One year ago today.... Terrible Thursday

It’s been one year...

A whole year already since that Terrible Thursday… 

A kidney stone and a bladder infection. That’s it. Something that seems so minor is what landed our mom, who had previously been super healthy and exercised daily, in the ICU with less than 5% chance of living. She went into septic shock and had to be in a medically induced coma for nearly a week, while the medical staff worked a miracle to keep her alive.

PSA: don't mess with bladder/kidney/urinary tract infections. Don't try to treat it at home, get yourself to the doctor as fast as you can. It's not worth the risk.

I’m going to share a few pictures I took when mom was all hooked up to the machines. They almost lost her when they were putting her on the continuous dialysis machine that first night, but she was still hanging on the next morning. Every time the doctors came in to talk to us, they were pretty grim and said they were just taking things hour by hour.

This first shot was at 4am on 1/30 while I was laying on the pull-out couch in the room, squashed in with my dad, trying to get some sleep. I was looking at all the lines going from the pumps to mom… Major props to the nurses for keeping all of that straight.

This next picture was at around 7am on 1/30, I was trying to get a picture that didn’t include mom’s face or anything, but still showed the massive number of bags/pumps/machinery that were keeping her alive. It was not too long after this that Christina and I took a break from the hospital and came to terms with the fact that she probably wasn’t going to make it and we needed to get ourselves in the mental headspace to be able to deal with that.

So, how is she doing now? She’s still taking a bunch of medications, though they’re slowing weaning her off some of them. She has had 2 surgeries on her right hand to cut back the exposed bone from where the tissues died at the ends of her fingers. She had surgery to have the mega stones removed from her right kidney at the end of November, and the shards that she was passing after that seem to have slowed down. She hasn’t had to have any surgeries on her right foot, but there still aren’t any toenails and she’s still getting feeling back in it. Her middle toe has been trying to heal over, but will occasionally break open, so she keeps a bandage on it to protect it. She’s had some issues with her eyes, with glaucoma type symptoms but doesn’t actually have glaucoma. Her hair has pretty much grown back on the back of her head, she is just sporting a cute shorter hair cut now (shhhh, don’t tell her – I actually like this cut better than when her hair was long).

I took some shots of my parents together at Labor Day, since it had been more than 15 years since they last had pictures done. Here's one of my favorites:

It’s been a rough haul for her and she’s still recovering. Thankfully, she’s paying close attention to her body and getting to the doctor or hospital anytime something seems “off” and might need medical attention. We are so happy and thankful that she is still here with us, believe me, we know how lucky we are. Reading back through the blog really brings it back to us and remember what we were going through at the time. I think we’re all closer now after going through this, which is a nice side benefit. We thank every one of you for your positive thoughts and prayers while she was struggling to pull through and afterwards when she was coming back and healing. 

Here are a few words from our drama mama herself:

I am working full time, and feel that I’m thinking almost as well as before. My shorter fingers on my right hand have relearned how to type. I have the full feeling of touch in my left hand and am almost there with my right.  More nerves are popping back in my right foot all of the time. My hair has thickened up nicely.   I am to the point right now, that I can honestly say this is good enough.  I’m still improving so this is good space to be in.

To be real honest with you, I didn’t feel very bothered about the whole process. It never occurred to me that I would not heal.  I just took it one improvement at a time. I called them my daily miracles.  This was not through an effort to be like I felt I should be.  This is just how it was.  I am very thankful that I did not have to feel depressed through any of this ordeal.

I would like to add my thanks for any prayers and well wishes that helped me through this. 

- Alice

Much love to you all...