6-22-08
We are nearing the next, and hopefully final, surgery for Orien Rose. A lot of you have followed the story since last year, and we are incredibly appreciative. (If you are just joining us, please go back to May 2007 and read the first few posts for the complete info about the accident.) We have been taken care of, supported, gifted with blessings of energy and miracles. We have had energy sent our way from people all over the world. We are still hearing stories like the one told to us at my sister’s wedding in December. A family friend’s mother lives in Ireland. When she got the news, she gathered the people in the Pub (Church is open Sundays, the Pub is open every day) and they all prayed for us. We got emails from people from all over the US and from Canada, Africa, India, Australia…
Orien Rose is amazing, yes…and we (Orien and I) can’t discount that we have made it through this last year as well. The trials for us have been many…patience, willingness, wanting to give up so many times we learned to balance our needs. I have written more this year than I have in a long time and am merely waiting for an end to my book to finally put it together, at the goading of many of you.
A lot of energy has been sent our way, and as we retrospect over the last year, we can see the patterns of happenings. We have been blessed to open up to so many new people, to solidify long standing relationships and truly get a clear picture of where we stand in people’s lives. Our lives have been touched by so many who report the changes in their lives because of our story. This truly makes US feel worthy of our blessing.
What is in store for Orien Rose? Who knows? She has survived a near fatal accident. As we revisit the occurrence for another article for the Times Herald Record located here, we are reminded of the numbers, the statistics, the fact that 1-3cm to the right and she would have been dead. We pull out various PR pieces we have done for the Ronald McDonald House and Hasbro, pictures of Orien Rose a reminder of our miracle. We are reminded that the slice up her face was centimeters outside the tympanic membrane in her ear, yet she can hear. That the slice through her face damaged her tear duct and we were told we would forever have to put drops in her eyes to keep them moist, yet she tears. We were told she would be in PICU for weeks, the hospital for months and rehab after that. We left PICU after 4 days, HASBRO after a few weeks and rehab for an even less amount of time. Yes, it has been a long year, but as Orien says, “when you’re in the middle of a miracle it’s rude to say, ‘hurry up.’”
So here we are, getting ready for surgery. The doctors’ intention is to finish it up Tuesday, to be done with the inside of Orien Rose’s head. The scar on her face by her eye is almost unnoticeable. The scar on her cheek requiring more treatment, scar massage and care…but she is young and man is she a trooper. She was taught at Free Spirit how to massage the scar, and is doing so every day now.
We returned from Free Spirit glad to have been able to attend. For me, the stress wasn’t lessened, but the rest was increased. Time moved too quickly for me that week, but I was glad to have another week home before we left again. Finding balance in that, we moved forward to tie up some loose ends and to get ourselves situated for the next few weeks. We exchanged our festival clothing for “real” clothes and packed the cars.
We left for Rhode Island on Thursday evening about 5pm. Not too much traffic at that time, since we would hit Danbury about 6pm. Generally we leave later, but I was anxious to get on the road, anxious to begin this next leg of our journey where we get Orien Rose’s skull work done.
Orien Rose and I went to drop off “Zenzilla” at my mother’s house before we hit the highway. Our other two dogs found a thought in my mind, a slight pang of missing, knowing they were being well taken care of and so loved, the thought passed quickly.
Orien would be trailing slightly behind us as we left him home packing. When we finally got on the road, we were within miles of each other. We decided to take two cars after discussing our plans for the upcoming weeks of time.
I need to travel home on July 1st for a mid-term and will attend my Wednesday night class as well. Depending on what the plans turn out to be, I will either drive back to RI from school or return home to wait a day or two for Orien and Orien Rose to come home. I am not sure if we will be home for my mother’s annual Fourth of July party.
Why I decided to attend a Summer semester…who knows. I wanted to be done with school by now. I wanted to be pursuing other certifications at this point. Orien Rose’s accident set me back a year, and for whatever reason I believed I needed to jump on it again. I think there was fear, really, that I would give up, that I would just stop. I definitely have wanted to. I am tired and my brain is definitely not where it normally is. This has gotten a little frustrating for me. Then I remember what Orien Rose goes through to sometimes remember simple things. I remember what it looks like when we can see her brain finding a new route and I breathe.
So we are here, at the “Cottage” spending time with Grampy and Aunt Toni and waiting on Aunt Sandi’s arrival this evening. Anxiety is increasing for Orien and me as we get closer to Tuesday. Orien Rose is anxiously excited for Aunt Sandi’s arrival. Tonight we will all go out to dinner.
