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Support for Amy Martin and Scooter Smith

Dallas, TX

Story

See below in Special Notes for update: On April 5 Sat, Amy was in a rainy highway wreck. She shattered her C2 vertebra, called a Hangman's Fracture, nicking a neck artery in the process. Thanks to the Big Baylor trauma ward, titanium rods connect C1 to C3, holding the shattered C2 between them, and all three sealed with a bone graft. While investigating the nicked artery, the vascular doc found a cerebral aneurysm on a branch of the carotenoid artery, fully ballooned and ready to pop, yet did not do so in the wreck. In July, surgery for that, too, followed by another healing period. In the meanwhile, Amy is in a rigid neck brace 24/7 until mid-July. She cannot lift heavy objects, bend over, raise arms over her shoulders, or turn her head. She cannot be jostled or fall. All this is important or the bone graft won't heal. Scooter: 214-797-2475 [email protected] Amy: 214-797-2457 [email protected] 980 S Rustic Cir, Dallas, TX 75218-2939 (I love cards and flowers!)


Special Notes

Hi folks! Thanks for your help so far. Many wonderful folks stepped up to provide food and help around the house. We are caught up now and Scooter's load is getting manageable. Grateful, grateful. Now the focus is my long convalescence. To encourage bone growth, I need to walk daily. But with the neck brace, my visibility for cars is limited. Doing the neighborhood right now, which takes about 30 minutes, but would love to explore parks with quiet paved trails if driven. I need to focus on a couple of peculiar therapy tasks. I can no longer lean over from the waist, so I must now squat down and pick things up. I need to develop leg strength and flexibility. Since I can no longer turn my head, even once I'm off the neck brace, I have to make turning from the waist instinctual. Harder than it sounds. Not even sure how to do it. But I'm sure there's a way. The exercises will take about 20 minutes. Happy to combine or do separately. All times and dates are flexible. Sundays sometimes available.

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