Every TBI is unique. Olga is moving forward one baby step at a time. After the emotional roller coaster in November and December and after Olga clearly stated I am not leaving without a fight, God answered our prayers and began leading Olga to recovery.
Through John Keller story and many others, we have learned a lot about hope, faith, patience, ambition, inner peace, and the list goes on. But one thing that stands out is P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Somehing Happens). Most of us do not think much of a person's blinking or breathing pattern, coughing or eye movement. After the hemorrhaging incident in early December (I call it hitting rock bottom) Olga began to show small indications of progress. I remember saying to my family, "I have never been so excited about someone coughing." Have you? For some of us this is exactly what P.U.S.H. means and then you build up from there and continue praying until the man upstairs decides what is next. Among Olga's first baby steps was coughing then blinking then opening her eyes. A baby's devlopment is somewhat expected based on thousands of years humans have been around. For some of us, Olga is a born again baby. We are always excited to see what she is going to do next. She moved her pinky 1/8 of an inch. Woooooohooooo! We took a victory lap. Oh! Next day she moved her other finger 1/4 of an inch. Woooooohooooo! And we took another victory lap and so on. In retrospect, the baby steps are big leaps. For the most part, everyday is a celebration.
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| Christmas eve (December 24, 2010) Nine days after being discharged from ICU |
In January, as expected she had good and bad days. Vital signs are stable but with show stoppers here and there; yet, she moves forward: 5 steps forward and 2 back. Now a promising trend.
February...
March/today Olga continues to be stable. She tries to follow commands and is more alert. We are glad we see her in pain. Why? Because she can feel it. Pain is a great sign. She is telling us I am here and I need to get out of here.
Again, we get excited and continue to P.U.S.H. into April.
Special thank you to John Keller and his team for the great deal of inspiration and what they do for TBI survivors.
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