A Time For Reflection

Well what an amazing and harrowing experience we have just endured.  My mom is the one that created this blog after I was in the hospital after my wreck.  What a labor of love that must have been during such an overwhelming time.  I realize this blog is about my medical journey and a coping outlet. I would be remiss not to share about the woman who made this coping outlet possible.....

We almost lost my mom over the past couple of months.  My mom had developed pneumonia which progressed to a double pneumonia over a month's time, which has been attributed to a pneumonia shot she received.  This progressed into something more exacerbated.  Mom went into the hospital November 6th and was further diagnosed with ANCA Vasculitis (which they are presuming was triggered by the vaccination), her kidneys started shutting down and her lungs started hemorrhaging; after being in the hospital for for nearly 6 days she was transferred to ICU and put on a Ventilator November 11.  This was when I thought I could not take any more.  I jut couldn't lose my mom. It just wasn't time.  The next few days would feel impossible.  I never gave up HOPE though.  After all, mom has never given up HOPE on me in my whole life.  Eventually after great care from a lot of amazing providers, the fighting spirit of mom herself, dedication of her family, and an amazing social support  - mom was miraculously removed from the Ventilator and LIVED (on November 17/18) and moved to a Rehabilitation Hospital on Thanksgiving Day.

She survived a kidney biopsy, plasmaphoresis, and two rounds of chemotherapy.  She beat all the odds.  She had acquired this rare condition and survived it all (at least for now).  She is not back to 100%, but she was home by December 10, with a walker and on the road to recovery.  She has ongoing therapies....but she is home.

Reflection on the similarities, reflection on my emotions through this whole ordeal, puts a different perspective and allows me a different level of humility for my family.  

Welcome home mom.  Welcome Home.

Everything paled in comparison to our focus on mom during this time.  The pain in my body never stopped, my forgetfulness and struggle to find myselfthe world didn't end, life kept going on. The reflection on how my family must have felt when I was in the hospital for 3.5 months was a sobering reality for me.  Since I had no recollection of all my time there it has always been hard to really conceptualize how they must have felt.  It always felt like a story about someone else.  There was no emotional attachment to it because there was not much memory attached to it.  I now value more than I could ever begin to originally understand, there patience, tolerance, faith, and strength as a family unit.  Not knowing if I was going to live or die - my injuries were horrific.  Mom's situation was horrific.  It has helped me appreciate the providers themselves....It helps me appreciate proper documentation overall.  It allowed me to see with new eyes how mistakes are made in a hospital setting and how the advocacy of family can be the difference between shortcuts taken or not.  

We are fortunate.  We are blessed.  To be educated, to have each other, to have the freedom to express ourselves openly and without abandon.  To have amazing providers, therapists, and Doctors who will advocate for their patients.  Thanks especially to mom's PCP who caught all this from the beginning with blood labs and x-rays. Thanks to mom for fighting for her life and blessing us with more opportunities to create memories together.

Welcome Home Mom.  Welcome Home.