January 22nd, 2011 by Conor

Nicki Jean gave her helmet a fresh tag tonight with a Danny Is the Bomb shout out. Nicki qualified 5th in womens slopestyle and will be one of 6 girls in finals tomorrow. It will be on TV tomorrow sometime in the afternoon, I had a hard time finding out when because the site has last years schedule and no specifics for this year. Nicki will be hitting the course 2 times and hopes to bring it home for Danny! Nicki Is awesome. If you have a minute tomorrow afternoon, be sure to cheer Nicki on at the Dew Tour! I have a good feeling about this!

~ Conor

January 22nd, 2011 by Conor

dear conor, michelle, sock monkey, moose, random “guy”:

I found out early about danny’s accident and injury, just a couple days after it happened. in fact, i sent a “get shredder danny” photo from my hotel at killington and had a short text conversation with conor, who was very stoked that although i didn’t know danny, i was reaching out to him and wishing him back onto his feet. i’ve been hurt, most snowboarders have – of course, i’ve never been where danny is and can’t speak about it – but it always bums me out when a great rider (and danny obviously is, i mean, if people haven’t seen his vids they’re missing out) goes down to injury.

the major difference here is that you, conor, and michelle, and everyone else there are doing so much for danny, so many people watch DITB every day just to check on danny. i’ve checked in almost every day since i discovered the site, and almost every day there is something else that warms my heart. it is so wonderful to hear that danny is still danny! that he can communicate, cuddle, poot, and generally be himself as best as he can. i have such a strong feeling that danny will be back to himself soon, and that then you can all take your lives off of the “hold button” and get out of that hospital and whatnot. i can’t wait for the day the updates tell us that danny has been outside, that he’s felt the sun and wind on his face. for me, those simple two things mean the world. and i’m sure that as important as it is for danny to recuperate, to get well, and get put back together, how hard must it be to lay there, surrounded by machines and tubes, when you’re a free spirit, when you belong on a snowboard.

it has to be just as frustrating if not more so for you guys up there. for you guys that know him personally, for you that know more than just the website and the multi-flip clips, it has to be terrifying, amazing, just wild to be there and see this happen. it’s truly astonishing to watch it happen from north carolina; i can’t imagine how wonderful it must have felt to be able to communicate with someone you love so much.

conor, your tireless efforts with this site are worthy of a nobel prize. when danny is back completely, and he sees all that all of you have done for him….that will be a powerful, powerful day. and it will be emotional for all of us too…every one of us wants danny to get up and get better. every single one. and im sure danny wants that too! 😀

the day he walks out of that hospital will be one of the greatest days of all of your lives. it will also be one of the happiest moments of this season for me. i am pulling for all of you, from deep down in the bottom of my heart. it’s a terrible situation, an awful injury to an amazing fellow. that all of the snowboarding world is pulling for danny i hope makes you smile.

cheers, and all the best to everyone, including the snowboarding moose and the sock monkey. with all of the awful things going on in the world these days, it’s truly wonderful to have something happening that makes me smile every day. thank you all, so very much.

GET SHREDDER DANNY! said it once and i’ll say it again!!!!

much love.

January 22nd, 2011 by MIchelle

Danny got a cat scan this morning. Things are looking good and Doctor Gorsuch is planning on putting the bone flap back into place on Monday. Today has been the first day I noticed the skin over the missing piece of bone looking concave. That means the swelling is going down. It looks less normal, but it’s a good thing. After that we’ll just wait for however long post operation recovery takes before they move Danny to PCU. It could be a couple of days or it could be two weeks longer in ICU after this surgery. Sometimes, we were forewarned, the patient will take a step backwards in his recovery after the bone flap procedure. It’s not common, but it’s a possibility. Prior to the cat scan today, they gave him some morphine. He’s been sleeping since I got here around noon until now with about twenty minutes broken up in between of being awake. The respiratory therapist visited, put his voice plug in the tracheostomy, and tried to get Danny to speak, but he wasn’t into it at all. He told me yesterday that it’s painful and it’s harder to breath. He managed a whisper, but that was it for today. It’s been a slow day.

-Michelle

January 22nd, 2011 by Conor

Last night I got by far the most sleep that I have gotten thus far. I went to bed at 1 AM and didn’t wake up until this afternoon around 4PM. I knew I was doomed. That was way too much sleep to even consider the possibility of getting to bed at any reasonable time. There wasn’t much I could do about it at that point so I headed to the hospital anticipating an all-nighter regardless of whether it was in Danny’s room or not.

I didn’t make it into the room until about 8:30 or 9. I found out that Danny would be having a baby sitter for the night this evening which was and Is LAME to say the least. We are paying this guy to sit in the corner. WHY? Because the doctor said he needs to be watched 24 hours a day…. hmmmmm I thought we were doing this pretty well until the other night when a certain nurse thought Danny would be better off without us– more to come on this at a later date when Danny’s health isn’t jeopardized by a rant on health care.

