Wednesday December 21, 2005

Wednesday December 21, 2005 Zack was excited that today would be his last day of therapy for awhile. He was going to have a little Christmas break until Thursday the 29th and was looking forward to spending time with his friends. He was hoping for more time off but he has his Neuropsych evaluation on January 4th and 5th so Leslie (primary/speech therapist) thought it would be better to have him in therapy. You can’t really study for this evaluation but it still will benefit him to be prepared through therapy. Since this is a long, tiring and difficult evaluation we were lucky that Dr. Perri got it split up into two days. Dr. Perri talked to Zack about taking better notes after each therapy session (which will help me understand what he does each day). Leslie asked me to get several of his books from school. Since they work on reading comprehension daily she thought they should start using his own school books so she asked for science, history and literature. She said they didn’t need to work on with math and since it was not language based he shouldn’t have any trouble with it. She suggested that they start out with Freshman level books and work their way up. I told her it might be hard to get his books right now since they were out for Christmas break but I would see what I could do. I called Mr. Greener from Christian Academy and fortunately he had a meeting at school on Thursday and would gather the books that we needed. When Zack returns after break he will carry a back pack with school books to therapy. It will be interesting when they start sending homework with him because he has not dealt with that in a long time. He recognizes that not having homework is a definite advantage of the “school” he goes to now. When we arrived home there was a reporter from the Courier Journal waiting for us. We had spoken to Bill Pike before and he was preparing an article to run on Thanksgiving. After he wrote the article the senior editors at the paper embraced the idea and wanted him to do a more in depth story. He was coming back to interview Zack some more and Scott. We took him downstairs and showed him the wall full of pictures of Zack’s friends. We also showed him the memorabilia from the hospital including all the golf balls with messages from his friends, the helmet and signed picture from Pat Day and the baseball hit out of Slugger field that Scott chased down and brought to Zack at Frazier Rehab one day. Bill was impressed with the nice little “bachelor pad” we had made for Zack and his friends to come hang out. He started by asking Zack how things are different for him now and Zack told him about the changes in his social life (not being able to ride around with his friends, missing school). It was harder for Zack to explain the differences in his thinking (other than it is hard to read). Then he asked Scott how this had affected him. It didn’t take long for Scott to become emotional telling him how he felt the first time we saw Zack in the emergency room after the accident. Scott was very clear that we believe prayer and faith in God’s healing hand is what brought all of us through this tragedy. He told him two stories that not many people have heard. The day Matt (the driver) was coming to see Zack at the hospital and Scott had not forgiven him. He said he couldn’t be there and went to Pat’s Steak House. He explained how horrible he felt driving there with such mixed emotions, begging God to save Zack’s life and then hating Matt at the same time. He sat down at Pats in a turmoil of emotions, looked at a young guy working there and said, “My son is lying in a coma in the hospital, please give me 4 or 5 words of encouragement”. The guy just stared at him and Scott apologized saying that it wasn’t fair to lay that on him. The guy told him to wait just a minute and came back from the kitchen with a man in an apron. It turned out to be the owner of Pat’s Steak House and ironically his son had been hit by a car, suffered a traumatic brain injury and had his skull removed just like Zack. Scott said in the middle of the dinner hour on a crowded Saturday night they talked for 20 minutes. He said there seemed to be a glow around him and although he remembered very little of what he said it was all about love and forgiveness. When he walked out the door he had completely forgiven Matt and had that peace that passes all understanding. But that’s not all. The young man who Scott first asked for encouragement happened to be the son who had the accident. God was with Scott that night, hearing his prayers and knowing the confusion he felt. Pleading for mercy yet not giving forgiveness. God answered his prayers in a thunderous way. By this time in his story Scott is crying and Bill is furiously taking notes. Scott tells him there is one more story. In the first days at the hospital Scott would take walks to get away from the crowds of concerned visitors. He had found a spot outside by a tree where he would bury his face in his hands and weep. Returning from one of these breaks one day he could hardly pick his feet up to walk. He was standing in the lobby waiting for the elevator when he turned to the women at the information booth at University and said, “My son is in critical condition upstairs”. He looked back at the elevator and then turned to her and said, “I don’t know why I just told you that”. Linda smiled and responded, “Because now you have a direct line to God. I’m a prayer warrior”. Right then she prayed with Scott, hugged him, cried with him and rescued him. God put her in just the right place to speak to Scott at just the right moment. When he was at one of his weakest moments Linda was there to show him hope. He called her his angel and every day we would see her and many times she would say, “He’s doing better today, isn’t he?” Her church prayed for Zack and she came to see him at Frazier Rehab. Zack got to meet her when we came back to University to have his bone flap replaced and she calls him her special friend. By this time Scott tells the reporter that he is through except to say that we know the hand of God has been with Zack since that first day. Bill asked him one more question that he says seems rather silly now but wants to know how this has changed him. Scott told him that this has changed so many people but the biggest change in him is that his faith is stronger than ever. Zack and I answer a few more questions and then Zack says he is very tired and needs to take a nap. I walk Bill to the door and realize we have been talking for 1 ½ hours. Scott had showered and needed to meet with his accountant. He stopped in at Scotty’s Ribs and was talking with Scotty when a man looked at him and said, “I know you. We were at University when your son was there”. He reminded Scott of a conversation they had. Their son had also been in an accident and was in surgery. They were in the surgery waiting room and so were we. They were distraught and crying and Scott saw them. He approached them to comfort them and give them hope. They asked him, “Why are you worried about us because you have terrible things going on yourself”. Scott said that was the first time that he felt God pushing him to reach out to others in pain and show them the hope that is possible with God. This same man sat eating at Scotty’s and told Scott how much he helped them that day. Now their son is back wrestling at Trinity and they follow Zack’s progress on the website. By the time he left there Scott’s mind was not much on the business he needed to review with Teri. Just when our lives seem to be adjusting to our new normal people cross our paths to remind us of the many times He rescued us. When we were weakest He carried us. When we needed hope He sent us Linda. When we needed forgiveness He sent us Pat. When we needed grace he sent us Jesus. His divine love and protection has never left us. When we were silent with sorrow He whispered…mercy. When we sobbed in despair He thundered…Here I AM! Now we pray knowing that He hears us and wait expectantly for His blessings. Be with us in prayer for complete recovery for Gods Glory.