Before reading please read my disclaimer. - 5 years
- 60 months
- 260 weeks
- 1,825 days
- 43,800 hours
- 2, 628, 000 seconds and counting.....
THAT'S how long we have been on this AMP-TASTIC journey with Elisha. We have cried. Laughed. Had pain. Trips. Birthdays. A birth. Surgeries. New friends made. Betrayals. Loss. Joy.....all.the.things.
In honor of Elisha's 5 years AMP-iversary, I wanted to thank some specific people, remember some specific moments, and let you know YOU are IMPORTANT to our journey and YOU are not lost in my thoughts because YOU are forever in my heart.
(This list is in no way all inclusive. There is no way to adequately express my gratitude to each invidiual we have been in contact with on this journey. These are just a FEW of the people who have played a role in some way or another. Have a specific memory of Elisha's Accident or in the weeks/months/years that followed? PLEASE SHARE IT! Send it to me via email at amandaleigh1127@gmail.com, Text Me, or send me a facebook message or comment on the shared post or in this blog!-- I want to add it to my list!)
Jake Carter, 911 dispatch Operator Santa Rosa County : You were the first voice I heard. You stayed on the phone with me for over 11 minutes until help arrived. You talked to me about what I did. You talked me through finding his hand in the yard. I will never forget your name or your voice. Thank you, Jake from 911. Thank you also to the helicopter staff who were rerouted on their way to us and the calm ambulance staff who got us to the hospital. ❤
Trauma Team at Sacred Heart Hospital : I learned so much from you. I still carry a small hospital band that says "Trauma Tang, Birthdate 1/1/1900). Its a filler name and birthdate. I learned that when a trauma is called in the fill in filler names and dates for the patient in order to quickly care for them right away. You met us at the ambulance. You walked us through the process to surgery. You gave me a towel to clean off the blood. You work so hard and see so much. ❤
Dr. David Fiedler- Hand Surgeon : You were the first doctor I spoke. You told me you would do your best to reattach that hand. I knew you would try. I also knew you wouldn't be able to to. I knew because I picked it up, I saw it mangled, bloody, no hope. I offered for you to take my hand to put on him. After hours and hours of that initual first night of surgery, I tracked you down to see WHERE exactly his hand had ended up. A lab you said. I honestly didn't know if I needed to claim it. I was imagining a funeral service for it like in "Fried Green Tomatoes"... I would have invited you. ❤
ICU Nurses: Every 30 minutes or more you came to check on my child. You did your best to make us comfortable, make him comfortable among all the tubes and bags and poles and beeping. That first night we came to ICU from surgery, you gifted him with a hand made crocheted Thor doll that I find incredibly creepy, but my husband insist on keeping around. You put his name on a sign by his door. Only ONE of you took offense at the parade of people we had in the following two days. You worked tirelessly for your patients. ❤
Dr. Ben Brown, Plastic Surgeon: Oh the amazing Ben Brown. You did amazing things with Elisha in his surgeries with you. You have done amazing work since then with others. When our insurance wasn't going to cover a surgery, you wrote a letter to them on our behalf. You helped us figure out coding and terminology that was lost on us. We recommend you all the time to people who ask us about a plastic surgeon. ❤
Dr. Rick Reynolds, Orthepedic Surgeon: You are a master at your craft Dr. Reynolds. You worked tirelessly on Elisha through numerous surgeries and successfully reconstructed his elbow. We continue to see you regularly and that you use Elisha and his surgeries as an example in your medical classes you teach. Thank you also for taking the time to write a letter to Carnival Cruise lines to let us renew one more time when our cruise had to be rescheduled twice due to surgeries. ❤
Kumi: Our favorite nurse! So much our favorite we started requesting you! We moved wings just so you could be our nurse one summer! You took your time to hear us, hear Elisha, and help us manage in the hospital for weeks and weeks, numerous stays. ❤
Lee Parratt- My Beloved Husband : I couldn't get you on the phone. You were in a business meeting. I called and called and finally texted to meet me at Sacred Heart Hospital. I remember seeing you in the background as they got Elisha out of the ambulance. I saw you drop to your knees. I remember you beside me as I listed to the jumbled words of a chaplain who switched out my bloody towel for a clean one as I tried to clean up. You never blamed me. We had so many sleepless nights. We learned to be nurses together. We learned about PICC lines, wound vacs, hospital codes, and so much more. We talked to kids who had no families with them. We shared Elisha's bounty of balloons and treats. You bought that Peppa Pig and brought it to him in ICU. Gosh, Elisha loves you so much....so do I. ❤
