Progress Notes

Saturday, July 31^st, 1999

Emily and I had dinner with David Gunn tonight.  It was especially hard to think about his father being murdered a few years ago because of the death of my father last month.  Dad died of cancer.  Dr. Gunn died of hate.  Someone decided that Dr. Gunn should not be allowed to live because of what he did for a living.

Dad was the best father anybody could hope to have.  I am sure that David misses his father just as much as I do.

Emily is yet another year older.  Her birthday was July 18th.  She was recovering from her latest operation for her birthday.  The surgery was on July 12th.  Two different doctors removed material from her body, so does this count at operation number 14 and 15 or just 14?  Hard to keep up with it.  The primary operation was to remove nails from her left knee.  Two entire nails were removed.  One was embedded deep in the bone and was hard to remove.  There were also two parts of nails.  Yet another part of a nail was too close to her vascular repair, so they had to leave it in.

Emily will be going to San Francisco soon to speak for CARAL, the California version of NARAL.  I am sure the hills of San Fran will be hard on someone who can hardly walk.

Things have slowed down to the point that I don’t think I will continue with scheduled updates.  However, I will post notes when some big event comes up.

Monday, April 19^th, 1999

Emily was honored to receive the Margaret Sanger Woman of Valor award from Planned Parenthood in New York.  It was interesting to stay in the Piere Hotel, one of New York’s finest.  A peanut and butter sandwich was $9.00.  I am glad to be home.

Emily and I returned around noon on Tuesday.  She left for San Diego around 4:30 that afternoon.  In California, she spoke at four different events.  My girl gets around!  (Though she still had to have a friend to escort her.  Her vision just isn’t going to allow her to get around by herself.)  I have always been proud of my wife, but I am especially happy for her that she can get out and speak about something that she believes in.

Saturday, April 3^rd, 1999

Rudolph was captured! — Ok, so it is just an April Fools joke, but a happy thought none the less.  Actually, they have pulled out some of the people who are searching for him.  Apparently, the people in the area are tired of seeing the police, FBI, and ATF in their back door.  Eric Rudolph brought those people to their town.  He is the one who can make them go away.  If they are angry, they should be angry at Eric.  Innocent or guilty, he is the one person who can end this.

On March 27th, we went to dinner at Bombay’s.  What was the special event?  One year ago, Emily came home from the hospital.  Bombay’s was kind enough to provide us with our “last meal” in the hospital a year ago.  Cliff’s Limo provided the ride a year ago.  (No, we didn’t go for a limo ride this time.)  Amazing how much has been packed into the year.

Emily has several speaking events soon.  I will let you know how they turn out.

Sunday, March 14^th, 1999

Yesterday, Emily and I spoke at the local Mensa gathering.  There were about 100 people attending.  Mensa has been very supportive and has send hundreds of cards throughout last year.

After the talk, Emily and I were discussing how life had finally started to get back to normal, if there is such a thing as normal.  The media had died down and we were getting back to being just the two of us again.

The “media has died down” sentence just got out of my mouth when channels 6 and 13 beeped me.  Another clinic was bombed and they wanted to get Emily’s reaction.  What reaction can there be?  It seems like nothing has changed.  The bombings continue, but the clinics remain open.  When are they going to see that it doesn’t work?

At least nobody was killed this time.  Apparently, the person who made the device wasn’t very bright, as the bomb only partially went off.  The bomb was planted outside a clinic called Femcare, located in Asheville, North Carolina.  It was near the patient waiting area.  The explosion was about 1/2 hour before the clinic opened — the same time of day that the Birmingham bomb was detonated.

Because it is close to the area where they are searching for the Birmingham suspect, there was concern that it might be the same person.  We don’t have any details that have not been released to the media, but it just doesn’t sound like the same person.  For one thing, nobody was hurt.  The person who did the Birmingham bombing is a killer.  He stood across the street and set it off by remote control.

Friday, January 29^th, 1999

Emily and I are both exhausted.  I remember thinking a year ago that there might be some press at the one year anniversary.  What an understatement.  Emily did five interviews yesterday, with the last one ending around 11:00 pm.  We were up at 5:00 this morning to get ready for a live spot on Good Day Alabama.

The Today Show, Good Morning America, all of the local stations, several radio stations, the local paper, and many major papers across the United States have done recent interviews.  Many local stations did a 1/2 hour special on the bombing.

Last week on Thursday (Jan 21,) Emily received an award in Atlanta.  From there, we flew to Oregon where Emily was the speaker at a NARAL fund raiser Saturday night (Jan 23.)  Albany, NY was the next stop for a meeting with Senators regarding a New York state version of the FACE bill on Monday (Jan 25.)  Never a dull moment.

After the morning TV interview, we stopped for a quick bite of breakfast.  Emily started to cry.  I looked at my watch.  The time was 7:33, one year after the explosion.  All during the day, I thought about what I was doing a year ago.  I remember the drive to the hospital like it was only a few days ago.

I think that the method used to detonate the bomb was the only thing that I knew long before the media.  It was finally announced yesterday that the person who did this was standing across the street and pressed a button.  The bomb was set off by remote control.

I don’t know which is worse — to not care who is hurt by using a timer, or to be like a hit man and pick the victims.  It seems that this person did both.  In Atlanta, timers were used.  He didn’t care who, or how many, he hurt.  In Birmingham, he looked at Sandy and my wife, thought “I guess they will do,” and pressed the button.

Long ago, we received a letter from someone who said “I am sure the bomber didn’t mean to hurt anybody, he just wanted to shut the clinic down.”  The building was back in operation one week later.  A bomb with nails aimed at the front door is not intended to hurt the building.  This was murder, just as if he were a hit man who placed a gun to his victim’s head and pulled the trigger.  If someone is protecting the bomber because they think the death was an accident, think again.

We had several friends and doctors out for dinner at a local restaurant.  Everyone had memories of that day a year ago.  It was wonderful to talk with the medical staff who saved my wife in an environment other than a Doctor’s appointment.

We talked about how our next door neighbors did so much for us, from helping clean the house to sending food over.  Mike Beck went by my house and got the mail out of the mailbox before I got home.  He thought that there might be a bomb in the mailbox and he wanted to get it instead of me.  Mike stayed up nights with Emily in the hospital when I couldn’t.  He did most of the work on this web site.  Heather and Peter Lacy were at the hospital before I was that day, and spent many long hours with Emily last year.  One of Emily’s friends she has known for years, Carol, dropped everything that day and came over from Georgia.  Being a nurse, Carol helped in so many ways.

The doctors said they had recently held a disaster drill.  When told there had been a bombing, the first thought was that it was yet another drill.  After all, bombs don’t happen in our own back yard.  When told that it was real, they didn’t know how many people would be involved.  I only wish that they had been able to work on Sandy as well as my wife.

I went to the memorial service for Sandy.  It is hard to rejoice in Emily’s progress when I think about him, but I know that he would be glad Emily survived.  Emily is alive because Sandy was there that day.  I don’t know if he heard me, but I spoke out loud in my car “Thank you Sandy.”

Sunday, December 27^th, 1998

Guess what? No new operations to report this time! Emily is doing well.  Hard to imagine that the one year anniversary is just around the corner.  We were being interviewed today by The Birmingham News and the reporter mentioned that “anniversary” didn’t seem like the right word because anniversary was used when talking about something good instead of a disaster.

