I do. And if you don’t already, you will too.
*SENSITIVE MATERIAL TO FOLLOW – PLEASE BE ADVISED*
Last June we went to a family reunion. I was so excited to see family members from near and far that we only get to see every few years or even every decade! We were there all of 20 minutes and my then 18yo got on the trampoline with his younger brother. They have been on trampolines many times before but we have never owned one. Mainly because we have never had a home with enough space. Needless to say, when they see one, they try to make up for lost time by enjoying them.
My son is 5’8″ and about 115 pounds (with his clothes wet). He is a slight fella but doesn’t shy away from things he enjoys. He got on, tried to do a flip that has never been a problem in the past, and his knee slammed into his right eye socket on his way down. He stumbled off the trampoline like a drunk person. He was incredibly disoriented and within 15 min became sleepy and lethargic. He complained about shooting pain in his face and was making awful sounds that made you initially think, “Oh, he’s just over exaggerating”. A guilty thought for a Mother to have but a thought that crept in my mind for sure. One of my cousins is an ER nurse and she checked him out right away. The party was over.
His head hurt and his cheekbone area was starting to swell. It was late when we got close to home and called the ER. They said there was not much they could do for him even with a concussion and that we should just keep an eye on him throughout the night which we did. They said to contact the maxillofacial team for an in-office appointment the next day. His face was hurting and more swollen and the shooting pains became more frequent. Lasting 20 seconds to 20 minutes, they have been compared to labor pain in your face. Not something a teenager can wrap their head around.
We went to the specialist and sure enough he had fractured his right orbit and his maxillary. Again there was not much they could do until the swelling went down so he was sent home. They acknowledged the kind of pain that nerve damage causes but hesitated to give him any medication to help with it. For 3 months he bounced back and forth from his PCP, the ER and the maxillofacial team with no one wanting to handle the pain or be the treating physician. We asked for pain management referrals and neuro referrals repeatedly until they finally did and he was able to see pain management a month later.
One month after that (injury was in June, neuro visit was end of December) he finally saw the one specialty who knew exactly what he had and exactly how to treat it. He had two options: cut the nerve and have partial paralysis for the rest of his life or have a nerve stimulator implanted in his face with a battery pack in his chest. He was too young to choose the first one and at 19, he would be one of the youngest and thinnest recipients of this device. The first step was a temporary implant where the wire would run under his face along the nerve, around his ear, down his neck and the battery pack would be on his chest on the outside of his body with a special pocket bandage just to see if it would work. Now we wait for the insurance to approve everything. Wait. Wait. Wait. Pain. Pain. Pain.
The surgery for the temporary implant was intense and the device was extremely uncomfortable but…it worked!!!! Now the tough part: implanting the device permanently in his face and chest. It has a 15 year battery life and because he is so young, they were hopeful that he would not need it more than 10 years so this would be a one-and-done surgery that would last him the full 10-15 years. This was not the case. His surgery was in March. His wound site healed very very slowly. Just when we thought it was really healing…it started swelling and became really tender to the touch last month. There had not been any nerve pain since the implant but pain at the sight of the battery back just never really went away and it was worsening.
After a lot of back and forth and his surgeons trying to decide what to do, the poor guy has to have it taken out. Tomorrow morning to be exact. They will remove the nerve wires through the incision at the back of his head near his ear, then pull them through the incision near his collar bone, and then remove the whole device from the original 4-inch scar along with the full length of the wires. Then we wait for it all to heal. Then we repeat with another implant in either the same area or lower back. An infection is rare and they firmly believe that it will be successful this next round. All in all, he will know in about 3 months and fingers crossed, it all heals perfectly and he can start living his young adult life.
This has affected his ability to work, to move in with friends, to enjoy normal activities, his relationships, and obviously pain meds are no joke and become an issue of their own. He could have really spiraled downward, been negative, resentful, mean, and fallen into a deep depression but he has pushed through it all. He just wants to feel better and be as “back to Norman” (my favorite saying from their childhood that I will never say the right way) as possible. I know this is a lot of information. It is personal and does not encompass all the heartache, headache, and impacts it has had on everyone in our family but like he says, it is what it is and we cannot change the past. He will definitely never get on a trampoline again.