up there. it will be easier to not exactly go through everything so if you wanted to really know what happened then it's in the first message that i put up.

any way, Aaron is doing better, he is doing a lot of breathing on his own again now, they have almost turned off the respirator but they are still keeping him intibated in case things go back the other way. so they have told him that if things keep going well then they will take it out quite soon, but he is still having a fair bit of pain when he breathes. other than that, we sat down and read through the first chapter and a half of the fellowship of the ring, and then he was groggy and wanted a rest.

Dad got in for surgery yesterday and so his fore arm is now all pinned back together, but he is still waiting for the swelling to go down in his foot before they can do surgery in there. other than that he is having a decent time, he has some fun nurses that seem to enjoy his courtesy and kind of his sense of humour, it makes it better because the guy next to him in bed is a whiner and called the nurse a bitch the other day, and he wonders why they are slow to help him... but dad gets things all right away. so he is in pretty good spirits, thanks a lot to rob who put some stuff on his ipod for him, he is enjoying that!

mom is doing better too, she is much more responsive, she is doing all she can to be physical, but even still she is hardly able to nod her head, it's almost more of a facial nod with her eyebrows, it's quite cute, but i still have a hard time to see my mom reduced to that. we talked to the doctor about her improvements and they are still concerned about all of the swelling in her body; they are contributing the inability to use her arms to that and they are taking her for another MRI as soon as possible to make sure that everything is still okay up around her head and neck. her breathing is still fairly dependant on the respirator and so she will have it in for a couple days yet. we got to hang out with her for a while and read the first bit of the chronicles of narnia to her, but then she got tired and couldn't concentrate anymore so, that was that for today.

I am hoping to stay here in edmonton until dad is up and about-ish, and until aaron and mom are out of the ICU. my best friend has come up here with me for a while, jason is unfortunately stuck at home with pneumonia, so that's funny timing. any way, everything is going as good as it can be for now, all bleedings are under control and they are slowly regaining strength. all of your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated!

chris

Back to Edmonton

Chris is returning to Edmonton tomorrow with his best friend Tom. Jason is staying in p.g. until the weekend. He has pneumonia.

The Boyz r Back

Jason and Chris have returned from Edmonton.
Thanks for the prayers.
If you could refrain from calling/texting their cell phones & emailing to ask what's shakin' that would be great. Just check back here for more details.

Currently:
Judy is conscious

• has 9 broken ribs
• is bruised on her spinal column
• able to communicate emotions by her face. Yeah Theater training!
  

She is in ICU at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton

Ben is conscious & in higher spirits than the rest

• has 4 broken bones his right foot
• is also awaiting right foot surgery, Doctors are waiting for swelling to go down
• has a fractured wrist which should have been operated on today
• He broke his right hand, & he is a lefty so that means he will still be able to check your tax returns, when he's ready
  

He's in Section 3 F2 bed 8 at the University Hospital in Edmonton

Aaron is conscious

• has a ruptured spleen that originally was thought would need to be removed. However, doctors are now leaving it to heal on its own
• has fractured spinal column on L4 which is BELOW the spinal cord so he's should be free from chances of being paralyzed
• has bruised ribs which are making it hard to breath. He is on a breathing apparatus.
• No major complications due to Hemophilia
• He also had a hair cut last week that Jason only just now noticed. Lookin' Good Kid!
  

He is in ICU at University Hospital in Edmonton

He & Judy can't really talk due to the tube-age and O2 masks.

Pray for:

• continued recovery
• praises to God that they all have good prognosis's :)
  
• That Ben and Aaron can end up in the same room
• Ben's foot surgery
• That some how it will work out that all three can be in the same hospital
• Chris & Jason
  
• Jason that he can catch up on his uber killer organic chem course (fun fact that it's the most failed course in university), but we all know that Jason is ridiculously smart in that area as he is in many others... like bows & arrows & omelet making
  
• Chris and work
• The boys as they maybe traveling back and forth to Edmonton
• Judy's Sister & Family who were also involved in an accident earlier this week.
  
• The whole Wiebe side of the family who also recently suffered the loss of Grandma in January
  
• The family of the two girls in the other car who were killed

Currently the words: "Drive Safe" has been added to the Blacklist of Wiebe Words '09 as in Chris and Jason have heard it about the same number of times this weekend as the word "pickup" is used by country artists. So rest assured that they will be driving safely to and fro but obviously not in pickups. :)
s.kesler (friend of the family/spokeswoman for chris/jason)

Judy's Sister and Brother

Please also pray for Judy's sister (and her family).
She was also in a car accident on Tuesday.
She is at home but suffering from intense dizziness.
Please remember Judy's mom as she has now had two daughers involved in accedents in one week.

*Correction*

Judy is in the Royal Alexandria Hospital and is breathing on her own and the ventilator is only there for assistance as necessary. She has improved quite a lot and is in stable condition.

Aaron is in an ICU ward now and is doing much better because of assisted breathing.

Ben is looking forward to his surgery on Monday so that his healing process will progress much quicker.

As for the injuries initially listed below (they were not accurate). They are being taken care of quite well by the hospital staff and are getting better day by day.

January 30th, 2008

Judy, Ben and Aaron Wiebe were traveling to Breakforth conference in Edmonton on Friday January 30th when they were hit by an oncoming car. The other car was traveling around a corner when the driver lost control (possibly due to roadway (ice) and tire conditions) and crossed the line hitting the Wiebes.
Ben was driving, Aaron was in the passengers seat and Judy was in the back.

The two young adults who were in the other car have died.

Judy is in one hospital.

Ben and Aaron are in another hospital.

Jason and Chris are currently in Edmonton

Please keep your prayers flowing

thankyou
s. kesler