Do you like roller coasters? I used to… maybe I still do. It’s been years since I’ve been near one, but it’s the best picture I can dredge up for the last year of our lives.
One year ago today our precious girl had her second seizure, which led us to the emergency room after a few hours of weird symptoms and teeth-clenching uncertainty. The local “911″ didn’t work, as we’d always heard rumor it might not in this fine country, and the moment of final decision to make our own way to the ER happened while our house guests were preparing to share with the 20 people who had literally JUST piled into our living room. Nice to see you all… dinner’s on the stove and in the oven — literally — but we’ve got to go.
The roller coaster took off downhill at break neck speed for me. There are so many things about that moment, that week, that will forever remain etched in my memory and won’t profit anyone for me to line out here. Let’s just say it was definitely a first-order trial of my character, stamina and faith.
That painful week was followed by a few months of severe sleep deprivation, drug trials, and a revolving door of doctors. I think that brief season may have taken months or years off of our lives. Joy’s health was certainly not the only stress, not even the only major stress of those days, but it was the centerpiece. Tim and I were handed one of those stress indicator surveys this summer — you know the one, where you get points for all sorts of life changes, good and bad — and we were well off the chart, close to the moon I think.
The ride is not over, though it has definitely slowed pace. These days a significant chunk of my everyday swirls around researching and experimenting in order to feed our princess, who has a diet too strict to believe, but wow — am I grateful to be a year away from last October 24 with a happy, bouncy, healthy little girl at my side. It’s a landmark day for sure, and we are looking ahead with hope and the expectation of good things!
