Healing Slowly

May 4, 2009

(Airica painted her's and her sister's face blue.  Why you ask?  So they could sing "Im blue if I was green I would die, if was was green I would die"  you know da ba dee da ba di)

Today the doctors report that Airica's lungs are slowly healing.  Unfortunately they still don't know what caused respiratory failure, so they also don't know what medications or treatments are helping.  They have to continue with them all.  One side effect of the steroids they are giving her is that it's shrinking the tumor.  They will send off some samples to a lab that can run some extensive tests to try and find out why this happened.

The healing process has finally begun.  It feels good to finally be hearing good, positive,news from the doctors.  We have also had a social worker who had been visiting with us and pretty much going through this ordeal along with us, Patricia. 

Patricia, a wonderful, kind, compassionate, person, doing God's work.  That is the only way I could describe a person who dives into someone else's crisis and makes it their own.  She was there to hold me when I cried, listen to me while I screamed in frustration, and comfort me when I felt helpless.  She was there when we received bad news and shared those moments with us, she was there when we received good news and shared those moments with us.  Such an amazing person who went way above and beyond her job duties.  As you can imagine, she had fell so in love with Airica too.  I was, and am so grateful for Patricia and all she has done for our family, as well as all the many doctors, nurses and RT's that all went above and beyond.

I write these blogs to help me heal as I mentioned before.  I also know that I am writing my own experience.  Many others went through this same journey with me in their own way, many of whom are reading.  Sometimes it hard to realize that when you are dealing with your own heart. To all of you I send my love, strength and recognize that it is just as difficult for you to read and relive as it is for me to write and relive.

Below in Alyssa's words is a story she wanted to share as she heals:

About 5 years ago, like most sisters, me and my sissy shared a room. And of course when you have anther person in there with you, there is no possible way you could just sleep. So almost every night, me and my sister would wait till my parents went to sleep, turn on the tv, and binge out on whatever snack foods we had in the pantry that day. Now this had gone on for about 2 months before we got caught, because we were very careful to be quiet, and cover our tracks. But one night, when my sister went out to the pantry to get our nightly haul, (flashlight in hand) and it took her a lot longer than usual. I was going to go out, to see what was keeping her, but for some reason, I decided not to. When she got back, she could barely speak, she said her heart was beating so fast. She had explained to me that daddy had gotten up to fill up his water in the middle of the night, and she was in the pantry the whole time, the second she heard something she clicked of her flashlight and tried to be as silent as possible as she tried not too breath. However, after her "near death experience"  the night went on, we continued eating junk and watching Adult Swim. We continued on with our little tradition until we got caught later that year. But every time I think back to our little school night sleepover parties, it just reminds me that I had the best sister ever.