Hurricane "Illness"

After reshuffling the scenes and chapters within R.J.’s Story, I was ready to dig into each chapter and make it as full of life as I could. I would introduce my oddball characters as early as possible, find a way to convert long narrations into conversations, and correct a couple of chapters to make sure the entire story was told from R.J.’s perspective. I was excited about tackling these issues and finally making the story as good as it could be.

Then…out of nowhere and with no warning, my husband Mike was slammed with a major illness. On a casual Saturday afternoon in November 2008, Mike sat in front of the TV watching a Cal football game while I got ready to attend my high school reunion with him that evening. A few minutes later, I stepped out of the shower to find him curled up on the bed in extreme pain. 

“Acute pancreatitis,” they told us in the emergency room. When we heard those words, we had no way of knowing how our lives would change for most of the following year. Mike, who had never been in a hospital before, was suddenly a helpless patient, too doped up on morphine to realize what was happening to him. In an instant, I became his full-time nurse, advocate, illness administrator and emotional anchor.

There were dizzying months of hospitals, emergency rooms, home care, tube-feedings, complications, specialists, procedures, and a mountain of medications. All Mike could do was ride the storm and tolerate everything that happened to his body. For me, it was clear from the start that normal life needed to be set aside so I could devote myself to helping my husband survive this mean, mean illness. I adjusted to sleepless nights of implementing his round-the-clock med schedule, coordinated tests and procedures with specialists, and attended to Mike’s constant needs. I became the self-proclaimed CEO of his surviving his illness.

Thank goodness, our two sons were close by to take over our regular lives for us. Son Shaun took on the huge responsibility of keeping the family business running smoothly and keeping the accompanying stresses of it all out of Mike's reach, since Mike could handle NO stress in his fragile condition. Son Mark, who lived with us at the time, spread himself thin by assisting his brother, assuming my regular work and household roles and assisting me with the nursing duties. Our family was presented with a major test; yet somehow we managed to pass it.

Miracles do happen because Mike survived the storm. His recovery took several months, and he is still improving to this day. When I finally came up for air and remembered that R.J.’s Story even existed, I realized that my project would always be there for me. I knew I would get back to it at some point, after we reassembled the pieces of our normal life. I think we're still reassembling in a few ways. In the meantime, I tucked away for safekeeping the many lessons the medical emergency taught me, knowing they could well influence my constantly evolving project somewhere down the line. And we all breathed a sigh of relief when the turmoil finally faded to calm.

On a brighter day many months later!