June 14th, 2010:
A year ago...
This week has been a very rough week. On monday morning me and Caitlin Mallett headed off to ECU for orientation. We got there and the day was going well. We sat down in the Hendrix Theatre in the Menden Hall to watch the entertainment that the Orientation Assistants planned for the students, and my phone started ringing at 8pm and it was Mrs. Haas. As soon as i started to answer it she hung up. So i texted her and asked her if she needed me and she said she would talk to me later. Ten minutes later my dad called. He asked me if I could get to some place where it is quiet so me and caitlin could talk. When we got out in the lobby, my dad said find an adult. As soon as he said that Alex Davis, an employee at East Carolina, walked down the stairs. I handed the phone to him in confusion and told him its my dad and he needs to talk to someone. So after hearing Alex say, “Okay……Okay……Okay…..Okay….Sounds good,” without any indication of what was going on, he hung up the phone with my dad and took both me and Caitlin's phones. Alex told us we could go back in the theatre and that my dad will be there in 50 minutes. As me and Caitlin sat in the theatre trying to watch the show, all we could think about is what could have possibly happened. Caitlin was nauseous, I had a splitting head ache, and every 2 minutes I would reach for my phone that wasn’t there. Finally the show was over and we found Alex, who took us out in front of the building. My dad showed up 10 minutes later. When he got out, he leaned up against the front of the truck facing me and Caitlin. By his facial expression, it was apparent that something bad had happened. He calmly told both of us that Wes had been in a boating accident.
The only details he knew then were that he was riding on the boat with Brent and Geremy, Wes had fallen off and the propeller had sliced his leg, and that he was air lifted to Duke Hospital. My dad told us to get our stuff and we handed our keys to a lady in charge of orientation, and we were out of there on the way to Duke hospital. My dad put the address in his GPS, and it told us it would be two hours before we got there. I watched every minute count down until it was zero and we were at the hospital. We got there at 12pm and I got the the third floor waiting room and everyone was there. Mr. Haas hugged me and asked me how I was and i told him i was fine, but as soon as someone talked about Westin, I began to cry. Before i left the waiting room i hugged Brent because i knew he was torn up about the whole accident. Mrs. WInstead, being the person she is, helped me all the way down to where Wes was. When i saw him I couldn’t hold in the tears. Wes was on medication so he was acting a way i had never seen him before. It was scary and he was also very scared. He was in a lot of pain. Finally a doctor came to check out what to do with his leg. I dont know all the details of what happened but that doctor was the slowest doctor i had ever seen. I had to leave at 2 because in the morning i had a math placement test at ECU. With an hour of sleep, i took it. Who knows how that will turn out. Hopefully no remedial math. I had so much on my mind I could not concetrate on math. When i was done me and caitlin didnt want to go to any other pointless meetings so we went to the dowdy student store. I got a tshirt and caitlin got her a free student tshirt. I also got a planner with everything that i need to know about whats going on at ECU for the year. This was all to waste time while we were waiting for our OA meeting and after lunch we found out wes was going to surgery in 2 hours.
We found the lady in charge of orientation and she gave us her email and gave the advisors our email addresses, we were off to the bus stop to get dropped off at my car. As we drove home, 90% of the drive was silent. All i could think about was just getting there before the surgery. I got to my house at 2:15 and westin’s surgery was at 3. It takes 45 minutes to get to Duke, but i didnt make it in time. I was at the hospital from 3 to 8 before i could see him then finally he was in his room and he could have visitors. All i wanted to do was hold his hand and hug him. I thank God every minute of every day that He saved his life. I had to leave the hospital at 10 to go home and rest for my wisdom teeth surgery in the morning at 9:15. When i got to the doctor’s office in the morning i was already feeling a little dizzy. They sat me down in a room with a blue dentist chair in the middle and the next thing i knew they were tying something around my arm to put the IV in. This was my first IV experience ever. I just turned the other way and the last thing i remember was the nurse saying, “were going to put an oxygen mask on now.” As she put it on I did not feel a thing because from then on, i was completely out. When i woke up all i could remember was a lady telling me to put my feet on the holsters in the wheel chair and i cant remember anything else besides a blue chair and a small room with i a curtain as a door. The next thing i remember was crying, just crying really hard. The lady that was taking care of me was being mean and telling me not to cry, but all i wanted was to be at the hospital and she didn’t understand thats why i was crying. Her exact words were, “Stop crying because it makes everything worse,” and i said, "No!.” I would also ask where katie was every time she walked in an i would wake up talking to people who weren’t there. It was scary while i was in the situation.
I would wake up and talk and then i would realize no one was in there and began to cry every time. The next thing i remember is getting in another wheel chair and my mom taking me to the car. Then I was in my parents bed. I cant ever remember walking anywhere. As i was laying in the bed i could feel things in my mouth that felt really really weird. My mom told me they were gauze pads and when katie got home i heard her crying in pain. I dont think i cried then or whenever i was in pain until i drank water, it got in my cut and stung so bad. Then when i was awake enough to function, my mom would feed me applesauce. Then my grandparents visited. When my grandma was talking she told a story of when she was young. Her sister’s boyfriend was in the hospital and she would not stop crying. Yesterday she told me she understands why now. I cried when she told me and i told her thats where i wanted to be and no where else. My grandpa said the usual thing he always says when me and katie are hurt, “Ya know what? It will heal before ya get married.” It always makes me smile and stop crying. Then my Oma and Papa visited and after seeing me went to see Westin at the hospital. Right now it is 6:30am. Me and katie have the same sleeping schedule for some reason. It’s really funny. We got up at 2:30 and saw brent because him, my dad, and Mr. Edwards are going fishing. I dont know how they do that so early, but right now i can understand because im wide awake. I slept all day yesterday. I couldnt believe it when i saw it was 9pm and the last time i looked at the clock it was 12 in the afternoon. Through all of this a lot of good things have come out of it. I have grown closer to God, realized how special life is, and I thank God everyday for Westin’s life. I love him and I dont ever want to lose him.
Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed and visited. It means a lot to me that so many people care for him. I love you all for that. This has been the craziest, hardest, scariest situation of my life, and i dont know what i would do without everyone’s calls, texts, and support. Thank you so much.
I cannot believe how fast time flies by. It was just a year ago that I got that call from my dad and saw Wes laying in a bed in the ER. This kind of situation is hard to explain unless your in the situation, but there is one way to describe it- its a God thing. Every time I think back to that day last June, it always brings me back to my knees in thankfulness to God. I'm so glad Westin is still here and that God chose to keep him here. (I can be a little selfish sometimes...) ;)
I love you Westin!
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