I make a conscious effort not to slice, but feel I am failing in staying connected. So I just keep walking away. I am in desperate need of cuddling, touch…but then I don’t want it. Keeping the Emergence group fresh in my mind I ask myself if I am learning from my suffering and use blame as a measure for my pain. If I am blaming, I am not learning, I am merely trying to avoid my pain. My fear grows and then subsides as I anticipate Tuesday’s surgery. I tried to escape into a book, and read a whole one yesterday. It was enjoyable, some of the time, but mainly provided my dreams with fresh material to keep me from resting fully.
Sleep has not come easy for all three of us. Orien Rose is excited about the surgery, but has expressed some fear as well. I am glad she has been vocalizing it, allowing for different outlets that are not all physical. Orien is a little edgy, I am edgy…we have gone out, sat some, gone out again, and sat some more together and independently. Time feels as if it moving so slowly, and then it seems as if a whole day has gone by without even taking notice of the fluctuation in our emotional state.
The past few days, we have gotten phone calls, emails, comments on MySpace and texts. Each one brightening our day and reminding us, when we feel alone, that there are so many supporting us. We appreciate ALL of you! Orien Rose loves hearing the messages and reading the emails! It allows us a moment to sit together and connect. This is a great tool when we are sitting in our dis-ease. It is a moment to step out of ourselves and connect not only with each other, but with all of you…our community, our support, our “clan” again. We are big believers that it “takes a Village.” You have all shown us just how powerful that village can be!
Thank you for continuing to read! I will update a little more frequently now that we are in the middle of major movement.
Blessings to all of you!
We are nearing the next, and hopefully final, surgery for Orien Rose. A lot of you have followed the story since last year, and we are incredibly appreciative. (If you are just joining us, please go back to May 2007 and read the first few posts for the complete info about the accident.) We have been taken care of, supported, gifted with blessings of energy and miracles. We have had energy sent our way from people all over the world. We are still hearing stories like the one told to us at my sister’s wedding in December. A family friend’s mother lives in Ireland. When she got the news, she gathered the people in the Pub (Church is open Sundays, the Pub is open every day) and they all prayed for us. We got emails from people from all over the US and from Canada, Africa, India, Australia…
Orien Rose is amazing, yes…and we (Orien and I) can’t discount that we have made it through this last year as well. The trials for us have been many…patience, willingness, wanting to give up so many times we learned to balance our needs. I have written more this year than I have in a long time and am merely waiting for an end to my book to finally put it together, at the goading of many of you.
A lot of energy has been sent our way, and as we retrospect over the last year, we can see the patterns of happenings. We have been blessed to open up to so many new people, to solidify long standing relationships and truly get a clear picture of where we stand in people’s lives. Our lives have been touched by so many who report the changes in their lives because of our story. This truly makes US feel worthy of our blessing.
What is in store for Orien Rose? Who knows? She has survived a near fatal accident. As we revisit the occurrence for another article for the Times Herald Record located here, we are reminded of the numbers, the statistics, the fact that 1-3cm to the right and she would have been dead. We pull out various PR pieces we have done for the Ronald McDonald House and Hasbro, pictures of Orien Rose a reminder of our miracle. We are reminded that the slice up her face was centimeters outside the tympanic membrane in her ear, yet she can hear. That the slice through her face damaged her tear duct and we were told we would forever have to put drops in her eyes to keep them moist, yet she tears. We were told she would be in PICU for weeks, the hospital for months and rehab after that. We left PICU after 4 days, HASBRO after a few weeks and rehab for an even less amount of time. Yes, it has been a long year, but as Orien says, “when you’re in the middle of a miracle it’s rude to say, ‘hurry up.’”
So here we are, getting ready for surgery. The doctors’ intention is to finish it up Tuesday, to be done with the inside of Orien Rose’s head. The scar on her face by her eye is almost unnoticeable. The scar on her cheek requiring more treatment, scar massage and care…but she is young and man is she a trooper. She was taught at Free Spirit how to massage the scar, and is doing so every day now.
We returned from Free Spirit glad to have been able to attend. For me, the stress wasn’t lessened, but the rest was increased. Time moved too quickly for me that week, but I was glad to have another week home before we left again. Finding balance in that, we moved forward to tie up some loose ends and to get ourselves situated for the next few weeks. We exchanged our festival clothing for “real” clothes and packed the cars.