Needless to say Danny has a babysitter that informs me he is making $26 dollars an hour to color in a book 10 feet away from where I currently am writing this. In case you were wondering, I have a much better view of what is going on than Danny, someone tell me how that makes any sense. I wonder what the hospital bills him out to us at… Ahh healthcare I love you. Sorry, I said I wasn’t going to rant. I will stop.

So, I get into the room and I’m hanging out with Michelle and she starts to pack up her stuff at about quarter to 12. I ask where she is going and she informs me that she is heading out because she doesn’t enjoy the interaction when there is some random person in the room. I can’t really blame her, however, the interaction for me isn’t all that different so I don’t really mind, I just find the reasoning for his presence annoying as I have mentioned.

Michelle headed out, and there were three: Me, Danny and Guy. I know his name, but “Guy” is far more appropriate because no one, I mean no one, likes being called Guy. It just doesn’t get much more impersonal than that, and I feel that this guy is welcome in my life about as much as any Guy would be. So Guy and I are sitting here in total silence watching Danny in an effort to out do each other with “who is going to tell Danny that he can’t lie on his right side first” contest. I guess I am selfishly trying to beat him at this game, just as a reminder to him how much he is being overpaid to color.

Eventually, Danny wakes up from a long 2 hour or so nap. He stares around the room and looks very bored. I keep looking over waiting for any way I can help. Finally I suggest that maybe we move his room around. The next time Cindy comes in I tell her that we should go ahead and move the bed. She had suggested it earlier in the night and I tell her we mine as well go for it. Danny is in no mood to request it but I’m sure the rearrangement can’t hurt.

Danny doesn’t seem quite as excited as I was thinking he might be with his new view of the star-like skyline of Great Falls, Montana. I guess I shouldn’t have expected him to be excited. It really isn’t that exciting.

A little more time passes and I make eye contact with Danny again. He does a quick look over his head to confirm what he already knew. Guy has left the room. He proceeds to rip a steady constant 5 on the fart scale. Noticeable, but not too powerful. It was a solid 2 second fart and he kept a very serious an unchanged look on his face while he ripped it. When he finished his whole face turned and he gave me the biggest smile I had seen yet. It was a classic Danny I know that was funny, you should laugh look. And I did. It was great! I laughed so hard that he actually smiled a second big smile again at how big my laugh was.

The laughter wore off and the room became quiet again. I sat there doing my thing again for another 10 minutes when finally Danny knocked on his bed to get my attention. He motioned for me to come over. Nothing like this had happened to me yet so it kind of caught me off guard. I approached and pulled up a chair. I asked a lot of questions to see what was up before I finally realized that he just wanted some company- someone to hang out with. Unfortunately, as I mentioned once before, I can’t exactly sit there in dead silence like Michelle can so I suggested we watch a movie.

While “Pay it Forward” was loading I pulled up another browser and showed Danny a clip of our friend Nicki at the Dew Tour. She said that she was riding this weekend for Danny, that put a huge smile on his face. When the video ended he moved the mouse up to the search bar and typed in “Where is MP?” I immediately called her up because I knew that this was one of the girlfriendy moments that girls dream of. “Michelle your presence is requested in room 5109. Danny is looking for a snuggle buddy.” Michelle could barely speak but said something about being right there. I’m not sure if she was fully dressed or what, but it seemed to me that she made it to the ICU room from the hotel in about the time it takes just to walk here. So she either ran, or was fully clothed waiting for the call.

In the short time that it took her to get from the hotel to the room I opened up a Word document because I thought that maybe Danny would rather type than talk. Although I can now read about 10 different versions of his head nod yes and a shake of no, it still doesn’t give me much of an idea of what he is really thinking. Even though I have never before chatted with a person through a computer that was 2 feet away from me it was a pretty cool feeling. I was communicating with my brother much more than I had up to that point. Neither of us looked at each other from the time the phone call was made till the time that Michelle showed up. Even when she did show up the conversation continued for a little bit.

Here is what transpired.

So, I accidently found myself on the graveyard shift again. Didn’t see it coming but sure enough it’s back. Things are different now though. Danny’s bed has turned 90 degrees and is now facing the window, Danny and Michelle are snuggling 10 feet away from me, and we have Guy. Oh Guy, how we love to overpay you.

That’s it for now. Who know’s what’s in store for tomorrow. Another night down on the Graveyard shift. Another adventure with Danny.

Love ya dude.

