Blessings In The Midst Of A Storm

Where do I begin? I don’t even know. What I do know is I got to FaceTime with my sister tonight since it was the first day I wasn’t able to be there, and she seems to be coming back to us. And in true sissy fashion, she was the one comforting me…

Last night the clock turned 7:11. I immediately texted my mom and brothers ‘7:11.’ My mom responded, ‘That’s how much you weighed when you were born!’ I said, ‘I know. Corrie would always text me 7:11 if she caught it on the clock.’ With no explanation, just ‘7:11.’ It was just our thing. (I like to think it’s just symbolic of her being blessed with 7lb 11oz me! 🤣🤷🏼‍♀️) But I sobbed last night when I caught that it was 7:11. All I wanted was a text from her and yet that idea seemed so far away. But after talking to her today, it doesn’t seem quite as far ♥️

It all started Friday evening. She got all dolled up and ready to go to dinner with her girlfriends for the Founders dinner for RLXCL. I mean, she’s seriously a die hard fan of these girls and their jewelry. Clearly. But look how beautiful she is 🥹

And Angelo, loving my sister so well, thought they should make a night of it and get a hotel room downtown. Eliana would stay overnight at one of their friend’s houses. (Blessing #1 and probably the biggest blessing of all. That little girl doesn’t miss a beat. She’s a die hard Mama fan, and would simply be traumatized if she saw what was about to happen and watch her sweet Mama leave in an ambulance.) He would drive Corrie and her friends to the dinner and pick them up. He’d bring all the girls home and then they’d go back to the hotel. So they were staying downtown. Close to a wonderful hospital. If they weren’t staying downtown, they wouldn’t have been sent to as great of a hospital. (Blessing #2)

When they got back to the hotel, they were just hanging out and talking when my sister started saying she was hot and then cold. So they decided to just lay down. Angelo rolled over and heard a weird scream/cry she let out. He turned around and her eyes had rolled back and her hands clenched up. He tried patting her face and yelling to her to try to get her to snap out of it. He called the valet and told them he needed help for his wife. By the time the ambulance and fire department got there, she had snapped out of it. She was a little confused but nothing too alarming. She was able to answer all of their questions and they looked her over. They thought she was okay, so they left. Not even 30 seconds later, it happened again and Ang was able to yell for help and they immediately came back and took her in the ambulance.

It would then be a long, I don’t even know how many hours until 8am when Angelo, Sharon and I could go see her Saturday morning. We walked into her room, heavily sedated with a ventilator in up in the Neuro ICU floor. It’s a sight I never want to see ever again.

They gave her anti seizure medication but still had to sedate and vent her because she kept having seizures in the ER and one was pretty big.

Because of the seizures in her left, lower temporal lobe, there is swelling to her brain which has affected her short term memory. Along with random, long term, memory things. (She asked Mom how Walter was 🥺) Once her brain heals, this will improve completely. (Blessing #3) And guys, she’s made so much progress. The prayers are working! So thank you from the bottom of our hearts, to all who have been praying for her. (Blessing #4)

She’s feisty and a fighter. (Blessing #5) She ripped out that ventilator herself Saturday night. We know she’s going to be feisty and fight her way back to being 100%.

I’m not going to go into an update of what they say it is quite yet, because things keep changing. It’s hard to keep up with. Just please pray the seizures stop completely. We’re moving in the right direction but they will not discharge her until she shows no seizure activity for at least 24 hours. The EEG monitor is picking up some small seizures in her brain that aren’t visible to us, or that she even notices. Last night she was finally down to only 1 small one that occurred.

In the state of IL, you can’t drive for 6 months after having a seizure, so there’ll definitely be some short term life changes that are worth it when you look at her being totally okay long term. And we’re continuing to pray that is what the outcome will be as we wait for further results to rule out different variables.

Her brain is slowly healing and she’s coming back. My sister is coming back to herself! 😭🥹

Hug your loved ones a little tighter today. And tell them you love them just one extra time. Be thankful for the small things. Because one day those small things might be so incredibly big. So incredibly big.