Today, we mark one year since the Big He had his trach placed. In a month we mark 4 years living an ALS life. Had the Big He not chose to trach, the Little He and I would be approaching a different anniversary. The memories of watching him struggle to breathe and how weak and helpless he looked laying in that bed will forever be etched into my memory. The fear that I felt as I watched him was incredible. Night after night wondering if I would be leaving the hospital a widow. Overwhelmed with how I would tell the Little He. I am not sure how many people truly knew how I was barely holding on. I gave a brave face to the Big He and Little He and those around me, but at night when the ICU was as quiet as it could be with all the equipment and alarms, I would pray for comfort. I would pray for strength to hold it together one more day and I would pray for my husband.
His decision to trach was made because he was not ready to die. His decision to trach was because he loved us that much. His decision to trach has not been easy. The recovery from pneumonia was very, very hard. He experienced greater paralysis as a result of the insult to his body. Not gonna lie, this has been an incredibly hard year for our whole family. I can tell you that this year has also shown the Little He and I how much we are loved by the Big He. Not only has he fought hard physically to recover from the pneumonia he has fought mentally as well. He walked (figuratively of course) a very dark path for many months. Are those days behind us? Probably not, I mean with a terminal disease, with paralysis and with the need for life support there are a lot of dark days. The difference between now and then is that the Big He can see that there are bright days too. If we can focus on those days, I think we are doing pretty good.
He spends the majority of his time in bed, but I am hopeful that as we push into Bonus Year 2020, we will see more outings and making more memories. This past year has not been all of losses for him. He has gained 30 pounds, he started standing in a standing frame, he started coming off his ventilator for short times, and recently he has started to sit on the side of the bed and use his own muscles to hold him self steady. He has even begun to move forward and backward and side to side. Not bad for a guy that was supposed to be paralyzed. We will take every win we can get.
I hope you now see why this is our Bonus Year and I pray we have many more to come. If you are out and about this weekend or even staying home, raise a glass and celebrate our bonus year. Post your pictures and tag our Tom’s Troops Facebook or Twitter accounts and use the hashtag #bonusyear2019 so the Big He can see his Troops celebrating with him.
All my love,
The She
I love you all. My heart breaks for you. I know my words are so so inadequate for what your family has endured and will continue to go through. I pray for you all and will always do so.
Love,
Tina
My mother was trached early in her bulbar ALS progression, for the same reason–she was not ready to die, especially since she still had use of her limbs. I am thankful for the year it gave us. Here’s to more wins than losses in your 2020.