Over the Hump

Wow...

the last week has been a whirlwind.

I can honestly say I am exhausted!

Tired of hospitals and watching monitors. Tired of going back and forth. And goshdarnit tired of sitting on horrible ICU metal chairs!! I'm pretty sure my butt was flattened out!

I have spent more time in hospitals this year....between my brother-in-law being in Boston for weeks (remember this post?) and this past week....too much time. I has made me realize how amazingly strong are all the parents who have spent countless weeks and months with their babies in the hospital.

Heartbreaking.

If you didn't already know, both my brothers were in the ICU this past week for seizure activity. My brother-in-law in Ohio and my brother here, in NH. I was woken up on Tuesday morning to my mom telling me the ambulance was on their way because Ben was having grand mal seizures, one right after another. I was confused because I knew my bro-in-law was in the hospital for the same thing, and surely my mom was just confused, or I wasn't hearing her correctly because I had been woken from a dead sleep.

Sure enough, I rushed down my stairs, my dad was in my brothers room and Ben was face down having a grand mal seizure. He stopped breathing a couple times and aspirated. The ambulance arrived after what seemed like forever, and he was taken right away to the trauma room at the local city ER. By the time he was there, he had had over a dozen grand mal seizures. He was intubated and placed on a vent to breathe for him. He was completely sedated and remained in this state for over 48 hours. They tried to take him off the sedation meds but he was showing more signs of possible seizure activity, so back to a medically induced sleep he went. The second attempt over a day later was more successful.

I'm tired just writing all the details. I'll spare you the rest. It has been a LOOONG week, but both Ben and my bro-in-law are home from the hospital now. Ben is doing well, but experiencing some negative behavior due to all the med changes etc. My bro-in-law is still dealing with severe headache pain that is not even touched by morphine.

People kept telling us having 2 family members in the ICU at the same time, thousands of miles apart was too much for one family to deal with.....

Amazing, though....the grace of God....was abundant and evident.

So we press on hoping, praying, and receiving the grace He gives.