Freedom is around the corner!

After 8 days in ICU, Jamie describes the Neuro Recovery floor to me as "very weird". Being 1 of 36 patients on this new floor has made Jamie realize that ICU is like First Class, while being moved to the regular floor is like being tossed unceremoniously into Economy Class.  Additionally, his room is pretty much at the back of a giant maze which could very well be part of the reason it takes six times as long to be heard, fed and/or attended to. However, he's got some great writing material for a future essay, book or short story, so it's all worth it, right?

As of tonight, it looks like he'll either be coming home tomorrow or Thursday, if everything goes as planned. For the record, he is just about back to normal in every other way -- meaning his brain was not damaged in any way, except for the weak, exploded and now drained blood vessel that filled his brain with blood. As the blood moves down through his spine -- getting reabsorbed along the way -- he will have plenty of headaches, but they won't last forever. He should have a complete recovery with no residual effects within a few months, or so.  No one will say HOW LONG the headaches will last, but they ALL agree that he will not have them for the rest of his life. Some day, it will just be an amazing 30th birthday story to tell his 4-6 wee little children (that he swore to me, on day three when he was heavily sedated, that he would father to pay me back for all the fear and heartache he was putting us through). Fair, I think.

One day soon (maybe even now), I'll be finished here. Thanks for the great feedback and comments. The 5 or 6 geniuses who somehow broke the blogspot code and were able to leave comments HERE on this blog will forever be considered rocket scientists by me and all the multitudes who tried in vain. Thanks for everything every one did and said and shared over the last week through email, texts, phone calls, cards, visits and FOOD. It's true what "they" always say, it really did mean SO much to us. It was like a warm hug when we needed it most over and over and over. It truly helped break up the violent roller coaster ride we were suddenly on -- and made it doable, just barely. Thank you all for that. We'll never forget it.

We all react and move through our lives in many different ways. My initial reaction was one of complete denial and if I could've, I would've gladly stayed in that place until it was all over. When that didn't work out and reality set in, it was so huge that I knew I had to let it out or I would've exploded along the way. I'm a communicator for sure and knew that I wanted to share this story in its purest form -- undiluted -- full of my observations and emotions, told the way I would tell it to my dearest friends and family. I was SO thankful that I could sit down at night and "download" the story, filling a need to get it out of me and making room for the next hopefully healing piece of the complicated and ever evolving puzzle.

Besides all that, I also wanted to do it for my Jamie. So someday he could read and perhaps feel the other side of his story -- the side he watched from his hospital bed, but did not really know was taking place. It was like a massive explosion in our world, loud and violent and terrifying. And for him perhaps, an implosion -- where he, all alone in his body, had to continually relay to everyone how he was feeling, what he was feeling and where he was feeling it. All from the same event, just different perspectives.  I look forward to reading his side of the story some day. I'm so incredibly grateful I can. 

Thanks everyone!!!  

Love, Sally