Recovery Overview - Aftermath

So now it's been a year since the accident and she is still recovering. I want everyone to understand that when someone is in a coma, it is not like the movies where people look like they're blissfully sleeping and just happen to wake up from their somber one sunny day. It is not like that at all! Here is a helpful link to get into more of the "scientific" depths of traumatic brain injury http://www.biausa.org/.
She slowly is becoming more and more aware. And she smiles!!!

Below is an email sent out in September- 6 Months into recovery. Keep in mind, I was still frustrated- hence not on a spiritual path but just plain working out of love. Yes, I'm the intense sappy one hahaha:

It has taken me this long to reach this point, to find the courage and face our obstacle.

Yesterday was my second support group meeting. I was inspired when I met other people that have been through what we are currently going through.
I know it's hard when we are faced with circumstances that are not black and white. We walk around with the feeling of mourning yet our sister is very ALIVE.
Why am I Angry? Sad? Stressed? Happy? Guilty? Confused?

I believe it is time we no longer wait for the professionals to give us answers. What I learned yesterday is that TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) is such a new injury that most professional care providers are limited to what they themselves know. Credible research was developed in 1982. Yet, just like anything that has just started there will be misinterpreted material.

Advancement in medical technology has helped save Soy's life. Now what? Where do we go from that? Is there a guide? I don't ask about her physical difficulties because my biggest concern is her brain recovering. But that does not mean I don't think about it. What about her joints locking up because she has been bed ridden for SIX months? And her muscles...she worked so hard for nice legs.

Well yes, no and I don't know, were the answers I got from the medical team. What we learned is that this is a physical injury as much as a mental and emotional injury. And guess what, another survivor had the same problem with her joints and she got BOTOX injections to her joints to help lubricate them and it worked. Now she can wave HI!! Thank god for BOTOX.

Right now Soy is a level 3 on the Rancho Scale for comas. The doctors say she MAY never wake up but they are not sure (OK WTF!! what kind of answer is that??!!! I swear I would have punched him, but don't hurt the messenger. And further more I can't afford to get sued cause I'M SAVING MY MONEY TO PAY FOR MY SISTER'S MEDICAL NEEDS) Yet they also said she would not make it. It has been SIX months and she is getting healthier.

I believe Soy will wake up. Due to the subtleties we see in her day by day. First it started with eye opening, now it's turning her head towards the direction the voice is coming from. Sometimes smiling when dad makes a goof out of himself and tries to joke in English. Or even the occasional squeeze my hand Soy. And guess what she SQUEEZED my hand.

As they said in the support group.......the beginning of recovery for the family and the patient is when you realize you will not be able to go back to what and who she was. But you can build on who she has become. We do know that there are great rehabilitation centers in the United States. And yes it will be expensive. What do we do- we don't have adequate healthcare. Yet, my sister, just like any human being deserves the best!! That is the purpose of fundraising. And it doesn't end there. All the survivors that we have met are continuing there rehabilitation through resources that they and their families have searched for themselves. Even things that medical professionals did not know about. This is not a text book injury. It is a person injury. And as we know it Soy is SO stubborn, she doesn't give up. No Matter What!!!

Miracles do happen.
Like the lady that got her skull and first layer of membrane from her brain completely scraped off. She has 20% brain damage and completely ZERO frontal lobe activity in her brain. I may not understand what all that means, but I do understand enough that the results shocked me. The doctors said she will be blind on her right side, completely paralyzed on her left side and MAY never wake up. But instead she woke up, got married, had a baby, director of her HOA, sells insurance and maintains a "normal" life, with A LOT of extra work for the past 12 years. She says, "It's simply because IT'S WORTH IT".

Or the man who WAS in a coma for NINETEEN YEARS........guess what it stopped at 19 because he WOKE UP.

There was one thing all along though...........the one thing all successful survivors have in common is this...A RELENTLESS SUPPORT GROUP WITH COURAGE! THE AUDACITY TO THINK BEYOND WHAT THEY WERE TOLD! A FAMILY THAT CONSISTED MORE THAN JUST BLOOD! AND LOVE BEYOND REALITY! WE ARE HER ONLY ADVOCATES.

I am here. I know the strength that I have. I know this time; I will need more than just me. I know you have it in you to join me. This may not be what we had pictured but this is our life. I am ready to embrace it. We are going to make it happen.

I will give up my desires and I pray for strength.
Love- Mia