We left for Rhode Island on Thursday evening about 5pm. Not too much traffic at that time, since we would hit Danbury about 6pm. Generally we leave later, but I was anxious to get on the road, anxious to begin this next leg of our journey where we get Orien Rose’s skull work done.
Orien Rose and I went to drop off “Zenzilla” at my mother’s house before we hit the highway. Our other two dogs found a thought in my mind, a slight pang of missing, knowing they were being well taken care of and so loved, the thought passed quickly.
Orien would be trailing slightly behind us as we left him home packing. When we finally got on the road, we were within miles of each other. We decided to take two cars after discussing our plans for the upcoming weeks of time.
I need to travel home on July 1st for a mid-term and will attend my Wednesday night class as well. Depending on what the plans turn out to be, I will either drive back to RI from school or return home to wait a day or two for Orien and Orien Rose to come home. I am not sure if we will be home for my mother’s annual Fourth of July party.
Why I decided to attend a Summer semester…who knows. I wanted to be done with school by now. I wanted to be pursuing other certifications at this point. Orien Rose’s accident set me back a year, and for whatever reason I believed I needed to jump on it again. I think there was fear, really, that I would give up, that I would just stop. I definitely have wanted to. I am tired and my brain is definitely not where it normally is. This has gotten a little frustrating for me. Then I remember what Orien Rose goes through to sometimes remember simple things. I remember what it looks like when we can see her brain finding a new route and I breathe.
So we are here, at the “Cottage” spending time with Grampy and Aunt Toni and waiting on Aunt Sandi’s arrival this evening. Anxiety is increasing for Orien and me as we get closer to Tuesday. Orien Rose is anxiously excited for Aunt Sandi’s arrival. Tonight we will all go out to dinner.
I make a conscious effort not to slice, but feel I am failing in staying connected. So I just keep walking away. I am in desperate need of cuddling, touch…but then I don’t want it. Keeping the Emergence group fresh in my mind I ask myself if I am learning from my suffering and use blame as a measure for my pain. If I am blaming, I am not learning, I am merely trying to avoid my pain. My fear grows and then subsides as I anticipate Tuesday’s surgery. I tried to escape into a book, and read a whole one yesterday. It was enjoyable, some of the time, but mainly provided my dreams with fresh material to keep me from resting fully.
Sleep has not come easy for all three of us. Orien Rose is excited about the surgery, but has expressed some fear as well. I am glad she has been vocalizing it, allowing for different outlets that are not all physical. Orien is a little edgy, I am edgy…we have gone out, sat some, gone out again, and sat some more together and independently. Time feels as if it moving so slowly, and then it seems as if a whole day has gone by without even taking notice of the fluctuation in our emotional state.
The past few days, we have gotten phone calls, emails, comments on MySpace and texts. Each one brightening our day and reminding us, when we feel alone, that there are so many supporting us. We appreciate ALL of you! Orien Rose loves hearing the messages and reading the emails! It allows us a moment to sit together and connect. This is a great tool when we are sitting in our dis-ease. It is a moment to step out of ourselves and connect not only with each other, but with all of you…our community, our support, our “clan” again. We are big believers that it “takes a Village.” You have all shown us just how powerful that village can be!
Thank you for continuing to read! I will update a little more frequently now that we are in the middle of major movement.
Blessings to all of you!
2 comments:
Christine,
I'm an online friend of your friend "Deborah" and she linked to your site and explained what you are going through. I wanted to come here to let you know that I am thinking of you, and to put you in touch with a dear family friend who is going through what you are going through. Here's a link to the original newspaper story about her son, Caleb Potter
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070710/NEWS/707100314
who suffered a traumatic skull and brain injury last July 4th that sounds very similar to your daughter's situation.
Sharon, his mother, is an extra-ordinary woman and she and her whole community have pulled together for her son in a way that is truly an inspiration. Here is a link to her website and blog which I know you will draw a lot of comfort from. She, like you, is an extra-ordinary woman and I know that the two of you will resonate with each other. If you can, please go over there and leave a comment and your address. I know she would be thrilled to reach out to you and help you through this time.
all of the best
aimai from If I Ran the Zoo
http://www.calebpotter.blogspot.com/
I've only recently become aware of your blog and the miracles that have occurred. Orien is a testament to the love of the Gods and Goddesses. She is obviously special to Them. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
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