During our extended stay in Minnesota for Jayen's brain surgery we met the most incredible young lady and her family. Miss Olivia was in the hospital the same time as Jayen and had a surgery very similar to Jayen's. It was so nice to be able to share our knowledge with their family and for Olivia to see what she was about to go through. We, in return, loved that Olivia could express how she was feeling. We could ask her questions that we wanted to know about Jayen and she could articulate for us in a way Jayen couldn't. We miss them a lot and can't wait for our next visit.
This week I received a message from Mark, Olivia's dad.
Olivia invited me to her school today for some sort of presentation. Didn't know much about it. The other kids started giving talks on people or events that influenced or inspired them. All the other kids had a self-portrait on a big screen behind them as they spoke. Olivia got up and at first I thought the teacher put the wrong artwork up, until I realized who she was talking about. It was pretty moving stuff and once again I find myself being taught about life by my kids. Thanks for influencing and inspiring me.
With permission from Olivia, here is her report.
" beep, beep, beep. "
What was that irritating noise?
I was just waking up for my Anesthesia, so everything was spinning and blurry.
" mom." clattered footsteps were coming my way. I heard a lot of mumbling and deep breaths "Is she ok? will she be alright? Can you. Oh my! Is that good? Wait, what about...? "
SILENCE. " mom " I stuttered again. "Oh, you're oka-" "where am I?" " well, honey you Are in the hospital" "wher" I quivered "hos- pit- all" "oh. " more footsteps were headed my way, I was shocked when I heard " pill time! " Putth-uh " the pills did not go down well and when I say well I mean at all, they were all choked up and never went down.
Post - surgery. - day two,
After a hard nights sleeping I woke up I knew where I was, I knew how to talk, I knew I was in good hands and I KNEW IT WOULD BE A WHILE, But one thing I did know was how to walk. I had get exercise so I would " walk " with two nurses and hold my saline pole at my side. All the other kids in the epilepsy unit were smaller and younger than me, so it was kind of odd walking around in the part were they would play. Although there was one little boy that me and my family were quite fond of, he was only four years old! Again smaller then me. He had one of the same surgeons I had. My parents started talking to his parents, and once I heard his story, lets just say I was sincere and wanted to know more since we were both struggling with our seizures. See, all the way back before surgery, I had these seizures called partial seizures. They were small, quick little jerks. I'd have up to 70 or 80 a day along with full blown grand-mall seizures every other week. Those were 2 to 5 minutes long. Once I even had 25 minute Grand-mall! Jayen the little boy was going through similar things except he had multiple Grand-malls in a day and they were on an average of 10 to 15 minutes long. I found this amazing, but not in the good way. Jayen was only four years old!
That is an inspiration. If a four year old boy could go through what I was going through, or maybe even more severe then what I have.
And not only that, I was lucky we had doctors that could help my case that weren't far from where we live. In fact, very close. This strong family traveled from all the way from the crisp chilled Nebraskan air, oh and don't forget the two other kids they had to drag along with them. After my parents got to now Jayen's parents well, me and Jayen started playing around more. He gave me a daisy he had made with the children's community center ( a group of high school and college students that came around with cool art projects for you to to do when your bored . ) in fact, to this very day that plant is still at our house living a nice planty life. Jayen was a pretty cool four year old, who loved spider man! So I gave him a daisy and multiple spider man drawings. 21 days later I got to leave the hospital. Sadly, Jayen didn't leave until a week after me. We had both said our goodbyes and parted our different ways. No more seizures, baby! Well for me that is maybe a week out of the hospital. Jayen started having more seizures :( . This was posted on Facebook for us to see when I heard the news. I was devastated. My eyes were almost tearing up. This was a pattern that continued for a while ... But one daFacebook post had just said,
" Jayen has just gone one week without any seizures! "
Releived and happy, I knew things were looking up for the both of us.
" if a four year old boy could go through what I was going through... Well that is a true inspiration. "
I would like for Olivia to know how much of an inspiration she is to me, Jayen and my entire family. You and Jayen are the most amazing, inspiring people I know. You will move mountains!
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