Annie-Part 3

A few years ago, my Mother was diagnosed with 2 Brain Aneurysms.   This is the story of her journey.

For Part 1 of this story click Here

For Part 2 of this story click Here

The Code-Blue announcement over the hospital intercom left us frozen in our spots, unable to move.


Doors flung open. Nurses came out from everywhere and headed towards the intensive care unit where my Mom had been taken to.  


I wanted to yell. 


I {So, Badly} wanted to yell at the nurses to run, but the words wouldn't come out of my mouth.  


The clock slowed down and the seconds ticked by. So. Incredibly. Slowly. As we waited for any kind of an update.  


At last, the door that led to the ICU, opened again and the nurses slowly trickled their way back out.


"False Alarm, she's fine," the nurse said.  The cord was accidentally unplugged when they were getting her in the room.


I wanted to punch her.  


One would think that finding out your Mom's heart never actually stopped beating would be a joyous moment.   And it definitely was, don't get me wrong.  The build up anxiety-stress-fear-worry, of the last few weeks-days-hours-minutes-seconds, left me feeling sick with an incredible urge to vomit.  Especially knowing that there was still a growing Brain Aneurysm, and she would undergo a second surgery and go through this hell again. 

Over the past month, the larger of my Mom's two Brain Aneurysms had been growing and pressing against her optic nerve.  By the time she was admitted to the hospital for her first surgery, she had lost the majority of her eyesight in one eye and was unable to open the eye without physically lifting the eyelid with her hand. A blessing in disguise as it was ultimately what lead to the discovery of the Aneurysms.  


The Neurosurgeons were not sure if the damage to her eye was reversible and if my Mom would regain use of her eye again.  At this point, we just felt so lucky that she was alive.


During her first Brain surgery, the larger Aneurysm had been clipped and my Mom was scheduled a couple of months later to have the second Aneurysm coiled. 

The wait between the two surgeries was hard on all of us, as it literally felt like she had a ticking time bomb in her head.  The news that I was pregnant was a little bit of a distraction for my Mom, giving her a {little} something to keep her mind off of the upcoming surgery.

To Be Continued...