Kenneth McDaniel: Getting super specifc here.... that inital night....I guess Lee called you. Or maybe you came by word of mouth like others. I really don't know. I know you were there in the waiting room after they took Elisha to surgery from trauma and we came into the waiting room. You were there. Of course you were there. For Elisha. For me. For Lee... you are each others longest relationship :). But specifically, you were honest. You stood beside a vending machine in a little room that was part of the waiting room. I went in there to get away from the crowd not realizing you were in there. You asked me how I was doing. I replied very bluntly if I recall, "not so well, I just cut my kids arm off." You didn't say anything. You just grabbed me and hugged me, so tight. I remember thinking I wanted you to keep hugging, tighter and tighter, until it just crushed me. I thought maybe it would crush that pain, crush that overwhelming sense of confusion, crush the future so I didn't have to endure it. It didn't. But you have continued to be right there, popping up any time we call or even when we don't. ❤
Jennifer McDaniel Leonard: Completely and totally randomly....somehow YOU ended up at my house the very early morning that we came home. We were discharged at midnight so that I could get home in time to photograph a wedding the next morning. They did it at midnight so that I could be with him when he got home after several weeks in the hospital. I needed to see Elisha's face when he got home. I needed to see that joy, that peace, that comfort. And around 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning you appeared to help us with him so I could go work at the wedding. He requested pancakes. You didn't hesitate. You made him pancakes. I will always and forever be grateful for that. 🥞
Brian Yates: Our dear "Big Tonka". My Elisha's name sake. You were also there in the waiting room that initial night, bearing a large Tonka truck. You were there at the hospital the most frequent of anyone besides myself and Lee. You have always been a constant and continue to be. I hope that as Elisha grows older, you will continue to know him and love him and guide him in your calm but strong way. I could write a novel just on you. The peace you gave me in certain situations. The humor you provided both me an Elisha. Thank you could never be enough for you. #tonkatough 🚚
Stephanie and Adam Roberts: I combined you even though you played seperate roles you also played them together. You weren't there that inital night. But we were in contact via text. And when you texted me the next morning to check on him, you realized the seriousness of the situation that I had not conveyed the night before. And from then on, you were both constant fixtures in our healing. You both provided humor and support to Elisha during the hospital and when we returned home. Stephanie, you were with me that first and only night I went home from the hospital.... He was still in ICU and I was still in the clothes someone had brought me to change into at the hospital. You bagged up his bloody shoes so I wouldn't have to see them. You did something in my kitchen with the chicken I had thawed for the dinner that I never cooked. You offered to lay with me because sleeping was not coming. You helped me pack a bag for the hospital because I knew I couldn't return home again without Elisha. Adam, you offered such support to Lee. Walking and talking with him. Both of you playing with Elisha. We love you both so much. ❤
Becky Mulford: When I asked why you were in the waiting room, you said you had been at the fire station when the call came over the radio and there was no where else you would rather be. When I layed down on seats in the waiting room with a massive headache you made sure I had (regular) mountain dew to drink. You cheered for us every step of the way and would text me in the wee hours of the morning you were praying for us. You organized "Jaguars Join the Journey" as a fundraiser for Elisha. When he eventually went to PreK at Central, you always stopped to speak to him and love on us like were were your own. Your heart
Mama- Jan Ellis : My angel. The right place. The right time. You were supposed to be somewhere else. But you were there, driving down the road as first responders started to appear. You got Wes to Lauren. You made phone calls that made dozens of SRC School District employees appear in a waiting room. You read stories, chaufered, guided, and calmed me. You let me vent. You gave me breaks. You understood why I just couldn't leave the hospital. I couldn't leave him. You were the only person who never told me I should. You were just there. And you've continued to be right there. ❤