The thing is that 1998 had a lot of bad and a lot of good.  It all depends on which you want to concentrate on.  There were a lot of happy moments over the year.  The wife that might have died is still alive.  The leg that might be amputated is not only attached, but she walks on it.  The other leg that might always require a brace doesn’t need that brace.  The hand that was so badly mangled is able to sign her name.  The eye that might be blind will see her children grow up.  All in all, not so bad.

Most of the local media has contacted us about doing a story on the anniversary, including Atlanta and Huntsville.  The Today Show will be doing a special on her the day of the 29th.

Emily will be receiving an award from The Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta next week.  After that, it is off to Oregon to speak at a NARAL meeting.  Looks like we may have to work New York into the trip as well, so that Emily can speak about a new state law that is being proposed.  This new law would help protect workers at their business as well as their homes.

The progress on her book continues to be slow but sure.  We still hope to have at least part of it on-line for the anniversary.

Sunday, December 27^th

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

Happy New Year — now there’s a thought.  When Emily and I talk about this year, we think that 1999 has got to be better.  After all, this year Emily has had 13 operations, my father had 2, my best friend (Mike Beck) also had 2 operations.  Once, my father and Mike had surgery on the same day.  At least they were in Birmingham so I could go back and forth between the hospitals.  Emily’s father had a heart attack about a week ago.  Med Center Mazda charged me $800 to tell me the engine in my car is shot.  Emily’s ex-husband packed up Emily’s daughter and moved her to South Carolina during the middle of the school year.  It just seems like there is no end to the hurt this year has inflicted on us.

Emily’s last operation has been a hard one to watch.  Her face was swollen up so much that someone joked about writing “Voit” across her forehead.  (Voit makes basketballs.)  This was number 13.  (Surgeon’s dozen?)

Then again, this has been a very happy year.  Seeing Emily’s hand move the day after the bomb was something I will remember for the rest of my life.  The afternoon following Emily’s press conference in the hospital, a Doctor held a lens in front of Emily’s eye and she could see the Doctor’s wedding band on his hand.  There are not many events in a person’s life that bring that kind of joy.

I think it was 1997 when Emily mentioned that she wanted to meet some new people.  Gee, be careful what you wish for!  This year, we have met more wonderful people than the rest of our lives combined.  The medical staff who cared for Emily went way beyond “doing their job.”  They never forgot she was a human being.  Our Worker’s Comp case manager has been there every step of the way, going far beyond the call of duty.  We have received thousands of cards and emails from people we never knew.

I have wonderful parents who have helped in any way they could.  This has brought Emily much closer to her parents, who have also been a huge help.  Mike has put in many hours helping me with this web site, in addition to sitting up with Emily when I was unable.  When Emily was down, Mike made her smile.  There are so many others who have bent over backwards to help us.

I also want to thank the media.  They have kept the suspect’s picture out there for everyone to see.  When we had something to say, they listened.  When we needed time to ourselves, they respected our need for privacy.  Emily has been in People magazine three times, including their end-of-the-year issue.  Good Housekeeping did a lengthy article.

The people in the legal system have put forth an unequaled effort to find the suspect.  So many people have worked so hard.  Living out in the woods looking for someone can’t be much fun.  Many people in the FBI canceled their vacations so that they could continue working on the case.

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  Most of all, I am thankful for Sandy Sanderson.  If he had not been there that day, my wife would have been the one over the bomb when it went off.  I know it is little consolation to a widow to know that her husband died a hero, but my gratitude to him will never end.

Part of the Emily I knew is gone.  She lost an eye.  (We have looked all over for that thing!)  She cannot stand for very long and she can’t write.  The vision in her right eye is so poor that she requires an implanted lens, contact lens, strong glasses, and a magnifying glass to read.  But what has been lost has been matched with what has been found.

I have a new Emily that I am so very proud of.  The Emily of the past hated teaching because she had to get up in front of 20-30 people.  The new Emily met with Tipper Gore and spoke to 1,200 people at the Planned Parenthood meeting.  She has found a new voice that she never expected.

Emily can no longer work at the clinic.  However, she spoke out in Washington DC against a bill that would have hurt the ability for a clinic to fight violence.  Because Emily spoke out, the bill didn’t even make it to a vote.  She was part of a political campaign in New York, speaking for someone who has implemented laws to protect clinics.  With her help, he won.  No, she no longer provides help for one clinic.  Now, she helps clinics all across the United States.

Much of Emily has changed, yet much has remained the same.  She still has her sense of humor.  We still love each other.  I still have the woman I married.  I can’t say that I ever want another year like this one, but I can say that it was filled with wonderful moments that I will never forget.

Tuesday, December 8^th

Wow!  A lot has happened since the last update.  Emily’s 12th operation went well, but she was very sore after this one.  Number 12 was the start of a series of reconstructive operations.  “With 12 you get egg roll?”  Instead of “egg roll,” we got several pieces of metal out.  One in her left knee was really bothering her, so we were very glad to have it taken care of.

Number 13 will be December 10th.  A “baker’s” dozen is where the 13th is free.  Think our 13th operation will be “on the house?”  What are the odds?  This next operation will be primarily on her face.  They say she will be black and blue for two or three weeks.  December 10th is also her daughter’s 18th birthday.  Does this sound like any way to party?

Emily was the honoree for Planned Parenthood’s national meeting in St. Louis.  About 1,200 people gave her a standing ovation.  She also met with the vice-president’s wife, Tipper Gore.

Work continues on her book, though it is very slow.  We still hope to have the first cut out sometime in Jan.

Emily was recently in People magazine for the second time.  She will also be in the end-of-year issue.  Good Housekeeping also has an article on her.

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Sunday, November 1^st

Yes, it has been a long time since an update.  Much has happened.  As of about a week ago, Emily’s eyesight became as good as it is going to get.  She can now see well enough to read medium to large print.  She was both delighted and disappointed.  I guess we tend to think of things as back and white, broken or fixed.  Perhaps we knew that her vision would never be the same, but somehow we just didn’t want to think that way.  It isn’t broken and fixed, it is broken and then varying degrees of improvement.  Even so, I spent many days wondering if Emily would be able to see at all.  Thanks to Dr. Morris and Dr. Phillips, it appears that Emily will be able to read and even drive a car again.  Thank You.

She now has an IOL (Intraoccular Lens,) a contact lens, and reading glasses.  With this, she can read 20/25.  Normal vision is 20/20, so this is truly a miracle.  However, she can “kind of make out” the letters, it isn’t sharp or clear.  The IOL and contact lens are for distance, so she still needs very strong reading glasses.  For some print, she still has to use a magnifying glass, so she reads through four (4) lenses.  Part of the problem is that the IOL and contact lens is fixed. The eye’s normal lens will bend a bit, which allows us to focus.  This is called “accommodation.”  This is like going from an auto-focus camera to one that requires you to change lenses.

The contact lens was required because the surface of her cornea was “pitted” from the blast.  These pits scatter the light, so everything is blurred.  This is called astigmatism.  Astigmatism is measured in diopters.  A normal lens can fix up to about 3 diopters of distortion.  Emily’s was measured at 6.  A special contact lens had to be made.  The lens works by allowing tears to fill in the area between the lens and her cornea.  As a cornea has about the same refractive index as water, filling in the pits with tears helps out quite a bit.  The other problem is that her eye still has stitches in it, which tends to warp her cornea.  Sound like fun?

