Friends & Family,
First of all, on behalf of John and the Rice/Wanberg family we cannot express how absolutely humbled and thankful we are to have a community that is this unbelievable. The amount of prayer that is being dedicated to Kaitlin & John, Mark, Sue & Megan and our family is truly something to celebrate. Y'all have made us feel loved, supported, taken care of and comforted since the moment Kait got hurt-and for that, we could never say thank you enough. We are confident in the healing powers of the great God we serve and are continuing to follow Kaitlin and John's lead of turning to prayer and worship. They are authentically a couple who seeks the heart of God and we have been and continue to be amazed by their strength and positivity.
For those who are not updated completely on what happened, Kaitlin was in a dirt bike accident on Sunday morning around 11AM. She was in the mountains (about 5 hours from Denver) with some close family friends, my parents and John, lost balance while riding the bike over a bridge and rode off of the side. She had to wait about 40 minutes for an ambulance which took her to an area where the helicopter could land. She was then taken in a flight-for-life helicopter to Swedish hospital in Denver. Thankfully her parents-Mark and Sue and Daniel and I were able to get to the hospital about the same time as Kait did so she wasn't alone long. My parents-Tom & Anita and John had to drive the 5 hours back to Denver to get to the hospital, Peter had to drive back from Texas, and Megan had to come from Fort Collins. By 9AM this morning we were all together at the hospital surrounded by wonderful people and delicious food.
The latest medical update: Kaitlin had a long day of surgery today (about 6 hours) and handled it beautifully. The first thing they did was set her spine back in place-they call it fusing the vertebrates. The hardware they put in has successfully secured her spine between T1 and T8 and she will begin PT sometime soon if all goes according to plan. The goal is to get her out of bed and upright as soon as possible to keep mobility. To be clear: she has a severed spinal chord and her T5 and T6 vertebrates are shattered. The doctors were clear that there is no expectation that Kaitlin will ever be able to walk again on her own. She still has no feeling below her chest (arms are functioning just fine-such a praise!) and medically there is not much hope for her prognosis to reverse. However, we have hope and believe in a God who works miracles! We are praying and will continue to pray every day for walking legs. We are also praying for no complications following this major surgery. She will be wearing a back brace/neck brace when she is doing rehab for the next 10-12 weeks, but will not need to wear it when she is lying down or sleeping. The second part of her surgery was on her knee. The orthopedic surgeon went in to repair a tendon that Kait had damaged in the crash. The surgery again, went very well. The doctor said it will take about 3-4 weeks before it can be fully bent to 90%, but that they will start working on it starting in the next few weeks with that goal in mind. After today, as you can imagine, Kaitlin is tired and in quite a bit of pain. Please pray for a quick recovery! Pray for miracles. Pray that she would feel peace.
Kaitlin's spirit has been unwavering. She is a woman who is firm in who she is and in her foundation in the Lord. She is still Kaitlin, and for that-we are eternally grateful. She is witty, charming, honest, loving, and feisty-even as she fights this battle. She is so strong! John's spirit is much of the same. He is a husband who ADORES his wife. He is proud of her, with her 110% in this new journey and if possible, has fallen even more in love with her and her character over the last 2 days. They are trusting Jesus.
I know many of you are anxious to help in any way you can-THANK YOU! We will keep you updated. For now-there are no immediate food needs. There will be in the future-so stay tuned! As of this evening, Kaitlin is not quite up for visitors outside of immediate family. I promise to let y'all know the moment that changes. She will be so excited to see friendly faces & will certainty need the extra support in the coming months, but for now-she needs to rest, process and recover. So does her family! The best thing you can do for her is pray.
If you know of someone who didn't get this update that would like to get updates, please let me know and I will add them to the list. This is how we are going to communicate for now-we may shift to an online blog that John/Kait can update once things calm down. Thank you for your patience!
Kaitlin's best friend Hannah has created an online bulletin board for Kaitlin to read when she's ready. Anyone can post a prayer or encouragement for Kait. The link is http://padlet.com/wall/forkaitlin -all you have to do is double click to add something to the wall. It is password protected and the password is "kaitlin" all lowercase.
If you have further questions, please e-mail me back directly at carolynwanberg@gmail.com. Unless you need to contact John directly-please contact me instead-I'm happy to help! Please be patient with response time, I'm back to work tomorrow.
I'll send another update tomorrow.
Love,
Carolyn Thompson (John's sister)
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