~Conor

January 22nd, 2011 by MIchelle

It’s 1:16 AM. I’m at “home” in the Great Falls Inn. Again thinking about Danny. He fell asleep watching Harry and the Hendersons while I sat next to him holding his hand. With the 24 hour babysitter it’s tough to get some alone time with Danny now. As much as it is necessary, I also feel like between Conor and I we’ve got the night shift covered. There are things you would do and say with your boyfriend that you wouldn’t do or say in front of someone else. It’s kind of awkward with someone sitting in the corner of the room being attentive to every movement Danny makes. All for the better though. If it will prevent Danny from any of his escapes then I’m okay with that. I certainly don’t want that to happen again.

This website and the outpouring of support, love, and compassion is astonishing. It’s mind blowing. It’s something we should do everyday.

We should…

…show our love and support to all of our family and friends.

…be there for people and listen to them when they are down.

…bring them up and try as hard as we can to put a smile on their face.

…cherish every waking moment of life and especially moments spent with those you love.

…remind them that they are loved and that no matter what happens they will have a friend by there side.

This list could go on for days and days, but I think you get the point. It’s a shame that it takes something so life altering to bring these feelings up sometimes, but it’s a blessing that we still have today and tomorrow to be there for Danny and to do all of these things for him. You still have today to do the same for your family and friends. Aside from the obvious lesson learned from this accident, to wear a helmet, there are many more lessons that I am learning, as I’m sure you are too.

I noticed myself smiling more at strangers when I pass them on the walk to the hospital or in the hospital. It’s not always well received on the 5th floor where the ICU is. Sometimes I walk away feeling bad that I smiled from their reaction, but I understand. I don’t think I looked any strangers in the eye for a week after January 3rd.

One day when i was getting in the elevator at the Great Falls Inn a woman introduced herself to me and told me that she was having a very hard time because someone close to her was sick. I got in the elevator with her and her family and she just grabbed me and gave me a big hug. When the elevator stopped at level two I had to pull away and get out. All I could say was, “stay positive.”

Last night when I arrived in the waiting area for the ICU I saw a family sleeping on the floor. It made my heart sink remembering the night I slept there. I hope their family member gets to give them a hand squeeze and a faint smile again. It’s such an amazing feeling, that hand squeeze. It makes time stop and your heart overfill with happiness, promise, and passion.

I’m looking forward to what tomorrow brings.

-Michelle

January 21st, 2011 by Conor

If’s simple all you gotta do is get something together that is Danny related and send it in to 603-496-6621. You can also send it to donations@dannyisthebomb.com

Send in ANYTHING Danny related! Just take a minute and do it right, whatever it is that you do.

January 21st, 2011 by Conor

The first round of bracelets went in the mail yesterday. They should arrive to everyone in the next few days. If you don’t see yours by the end of the week please feel free to email donations@dannyisthebomb.com. Thanks again to Alyssa Hussey for getting the ball rolling on the bracelets!

January 21st, 2011 by Conor

Danny Is The Bomb!

January 21st, 2011 by Conor

These “DCT” drink specials were smooth smooth, from Flatbread Jan 20.

January 21st, 2011 by Conor

To Ellie, Conor, David, Michelle and Joe,

I just wanted each of you to know that in no way can I remotely fathom what you are going through, but as a family member, I absolutely share your pain and your joys as Danny slowly comes back to us.

From my mom, my sisters, brothers-in-law and all of the cousins I can tell you that we have been devastated by this experience. We are all forever changed by it – in ways we can see and in ways we have yet to experience

I have hope, faith and love, and a great deal of it, but I also have a sorrow that goes deeper into my soul than anything I have experienced since dad died 15 years ago.

I have a pit in my stomach that I can’t get rid of. I cry at the drop of a hat. I squeak by each day, doing what is demanded of me and at the end of the day I am spent, empty, hollow and flat.

I can’t wait for night to come so I can go to bed, then I can’t sleep. Or, I fall asleep and wake up hours later, in the middle of the night and wish that I could be in room 5109 with Danny, Conor and Michelle.

I drive home after work and drive right past my house because I am distracted, worried or crying.

I’m hungry, but I don’t feel like eating. I can’t stand being alone but I don’t want to be around people. I just want to be in the presence of my family and a few close friends.
I want people to ask me how Danny is doing, but I don’t always know how to answer.

And it’s selfish, but I want someone to ask me how I’m doing. Then, I’m afraid my answer will unleash an unstoppable wave of grief that will alienate their concern.

I am glad when my work week is done because it’s hard to go through the motions. Then the weekend arrives and I am unable to approach it with my usual joy and abandon. Nothing is fun anymore.

I desperately want to turn back time before Jan. 3, or play it forward a couple of years because I absolutely hate this place we are in right now.

To my family: I am so grateful for each and every one of you. Our family is the bomb!

We need each other right now – you are absolutely everything to me.

And in turn, Danny, Conor, Ellie, David, Michelle and Joe – we want to be everything to you. Just let us know how….

We have been there from the beginning and we’re in it for the duration.

With love,
Carol