Emily is recovering from her 11th operation this year.  More metal was removed.  Her 12th operation will be November 5th.  This starts her plastic surgery.  They will begin on her face and work their way down.  We expect her cosmetic operations to continue throughout next year.

Another rash of press has descended upon us.  We really don’t mind, as it gives Emily something to do.  She wants to speak out and we are pleased that the media has been interesting in her voice.  Emily was recently flown to New York to speak out for a political campaign.  She has been on Good Morning America, CBS’s This Morning, and will soon be in another edition of People magazine.  She has also been in The New York Times, The Saint Petersburg Times, and will be in her second film documentary.

We are very pleased that Rudolph has been charged with the Atlanta bombings.  From early on, at least we had a suspect.  We hope that this helps move those victims one step closer to their ordeal being resolved.

Work continues on Emily’s book, Life’s Been a Blast.  There was some hope that we would have the first draft out this month, but surgery, work, and media has kept us from it.  Our new release date is now January.  Please check back to see how we are doing.

Monday, July 13^th

Early this morning, we took Emily to Dr. Morris’ office. They took pictures of her retina. Next, they injected dye into her vein and took more pictures. Turns out that about 5% of the lens implant cases have swelling in the retina. Lucky Emily is in that 5%. The vision distortion was caused by this swelling.

At first, they talked about injecting steroids into her eye. “Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye” just doesn’t sound like a good way to start the day. After presenting us with this option, we had a little time to talk about it. Emily was afraid of having them stick a needle in her eye, as would anybody. All I could do was to try my best to crack a few jokes to relieve the tension. I didn’t want to “needle” her about it, just tried to take her mind off the problems. At least they found what was wrong. Guess something like this is looking for a “well, you know” in a haystack.

Turns out that they are going to just increase the frequency of her eye drops. We have hope that it will go away. They gave us a photo of the back of her eye showing where the swelling in her macula was. If it wasn’t my wife, it would be interesting.

Emily has had a hard time with this. I have always been the chicken when it comes to my eyes. Emily, on the other hand, wore contacts for 20 years and never had problems. However, something about this has really gotten to her. She passed out during her eye exam in the hospital. When we went back for her checkup, she passed out at the doctor’s office. They had already left the room, so it was just me with my wife laying in the office floor. Amazing what Emily has had to go through. Amazing what a survivor she is.

Saturday, July 10^th

Emily took a nap. When she woke up, she had a drastic change in her vision. Everything was much more blurred and it appeared that objects had two edges on them. When you only have one eye, anything going wrong is a major emotional trauma. This one had Emily in tears. She started yelling my name when she found that she couldn’t see.

As it appeared that it was a problem with focus instead of a decrease in the amount of light she could see, I had hopes that it was not something bad enough to be unfixable. The two major concerns I had was that the implanted lens could have shifted or her retina could have detached. Dr. Morris had told us that the retina was damaged but it looked like he had been able to repair it, so I was not too concerned about that.

We took her down to the Eye Hospital. They determined that the lens was in place and the retina was not detached. At least the two big fears were set aside. On Monday, they will inject dye into her vein to see more.

Thursday, June 18^th

After many long months of waiting, Emily’s eye operation is over and done with. Her pupil was too large, so Dr. Morris put two stitches in her iris. The iris was damaged when a small piece of metal shot into her eye the day of the blast.

Dr. Phillips also put in the long-awaited lens implant. It will take six to eight weeks for the final result, but they took the patch off long enough to check her eye and she could see. The vision is still not great because of the trauma caused by the operation. However, the fact that she could see at all is great. We expect it to only improve from here.

She was in a great deal of pain after the operation, and is back to being blind because of the patch. We don’t think she will have the patch more than another day or two.

Because of the stitch in her iris, her pupil is no longer round. It looks kind of keyhole shaped. This should be very short term and is expected to return to normal soon.

After the pain eased up a bit, she was back to her near-normal self. We had a few friends over and were joking about merchandising this. We hope to come up with an Emily Doll that makes a bang and then flies apart. I know it is sick, but humor has got us through so far.

Thank you to everyone who has shown so much concern for us. This eye operation was an emotionally huge event. Glad it is over.

An article in the New York Times featured Emily today.

Friday, June 12^th

We had our final eye exam before they do the lens implant surgery. Looks like “all systems are go” for the operation. Due to security, we will not announce when the operation will be until it is over.

We are both excited and afraid about her implant. There is only a 1-2% chance of something going wrong. We know that Emily has “the best of the best” as far as her eye care. However, we only have one shot at this. If something does go wrong, it means a white cane for the rest of her life.

After the surgery, she will have a patch over her eye for at least a day. That means being blind again. However, the hope of a good outcome is very high.

Thursday, June 11^th

Hot Tub!

Amazing how things we used to do all the time are now “a first.” Emily and I spent a wonderful hour with a friend in our 10 seat hot tub. I guess the tub has been our only major “just for fun” purchase since we were married. It seems that Emily spent half her free-time life out there before the bomb. So far, she has not been able to get in because of open wounds.

It was wonderful. When Emily got out, we found that two places on the skin graft on her right leg were bleeding. The next day, we found a large blister had formed in another place on the graft. Guess it was kind of like putting a new boat into the ocean and finding a couple of small leaks. It was a little traumatic for her to see that her skin still would not “hold water” after all these months, but it was another step towards getting back to normal.

Friday, June 5^th

We were unsure about what to hope for with her remaining eye. Dr. Morris recommended a vision test. This was really kind of interesting. They put an electrode on each ear. Then, they put her head inside this big white ball with the back cut out. The ball has flashing strobe lights. The lights flash at different frequencies. The electrodes on her ears picked up the signal from the part of the brain responsible for vision. We know that Emily can’t see well because of the removed lens and the damage to her cornea. This test told us how well the optic nerve could conduct information to her brain. The system printed out a graph of the response.

Guess I can kid Emily now about their being a straight shot between her eye and her ears. I wonder if we could shine a light in her ear and put a twinkle in her eye? All kidding aside, the test showed that her macula was able to detect light well and the nerve could conduct the impulses. This means that the problem is mostly optics, which is much easier to correct.

Emily also had a cell count. There are five layers forming the cornea. The innermost layer is only one cell thick. This layer is usually damaged some by the lens implant operation. If the cell count is too low to start out with, then the cornea has to be replaced as well. The normal count for someone Emily’s age is 1,800-2,000. Emily’s count was 1,100. A count of 500-1,000 means that the cornea would have a low chance of surviving the surgery. Even though her count is down as a result of the damage, the doctors feel that the operation will go well and that she should not require a transplanted cornea, just the lens.

She was examined by Dr. Morris and his partner, Dr. Witherspoon this week. Along with Dr. Phillips, everyone now agrees that it is time to go ahead with the lens implant. We won’t know how it will turn out until it is done, but the test so far show a lot of promise.

Her cornea has scars and scratches. It appears that they may be able to remove some of those when they do the surgery.

When they do her operation, the eye will be covered for at least a day. So, this means that it is back to complete blindness. We went through it for over a month, we can survive it again. It will be up to two months after the surgery before we know just how well she will be able to see. If the implant does not improve things enough, they may try a contact lens in addition. The lens may help to smooth out the cornea.

