Sliding into my DMs (Chris Evans fanfiction)

Author's Note

Hi all

Apologies for not updating, let me explain.

On Monday 11th January, my Mum got taken into hospital after suffering a very mild heart attack (which she hadn't realised she'd had). She felt absolutely fine other than being scared about going into hospital. She was in A&E for 5 hours on her own, then moved to the medical assessment unit, and then onto a ward. She was kept in as she needed to be an in-patient to go and have a scan on her heart. We found out she would be going for the scan on Tuesday 19th January in the afternoon.

The morning of Tuesday 19th January, she got told she was covid-19 positive. She had obviously picked this up in the hospital as she had been negative on the previous 3 tests. We were all devastated, but as she felt fine, she was allowed to be discharged home and self isolate with my Dad.

Unfortunately, my Dad picked it up and despite my Mum being ok at first, she started to really feel the effects. The following Tuesday 26th January, she was rushed by ambulance to hospital as she was delirious, severely dehydrated and lacking oxygen. She was given high doses of oxygen but unfortunately by Thursday 4th February, they decided to move her to critical care to be placed in an induced coma and put on a ventilator. My Dad and I were devastated. She was incredibly brave and had a video call with my Dad beforehand to tell him everything would be ok. She was smiling as she went under.

I'm happy to report, she's now out of the coma but it's not been without its ups and downs. She's had a tracheostomy (tube inserted through your neck into your trachea and placed in your lungs) which is still connected to the ventilator. As she was in a coma for 24 days, it's taking a long time for her to come round. She had to go back into theatre this Saturday just gone as she had a bleed and it couldn't be stopped, this has now been sorted.

My Dad and I have had 2 video calls with her. The first was distressing for both of us as she looked so different. The last one I had on my own on Monday and she looked much better. Still very tired and still not completely awake. She can't talk because of the tracheostomy.

She's now got an infection, which we're hoping can be sorted quickly with antibiotics and we are assured it's quite a common occurrence with patient with trachys and on ventilators. They're slowly weaning her off the ventilator.

Due to covid, we are unable to go into the hospital. My Dad and I are sharing the phone calls to the ward. I haven't seen my Mum in the flesh since Monday 11th January (I know a lot of people have suffered this during these awful times). I haven't spoken to her since Wednesday 27th January. I speak to my Mum every day usually. My Dad is lost without her and they've had their 40th wedding anniversary during all this, which she was in the coma for (it was on Valentine's Day). I have just returned to work today after being off for a month due to stress.

As you can imagine I haven't really felt like updating this story. I had someone comment asking if I was updating, and I wanted to explain why I hadn't. I have enjoyed writing this story, I just haven't felt in the right place to write. I've felt incredibly guilty. Plus I've put a lot of my time and energy into spending time with my Dad (I'm an only child) and as we are in a lockdown where I live no one else can go and see him (he's my childcare support so we've bubbled with him).

I've sat down to write something this evening. I don't know if I will get around to publish it tonight, but I do want to start picking it up again. So apologies for the delay, but I'm sure you can all understand why.

Thank you for reading my story, I really appreciate it

XXX