I’m a bit embarrassed as I welcome myself back to my blog. Every time I sat down to write a post, I just didn’t know where to go with it. I felt stuck. And I still do; but with the great tips and advice from the site www.writetodone.com , I am back to being a blogging tourist trying to find my way in a new land and trying to be O.K. with not knowing
how I will get from one place (post) to another and where it will lead.

I have mentioned my daughter’s medical crisis in my previous posts, but have yet to say what it was. So I guess that’s a good place to resume.

Nava was the one-in-a-million who came down with life-threatening complications from the very strong immune suppressant medications she was given in an attempt to quell a severe colitis flare-up. She was the statistic to develop ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) and nocardia pneumonia. Three months on a ventilator in a drug-induced coma and eight chest tubes later, miracle one occurred - she beat the odds and survived.

Here are three coping suggestions for dealing with an prolonged critical hospitalization:

• Confer with doctors often. Having knowledge in a situation where you are totally helpless and have no control, gives you something to hold onto. I met with my daughter’s doctors everyday of the three month period that she was in the intensive care unit. It quickly became my lifeline in this foreign world of unknowns.
  
• Find some outlet to help maintain your physical and psychological health. I am a walker. When the doctor offered me anti-anxiety medication, I made a decision to resume my walking regime so as to keep myself strong and help maintain my stress level without the use of meds. (I’m the antithesis of a pill popper.)
  
• Hold onto even the smallest semblance of normalcy. In a world that’s turned upside down, maintaining some familiar routines helps keep you grounded. And if not for your sake, then for the sake of the other family members. Upon the advice of the doctor (this one I listened to), I took my younger daughter shopping at the mall, to the movies and other outings. As hard as it is to do while your child or other family member is critically ill, those brief times of engaging in the normal aspects of life, provides a momentary relief and respite from a world which reeks of death.