Tuesday, June 2^nd

For the first time since January 29th, Emily got into a bathtub. Amazing how life’s simple pleasures mean so much when you have been kept from them for a while. Her wounds on her right leg kept her from getting all the way into a real bath or shower, but she was able to sit on a plastic seat, put her right leg outside the shower curtain, and use the showerhead. According to Emily, it was wonderful.

She has also been able to cook a little bit and help with the laundry. (Wonderful for me!)

Saturday, May 30^th

“They Lied!”

Before surgery, Emily was her normal amazing self. We were kidding about what could go wrong. If they got carried away operating on her ear and accidentally sucked half of her brains out, she would come out a man.

Emily’s ear surgery was on Thursday, May 28th. Her operation was scheduled for 9:30. They took her to the operating room at noon and gave her versed, which is a drug that makes you forget the procedure. They didn’t start surgery until 2:30, so it had worn off by then.

They had told her before that this operation would cause “minor discomfort.” Emily’s exact words were “they lied.” She was in severe pain most of Thursday. Her face was swollen quite a bit, but not as bad as her first day in the hospital after the bomb.

I spent a hard night with her in the hospital. She did the best she could even though she was hurting quite a bit. We did manage to joke a bit about the plastic cover over her ear and the strap holding it on. It looked as if someone had taken a man’s jockey strap with an athletic cup and put it on her head.

We made it home about noon Friday. Part of the emotional aspect is the setback that surgery always causes. Emily was getting to where she could walk around with a cane and very limited support from another person. As a result of the operation, she again requires a great deal of support to walk. She is able to get to the restroom with help and that is about it. She can’t wear her glasses because of her ear, so it is back to being almost blind again.

The good news is that the operation went well. The bones in her ear did not appear to be damaged. They took part of a muscle and placed it under the torn eardrum. This should allow the hole in the eardrum to heal. The packing in her ear will be removed within a few days. It will be 3-4 weeks before we know what her hearing will be like.

We recently found out that my father has a tumor on the nerve of his left ear. (Emily’s damage was also to her left ear.) Not sure what can be done yet. My parents have been wonderful to me through all of this, as well as the rest of my life. I hope for the best.

Tuesday, May 19^th

Emily’s vision is still very bad, so we purchased a big screen TV. Talked with Marry Capp (our insurance representative) about how this TV was medically necessary. She didn’t go for it, but thought that it was a good try. Ms. Capp has been great to us. Thanks for everything you have done.

Went to the staff meeting of Trauma-Burn ICU today for a get-together with the staff. This was just a friendly visit. We took a few cakes for munchies. Nice to see everyone again and for Emily and I to be able to thank them for all their good work “putting humpty dumpty back together again.”

Emily also had another doctor’s appointment about her leg. Wonderful news — she can take the orthopedic boot off. Her left leg is well enough to start walking without any type of brace. Her right leg still has to have a plastic brace, but the boot on the left leg is off. Emily is so excited to be able to walk around without the heavy clunker boot.

Dr. Alonzo is quite a character. He wrote a prescription for Emily to give to me. This was for me instead of her. It said that I had to cook, wash the dishes, clean the house, and take Emily to Florida for a vacation. As I have this on an “official” prescription form signed by her doctor, perhaps I can get this Florida trip through the insurance??? Naw, not even going to try it.

She had a 99.9 fever later on today. Don’t know what is causing it to stay up. There have been enough antibiotics to kill all of the world’s ills. Even so, we are in good spirits and spent the evening watching a movie on the 52″ screen. At long last she is able to enjoy a movie.

The next item on the list is to get the computer hooked up to the TV so she can read her emails. Over the weekend, I copied some of the hope book text into a word processor where I could set the font up to 72 point. She was able to read that OK, but anything smaller was a problem. On a 21″ monitor, 72 point is about one inch or larger letters. Not all that good, but sure could have been worse.

Her wounds from her last two operations are still open, so we still pack them with iodaform every day. Doesn’t seem to hurt as bad as it did, so I guess it is getting better. The wounds are closing up. No bath or shower until they are healed, so Em still washes up using the kitchen sink.

We had a wonderful visit from the girls over the weekend. Seems like her daughters are the best medicine.

Saturday, May 16^th

Yet another film crew here for American Journal, which is a daytime nationwide show. They arrived at 10:00 in the morning and finished at 6:30. The producer was the cameraman who shot America’s Most Wanted. At least we are getting to know the people in the business.

This week went a bit better. I cut my trip to California short, but leaving Emily with her sitter and friends went ok. We still don’t know what is ahead of us with her ear and eye operations, but we will get through this together just like everything else.

We went out to eat and then to Wall-Mart (do I know how to do the town or what?) Seems like a couple of people come up to Emily every time we are out to wish her well. Thank you to all who have shown support for her. It really helps to know that people care about us.

The kids are here this weekend for a short visit. That always cheers Emily up. They arrived late after the camera crew left, but we still had time to chat. We are looking forward to having a family Sunday lunch somewhere.

Sunday, May 10^th

I had planned to go to California for the week. This was my first extended business trip since the bomb. As the trip was my company’s most important trade show, I almost had to go. The flight was scheduled to leave at 6:10 a.m. (groan.) Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the airport…

Reading the previous day’s summary, you can tell that we had a bad week. At 8:30 last night, Emily’s fever shot up to 102. During the tornado warnings, I rushed Emily to the UAB emergency room. The did blood work, a chest x-ray, examined her open wounds from the last two operations, a CT scan (“cat” scan,) a lumbar puncture (“spinal tap,”) another CT scan, and gave her I.V. drugs. They were never able to determine the cause of her fever.

We finally got home from the Emergency Room at 4:30 a.m. with my flight leaving at 6:10. Needless to say, I did not make the trip. As much as I wanted to stay with my wife, she was doing better by Sunday night and I was able to take the red-eye out to arrive Monday morning. Emily is still running a low-grade fever and we don’t know why. All we can do at this point is continue to watch and hope for the best. Emily continues to have someone watch her 24 hours a day. When I am unable to be here because of work, she has a friend, family member, or a sitter.

Saturday, May 9^th

All in all, a really bad week

The first of this week, Emily was told that her left eardrum was damaged. They are also unable to find one of the bones inside her ear, which may require an implant. Her ear surgery is scheduled for later this month. When the doctor was describing the procedure, he said that they started by cutting behind the ear and pulling the outer ear forward. Having someone tell you they are going to cut your left ear off is no way to start a day. Emily can make it through the surgery, she is almost getting used to the O.R. The bad news is that they don’t know how badly damaged the auditory nerve is. So, we may fix the eardrum and bones, only to find that the nerve damage will still keep her from hearing. At least her right ear seems to be ok.

Emily has been dizzy because of her inner ear problems. There has also been fluid draining from her ears. Apparently, the ear exam made the drainage worse, causing a sore throat. She has been running a 100 degree fever and been unable to get out of bed much all week.

We managed to get her to the eye doctor yesterday for more bad news. The macula (center of vision) has developed some type of pigmentation. Even with the lens implant, it looks like her vision will not improve much. We were told that about the best she could help for with an implant, and a contact lens or glasses, would be about 20/60. She should be able to read large print books, but will never have the detail vision again to enjoy reading her collection of books. Her vision now is 20/200, which means that she can make out the big “E” on the top of the eye chart. So, we should still see some improvement, but not what we were hoping for.

