TBI Tales: Bittersweet is Today
(Reposted from my other blog – Donna O’Donnell Figurski’s Blog Jan. 13, 2011)
Bittersweet! is Today!
It’s the mix of heavenly sweetness followed quickly by harsh reality. It’s pleasure mixed with pain. It’s happiness and regret. That’s bittersweet!
Bittersweet is today!
Today – six years ago on January 13, 2005, with no invitation, bittersweet moved in with David and me. He was an uninvited guest.
He ripped David’s and my lives apart. – Bitter!
We won’t let bittersweet beat us. We are building our lives up again – together. – Sweet!
David suffered a traumatic brain injury. He endured an operation that lasted about 5 to 6 hours. He wasn’t supposed to live – Bitter!
He lived! – Sweet!
David endured two more open-brain surgeries in less that two weeks and slept the sleep of coma for more than that. He wasn’t supposed to live. – Very Bitter!
After several weeks he began to respond to the world around him. He wiggled his toes and blinked his eyes. – Sweet!
For three months he was in hospitals learning to walk, learning to talk, learning to feed and dress himself again – learning to be a part of society. He desperately missed his job at Columbia University. He did not know when or if he would ever return. Bitter-very-bitter!
Columbia welcomed David back with an article about him in the newsletter of Columbia University called, In Vivo-CUMC At Large. Very Sweet!
And by conferrring upon him in 2006, at the Medical School Commencement, the Charles Bohmfalk Award for teaching in clinical years. Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!
David still has difficulty walking, talking, swallowing, and seeing. His right arm shakes erratically. He remains a prisoner of his body. Bitter-oh-so-bitter!
He wont let anything get him down. Life has become as normal as it can with all of these disabilities. He exercises to strengthen his body. He works to strengthen his mind. Improvements are being made – slowly, but they come. Sweet!
David has lived six years longer than any of his doctors expectations. Sweet! Oh-so-Sweet!
I have my best friend with me. Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!
Bittersweet move over. There is not enough room in our lives for you.
(Picture compliments of ME)
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