Daddy - John Hart Ellis : When you came into the waiting room, I immediately went to you. I wanted comfort, solace, retreat.... you only asked me "what did you do?" Elisha was our only boy at the time. The only little boy you had gotten to love on and play with. And I had broken him. I felt so bad. I had literally spent over 30 years around mowers and tractors with you and this happened. This accident that hurt him and hurt you. You were at the hospital as much as you could be. You stayed through surgeries, sometimes lying on the floor during the really long ones. I remember our conversation during one about a baseball glove. And then later how to adapt a prostetic to make it fit him. You've taken off work to go all the way to Tampa with me to the hospital there. You've adapted equipment so that Elisha could still hang with you and help you. You've always included him on the adventures. 🚜
Brandy Ward- Again, very specific moment of our journey. It was around 10:30 when you popped into the waiting room that initial night. I had just thrown up after feeling horrible for hours. You came directly to me. I was concerned, asking what you were doing there, that you should be with Dean and your girls, who had been in a wreck recently. You said no, as soon as you heard you needed to come to the hospital to tell me something. You took my hands and looked me in the eyes, and said, "I had to come to the hospital to tell you you can do this." You told me of how just a couple weeks prior we had stood in your yard and I had marveled at your courage and bravery to face all that you had with Dean and all that you had both overcome and how I don't think I could ever do anything like that..... and you had come, late in the night, to tell me that I could do it. I will never ever forget that moment. ❤
Denise Higgenbothem Yates Early : Your kindness and love for my Elisha during his time of need are not forgotten. You helped. You made phone calls. You visited. You loved. You did all the traditional Denise things... I will never ever forget you from this time, the way you were. < Please don't mistake me... I will also never ever forget your betrayal and the pain you caused my family, including Elisha and my unborn Ezra, through your kidnapping and attempted crimes of my other son years later. >
Mike Couch, Lost Limbs Foundation : Your generosity to my family is still overwhelming. Your story of your own amputation and your journey to help other families is inspiring and commendable. You were a light in a storm that I didn't even know existed. I love following you on your own continued journey.
The $100 stranger: My brought me an unmarked envelope one day with $100 in it. She said someone had given it to her with a story. In the mid 60's my grandfather, James Ward, had given this family $100 for a hospital bill for their child. In the 60's, $100 was alot to give and went further than $100 today. But if you knew my Granddaddy, James, you know he was a true man of God who we were blessed with on Earth. There only request: She not tell me who it was from and that I pay it forward. (which I have since done). I think of this stranger often, wonder if they sat beside their child in a 1960's hospital bed and cried and prayed like I did over Elisha. I wonder if they were sometimes too overwhelmed with gratitude or pain or joy or a mixture of emotions to express anything, much like I am now.... Whoever you are, wherever you are.... Thank you. ❤
Countless other family members and friends and medical workers that I am just too flustered to name and write about: I remember you. The cards. The notes. The stuffed animals. The visits. The gift cards. I hold you all in my heart. For all these years, months, weeks, days, minutes, and seconds I have held you in my heart and will continue to do so forever. ❤
Please share your memories and stories with me so I can keep them for Elisha.
If you would like to contribute towards causes near to our hearts please consider:
Lost Limbs Foundation that supports amputee children with medical and prosthetic assistance : http://www.lostlimbsfoundation.org/
Love for Elisha Tshirts that goes directly to Elisha's continued medical and prosthetic cost as well as making others aware of Elisha's platform for others to "Never Give Up" no matter the circumstances. https://www.bonfire.com/love-for-elisha/
Thank you all for everything. 5 years and counting....
Peace and Blessings,
Amanda
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