Not sure if it is the long antibiotic therapy or just the heat of the blast, but her hair continues to fall out. Other than that, this week went well.

Emily’s Today show interview is scheduled to air on Monday, May 4^th.

It is scheduled for 7:30, but Today runs from 7:00 to 9:00.

Emily and I watched. It looked like the best interview Emily has done. Thanks to all the staff of the Today show who worked on this. You have been wonderful.

This week’s Cosmopolitan has an article on the clinic bombing

Saturday, May 2^nd

The Cookie Monster

Emily was able to get out today to the Sesame Street play here in town. We took pictures of her and the cookie monster.

Friday, May 1^st (May Day!)

Yet another operation. Seems like O.R. is Emily’s home away from home. The wound from the last surgery has not closed up yet, but here we go again. We had hoped that we would be done for a while, but another area had swollen. This was one-day surgery and all went well.

Thursday, April 30^th

A visit to the hospital

Back to the hospital! This time it wasn’t so bad. I took eight pizzas with us and we had lunch with many of the staff who helped Emily. During her long stay, she was blind. This was her opportunity to be able to see the faces that went with the voices she knew so well. We visited the intensive care room, the hydrotherapy room, and the ward where she stayed after ICU.

Emily remembered the people on the floor more than those at ICU. However, ICU is more memorable for me. I guess I spent more time talking with the staff working ICU because Emily was unable to speak then. Em cried a bit when she saw her ICU room, but the visit went well.

Wednesday, April 29^th: Wedding

Emily and I had our recommitment ceremony tonight at 6:00pm. We had intended this to be just Emily, the minister, and myself. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the church…

Channel 11 from Atlanta called and wanted to do an interview because it has been three (3) months since the bombing. They met us at the Doctors office. (More surgery planned for Friday.) They asked what our plans were, and we said that we were going to remarry tonight. The reporter asked if they could tape it. I talked it over with Emily. She said “not much in our lives is private any more, so why not?”

They called the NBC station here, channel 13. Emily’s friend, Heather, was going to come over and fix her hair. Heather’s husband works for channel 42. As we were about to leave for the church, channel 6 called. The cameraman for 33/40 happened to be driving by the church and saw the other camera crew’s trucks, so our private ceremony turned into nationwide TV.

Anyhow, Emily and I had a wonderful ceremony, followed by dinner with our friends. The bombing was the first time that Emily’s wedding ring had been off her finger since we married. Considering the circumstances required to remove it were special, it seemed only fair to have a special way of putting it back on.

Sunday, April 26^th

Church for the first time since this happened.

Saturday, April 25^th

Got the hospital bill for her last one-day surgery. $11,104.77 for one night is an expensive hotel. Let’s see, there were five (5) mails removed, so that is $2,220.95 per nail. Gee, sounds like the way the Government buys nails. Perhaps I could just send nails in with my tax return and let them keep the change.

Went to the mall for the first time today. Happened to run into one of Emily’s doctors and one of the reporters. This has been an interesting way to meet new people, but I don’t recommend it.

Thursday, April 23^rd

Tonight was E.R. night. The story was about the Chicago Reproductive Clinic being bombed. Gee, wonder where they got the idea for that one.

There was a nationwide news feed called “Following ER” which was about Emily. For some reason, the local station didn’t air it. Instead, they did an interview with “Nurse” Michelle. (Michelle is the office manager; they just called her a nurse.) They also said that the “Today” show with Emily would air Monday. Problem is that they didn’t mention that it was a week from Monday. This tells me that the press interest is dying down about Emily. All in all, I can’t say that is a bad thing. Looks like we are starting to get our life back.

Thursday, April 16^th

Today was here taping Emily’s first nationwide interview. It should air sometime next week. More details to follow.

Friday, April 10^th

More surgery.

Emily had a large area come up on the side of her hip. Turns out there was a nail that had started causing problems. So, back to the operating room. There were a total of five (5) nails removed. One where the swelling on her hip was, three below her knee, and one just above her ankle. The other four nails had not caused infection, but had worked their way near the surface. These nails had been too deep to be removed during her previous operations. All of these nails were in her right leg. Other nails that were too deep still remain inside her. There may be others that require removal in the future. Emily wanted to keep the nails, but the FBI was waiting outside O.R. for them.

She also had the external fixator removed from her left leg. This means that she will have a cast for about a week. We hope that the cast doesn’t damage the skin grafts.

The nail in her hip was deep and there was some infection. Because of the drainage, the wound has to be left open. I pack it twice a day. It goes without saying that this hurts her a lot. During the dressing changes in the hospital, even morphine did not stop the pain.

We had thought that this would be same-day surgery, but she spent the night in the hospital. She won’t be able to walk for a while, even with her walker. Mike Beck and I carried her into the house. At least she is home again.

We had planned to go to church for Easter, but doesn’t look like she will be able to get out of bed.

This surgery has set her back a little, but she is glad to have some of the extra metal out.

Wednesday, April 8^th

After a doctor’s visit, we went to the FBI command center. Many different legal branches are still working together, including the FBI, ATF, Birmingham police, and UAB police. An entire floor has been dedicated to this case. We were very touched by the fact that everyone has canceled their vacations until Rudolph is captured.

Tuesday, April 7^th

Emily got her tooth fixed. We hope to have her external fixator removed sometime this week. Also hope to be remarried this week.

Wednesday, April 1^st

Eric Rudolph has been captured! … (April fool.) At least there was a possible sighting last night. Someone looking like Rudolph was seen in Denver last night. The police saw him in a truck. However, he got away. We don’t know if it was Rudolph or not. Actually, it is doubtful that he would be in Denver. Even so, I want to thank everyone who is on the lookout for him.

We got up at 5:30 this morning to get ready for her first live interview on Ch 6. There is a big difference between tape and live. Emily was shaking a bit, but did great.

Channel 42 will be here sometime today to do a segment for tonight’s news. Emily and I wanted to get all of the press over with at once so we can settle down to having a life again. There are still a couple of interviews to do, but all this should be over with soon.

Tuesday, March 31^st

People Magazine’s photo session. Chan 13’s interview. Was on 10:00 news. This was her first one-on-one interview. It took much of the afternoon to tape it. Emily was very relaxed and it went well.

Monday, March 30^th

People Magazine interviewed Emily. Will let you know when it will be out.

Saturday, March 28^th

We took the weekend off. Cleaned out Blockbuster videos and vegged out by the TV. I watched, Emily listened.

Friday, March 27^th

The big day, Emily comes home!

The host of people to thank is almost endless. Dr. Pitts arranged for Cliff’s Limo to drive us home in style. Bombay’s gave us our last meal the night before.

Monday, March 23^rd

Emily had a leg x-ray today. She can see well enough to make out where the break was. She could also easily see where a nail remains inside her leg. Once a nurse, always a nurse.

We still don’t know which day she will be released, but it will be the end of this week. Needless to say, she is wanting to come home.

A couple of guys in Mensa put up rails inside and outside the house, so we are ready for her. Thanks guys.

I went to therapy today to get instructions about what to do while she is home. We also practiced getting her into and out of a car. Amazing the progress she has made. The first time with the car was a major ordeal. This time, she got in and out of the car without any help.

