Vote For Melinda

Everyone please vote for my cousin Melinda in the America's Favorite Mom competition. She is a finalist out of thousands of nominations and was live from Kuwait via satellite on the Today Show this morning. If she is in the top 5 she will be on TV again Sunday night and they will have another voting round for the overall winner.

If you google "Melinda Gintilas" you will find plenty of news stories about her.

Click here to vote:
http://www.nbc.com/Americas_Favorite_Mom/vote/

You can read more about her inspirational story here:
http://americasfavoritemom.com/mothers-day-2008/mom/Melinda-G-1695

You can vote up to 10 times, but only vote for Melinda today.

Surgical Puberty

Spoke with Jay yesterday for awhile. He's in good spirits. He can talk through clenched teeth since his jaw is still wired. He shed a little more light on the accident. His friends said that after the impact he was in and out of consciousness and his head was tilted back. There were no external lacerations to his throat, but everything inside had been crushed and he was basically choking on blood. The cab was a van, and his friend in the row behind him had a broken neck and was in the floorboard. The driver had tried to get out of the vehicle but had a broken hip and tailbone so just collapsed outside. The only person conscious in the car - his friend in the front seat - happened to be able to reach Jay's head and tilt it so he could breath until the paramedics got there. They had to use the jaws of life to get them out.

His voice box was in 7 different pieces which they had to reconstruct. Pretty amazing that his voice still sounds like Jay, but it is deeper. His jaw will also be wider. He said it was a surgical puberty. His collarbone and ribs are broken on the left side, so he has to write and do stuff with his right arm, which is broken. Lisa has been taking really good care of him, props Lisa! He has a couple of bones broken in his neck too. They didn't stitch up the trach incision or anything, just told him to bandage it, so it was just open for awhile. He said its starting to heal but he used to have to cover it while he talked. He didn't try smoking through it.

Jay Released

Jay had his trach tube taken out today, and was given the all clear to be released. He will be flying home tomorrow.

He is now available via text, and said he should be back online soon to catch up on emails.

I will probably be heading to Florida soon.

Jay Headed Home

Jay has been in rehab and is recovering quite a bit. His neck brace was removed today and he should be headed home this week. Very good news.