Spinal chord surgery for Jonathan!

Hi Everyone, this is Kirstin and I have commandeered Jonathan's blog for now!

As some of you have begun to hear, Jonathan was in an accident on Monday afternoon. He fractured one of his vertebra (lumbar 1, for you medical types). He was paragliding and during his 3rd solo flight he landed really hard on his feet and the vertabra was compressed. He had a five hour surgery that wrapped up on Tuesday morning to decompress the vertebra. Three neurosurgeons inserted titanium rods and screws into his spine to stabalize it. He is in a a very new and clean hospital with very professional medical staff. The surgeons seem very accomplished and i have so far been impressed.

CURRENT STATUS
Jonathanhas been in ICU for 2 days, but today (Thursday July 6) they expect to move him to a regular hospital room with a phone. When he is all up and running in the new room, I am sure he would love to hear from you all and I can forward his phone info. He is very lucid and present. His pain is under control (a 4 on a scale of 1-10, a vast improvement over the first afternoon before surgery when he was in AGONY.) He has very limited movement in his legs as of now, but that he can wiggle his feet and twitch his legs is a very positive sign this early on, which hte docs are pleased about. In time, the doctors will know more and be better able to make predictions about the return of his mobility.

NEXT STEPS
An MRI to take another look. A possible second surgey to furhter stabilize his spine. I hope to learn more about that in the ocming days. Whether he will fly home for this second surgery or have it here is still unknown. I have a neurosurgeon friend in the US on stand by to look at scans of J's xrays, which will help. Plus, the good Dr. Weathers is up to speed on the situation. Both are likely to speak iwth J's surgeon(s) soon. I feel lucky to have so much medical support in the wings there in the US.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
There will be weeks and months of opportunity to lend support, but here are some immediate ways you can show your support for Jonathan...
1) Keep J in your thoughts and prayers. It will comfort him to know you are praying for his full recovery.
2) Send greetings and 'get well cards' to my email address that i can print and bring to him in the hospital. Also send news of yourselves and jokes. He needs other things to think about besides his spinal chord injury. kirstinwilliams@ gmail.com
3) Send me pictures of yourselves, so that I can also print these and surround his hospital bed with the faces of the people he cares about. Familar faces and voices are very healing.

HOW YOU CAN REACH ME
kirstinwilliams@ gmail.com (remove the space in this address when sending)
I have a cell phone now but need to reserve it for some immediate emergency phone calls, so best to email me for now.

That's it for now. I will try to update this to help keep you all posted.

Thanks in advance for your support.