Wednesday, March 18^th

Dr. Morris did an extensive eye exam. She will receive a new pair of glasses in a day or two. This will still not give her “good” vision, but should help. There are still some problems with her eye, but should heal with time. It looks like it will still be about a month or more before the lens can be implanted. Emily and I both said at the same time, “I don’t care how long it takes, just as long as it works.”

I received my first bill from the hospital. This was not for her stay at Spain or any of the Doctor’s time, this was just the hospital. What a shame that this money had to be spent on something that should have never happened. Of course, I feel that my wife is worth every penny and I am grateful that she has received the care she needed. It is just that these funds could have been spent in research or helping someone who had an unavoidable illness. This $234,734.02 is just the tip of the iceberg. I am sure that there is much more ahead.

Worker’s Compensation told me they would pay 100% of the medical bill, but it is still an expense that should never have happened, my money or someone else’s. The emotional cost goes without saying.

Tuesday, March 17^th

Emily graduated from the 12 step program!

Today, Emily walked up a flight of 12 steps. It took her 15 minutes. She was sweating like crazy and was exhausted, but she made it. The only way into our house is by stairs, so being able to get up and down is part of the criteria to release her.

That’s one small step for most of mankind, one giant leap for Emily.

Monday, March 16^th

HOME!

Emily was told today that she would come home the end of next week. We will be told on Monday when the exact day will be.

Amazing the things we take for granted that she is having to be taught. Someone donated a car to Spain Rehab. The car doesn’t run, it is there for people to learn how to get in and out of. So, part of Emily’s therapy today was getting in and out of a car. She said that it was so hard that she became sick to her stomach, but was able to do it.

I am working on getting the house ready by having the railing reinforced. Thank you to Steve and Oscar of Mensa for doing the labor.

I was a guest speaker for Mensa on Saturday. The talk went well.

Sunday, March 15^th

I know it has been a while since I updated her progress report. Emily’s progress has turned into more of a long-term situation, as expected. We are still being told she will come home in a week or two. My guess is that it will be more like two, I don’t expect it to happen this week.

Her eyesight continues to improve. Her cornea is getting better each day. She can easily make out who is in the room.

A reporter from Atlanta did an article on how Emily and I met here at UAB. The reporter had authored a book and sent Emily an autographed copy. When I showed the book to Emily, she was able to read the title. Considering she still does not have her lens implanted, this is great news.

Gloria Steinum was in town yesterday to speak out against the bombing. Ms. Steinum has spent much of her life fighting for women’s rights. Emily was thrilled to have her come to the hospital for a visit.

America’s Most Wanted did a story on Felecia Sanderson Saturday night. Emily could not help but cry a bit. People have asked me if we are angry. Of course we are angry. Sometimes, what has happened is overpowering. However, Emily and I both are determined to maintain a positive attitude towards her progress.

Thursday, March 5^th

Emily has glasses. Having Emily look back at me through them is the most beautiful sight I have seen in a long time. She can’t tell what her food is, but she can make out that there is a “blob” of something on a plate. She is able to stick a fork into the blob and feed herself. More than anything else, there is joy in seeing part of her dignity returned. Being able to feed herself means that she has taken another step towards being able to care for herself.

She can tell how tall a person is and make a good guess as to what they are wearing. It is a far cry from good vision, but it is also a far cry from darkness. The good news is that it will get so much better as time goes on and when she has her lens put it.

We continue to get cards, emails, and notes on the hope page. Thank you everyone, this means so much to us and keeps her spirits high.

Day 33, Monday, March 2^nd

Emily’s press conference was today. She was a bit afraid as she left her room, but did very well once she got to the conference. In fact, I think she did great. This was her first time in the public eye. As she left the meeting room afterwards, the press applauded. I was concerned about putting her in front of the press, but she felt that it was time and it worked out well.

I took my video camera to get an image of the press for Emily to see later. My small camera pointed at about 30 TV station cameras reminded me of a kid with a bee-bee gun facing down a group of tanks.

Speaking of seeing, we had wonderful news today. During her eye exam, the Doctor happened to have a lens in his pocket. He held it up in front of her eye and asked if she could see a card he was holding. I saw the delight on her face as she said to the Doctor “you are married, I can see your wedding ring.”

The card was a vision test. This had numbers instead of letters. She was able to read the numbers on the top three (3) rows. This was about 20/200 vision. I am not up on how vision is measured, but I think that means that a person with normal vision can see something from 200 feet away that Emily has to be 20 feet away to see. In other words, this is about 1/10 of what normal sight is. Perhaps someone who knows what 20/200 means can drop me an email and I will post an update.

For most, 20/200 is not that great. In Emily’s case, holding up a lens that was a wild guess at what her prescription should be and having that kind of sight is nothing short of a miracle.

Her cornea is much better, but still needs to smooth out. Also, she still has some blood in her eye, which will be corrected over time. Because of this, it looks like it will be a couple of weeks before she has glasses and a couple of months before the lens is implanted. Even so, the fact that she was able to make out anything today is a huge positive sign. It goes without saying what this did for her morale and mine.

Day 29, Thursday, Feb 26^th

It has been four weeks since the bomb. Four weeks since she has seen anything other than a bright light when they do an eye exam. Four weeks since she has been home, four weeks since she has been able to care for herself.

Felecia Sanderson visited today. Channel 13 news did a special on the Sandersons. It was hard for Emily to know the kind of pain Felecia is going through.

Putting Emily into Spain was the right thing to do. I know that this will get her around quicker than having her home, but I still wish she could be out of the hospital. She is working hard during the day, I visit at night. She now has a talking watch, so she can push a button and find out what time it is.

Emily is going to do a press conference Monday morning, so it should make the evening news.

Day 28, Wednesday, Feb 25^th

Emily is tired from her day at “work” at Spain Rehab. Her knee can bend up to 90 degrees already, which is great. An uninjured knee can bend up to 120 degrees, but this is still better than expected.

She got into a wheel chair for the first time today. Jet black chair, I am sure she will be racing soon.

Day 27, Tuesday, Feb 24^th

Emily was moved to Spain Rehab. today. They did not do much more than get her in her room, but this is yet another big step.

Day 26, Monday, Feb 23^rd

Felecia Sanderson’s first press statement was today. She asked that I be there for moral support. I was honored to do so. Felecia and I want the same thing, to see Rudolph taken into custody.

Emily continues to do well. Her cornea has healed. Not sure when she will make the next step of glasses, but should be this week or next.

She will be moving to Spain Rehab in the next day or two. How long she stays there depends on how she does, but we expect it to be in the weeks, not in the months.

I will do another update when she has been moved. As her progress will be more long term than day to day, it may be a while before there is another update other than to say she has moved.

Day 22, Thursday, Feb 19^th

With a great deal of help, Emily was able to take a few steps with a walker. No weight can be placed on her left leg because of the tibia break. However, she was able to take steps with her right leg.

As Emily’s progress is now turning more to long term goals, I will not update the progress report each day. The next big event will be getting her into a rehab facility. We hope this to be the first of the week. I will post a note when that happens.

Eric Rudolph’s family lawyer said the case against him seemed thin and did not justify calling him a suspect. One thing that makes him look like a suspect is that he has vanished. He is welcome to clear up that item at any time. However, we should all understand that he is just a suspect. We still don’t know if he is the person or if there are others involved.

Day 20, Tuesday, Feb 17^th

She sat in a chair today!    Emily was able to get into a chair with help. It was exhausting for her, but she was able to stay in the chair for 2 hours. Four people lifted her from the chair and gently returned her to the bed. Amazing the things we take for granted until they are gone.

