Out of the hospital!

 

Wow, it feels amazing to be at my own computer, in my own house and typing away to all of you. * PLEASE BE AWARE, SOME PARTS MAY BE “GRAPHIC” TO SOME *

I went in for surgery on July 6th at 7:30 am. I was terrified and crying, wanting to hold my daughter but not able to. I obviously can’t tell you much from “during” surgery except that my boyfriend, mom, dad, sister, brother and 2 of my best friends sat there the ENTIRE time.. the entire THIRTEEN hour surgery. I cannot imagine the ordeal they went through waiting for the time to pass until they got each phone call update.. Which I hear was about every 2 hours.

After my surgery I was wheeled into an ICU room where I was intubated for quite some time. Due to this, I had to be strapped down so I could not pull the tube out. As I started to come to I remember having panic attacks and vomiting from the tube. I was scared out of my mind and felt so helpless. I faintly remember coming in and out of “it” for awhile and just wanting everything to stop.

I don’t remember much from the first few days really and I was moved between different ICU rooms and step-down rooms several times. I could hear family and friends around me but I could hardly manage to open my eyes, let alone let out a sigh to let them know I was aware of them. Again – I can’t imagine what they all went through during this difficult time.

In my time in the hospital, I had to learn so much all over again. I had to learn to walk again, dress myself, how to eat and swallow. This became so discouraging for me because I am 23 years old and have been doing this “forever” so I didn’t understand why I couldn’t anymore. I am also a Mother, I am supposed to show my daughter these things – not be the one learning them myself. My wonderful, supportive boyfriend Tony came and stayed with me at the hospital EVERY SINGLE DAY! It was hard for us to both be away from our daughter but she was in excellent care of family and friends at home. With his encouraging support every day, it made it so much easier to not give up on myself and to realize what I had just gone through was indeed, major! He never once complained while being there or showed any strain. He was also like another “nurse” there for me and fetching my every need.

I had to do several sessions of speech, occupational and physical therapy while in the hospital. This was difficult at first and I’d become very exhausted and have anxiety attacks. I ended up being put on anxiety medication while in the hospital. As to be expected, I had good times and bad times. Times where I’d realize how far I’d come in just a couple days and times where I felt like I’d never be “normal” again.

On my last night in the hospital, I was visiting with friends when I got a phone call from my boyfriend that they were in an ambulance rushing my daughter into the pediatric ER department of the very hospital I was in. She had suffered seizures in his arms and this was traumatizing for all of us because she’d never experienced this before and because I was in the hospital at the moment recovering from a huge brain surgery! Thankfully she was released that night and it appeared to only be mild seizure with no long-term effects. I just didn’t understand how in such an already difficult time, we were faced with more trial and tribulation.

I am happy to say I have been home for about 3 hours now and I definitely feel a greater sense of peace. I am still in major recovery but I believe it will be much easier now that I am at home.

I go July 19th to have my sutures removed. Then within the next several weeks I will have to undergo a spinal tap to check my spinal fluid. After that testing is done, I will be assigned a radiation treatment plan. I must undergo 6 to 8 weeks of radiation every Monday through Friday. We have to drive an hour each way so this has presented large challenges for us. My boyfriend has already had to take a large chunk of work time off and will have to take more off as I am not allowed home alone caring for our child. He will also have to take time off to bring me to and from radiation appointments. I have also been in the process of trying to get through college and now I am going to have to take 1 to 2 semesters off so I can complete my radiation.

If you can all spare just a few more minutes here, I really have a huge thing to share.. Before even being in the hospital my boyfriend and I had discussed plans of wanting to get married but we were going to save up entirely on our own for everything while I worked through college and lived on his sole income. After all my health issues came about – our savings quickly diminished to nothing. In the first few days at the hospital after I was able to speak more, we had come to the conclusion that we’d have to put those wedding dreams to rest and basically just elope. While this was very saddening, it was our only option because the “big dream” is so far out of reach now. While my Mom and brother were on their way to visit us in the hospital one of the days – they heard an ad on our local radio and there’s several venues holding a huge Platinum Proposal engagement contest. The winning couple gets a dream engagement ring, a chance for a proposal at a big concert and some concert tickets for family and friends. I can’t even begin to tell you what a glimpse of a miracle this has shown to possibly be for us. My boyfriend tried for several days to enter the contest from our hospital room while suffering horrible hospital internet connection. Our story is finally published but we need your help to catch up and win this. I already know I have the man of my dreams and we can fulfill our life-long dreams, goals and vows to each other… now I am hoping we can win this dream to add a special touch.

Please visit this page and vote for our story Tony and Heather’s “From Pizza to Passion”. You have to register and then actually click “vote” on our story.

We would be forever grateful and no words could ever express how much it truly means to us.

PS: Can’t wait to be able to share photographic updates again soon!!!

[NOTE: I want to send a huge THANK YOU out to all of my wonderful family and friends who stood by our side for this entire ordeal! Thank you to everyone who shared our story to get prayers and support. I love you all!]