Happy Life Day

Today is our anniversary.

 

One year ago today, on May 1 2019, my son Weslee entered the hospital for an exploratory brain surgery called SEEG. He had a very rare side effect to a seizure med that caused massive brain bleeding during the surgery, so he had a stroke. He was put in a ventilator, and before he left for a Neuro rehab hospital at the end of May, he had had 8 more surgeries. He came home, finally, after a total of 35 days, still relearning to hold a cup, talk, walk, think, etc. 

It has been a struggle this past year. He still uses a cane to walk, tires easily, has to take a nap almost daily. He has huge gaps in his memory, has developed a facial 'tic', and still has the brain drain (shunt).

I am so thankful every day for Mr. Shane, the nurse on the ICU floor who first noticed Weslee wasn't responding to stimuli as expected.  He noticed it in the nic of time; his surgeon said Weslee would have died that night if Shane hasn't caught it, and if the surgeon hadn't immediately taken him back to the OR for emergency surgery.

So...today, Weslee and I will celebrate his LIFE day.



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I sent a dozen specialty cupcakes to the ICU ward (but Mr. Shane no longer works there..bummer). And even though Weslee is taking a nap right now (2:30 p.m.), I ordered a 4:00 p.m."linner" for us from his fave place: Cheesecake factory.