It looks like she should be in a rehab facility sometime next week. The progress Emily has made is astounding.

She is still not able to eat enough, so they had to use her feeding tube again. Minor setback, she should be over it soon.

Now that they found the two stitches in her eyelid, her cornea is already starting to improve. 20 days of darkness, it must be very disorienting. She said that she wants to come back once she can see and find out what everybody looks like.

Day 19, Monday, Feb 16^th

Great news! We found out why her cornea has not been healing. There were two stitches in her eye that they failed to remove. This was causing enough irritation to keep her eye from healing.

Emily is no longer receiving nutrition through her feeding tube. They have left it in just in case she is not able to eat enough, but it looks good to have it out in a day or two.

She is no longer on the monitor. I expect her condition to be upgraded sometime this week. An evaluation is being done to determine what the next step is. My guess is that she will spend some time in a rehab clinic, but that is just a guess.

I came down with bronchitis, so I have been unable to see her. However, she is well enough to talk on the phone, as long as someone holds it up to her.

She is able to sit on the edge of the bed, with a great deal of help. We hope she will be able to sit up without support by the end of the week. Physical therapy has started moving her legs around to get a range of motion back.

Day 17, Saturday, Feb 14^th

Emily’s cornea is not healing. The doctors are somewhat concerned, as the cornea usually heals very quickly.

Today was emotionally hard, as it was our anniversary. The children sent us a Valentine’s Day card. It said, “It doesn’t matter how you look, you will always be our mother.” It went on to say that they were glad we had made it this far in our marriage. They knew we belonged together and hoped we had each other from now on. I think there were two times that I could not help but cry. One was when I canceled our trip because I knew it meant so much to Emily. This was the other one.

I got her one of those huge cards, about 2 feet by 3 feet. She could not read anything on the card, but at least could see me moving it around.

It is also hard because I know that the Sandersons were married the same year we were. An anniversary in the hospital is not what I had in mind, but at least my spouse is alive to share the day with. I just hope they catch the person who did this soon.

As horrific as the day was, I gave Emily the best Valentine’s Day gift I have ever given her – I let her know that I will be with her no matter what.  I meant what I said when I vowed “for better or for worse.”

Roses are nice, and I often give flowers to Emily even when it is not a special occasion.  But knowing you have someone who will be with you no matter what beats even flowers.

Day 15, Thursday, Feb 12^th

Emily is doing so much better. Today is an interesting day because we were to go on our anniversary. We were married 4 years ago on the 14th, so we planned on being in Cancun then, leaving today.

I spent last night in the hospital. For the first time, I was able to stay in her room all night. Not much sleep in that hospital chair, but it sure was nice to spend that much time with her.

America’s Most Wanted is still in town. They are done with me, but will be with ATF and the FBI. If there is time, Cindy Smith, the AMW producer, will drop by to say “hello” to Emily. She is not up to an interview, but Cindy wanted to meet her.

Day 14, Wednesday, Feb 11^th

Spent most of the day with America’s Most Wanted. They are here to do a story on the bombing. We need to catch this person soon, before this is done to someone else.

Saw Officer Tim Gunning again. He was officer Sanderson’s best friend. He also talked with America’s Most Wanted.

Looks like it may air on Saturday the 14th. Interesting that is our anniversary. Not how I had planned things, but at least we will be together. Tomorrow is the day we were going to Cancun, Mexico.

Emily seems even more responsive today than yesterday. They were able to wash her hair, which I am sure made her fell better.

Day 13, Tuesday, Feb 10^th, Better!

Yet another landmark day. I asked her if she had any questions about her injuries. When asked if she knew what was hurt, she replied “too much.” This type of answer may not seem like a lot, but it looks like the start of her humor is returning.

She also asked me to help her move her right arm and her legs. This means that she is alert enough to know that she has to keep herself moving.

As of today, I was able to touch her right hand without gloves on. This is the first time I have been able to touch her since the day the bomb went off.

I really think that we are on the way back to normal. We have months of hard work ahead, but we will get there.

America’s Most Wanted called to see if I would talk with them. I want to do anything I can to keep this person from hurting another, so I will meet them tomorrow. If they do something on the bombing, it will air on Saturday the 14th, which is our anniversary.

Day 12, Monday, Feb 9^th

A little worried. She is still not talking much at all. She will say one or two words when she has to, but no complete sentences.

She underwent a hearing exam and they looked at her vocal chords. No problems found there, so not sure why she isn’t talking. Perhaps it is only a sore throat (I hope,) but she just doesn’t seem as responsive as expected.

Because of the way they are feeding her, she had to be started on insulin. Having to go through the process of getting it regulated. No problems, just the normal procedure.

They have taken her to hydrotherapy the last few days. This means that they put her legs into a water bath to clean things up. As the skin is part raw and part graphs, this is really painful. They give her versed, which makes her forget the pain afterwards.

Day 11, Sunday, Feb 8^th

Not much change from Saturday.

The swelling in her face has gone down quite a bit. The place where her left eye was is starting to sink in. All in all, her face looks wonderful compared to her first night.

Day 10, Saturday, Feb 7^th, back a little

Emily did not do so well with her feeding tube out. She needed to get 8 cans of nutrition down, but was only able to do 1. So, the feeding tube and another IV went back in. Some days are bound to be better than others, no need to be discouraged.

The morphine is keeping her kind of out of it. She goes through cycles of pain, a few minutes of being ok, and then out of it.

They were able to start hydrotherapy on her legs. This is where they put her legs into water and that helps get clean the wounds. This is very painful, so they up her drugs before they do her.

Several of her family and friends were able to visit today.

Day 9, Friday, Feb 6^th

Very good news, Emily has her feeding tube out. She was able to drink a “milkshake” type of nutrition. Her talking is picking up a bit. It is easier to understand her. See is in so much pain that she can only ask for what she needs, like “pain medication” or “suction.” She is not holding a conversation.

The primary doctors held a press conference today. Dr. Rue said that he had served in Desert Storm and was surprised to find injuries like he had seen over there. They talked about her various injuries and treatments. They also said that Emily was a “fighter” in the top ranks of being able to handle this.

Most of the media asked me how she was doing, etc. People talk about how the press hounds people, but everyone in the media has been so nice to me. One even sent a food basket to the house.

Here is the quick list of Emily’s injuries:

• Broke left leg (tibia.)
• Large amount of skin lost from the front of each leg.
• Both legs had bone showing.
• Skin graphs required on multiple areas.
• Left leg required blood flow surgery (about 3 hours worth.)
• Both knees had nails and had to be opened and cleaned.
• According to Dr. Rue, there were “hundreds” of wounds from nails and debree.
• Large bowel had to be resectioned.
• Small intestines had to be resectioned (part of them were removed.)
• She is still open from mid chest to her waist.
• Right hand had open joint injuries, which will result in stiff fingers.
• Loss of her left eye.
• Right eye was badly damaged.
• Various cuts, burns, nails, swelling, etc.

Thank you to everyone at UAB. She would not be alive if she had not been close to you.

Day 8, Thursday, Feb 5^th, a very hard day

Amazing that it has already been a week. The clinic is open. I was there to talk with the press. Some may wonder why I did the press interview, but I felt that I had to. I want the person who did this to know that it did not work. These people cannot be encouraged in any way, they have to see that this did not help their cause.

