She's Coming Home

Family time

I started to wake up and felt something warm pressed up against me. I opened my eyes and saw Shay snuggled into my side and Antonio sitting in the chair by my bed.
Antonio- hey sleepyhead
I look over at him confused why he and Shay are here, he should be and work and Shay at daycare, especially if I slept in.
Antonio- it's 9, you slept in after last night.
Gabby- work daycare
Antonio- Voight let me have the morning off and I told the daycare she'd be late. Don't know how you'll be feeling after Botox and the sedation so I figured she could have a morning visit in case you're not up for it later. Plus I thought you could use your human teddy bear to keep your mind off the procedure
Gabby- thanks Tonio.
We had a quiet family morning until dr Abrams came to set up an EEG and then it was time to go for the procedure.
Gabby- bye Tonio. Bye baby girl mama loves you(Antonio interprets)
Shay(signs)- I love you mama
He gives me a hug than takes Shay and heads out.
Dr Abrams- ok, so you're getting Botox in your ankles and also your wrists and hands and then you'll be wearing your braces pretty much all the times for the next few days to keep stretching those muscles. The hope with this is that reducing the spasticity will reduce your pain and increase functional use of your muscles.
Gabby- ok
Dr Abrams- the injections are quite painful so you'll be sedated and then we'll slowly bring you off of sedation and hopefully you won't have any seizures. So I will meet you in the procedure room, I'll be there monitoring your EEG.
He left and nurse came in to take me to the procedure room. When we got there they put an IV in, then gave me the medication and I was out

Antonio POV
We pulled up at daycare and I went to get Shay out and find her processors which always get thrown in the car. I grabbed her and her bag and headed inside. I signed her in at the front desk and took her back to the room since we were late today. Shay did not want to be put down or to go play with her friends.
Shay(signs)- want mama
Antonio(signs)- you saw mama this morning
Shay- mama later
Antonio- I don't know. Mama might be sleeping that's why we saw her this morning.
She starting getting upset when I said that
Shay- I want mama
One of the staff saw us and came over.
Ms H(signs)- good morning Shay. (Now just speaking) everything ok?
Antonio(speaks)- she's just having a rough morning.
Ms H- is that why you were late?
Antonio- no, she was happy this morning. We went to go see her mom but she didn't want to leave and now she's asking me about going to see her when I pick her up but I don't know if we'll be able to.
Ms H- what's going on with her mom, you're always the one doing drop off and pick up.
Antonio- oh um, Gabby's at Chicago med, she has a brain injury.
Ms H- oh I'm so sorry to hear that, she's your sister right?
Antonio- ya and it's ok, she's doing a lot better now. She just has a procedure today and we're not sure how she'll be after and she doesn't like having visitors when she's not doing well.
Ms H- ok well we'll try to keep Shay distracted today.
Antonio- thanks, I've got to get to work. (Signs) bye Shay, see you later.
She just tries to follow me but ms H takes her in.

Nat POV
I asked to work ICU today so I could keep an eye on Gabby after her procedure. She's just got back to her room. I keep checking on her and reducing her sedation slowly. She's back on the more powerful vent because her breathing wasn't doing well with the sedation. She's also on IV fluids because we haven't given her any feeds in case she seizes or pukes or both coming off the sedation. She's wearing all her braces and her wrist braces have a new part added on that forces her fingers out to be almost straight instead of in a fist. The braces themselves open her hands a bit but we've never been able to stretch her hands out this much. Her AFOs have been adjusted to force her ankles to stay at 15 degrees of plantar-flexion. Even with the Botox they couldn't get her ankles all the way to flat but it's way better than they were and they might stretch more over the next few days.

After 2 hours she woke up and I went in to check on her, she's still really out of it from the sedation but she's awake and hasn't had a seizure.

Gabby POV
I open my eyes and look around. I'm not sure what going on, I feel weird. I see Nat and she says something but I fall back asleep before I can figure out what she said.
I wake up again and I'm more aware of what's going on now. I was sedated, that's why I feel so weird. Nat comes in again.
Nat- how are you feeling?
Gabby- weird tired
Nat- the meds are still wearing off, get some more sleep.
And I fall back asleep.

This time I'm fully awake and it hurts. My arms and my legs are in so much pain. I want to move but I can't, probably still from the sedation. It hurts so much, I lay there crying until Nat comes to check on me again.
Nat- hey what wrong?
It takes me a while to answer
Gabby- hurts
Nat- I know, your muscles have been stretched out a lot. I'm glad the sedation lasted for so long so you got some rest. Is there anything I can do to help.
Gabby- meds
Nat- Gabby I'm sorry you're already on pain meds, I can't give you any more for an hour.
I look at her. It hurts so much how am I already on pain meds.
Gabby- not working
Nat- I'm sorry Gabby, try to get some more sleep. I'll give you more meds as soon as I can.
She leaves again. I can't sleep, it hurts to much. I try for a while then give up. When Nat comes to check on me again I ask her to call Maya. She also switches me back to the portable vent.
Phone call
M- hey Gabby
G- hi
M- how are you doing?
G- hurts
M- I know it sucks but in a few days it will be so much better.
G- maybe
M- want me to come visit?
G- yes
M- ok, I'll see you in a bit.
Call ended.

A while later Carina brought Maya in. She was in her wheelchair, she had her regular wrist brace on her right arm and another brace on her elbow.
Maya- hey you
Gabby- hi thanks for coming.
Maya- no problem, you gave me a reason to convince Carina to let me go out.
Gabby- what happened
Maya- seizure, you know how it is.
Gabby- sorry
Maya- it's fine, I'm just wearing my extra brace because my arm's really tight today.
Maya sits on my bed with me for a while to chat and distract me, Nat comes in to give me more pain meds which help a little. Then Maya falls asleep and Carina decides to take her back to their hotel.
Carina- I'm going to take her back to the hotel to sleep, you'll both be more comfortable not squished together in the hospital bed.
Gabby- ok
Carina- I'm sure she'll call you when she wakes up.
Carina lifts Maya into her wheelchair.
Carina- that's how you can tell it's a post seizure nap, she doesn't wake up when she's moved.
Gabby- me too
Carina- bye, feel better
Gabby- thanks bye
They head out and I fall back asleep, the pain meds have finally kicked in.
I'm woken up by Kate and Janet.
Kate- hey, we're going to do some stretches.
Gabby- hurts
Kate- I know but you still need to stretch, it might help
It's not going to help, it's going to make it worse but she's right that it needs to happen. They took off my wrist braces and moved my wrists and hands, it hurts but they do move way more that before. They put those braces back on and move on the my ankles. When they put my AFOs back on they add more to the back so they're being stretched even more. Then they put me in my chair.
Janet- how does that feel? Are you sitting nicely?
Gabby- fine. Still hurts.
I try to move around but I'm still really tired so I can't move much. My head falls and I can't get it back up so Janet puts the head supports down.
Gabby- braces off
Janet- ok, you can have a break for a few minutes.
They take off my wrist braces and AFOs which gave me a bit of relief from the pain but it still hurt.

Nat POV
I wish I could do more for Gabby but I'm giving her all the meds I can. Now she has PT which must be making it worse but I know this is what's best for her in the long run, to give her the best shot at recovery. That's also hard to think about, her recovery long-term. It's only been 6 weeks so we don't know anything yet about long term effects but her getting back to where she was before, being a firefighter again seems unlikely. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by Janet, her OT running up to me.
Janet- she's having a seizure