IT'S-A WHIRLWIND TOUR!

Life is never as it is supposed to be when you are a parent of a child with developmental disabilities, beginning at their birth and your life changes forever.

As a young disabled child, the only issues one would face is colds that normally arise with any child, and perhaps something to do with their disability. But as they grow older they become more susceptible illnesses that can involve hospitalization. Along with illness comes physical disability that can cause accidents and additional hospitalization. Some take copious amounts of medications that start to negate each other gradually, and the doctor will not realize it until something serious happens.

Since August, my daughter Ellen, who is 46-years old, has been hospitalized for falling and causing a brain bleed, then a second fall that resulted in a hip replacement. In that time she was in a rehab after her hip replacement. She has responded by stopping eating or drinking. It is so bad now that her home for people with disabilities once more rushed her to the hospital a day after her release. She is extremely thin and sleepy, responding to life by putting her blankets over her face and head and fall off to sleep.

It was mid-afternoon yesterday as I was about to sit down on a cold winder raw day to have a cup of tea when my phone rang. Having ‘Caller ID’ I could see who was calling, it was her home. She hadn’t been home 24 hours yet and so I suspected something was wrong. The party on the other end was a nurse informing me that she sent to the hospital ER because she was still not eating or drinking.

Cursing my daughter’s luck I drive off to the hospital. In my mind, I imagine all kinds of future situations occurring. I get to the hospital ER and am directed to where she is, and in her bed, I see a body with a blanket draped over her head. For the next four hours, blood was taken and a test was done and after 4 hours of this they were going to do more tests, so I knew it would be a long haul so I left, expecting to come back today. As I get home I receive a phone call advising me that all the test are coming up negative so the hospital staff thinks I should send her home with a name of a suggested gastroenterologist, would I agree with this. I ask what she suggests and going home is the best thing.

At midnight we get a call from a male nurse informing us that she is on her way home. And so like a whirlwind, it goes, from hospitals to rehabs, just to keep this sweet child of mine alive and happy.

Say a prayer for her.