As you already know Abi was in an accident. We were posting updates on this blog but decided to give Abi her own space. This will be much easier to manage and it will allow her to manage it on her own when she gets well. She will be able to have a record or diary of what has been going on and she will be able to add her own insights as time goes by. You can always comment here or leave an encouraging word on her new email or her new blog. 


That email address is:

    Weloveyouabi@yahoo.com

  All emails will be printed and put in a binder for her to read. We know that Abi will need all of the encouragement she can get in the days ahead. So leave some comment love here or on her new blog and then email her when you think about it!


her blog address is:


www.weloveyouabi.blogspot.com

Update on Abi

See her cute braids...

Today they shaved a portion of Abi's head to place a BOLT. Essentially a bolt is a fiber optic cable that goes about 1- 1/2 inches into her brain to monitor her brain pressures. She was only responding to pain today not commands and the Neuro-surgeon was concerned. They also gave her some blood because some of her levels were off and that was also a concern. She was placed back on sedation meds.

Abi also has a new email address that her dad set up. This is for anyone who wants to write her a message. We will print off the emails and bring them to the hospital.  The address is
Weloveyouabi@yahoo.com

Abi's brother and sister from Florida are trying to get on a plane to come see her. Please pray the they will be able to get on a flight and that they won't have any issues getting here as they are using buddy passes.

Stephanie decided we are going to get abi the board game "operation" to play while she is healing when she comes too. We are going to put her face on the guy.

Abi goes back to surgery at noon tomorrow for her abdomen they need to start closing that up. However with the swelling that is not possible. They are going to put in some sutures, maybe one or 2 on top and bottom of the incision it will take 3-4 more surgeries to get her put back together, but they need to start getting her closed up little by little. Also they can not fix her pelvis because it is broken in the back, they would have to have her on her side or belly to do that and with her open abdomen that is not possible. I will post more later and keep you updated. The hospital has a medical library with computer use available!  Wooo HOOO!

Abi

This is Abi, my youngest sister. She is 19 vibrant and full of life.

MOST OF THE TIME!

But today she looks like this.

Abi was in a severe accident. She was riding as a passenger on a jet ski and was hit from behind with another jet ski. She took the full brunt of the ski. She was knocked out on impact and never regained consciousness. When they got her to the hospital via helicopter they took her to surgery immediately. They found many injuries and she was not breathing on her own when she got there. She has internal bleeding. With the bleeding they had to remove a piece of her intestine, and leave her tummy open to drain and to be able to stabilize the bleeding. Her pelvis was broken in 3 places, her L3 vertebrae was fractured, her sacrum  is broken. She has a brain bleed, and some kidney damage. They have stabilized her bleeding, and her brain bleed is now stable. The pictures above have her covered up but she has tubes and IV's coming out of her every where. She is too sedated at this point to breath on her own, so they are using a ventilator.  

Yesterday they washed her hair and put in Pipi Longstocking braids. She looks so cute. Her hair is super long, past her waist, and the nurses had a hard time finding enough conditioner for her hair. 

She is now still critical but stable. They are reducing her sedation just a bit and we are not allowed to touch her or talk to her for the next few days.  She will have at least 3 more surgeries and have at least 3 weeks in the hospital before a very long rehab process. 

We don't believe that Abi knows anything about what happened to her. She did not see the jet ski coming that hit her. She was knocked out on impact, and never came to. She will be in a great deal of shock when they bring her around. But that is several days off as of now. 

This is a two fold tragedy.

My brother was driving the Jet ski that hit my sister. He Jumped off immediately and rescued her. He gave her mouth to mouth and held her in the water in his arms, until they found someone to pull her from the water. She was then transfered to a paramedic boat and then life flight.  He is so torn up, he cries a lot and is beating himself up over an accident. Please keep them both in your prayers.  There were 2 others in the accident. The driver of the ski Abi was on and the passenger on the ski that hit Abi.  The other driver was injured, treated and released very bruised. The other passenger was Abi's best friend for ever. She is bruised and hurting, her whole body aches. But she has rarely left the hospital. She is in the picture above with me and Abi, and again in the pictures at the top with Abi. 

If you could keep us all in your prayers it would be most appreciated. 

If you are friends with Abi and would like to come to the hospital know that we would love to visit with you but for the next couple of days you will not be able to see her. We have a notebook at the hospital for her friends and family to write messages in. We know she will need all of the encouragement that she can get in the days ahead. This notebook will be her reminder of all the people who love and care for her. So we encourage you to come down and write her a message!

Chalk Art Festival 2010

This year the Chalk Art Festival was fantastic as always, and left us in awe that so many talented artists come together to make great TEMPORARY works of art. These were extremely hard to photograph as you will see. Some of them were in half sun, half shade and others were full of tree shadows. The festival was extremely crowded and it was hard to get a shot when so many people were around casting shadows on the ground. 

Are you ready? Here we go, enjoy this gallery of fine chalk art pieces. 

 This mermaid is definitely one of my favorites

 Ashton LOVES armadillos! I had a hard time figuring this one out, he on the other hand knew exactly what it was. 

                                          There was a lot of Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.

 You can't see it very well in this photo but the title of this one was "Real Eyes...Realize...Real Lies" 

 At first I thought that this one was George Washinton but upon further inspection it was clear that it was Napoleon.

 Some of the artists embelish their art pieces with glass marbles as you can see here. They Pick up the sun light and make everything sparkle. 

 Our favorite types of Chalk art are the ones where you have to stand back 10 feet or so or look down from a higher view point to get the full impact. They are 3-D. This is the best I could get. The artist had a camera set up that you could look through to get the full effect. 

 This is another one of my favorites.

 I loved this one as well, with all of the colors.

This is another one of the 3-D art pieces. There was a line drawn on the ground telling you where to stand to get the best view. 

The next two photos are of the artists reference that he was working from and the finished art work. This one was titled "The Traveler" and was rendered from a photograph. 

I love the amazing detail in the face. 

 I hope you enjoyed this post as much as we enjoyed walking through the Chalk art festival.