On July 30th, 2008 my life changed...

Two years ago...

My mom fell on Wednesday, July 30th at about 3 pm. When Dad found her she was blue, gasping for air, and totally unresponsive. According to the doctors at Providence Milwaukie Hospital, when the EMTs arrived she was dieing. They had a CT scan done and discovered that she had fractured C2 in her neck, this is the 2nd vertebra down from the base of her skull. The prognosis is not good. She was transferred to Emanuel Hospital at about 5 pm that same evening because they do not have the ability to care for her where she was.

At Emanuel they did a repeat CT and a MRI. She is still unresponsive. The news is not good. She will be a c2 quadriplegic and vent dependent for the rest of her life and they feel that she had a hypoxic brain injury and may never wake up.

On Friday, August 1st we are told that things are grim and that we have two choices. Begin life support by within 3 days or remove the ventilator and let her pass. Dad and I had a "easy" choice to make. Mom made her wishes very clear. We decided to remove the ventilator in the next two days, probably the next morning. A little while later we discovered that Mom wants to be an organ donor so we got the ball rolling on that. Her chart was reviewed, blood was drawn, and they did an exam to determine whether on not she could donated her organs. After this it was decided that we would go through on Sunday with everything.

Well, she had a different idea. She woke up Saturday morning, August 2nd. Since then she had surgery to repair the dens (projection) on c2 with a screw and the off came the c-collar on the same day, August 3rd. Tuesday, August 5th she had surgery to put in the trach. Since then it has been treating her respiratory complications, tests, positioning, clogged NG tube, poking and prodding.

About a week later we almost lost her again... her heart rate and BP would plummet. The nurses kept a stock of resuscitation meds in her room. Yes, it was that bad and started happening that frequently. With the pushing of the nurses and my Dad wagging war she finally got her pacemaker.

On from there the docs fought raging infections, a collapsed lung, and basically kept her alive until they could shirk her off on to Craig hospital. Yes... a level one trauma hospital lied to get her transferred because they were unable to deal with the infections.

Mom the day she left for Denver. You can see how sick she still is.

Over the past two years mom has enduring poking, prodding, surgeries, multiple infections, a huge pulmonary embolism that almost took her from us again. Dad continues to stand by her side. Providing all of her care when the situation calls for it. The bond between my parent's is the stuff dreams are made from.

Mom now...

In honor of this huge life changing event lil Pooligans is doing a 50% drawing for Summer Fun during the anniversary of the three hardest days of my life.

July's Featured Baby of the Month

July's Featured Baby is Rosie's Beautiful Princess! She is sporting her Sealife PnT. Congrats mama and baby! Every month I will select a new picture. The winner will receive a 40% discount code towards a regular OSFM diaper. Please email up to three pictures to lilpooligans@gmail.com if you would like to be considered featured baby of the month. Submissions must be received by the 1st of the month to be considered and I will pick the new baby on or around the 7th.

Something about SAHMs...

TELL ME ABOUT IT ®

By Carolyn Hax

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Carolyn:

Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group . . .

Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events) and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.

Tacoma, Wash.

Relax and enjoy. You're funny.

Or you're lying about having friends with kids.

Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

Internet searches?

I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.

So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself.

Quoted from : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201554.html?referrer=facebook