February 15, 2011

As Satcho and I watched the girls get on the bus, tears tumbled down my cheeks. I could no longer focus on the minutiae of daily life and would now have to face the nightmare. We walked back home up the hill, I climbed into the already packed car and headed to the airport where Scott was waiting. Most of my bag was full of clothes for Nick. The only message he got through to me was the same one three times: Please ask my wife to bring me some clothes; they cut off all my other ones (including his leather jacket, it turned out).

On the flight up to Idaho Falls, Scott and Barr (their pro pilot) did a great job of not letting my mind freak itself out too much by getting me to tell stories of Nepal and Namibia and how Nick and I met. They pointed out the crash area as we flew right over it, and Crow Creek where the helicopter landed. My stomach didn't tie itself into knots until we were on the way to the hospital and I was going over all the things the doctor warned me about to prepare for seeing him. I had a picture of horror in my mind, so it was actually a relief to see that his face wasn't  a black and blue featureless basketball. His stitched up tongue wasn't too swollen, so although it hurt because of the cracked molars and broken jaw, he could still speak.

As we maneuvered around the nurses to get into the room but still stay out of the way, Scott goes, "Here, I'll just scoot over to your blind side." Nice wording Scott! Nick will laugh about that one.

Nick's right hand was bandaged like a boxer's glove, he had two shiners and stitches all over his face including 12 in his eyeball, couldn't move well because of the sternum, and couldn't eat because, as it turns out, even on a diet restricted to liquidy stuff, he's still a food snob - but he was already trying to talk the nurses and doctors into letting him leave the hospital: "The rescue team was incredible, and they did their job well, but it's done. Each of the doctors sewed up what they sew up - beautifully, but they're done. Our work here is done."

He looked an absolute mess, but he got them to agree if nothing came up he could leave the next day.