After my Mother broke her neck, she was transported to Mount Sinai for emergency C1 C2 fusion.
I was a mess.
I didn't know if she would survive the surgery, let alone not end up paralyzed.
She had sustained the same injury as Christopher Reeve.
She had become paralyzed, and the hospital she was at didn't have the capabilities to help her.
So I got the call that they were going to move her immediately to perform the neurosurgery.
To say I was besides myself was the understatement of the century.
The day before I had talked to her doctors and we had made plans for her stint at the rehab the next day.
Now she was being whisked away for an unanticipated trauma.
I called my Grandmother and my Mom's sisters to let them know what about to transpire and headed over to see her for what I thought may have been the last time.
Little did I know I would never get an actual opportunity to do it when her time did come.
I got to the hospital right before she went into the OR and told her I loved her and would see her soon.
I wasn't sure if that was true, but I said it with conviction.
Sure enough she made it through.
The head neurosurgeon there said he had done his best but there was no way of knowing if he was able to reverse the paralysis that had already occurred.
In fact, he stated he wasn't sure she would ever walk again.
When I was able to see her the next day she couldn't move anything above her neck.
This lasted for quite awhile.
With three small kids in tow I did everything I could to visit, just to make sure she ate something since she couldn't feed herself, and the staff at her rehab always seemed too busy to help her.
It was months of rehab.
But then my Mother did what she did best.
Came back with a vengeance.
She began to move her arms.
Eventually, she walked with the assistance of a walker.
My Mother did what she did best and rose from the ashes like a phoenix.
Man was she a badass.
Never underestimate a woman on a mission.
She won't disappoint.
Promise.
Xoxo,
C.
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