"She is always teaching us, yes"

Lindsay and I had a long week in Denver last week. She had a EEG study with hopes of finding out more about her seizures. She was admitted on January 28th and for 5 days she was hooked up to a EEG machine with 27 electrodes attached to her head, five cardiac monitors, two IV's and 24 hour video monitoring! She was unable to leave the room and needless to say, she was a trooper and once again taught myself and others many lessons!

#1 - Someone always has it worse -  During the days before we were admitted, I was having a hard time thinking of being cooped up in a hospital room for five days and my son, Taylor, reminded me that "hey, it is Lindsay who is being hooked to a machine for five days". Yes, here I was complaining about the inconvenience when it was Lindsay that was constantly being viewed, having someone wrap and re-wrap her head with gauze, having glue put in her hair to hold the electrodes, not being able to shower for 5 days. I was reminded by my smart son that I didn't have much to complain about!

#2 - Take one step at a time  -  Lindsay didn't quite understand the whole process and that she was there for the long week. I think that she was hoping that the each step was the next step closer to getting home. I think that just dealing with the current schedule or what was going on at the time, was all she could control and made it ok. Although she wanted to go home, she just persevered and stayed steady in her cooperation, one step at a time.

#3 - Tolerance!! - Wow, did she have tolerance! She was interrupted during the night for blood pressure checks, electrode checks and if they weren't in place, they would unwrap her head to fix the ones that had moved. All those electrodes were pulled together into a ponytail that ran down to a little black purse, that remained attached to her. Imagine having to sleep with a big ponytail of electrodes coming down to a purse not to mention the 5 cardiac monitors. Many times her movement during the night would displace everything, thus someone coming in to turn on the lights, wake her up and have to fix them. She was amazingly tolerant and always managed a smile.

#4 - Find your common ground - Lindsay was stressed and didn't know any of the nurses at first and they weren't sure about her either. They didn't know what she understood, how she would respond to them poking and prodding. Lindsay always found a way to find common ground by wanting to show them a picture of her brother, her dog or her dad. If they had a dog, they would start talking about it and if not, they asked Lindsay about hers.

 #5 - A Smile always wins - I had this phrase on a magnet and have always believed smiling wins over a grouchy face. Lindsay (and I) were sleep deprived one night, having to stay up till 2 am and awakened at 6 am with no naps during the day. I have to admit, when we were awakened at 6am, I was grouchy, but the first thing I saw on Lindsay's face was a smile. Maybe it was because she got to have a pop at 6:30 in the morning, but nevertheless, her smile made me smile. It is contagious, even with 4 hours sleep!

 #6 - It's okay to be demanding sometimes - Lindsay is never demanding. She may know what she wants but has a way of getting it without demanding. However!  During a re-wrapping of her head, one of the nurses helped her get situated in the chair. We were watching the process when Lindsay realized that the RN was holding the remote, her remote! Lindsay, in her sweet way, demanded the remote be handed over to her, which made everyone laugh and thus the picture! The RN came in shortly after with the sign with tape, letting everyone know, whose remote it was!

#7 - You can always say yes - Thursday night she had a seizure and it was a tough one! As her mom, it was weird for me wanting a seizure to happen so we could better understand, but when it happened, I couldn't watch. The RN's were amazing with her! After awhile she woke up and being nice was over! She was pissed off, and rightly so! She was frustrated, irritated, not feeling good, wanted to go home and no one would let her get off the bed. She proceeded to rip all the glued electrodes off her head and was not having any of this anymore! She finally calmed down and I was told that they were going to replace the electrodes on her head. Are you kidding me? You really think she is going to sit still and have someone put more on head? I almost said no to them. I didn't want her stressed out more. This is when you know someone up above is looking out for you. The technician arrived to put the electrodes on and immediately had a re-pore with Lindsay. Turns out she had a son with special needs and had a seizure disorder. She knew exactly how to deal with Lindsay, help her to remain calm and cooperative. I stood there in dismay, not having any idea that she would cooperate and say yes. She ended up having another seizure soon after the electrodes were in place, thus giving the doctor confirmation of where they were occurring in the brain. My sister, Wendi, is who said to me the lesson learned in all of this. Lindsay is always teaching us, yes! We can say "no", believe that "no" is the only answer, but saying yes sometimes brings us answers.

I had several of the RN's tell me how Lindsay affected them, how they learned from her and that she was their favorite patient. We can all take these little lessons to heart......Someone always has it worse, that in stressful times to take one step at a time, to be tolerant of others and situations, that you can always find common ground with someone, smiling wins, be strong when it matters AND when we think the only answer is no, you can always say yes!  You never know what might happen.