I was phoned by the hospital last night, telling me they were going to remove the tube. Somehow, I thought that she would be much better, perhaps able to talk. They cannot have her too medicated when the tube is out, so they also had to end much of her drugs. As a result, she appears to be in quite a bit of pain. She has to be suctioned every few seconds. Her breathing is very labored. This is the first time I have seen an idea of how much pain is ahead.

Day 7, Wednesday, Feb 4^th, more surgery

More surgery again today. Seems the O.R. is her home away from home. This was to clean and redress her wounds, as well as skin graphs on her legs.
The plastic surgeon said “I will be blunt, her legs will never be pretty.”
However, it looks like the graphs did well, and we hope they will take.
These additional operations have delayed the removal of her breathing tube. She was breathing on her own Monday night, but there was no point in removing the tube and putting it back in each day. I received a call from the hospital at about 9:00 p.m. saying that they were going to try to remove it tonight. Being able to talk will be a major milestone for her.

The clinic was open today. Don’t know what Emily will think about this.

Day 6, Tuesday, Feb 3^rd, Great news!

Emily had her eye surgery today.
Everything went well.
This does mean that she will still have her breathing tube in for another day or two.
There is another page with the details and photos.

Day 5, Monday, Feb 2^nd, Another good day for Emily

They changed her bandages today.
She is breathing on her own.
The tube is still in so she can’t talk, but they will remove it soon. As soon as the tube is out, they are going to try to sit her up.

Her condition was changed from critical to serious.

I went to Officer Sanderson’s funeral this afternoon, so not much time to visit with Emily.
The funeral was amazing. They expected 3,000. I am sure they had more. Someone played the bagpipes, a trumpet for taps, a 3 gun salute, and 3 helicopters flew by. I hate this for his family. His wife seems like such a wonderful person.

As amazing as the funeral was, nothing can make up for the loss.
There is a Felecia A. Sanderson fund at Colonial Bank. I would ask that anyone interested in making a donation for him or Emily do so there. There will not be a fund for Emily. The primary breadwinner of our family can still work. This is not true for the Sanderson family.

After the funeral, I went back to the hospital to check on her. I missed most of my visits today because of the funeral, but was able to see her once in the morning and once at night.

The eye doctor talked with me for some time. They did an ultrasound on her eye. The ultrasound cannot pick up fine detail, but did show that the back of her eye appeared intact. The lens is destroyed and will require surgery. Her eye pressure is a bit high, but we hope this will not result in a problem.

The Doctor told me that she had a 75% chance of having useful vision. There is about a 50% chance that she will be able to read. There is a very good chance that she will be able to see her children grow up. UAB is the worldwide leader in bilateral eye trauma. She is in good hands.

She was taken in for a CT (cat) scan yesterday, to view her sinus areas. I joked with her that they did not find any cats. She told me once before that she was going to have a cat scan. I had asked her then if she was going to take Snowball (our cat.)

She was groggy today when we were able to see her, but her spirits were good. We hope to get her respiration tubes removed soon.

Picked up her car tonight.
Glass and top damage, much easier to fix than Emily will be.

Also saw the bomb site.
They had a crow bar in the ground where the bomb went off. There was pink string or tape to the each place where the fragments hit. It was a weird feeling to see the spot where there were no strings, knowing that had to be where Emily was. There were no fragment lines there because the fragments were in Emily. It is obvious from the strings that this was aimed at the door. This was intended to kill.

Day 4, Sunday, Good News: She can see light!

She was able to nod her head to indicate that she could see light. Even better, she is able to detect motion when someone waves their hand over her. UAB is the worldwide leader in bilateral eye trauma. She is in good hands. The Doctor told me that she had a 75% chance of having useful vision. There is about a 50% chance that she will be able to read. There is a very good chance that she will be able to see her children grow up. She will require surgery on her eye in a week or two.

They are starting to reduce the respirator. She should be breathing on her own by tomorrow.

Day 3, Saturday, Jan. 31^st, 1998

I stayed up until 2:00 am working on a press statement.
I emailed it to the P.R. person at UAB. When I got to UAB, he said that he had been unable to print it. Bill Gates struck again; different word processor revision. So, I had to wing it at the press conference.

I wanted to let people know that there was a family that had been hurt. Emily was not just a name. The police escorted me back to the hospital after the conference.

She went back to the operating room. This was just to clean and redress her wounds. She was out of it most of the day.

At my last visit, she was able to nod her head and hold my hand. She started motioning with her left hand. I asked her if she was trying to fan herself and if she were hot. She nodded her head yes. To us, being able to say that we are hot is trivial. To Emily, the fact that she can communicate and is aware enough to know the she is hot is a major breakthrough.

Her right eye is still bad, but she tried to open it a bit. I asked her if she saw any light, but she did not reply.

They are going to try to wash her after I go home. I am sure that will make her feel better.

She is still under very heavy medication, and let us know by moving her head that she was not in much pain.

I feel sure that there will be progress each day.

Day 2, Friday, Jan. 30^th, 1998

My heart jumped for joy when I saw her fingers move. Her left hand was unable to close, but she was trying to squeeze my hand. She was also able to nod her head a bit when asked if she could hear. It is amazing that she can hear after being that close to a bomb. It is also amazing that she can understand what is going on. There is hope.

Her oldest daughter is able to hold her hand and say “hello.” The youngest tries to see her, but is too emotional and I have to take her back out.

Everyone has been so wonderful to me.
The president of UAB came by, as well as many doctors, hospital staff, and police. Her friends from as far back as high school have called. Everyone has her in their prayers.

Day 1, Thursday, Jan. 29^th, 1998

Emily usually does not open up at the clinic.
However, today she went in early. I got up to shower as soon as she left. When I was getting out of the shower, the phone was ringing. It was someone who worked with Emily telling me that there had been a bomb. While getting dressed, I kept waiting on a phone call from Emily telling me she was OK. The fact that she didn’t call let me know that something was wrong. I got to the police roadblock when my beeper went off with a UAB number. In one way, there was a relief that it looked like a hospital number. That meant that she might still be alive.

Emily was in surgery for ten (10) hours that first day.
The first news was an overview of what areas had been hurt. The FBI has asked me not to give out the details, but she was hurt from head to toe. Having worked in a hospital for several years myself, I understood how serious it was.

They were still working on her abdominal problems when I was told she may not keep her leg. About three (3) hours of her surgery went into rebuilding the blood supply to her left leg. Amazingly, they were able to save her leg.

Later, the worst news came in. Her left eye was destroyed. Of this entire ordeal, this news hit me the hardest. Even though I knew that her other injuries were more life threatening, the loss of an eye was hard to take. Part of this was because the decision was final. Her other wounds still had some hope.

That night, I went up to see her. I have seen a lot of sick and hurt people, but the sight of her face took my breath away. Perhaps it is because I knew how she looked before. Perhaps it is because she is my wife.

I took her oldest daughter in. The look of horror on her face when she saw Emily is beyond words. Her younger daughter went in next, with even more emotion. All I could say was that it was still their mother and that her face would get better.

There was no response from Emily. My hope was that it was because of the drugs.

Later that night, I was able to visit again. Her pulse and blood pressure went up when I started talking to her. This was great hope because it appeared that she could hear me.